A couple of weeks ago, I ran in my 4th runDisney Princess half marathon. Jen and I had been planning our outfits for years, and finally got the chance to be Anastasia and Drizella, Cinderella’s Stepsisters.
My alarm went off at 2:15, and I was planning to leave my room at 3:15. Hey, fake eyelashes take some time to put on!
We got our skirts from Rock City Skirts, our tops from Running Skirts, and we made the rest!
When we got to the start of the race, I got to meet up with some new and old friends, like Megan!
and Karen
The sisters ready to go!
Aren’t we pretty? haha
We made the long walk to our corral, and had about five minutes to spare before the first wave went off. We got closer and closer, and then it was time to go!
Since I was dealing with tendonitis, and Jen had just had a stomach virus, we decided to take it nice and slow, take a bunch of pictures, and just have fun…and fun did we have!
We talked and talked, the miles flew by, and soon we were getting close to the Magic Kingdom!
We stopped at the TTC to use the “real” bathrooms, and saw Jen’s husband there! Surprise! We stopped to talk to him for a minute and soon were on our way.
It was starting to get light out, and although it was humid, the temperature was better than it has been in years past.
We then made it to my favorite part of the race, turning down Main street where we had our first glimpse of the beautiful castle!
We were actually kind of surprised about the lack of characters. We saw the tweedles, buzz lightyear, and then some Frozen characters on top of the castle before running through it. There were no princesses by new fantasyland sadly.
On the other side of the castle, we stopped for another picture before heading into Frontierland. We passed where Princess Tiana usually is (there were no characters there this year).
Jen needed another bathroom break, so I waited for her outside and stretched and took a photo of the runners headed towards us
We passed the line for Woody, and were a bit confused, this was the Princess half marathon and we had yet to be able to take a photo with a princess! On our way out of the Magic Kingdom, we finally got our wish! We had to stand in a long long line to get it (everyone else probably had the same idea about wanting a photo with a princess during the PRINCESS half, go figure), so we had plenty of time to plan our photo. We decided to run up to and fawn all over the prince and ignore Snow White. They both loved it and told us we were very funny and did a good job. Snow decided to “give us a moment” and step out of the picture. They were great!
About this time we ran into some blog friends Carrie and Kristen, and ran with them for a bit before parting ways at a stop we knew we had to make near the Wedding Pavilion.
We “fought” over the glass slipper and I think it made for a super cute picture! After passing the Grand Floridian, the rest of the course was just running. We realized we were running straight into the sun and neither of us brought sunglasses, whoops! We made it to the CLIF stop, and did some run walking in those later miles as needed.
We made the overpass loop and headed toward EPCOT and there were some really cute signs lining the road.
Finally we saw big beautiful Spaceship earth in the morning light, we were almost there!
But not before a couple of more stops! I don’t really consider Sofia a “princess stop” but I guess she technically counts? Hey, we were going to take what we could get.
We also saw this lovely lady and asked her to help us get to the ball.
We looped around to the other side of Spaceship earth, and could hear the gospel choir singing.
A couple more turns, and we were in the home stretch of the finish line! Done! We finished in 3:02:04. By far one of my slowest races, but we definitely had a blast doing it! I have always told Jen how much fun it is to stop and take pictures during a runDisney race and just goof off, and I am so glad we were finally able to do it together.
We ran into Karen at the finish as well!
My new beautiful bling. Loved the silver!
Final thoughts:
This had always been one of my favorite races, but honestly, the characters are getting a bit monotonous. The same ones were out in the exact same spots as they have been for the past three years. I love the course itself, but really wish runDisney would mix up the characters and the placements. Running the PRINCESS half marathon I thought we would see at least 3-4 princesses on course, but only seeing one was disappointing. I know Belle was in the family reunion area, but literally her line was about 100 people deep when I went by headed to the buses.
As usual, runDisney gets an A+ in organization, expo, signage, volunteers, fuel stops, med tents, transportation, and the like. Really my only complaint is the character issue.
This is a great race especially for a first timer looking for a no pressure but fun “girls weekend” type event, and it will always hold a special place in my heart. Thanks for another great race weekend runDisney!
QOTD: Have you ever run in costume?
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I love your costumes and that you stayed “in character” while taking pictures! Looks like you had a lot of fun!
I was disappointed with the characters as well. In 2014 this was my first half marathon so I was too freaked out about finishing to allow myself to stop for pictures, but this year I wanted to stop a lot to celebrate my 10th half, especially in the Magic Kingdom, and there was even less there than in January during the WDW Half. Everything else about the race was fantastic though!
We def. Stayed in character, it was fun!
Great recap! It was so much fun seeing you guys out there! Can’t wait for next time! 🙂
me too!
LOVED your costumes, you guys really played the part! I didn’t run it this year, but last year I was disappointed by the lack of princesses on the course also. I ran as Belle so naturally that was the picture I wanted to get the most, and the line at the end of the race was SO long! I got one with her and didn’t even consider waiting in line for the others. That was pretty much the only disappointment I had though, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.
The year I ran as belle they cut off the character line right when I got in it, but I begged my way into it!
Your pictures are HILARIOUS!!! Love it! And so glad I got to see you that morning before the race!
me too! I realized we too a pic with your camera and not mine so I don’t have our photo!
I have noticed the lack of characters, and the write ups I’m reading for races this year show the trend’s continuing. When I ran Princess in 2012, there were a ton of princesses out on the course, including Princess Atta. If I was stopping for pictures, I would’ve stopped to get one with her.
I got my pic with princess Atta last year, bummed she wasn’t there this time!
Your skirts are Fabulous! Rock City makes the best costume skirts! In fact, I am doing a giveaway on Instagram for one @Fairytalesnfit. I totally understand your complaint with the characters. I think they should be themed by each race. Neither the Princess 5K nor the 10K. Had any princess which was disappointing and totally defeated the purpose of calling it the Princess 5K. We were happy to haave gotten pic of the fab 5 characters but a few Princess would have made sense.
Hope your tendonitis is healing well. I’m dealing with the same thing.
Thanks it is healing, but the marathon will be a true test. it WAS hurting after mile 2, and I ran 10 miles last weekend with no pain hooray!
SO much fun! Can’t wait to do it again in a couple of months!
I KNOW!! GIRLS TRIP!
Sounds like you and Jen had an absolute blast running the half! Sometimes races are meant to be just that, completely fun, and not about the pace or finish time.
agreed! We had a blast.
i totally agree about the characters! I thought it was strange that more princesses weren’t out and there was a lack of characters in MK as well. I stopped for a lot more pictures this time and had a blast though!
Glad you had fun!
Looks like you had a blast!
My very first half marathon and first runDisney event. While I enjoyed it, and was ultimately proud of my accomplishment, I agree; I was very disappointed with the characters. I thought there would be more! I would love to see more characters and throughout the entire course. I also thought the lines were way too long, so I didn’t even bother to stop. Loved the crowd support, water/Powerade stations, medical stations (a volunteer massaged Biofreeze on my calf for me so I wouldn’t risk getting any in my eyes! So nice!), and organization as a whole. I’d definitely do it again, I just wish the characters were more plentiful.
I’m sad to read your review. Running a WDW race is on my bucket list. Part of the draw is getting to meet some characters. I’m afraid by the time I get to run in one, there will not be any.
There were characters just none that had to do with princesses. They had some princes/heroes, the tweedle, buzz light year, woody, Mary poppins, jack sparrow, Snow White, Sophia, fairy godmother. I may be forgetting a couple. I was just bummed it’s the same ones as every year and less princesses 🙁
Great costumes! That was my first half last year and I loved it, but would agree about the character stops. It sounds like you both had a great time though!
Great costumes. Looks like it was a good time. Sad to see they aren’t switching up the characters. I can understand using the same spots as stops for logistics purposes, but no reason to not mix it up and especially to have more princesses involved.
If you’d like, you can bring your recap by the #MagicalMickey linkup. It’s a weekly “anything Disney” linkup. I love runDisney, so it’s a perfect fit. http://www.rungeekrundisney.com/2015/03/epcot-international-flower-garden.html
And the prodigal daughter has returned to Disney World! Glad you had so much fun and the costumes were awesome! Weird about the lack of princesses at the Princess Half Marathon. If I ever expected to see Cinderella on a Run Disney course it would be that one and yet… That would have been an incredible pic with you two.