Disney Princess Half Marathon 2013

Since the eighth annual Disney Princess Half Marathon is coming up, I thought it might be a good idea to write a recap of my experience running the race in 2013, the fifth anniversary of this amazing race! I can't tell you how long I wanted to run this particular race! I read recaps on other blogs and was determined to someday run this race! Finally, in the fall of 2012 a co-worker agreed to run it with me, and we signed up! It would be my first half marathon! We ran a local 10K so we could put in a time in order to get a better corral. Soon February was upon us. We flew down early and stayed with my parents in Cape Canaveral. They picked us up at the airport and took us to the expo so we could pick up our race bibs and shop! That year it was held at the Coronado Springs Resort. Luckily we both got in the same corral! They were photo opportunities there and we couldn't resist this one, which we took wearing our newly purchased jackets!

Then we headed to the ocean! We were lucky to have another warm day the next day, and enjoyed some relaxing time by the pool. You can see the pink mesh bag here that we got with our bibs.

The next day we met Dan (my fiance at the time) at Disney All-Star Movies Resort. We wanted to stay on Disney property due to the early race day wake up call. Each building at All-Star Movies has a theme. We stayed at the Love Bug. I loved how the sign outside said "The Big Race." How fitting!

We ate dinner at their food court. Breakfast boxes were also available for purchase for runners. I believe there was a bagel, a banana, and some other items in there. We went back to our room where I tried on my outfit (we were dressing in matching Sleeping Beauty outfits) and laid everything out in preparation for the next morning. We were up by 2:30am (Disney World races require early wake up calls) and ready to go by 3:00am to catch the shuttle to the race start at Epcot.

After being dropped off at Epcot we walked to the "holding area" where there was a lot of dancing and fun as we pumped ourselves up for the big race! Here we are with our breakfast boxes we brought with us.

We had a blast dancing in the holding area, but soon it was time to travel to our corral.  And do I mean travel!!  It was a quite a walk to our corral.  We hit up the porta potties and entered our corral.  Disney does do a good job of checking bibs before allowing runners to enter.  This is where a little of the nerves set in, but luckily we were in the second corral and didn't have to wait long.  I do remember checking my earbuds and they didn't work!!  How was I going to run without my music (side note- I've run the last few of my races without music)?!  Miraculously, one ear bud started working.  I could make do with that.  Our original plan was to run the first half without stopping for any pictures and limit any walk breaks.  Then when we made it to the castle at Magic Kingdom, we'd ease up and stop for pictures.  I had heard about the infamous balloon ladies and didn't want to get picked up before finishing! Another great thing about Disney races is the fireworks they set off for every corral.  Here's our send off...

We were off!  I was running the race I had dreamed of running for years!  I like the fact that this race is made of mainly women, and a good majority of them run in costume.  Important to note, please do a trial run with your costume!  We weren't a mile in and I saw a tutu tossed aside on the road.

It wasn't long before we reached the ticket area to Magic Kingdom.  They do discourage wearing headphones due to the many announcements along the course.   One of these was a caution entering the ticket booth area, to be aware of the speed bumps.  I guess a girl in front of me didn't hear that warning or see the bumps.  She tripped and fell almost right on her face.  Luckily we were really close to a medical stop and I believe they took care of her.

We were getting closer to the Magic Kingdom!  I was excited to be half done, and to see Dan, who was waiting for me near the castle!!  He was such a trooper and probably ran more miles than we did, running around trying to spectate!  Soon we were at this underpass.  This stands out for me because at this point I was struggling to keep up with my younger co-worker!

Finally, we entered Magic Kingdom near Tomorrowland and Space Mountain. RunDisney posted this pic.  Can you find us?

After running down Main Street towards the castle,  we found Dan and stopped for a bit to talk to him and take pictures.  He also had the PowerAde Zero orange flavored drink I like.  After saying our good-byes we started off again.  We quickly found a little spot for a great photo opp with the castle behind us.  We volunteered to take a pic for someone else if they returned the favor.

We were off again, running towards the back of the castle.  Unfortunately, we didn't get any pics of us running through the castle, although I did do a screen shot of us from our video.  See us on the bottom?

As we exited the Magic Kingdom through Frontierland, I ran to use some real bathrooms.  That was nice!  We made our first stop for pictures with the glass slipper guys in tuxes and then we noticed Pocahontas had a short line!

At this point, I started to not feel very well, especially when I stopped to stand in line for pictures, so this is where we split up for a bit.  I continued running with walking intervals, and my friend stopped for pictures and later caught up to me.  And she got some great pics with all the princes and pirates!  My foot started hurting quite a bit, and I thought I might have serious damage to it.   I just needed to finish!  Once we could see the ball of Epcot, I knew we were close.  Towards the end, the route takes you into Epcot a bit.  I noticed a poor girl that had fainted at this point.  So close to the finish!  I felt so bad for her!  Many people were attending to her, so we trudged on.  I remember how I felt at this exact moment in this picture below.  It was a combination of the pain  I was feeling from my foot, and just the emotion that I was going to be finishing my first half marathon!!!

We didn't get a great finish photo since someone crossed right in front of us, but here is a screenshot from our finisher video (that I purchased from MarathonFoto).  If you look way to the left, the girl with the white shirt and pink skirt with her arms raised is Ali Vincent from The Biggest Loser.  I remember they announced her name as we finished.  And yes, it took us over three hours for a half marathon which wasn't too bad considering it was my first, we stopped to visit with Dan for quite a bit, stopped for photos and a couple bathroom stops, and hobbled in at the end.  You don't run Disney races for time, but for fun.  And, boy, did we have fun!

We did it!  I finished my very first half marathon!  And I did it at Disney World!!

After the race we found our shuttle which took us back to our hotel.  I texted Dan that we were leaving right away as I need a restroom badly, sorry for the TMI.   I think the 100% humidity got to me.  We were drenched!  Remember to hydrate, people!   Anyway, Dan met us back at the All Star Movie Resort with Mickey roses for both of us!   Here we are with our roses, medals, and shirts from the race.

I finally earned the right to display this sticker I ordered off Ebay on my Jeep when I got home!

-Sue