Just a fair warning: this post is incredibly long - maybe even too long - but it's basically all here for me so that I can come and look back on this day and remember in detail everything about it!
The half was on a Sunday morning and it started at the crack of dawn. Oh, but wait, not even that late...because no, the sun wasn't up yet when the race started. It was only 5:45am. Way too early, and waking up at 2:30am is really hard on a Sunday morning.
It doesn't matter how many exclamation marks I put after the word "Half Marathon," I still wasn't completely ecstatic about waking up that early to go run. But at least I pretended...
Fast forward to 3:45am and after a shuttle ride in the cold, my mom and I have finally made it to Epcot. I met up with my friend Jasmine, who ran the race with me, and we spent the next 45 minutes stretching, waiting, and trying to take our minds off of how cold and nervous we were!
After waiting in the family reunion area we decided to head to the start to get into our corrals before go time. The walk to the corrals was the longest, blurriest walk ever. We were all just a bunch of cows, heading in the same direction as everyone else...not sure at all where we were actually going.
Sorry that my picture taking skills suck while I'm walking. I'm also sorry that the pictures from the race don't get much better than this and that I'm too impatient to just stop moving to take a picture.
After what was probably at least a mile long walk, we finally made it to our corral. Seriously, I felt like a cow walking past all of the corrals and walking into ours. We were all sent into our little closed in areas to sit it out and wait for the race!
There were soooo many people in both directions! Around 20,000 to be exact...
The first corral was supposed to start at 5:45, but it ended up being a little closer to 6 before they actually got going. After that each corral started separately to their own fireworks! After another 20 or so minutes, it was finally our turn!
Since I decided that it probably wasn't the best idea to run with my Nikon, I'm glad that I could steal buy (for a ridiculous amount of money) some pictures from brightroom!
The first few miles were kind of a blur. I'd never really run in the dark before so that was kind of weird for me and it took a while for me to get into my groove, especially after all of my foot pain. I also ended up having to stop to go to the bathroom within the first 2 miles, so pathetic! But finally, my friend and I got into our little groove and it started to get lighter out and things improved.So in case you aren't too familiar with the Disney Princess race, the biggest part of the race that makes it so run and different and also so "disney" is the fact that throughout the whole course of the race there are characters spread out at different miles that you can stop and take pictures with! And our first stop...
...and some random other guy? Seriously, I don't remember him. Who is he?
Next thing we know, we're passing a giant hot air balloon (wah?) and entering Magic Kingdom!
I think at this point we were still within the first 3 miles. Obviously, in this race time wasn't a big concern...it was more all about fun!
As we're running towards Magic Kingdom, we start seeing all this smoke.
It was exciting but at the same time you're wondering what on earth is going on up there. Something awesome, that's what. It is Disney after all.
The Villains!! Surprisingly they (and by they I mean Cruella De Vil) were very good at motivating you to keep running. Probably because they scared you so much that you just wanted to keep moving and get away...
...and run all the way to the (employee?) entrance of Magic Kingdom!!
Actually I'm not even sure where we were at this point or what that's the entrance too. But we were close!
Oh hey look an awesome self-portrait of me running. Cute.
All my running buddies.
So I guess maybe we weren't actually in the Magic Kingdom park at this point, because this was our first glimpse of Space Mountain. So I guess we came up from behind the park? Maybe?
We ran around some more after that, went through some back entrances, and then ended up coming in through the side of the park and out onto Main Street!
And then what do we see right ahead of us??
CASTLE!!!
I also saw my mom in the crowd cheering me on and she managed to snap a picture of me running and some much better Castle pictures :)
Of course I'm taking a picture while running. You're not surprised, are you?
After we ran down Main Street we took a right and headed into Tomorrowland and said hey to our good friend Buzz!
We continued to run throughout Disney and proceeded to waste even more time so that we could stop and wait in line for pictures with Prince Charming and Cinderella :)
Then all of a sudden we were face to face with this beauty!
As we ran up to the Castle those two guys would play on their trumpets and welcome us thru the Castle! It was so amazing. And Princess Minnie was right there as well!
Running through the Castle was amazing! Clearly I was pretty excited...
After we ran through the castle, the course went off to the right to go through some more of Magic Kingdom, but before we continued on with the run, Jasmine and I headed over to the front of the Castle to get some pictures taken. Like I said, this race was all about fun and pictures, not time!
I think at this point we were around mile 6 and it had already taken around TWO HOURS. I hadn't been paying much attention to time and it completely blew me away to know that we'd been going for that long. Once I realized that I decided it was time to step it into gear in between pictures with characters so that I would at least be finishing with a somewhat decent time! (Without stopping I had expected to finish within two hours and 10 minutes...)
Eventually we left the park through some back entrance (or something?) and then ended up running along a back road for a few miles. Completely picked up my pace at this point and tried to make up for some lost time. But I couldn't pass up a picture characters from my favorite Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast.
I ended up running ahead of Jasmine after we left the park, but it worked out perfectly and she caught up with me as I was waiting in line, so we could still have our pictures together!
Aside from a picture with Pocahontas...
there weren't many other characters for a few miles. I hit mile 9 where they were giving out cliff shots, so I grabbed some and kept on going!
Another half a mile and I came across these handsome men...
No way was I about to pass up a picture with the Disney Princes!
The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. We were back out on the main road and it was beginning to sprinkle a little bit, which actually felt kind of nice.
Once we hit mile 12 we were really close to Epcot and were headed towards the entrance to finish out the last mile!
Just representing my Wolfpack while I run :)
Next thing I knew I was in front of the 13 mile marker and about to finish!
Words can't even explain what was going on in my mind. The crowd was amazing, there was music playing, and Disney characters were there to cheer you on. It was unbelievable and I was so happy that I had finished!
It's such an incredible feeling, crossing that finish line and getting that medal after months of training. I had been dreaming of that moment for so long and I will never forget it!
Luckily it wasn't that hard for me to find my mom after the race. There were tons of people everywhere, but Disney had a really good system in the family reunion area. They had tents set up with letters of last names on them, so that people could easily find their families! Worked like a charm. Which is good because I don't know what I would have done had I not been able to find this beautiful face waiting for me after the race...
I love my mom so much, and seeing her there supporting me (with my 20 pound camera no less!) was the best way for me to end this race :)
Of course a little champagne never hurt anyone either...
So there have it. Disney Princess Half Marathon = done, and I loved every minute of it! :)
Now wait til you hear about what other races I have planned... ;)
Happy FRIDAY!!
B.Hines
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