Disney Princess Half Marathon 2012 Recap

Disney’s Princess Half Marathon

Location: Walt Disney World - Lake Buena Vista, Florida

Date: Sunday, February 26^th, 2012

Participants: Total – 16,890; Women – 15,780

Obviously, this isn’t the timeliest recap as I just started blogging last week. But I still felt I could add my two cents about this event, and ultimately, I blog for me. Pausing to enjoy revisiting a joyful time in my life and being able to read back on it later have great value. This was my first half marathon and I couldn’t have hoped for a more organized, fun event.

During the Princess Half Marathon weekend, runDisney hosts the Tangled Royal Family 5K, Royal Family Kid’s Races, Pasta in the Park Party, Princess Half Marathon, and the Fit for a Princess Expo. This recap covers the last two of these events. Being fairly local, my husband and I drove in Saturday and returned home Sunday after the half marathon.

The Expo

ESPN Wide World of Sports is the host to the Fit for a Princess Expo. I had not previously been to this venue, but it’s the perfect place to start out the weekend. Driving in and parking were both easy with your own vehicle. We arrived around 11am. As you walk up the main entrance, the tone is set. The venue is grand and it was a beautiful, sunny Florida day with just a slight, cool breeze alluding to the coming cold front. The place is a buzz and already we spot smiling women in tiaras and tutus. Everyone is taking their photo with Princess welcome signs and course maps dotting the entry area.

The first stop is a giant tent set up on one of the fields adjacent to the Josten’s Center. Awaiting you as you enter the tent is your carriage with two handsomely dressed footmen. While in general, the lines to pick up your bib seemed to be rather long, I lucked up and mine was actually pretty short! Know your bib number. It’s located on the bottom of the waver you received via email. But if you happen not to have it, there are computers and printers on site. That’s just one more step for you. The bibs are very large and colored based on your favorite princess chosen when you signed up - mine was Ariel so it was teal. They are also personalized which is a nice touch. Much to my surprise, even though I signed up well past the deadline for such personalization, mine was emblazoned with my name!

I’ve seen some express discontent at the “goody” bag because it’s essentially just your bib, clear bag for bag check, and race information. Personally, it doesn’t bother me. When there is an expo involved, you get plenty of samples and goodies. And it’s actually less wasteful, as you only take what you want. I hate waste. Normally, I get a lot of useless junk in “goody bags” - anyone else have 8,000 cheap water bottles and key fobs? What I could see as potentially annoying is that they don’t give you your shirt. While this keeps lines moving faster, if you had no intention of visiting the expo, you’d be annoyed.

Next, you’re sent into the Josten’s Center building to pick up your shirt and enjoy the expo. Entering on the second story, you get to overlook the massive expo floor and see how incredibly packed it is! Oh by the way, your shirt pickup location is all the way on the other side - force a sale much? Eh, I’m here for a relaxed weekend and planned to visit expo anyway. Shirt lines were short with friendly staff. And the shirts are a cute cut for women, unlike most races with unisex shirts.

Okay, the bad about the expo. It’s packed! Bring your patience. There were times the walkways came to a virtual standstill they were so clogged. Certain booths seemed to cause more problems than others - namely the first booth to sell anything pink with 13.1 on it. Trust me - there are LOTS of other booths selling this same stuff. It’s all in good nature that I say - Please keep moving ladies. And don’t kid yourself that there are “deals” here - there aren’t, it’s just convenient. For me, an expo is a good opportunity to see a lot of items in one place and pick up a few samples of products I might not otherwise try. My nearest specialty running store is 40 minutes from my home and I despise shopping online, so this is a good opportunity to kill a few birds. BTW - I wasn’t looking for any of the specialty Disney merchandise (like the coveted Dooney and Burke Princess bag or the sport jacket), but I assure you it was all long since gone and everything else was picked over. So if you want that, you better go to the expo as soon as they open the doors.

In all, we spent about 1.75-2 hrs at the expo. Picking up the bib and shirt only took about 30-40 minutes of that.

Night-Before Preparation

We headed over to Downtown Disney to grab some lunch at Earl of Sandwich. Didn’t spend much time here as we’ve been many times before, but you’ll definitely want to check it out at some point. There are many food venues, tons of shopping, Disney Quest, House of Blues, Cirque, and much more. It’s a nice place on a small lake to meander and enjoy the weather.

We chose not to stay at one of the designated event host resorts, but we did still stay at a Disney property - Coronado Springs Resort. If you have your own car, or are willing to call a cab, I’d recommend this place. It quite close to the main Epcot entrance (read less travel, more sleep) and not overrun with children (read less noise, more sleep). For locals who only require one night (host resorts require 2 to get the deals), there are FL resident discounts and also pass holder discounts. I don’t want to do a full review of the hotel here, but suffice it to say it was clean, convenient for the race, had a hot tub, and late enough checkout to run, return and clean up - but don’t eat at the Pepper Market.

While your settling down and relaxing before the big day, read your race packet (if you haven’t already). If you didn’t print and bring the race packet with you, they provide the most important parts in your bag.

Here are the important items that it seems a lot of people overlook:

• There will be LOTS of traffic and VERY significant delays if you do not arrive early
• Be in the Epcot parking lot by 4am
• Be in your corral by 5am
• There is about a 20-30 min walk to the corrals from bag check (depending on how long you wait/how slow the overall crowd is walking)
• There are port-o-potties in the front and back of the family staging area
• There are port-o-potties multiple places along the walk to the corrals - if the first ones are packed, keep moving! The last stop is a large grouping underneath an overpass
• If you are a walker, slow runner or are using the walk/run method, it is courteous to your fellow runners to move to the right

I overheard a lot of frustrated people who didn’t plan enough time and got stuck in massive crowds “running” to their corrals to start on time. That can all be avoided. But you will have to read your packet and wake up early, very early. Just plan a relaxing evening and get in bed early.

The Race

The alarm was set for an early 2:45am wake up. Unfortunately for me, my brain decided 1:30am was more appropriate, despite taking a sleeping pill the night before. I brought my usual race day breakfast with me and ate it down first thing. Then got a quick shower and dressed in my clothes, all set out the night before - bib pre-pinned and all. This is where it was nice to have a hotel with later check out - no packing up, just go.

We left the hotel room around 3:30-3:40am and easily made it into the Epcot lot and settled in by 4 - no traffic problems at that time at all. The cold front had really picked up and it was low- to mid- 50s with a biting wind and threat of rain. So we opted to stay in the car for a bit while I mentally prepared. (yes, that’s cold for a Florida girl!)

We soon made our way to the family staging area where it’s a party scene over by a DJ stage! I’m not a great dancer normally, but that certainly doesn’t improve in the wee hours of the morning, so I opted for quiet stretching away from the stage. Due to the weather, I was glad I brought a throw away jacket. If you suspect it will in anyway be cold but not cold enough to run in long sleeves, bring a jacket to toss. They have donation bins all along the corrals. Note: don’t forget (like me) to pack another jacket in your checked bag for after! Also, if you like a pre-race drink (I use Hammer Nutrition’s Sustained Energy), bring it in a disposable water bottle. Most drinks should be taken between 30-45 minutes prior to your race, but you’ll be/should be in your corral.

They don’t open the gates out to the corrals right away. I went through bag check - with no lines! - around 4:40 but had a short wait until they let you through to the road to the corrals. Yes, it is a little bit of a walk (as noted in your packet) so remember to get out there early and not get too caught up in your dance moves! It's actually a nice way to get the blood flowing. I was in corral B which is an even further walk up. While I was early, I still ended up at the back of my corral due to a last minute need to pee! I had to exit my corral just before the national anthem, but still made it back in plenty of time before the race began.

The air is simply electric at the start of this race. So many costumes, tutus, tiaras, guys dressed as frogs, pink pink and more pink! There was music, motivational speeches, a blessing from the Fairy Godmother, and fireworks to send each wave on their way.

Being at the back of my corral, I did experience some heavy delays trying to weave through to the front. But it gave me a nice warm up, with no risk of blowing out my legs from the excitement, that allowed me to push the pace for the rest of the course. It didn’t thin out enough to get into a rhythm until about 1.5 miles in. The course primarily goes through the connecting roads through the Disney property, but that doesn’t mean they are boring. Disney really does it up. Of course, there are character stops all along the way. About every mile I would estimate. I didn’t care to stop at any, but they were nice to look at along the way. I’m a pretty focused runner, but I remember men on stilts, a hot air balloon, marching band, a few DJs, proposing Prince Charmings, a drum circle group, a 70’s band, storybook mile markers, and cheering squads. At one point around mile 9, I passed the famed Jeff Galloway and I remember thinking “oh, he actually does run it.” And if all the Disney entertainment isn’t enough, just checking out all the costumes is motivating - chase down that fairy! There are several well-stocked water stops along the way and a Clif Shot Gel station at mile 8, though I prefer to carry my own tested nutrition (Gu Gels and unsalted pretzels) in my SPIbelt™.

The highlights of the run are of course when you go through the parks. As I was running through Main Street USA in Magic Kingdom, the sky was just barely showing some light of a sunrise and all the white lights were on for us. Then you run straight through the castle to an awaiting crowd of spectators. Not to be corny but it really is magical. By the time you make it back over to Epcot for your grand finish, you’re ready for the pick-me-up of running through Tomorrow Land and around the iconic globe. Tourists are just starting to enter the park and are cheering you on, and a gospel choir signs! Right about this point is when I felt my proudest - I was really here about to finish; I felt strong; I was going to do this faster than I ever imagined; all my hard training was about to pay off. Kelly Clarkson’s, Stronger was on my iPod and I had just enough time before the thrill of the finish line to soak in my soon-to-be accomplishment while I ran.

And there it is - the finish. Mickey and Minnie are there to give you high fives under the pink archway. The crowd is rowdy. And racks and racks of big beautiful finisher medals stare at you. As you get your medal, you can be dusted with fairy dust. The end isn’t congested and you easily go to get “goodies”, which in this case were bananas, Nemo fruit snacks, water, mostly gluten free treats because one of our speakers (Miss USA, I think it was) had Celiac disease. Again I was able to claim my bag at the check with no lines.

Back in the family reunion area, the DJ awaits as well as photo opportunities with two princesses. Now that I’m done racing, I’m ready to take pictures! There were food trucks, a place to get champagne, a booth to have your medal engraved, and of course more merchandise. After a few photos, we didn’t hang around much longer as the weather appeared to be turning and I was pretty cold.

For the number of people participating, I’m amazed how smoothly this entire event runs. This is a perfect event also for a first time halfer. There are so many different ability levels and everyone is so supportive that you don’t ever feel “out of your league”. Everyone is there to have fun, fast or slow, run or walk. I recommend this event to anyone and plan on coming back for more future runDisney events! goDisney!