13.1 Magical Miles: A 2011 Princess Half Marathon Trip Report!

Day 0 (I guess?) - Thursday, February 24, 2011.
Like I said in the previous post, I had been waiting for this trip for almost a year. If I remember correctly, last year’s Princess Half was actually a week later (the first weekend in March I think), and for whatever reason they decided to move it up a week this year. I was very pleased with this schedule change for 2 big reasons: 1. Will wouldn’t have been able to come otherwise. One of his duties at school is coaching tennis, so he would have had to stay home for the start of the season, and 2. I got to escape the last few days of my own personal hell: February in Ohio. :hurl:

I mean seriously, who wouldn’t want to flee this for some Florida sunshine?!



But evil February wasn’t going to let me go that easily. While sitting in the cube farm at work in the weeks leading up to the trip, I began to hear disturbing noises. Sniffling. Phlegm-y hacking. Blowing of noses. Constant throat clearing. Horror of horrors! Everyone around me was sick! And these weren’t even the worst cases…apparently there was some gnarly flu going around that struck a good number of people in my department. All I could do was hide in my cube and try to avoid contact with the walking zombies around me. Even poor Will was hit – not with the flu luckily, but he did stay home from work on Wednesday with a small head cold.

Somehow I made it to Thursday without being infected. In your face, sickness! That morning I was in my cube, typing away and happily dreaming of WDW, when I got The Email:

Please note that Cleveland is expecting up to 9” of snow on top of 2” of ice on Friday, 2/25/11…

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Not exactly ideal flying conditions…this made me very nervous that our flight would be delayed, or worse canceled. In my mind I could hear February laughing cruelly…I was still in its clutches. Son of a %$*&#.

The weather was pretty decent when I got home (I think the snow was due to start the next morning around 4AM), good enough for me to get my last training run in (a 2-miler). Will and I began to pack up and by the time we went to bed, it had started to rain a bit. I said a silent prayer that things would go smoothly the next day and was out like a light…last sleep before WDW! :sohappy:

Day 1 - Friday, February 25, 2011.

Our departure day was filled with a bit of drama. It started at 5:30 AM with Will getting the call that every teacher hopes and dreams of – snow day! However that’s not what you want to hear with a flight scheduled later on that day…hmm. My first thought after the call was that I wished we’d had an earlier flight since Will’s work schedule no longer mattered, but it turned out to be good that we didn’t – all the earlier flights had been canceled for the day.

Anyhoo, I had the day off as well, so we decided to divide and conquer – Will stayed home taking care of some last-minute stuff (cleaned up a bit, packed, etc.) while I ran out to buy race-day breakfast and drop the Monster-pup off at doggy camp around noon. Here he (Archie) is, all packed and ready for camp…hasn’t quite realized that he’s going yet:



But now he knows! And he’s very excited.




We decided to tempt fate by not snow blowing, and I almost got stuck in the driveway after taking Archie to camp. I got my errands done, but the roads were slick and the snow was still falling heavily. When I came home, I actually did get stuck in the driveway, so we dug the car out, snow blowed, and decided we’d leave for the airport (30 minutes away) at 2:30, even though our flight was not until about 5:30 (and was not delayed! :sohappy. We just were not sure how quickly the roads would be cleared.

The snow stopped at 2PM. At 2:20 I got a call from my mom that she and my brother had arrived and checked in at Riverside! Cue jealousy. She said the room was great and they were on their way to Animal Kingdom. I asked what building they were in – while making the reservation I requested 14 or 15, and that Will and I be in the same building as Mom and Craig – and she said Oak Manor. Not what I requested, but just as good of a location - I really hoped we were there too.

Back up here in the Arctic, we finished up the packing and relaxed a bit. In the weeks leading up to this trip I had a few disturbing dreams – one involving me getting to Florida and realizing I’d forgotten my running shoes, another with me meeting my first character on the race course only to discover that my camera battery wasn’t charged…horrors. I was not taking any chances when it came to packing, and double- and triple-checked that I had all of my race day essentials.

We left home around 2:50 and made it to the airport in one piece (the roads were almost bone dry by then – well done, snow plowers!) and got on our flight – we’d be flying to Nashville and then connecting to Orlando. The plane took off about 10 minutes late…we were incredibly lucky that it wasn’t delayed more than that.

Funny story about that flight: our ticket said take-off was at 5:25 and landing was at 6:05. Okay, so a 40-minute flight, and then we’d catch our connector at 7:10. So imagine our horror when it was announced first that the flight would be 1 hour, 18 minutes long…then 1 hour, 30 minutes long! What was going on here? We were going to miss our connector! I began to think really, REALLY mean things about Southwest – why would they book it this way? Why did the ticket say the flight was 40 minutes when it really wasn’t? – and Will tried to calm me down, but I was so incredibly stressed at this point. We’d been worrying all day that the flight would be delayed, and then it wasn’t, but now this was happening. We told the flight attendant our problem, and she assured us we’d have “plenty of time.” What was going on here? Surely there was someone else on the plane in the same situation – why was no one else freaking out? Eventually we began to wonder if we were changing time zones by flying into Nashville…but the ticket didn’t mention time zones (i.e. our flight took off at 5:25, not 5:25 EST), so we were stumped. When we landed, I turned on my phone. The time flashed as 7:10…then quickly changed to 6:10. Sure enough, we HAD changed time zones and would, as the flight attendant said, have plenty of time to make our connector. :hammer: D’oh! And then, of course, when we made it to our next gate we found that our connecting flight was delayed by an hour anyway. Lovely.

We suddenly found ourselves with a lot of time on our hands, so we walked around the Nashville airport a bit.



I just can’t quit you, Starbucks.



Will finally found a Fantasy Baseball magazine! (He’d looked for one in the Cleveland airport with no luck.)



Will studied up and occasionally commented on whether or not he agreed with the magazine’s rankings and what they said about the state of baseball today (when Jhonny Peralta is the 13th-best shortstop, you know something’s wrong). I decided to call my mom to check in, and to tell her about our time zone snafu (I still feel really stupid about that , but it’s sort of funny looking back on it). She said they went to Animal Kingdom (aka “the africa thingy”) and “did everything.” I needed more details than that! What did they like/not like? What attractions did they go on? The update was that they enjoyed lunch at Flame Tree barbecue and did not get on the Safari (the last one ran at 5:30 and they were too late). My brother did not go on Everest (he thought the line was too long), and they did not “do the Captain Nemo show.” From what I can gather, they pretty much just walked around and looked at stuff, and that was all the detail I got. My mom said she liked it and compared it to Sea World, but when she says Sea World, she means the Sea World that used to be in Aurora, Ohio – not the one in Orlando. I’ve never been to the one in Orlando, but from what I hear the one we had in Aurora was nowhere near as awesome as the Orlando one is. Hmm.

Anyhoo, we boarded our flight and took off a little later than expected, around 8:40 CST :hammer: and finally landed in Orlando at around 11:15 (EST!). We headed to baggage claim, which took quite awhile, and then tried to find our way to the Magical Express area. We couldn’t figure out where the signs pointing us to the DME check-in were – turns out we were in the wrong terminal.

Finally, we made it to the Magical Express area around midnight.



We were only in line for a bus for about 5 minutes, and then were led to the door. The Cast Member was saying “Riverside only!” and I stupidly thought that meant we’d be leaving soon. This was not the case – we waited for about 25 minutes before taking off. The day was starting to catch up to Will, who looked like he was about to collapse (I guess he never got back to sleep after the snow day call). He almost fell asleep on the bus, but then the Welcome video started to play. We’ve all seen the new ad campaign commercials on TV, right? Where parents surprise their kids with a trip to Disney? That was what the video was like – a montage of excited, screaming children. Not great if you want to sleep. I thought Will was going to cry.

After the welcome video, they started playing an old Donald Duck short! It was called “Donald’s Vacation” and featured him delivering the lines “No respect for the human body” and “Am I mortified” with complete disgust. Loved it! It perked Will right up.

The ride was shorter than I remembered, about 35 minutes (maybe because there was no traffic so late), and I think Riverside was the first stop – can’t really remember. Check-in was quick and Riverside came through for us – we were in Oak Manor, 3 doors down from Mom and Craig!

We finally got in our room around 1:30 AM:





This was our first stay in a moderate. I thought the room was fine, but Will was surprised that we got 2 double beds – oops! We also weren’t impressed with the shower – low water pressure and the bottom of the tub was pretty slippery. Other than that we liked it though – the location was great, the grounds were beautiful, and we had great luck with buses.

We finally went to bed around 2AM…almost 12 hours after leaving home. But at least we were finally in Disney!

Day 2 – Saturday, February 26, 2011.

Our first full day in Disney!

We got up at about 6:30…just a little over 4 hours of sleep. I was hoping to be on a bus to Hollywood Studios by 7:30, but everyone was dragging a bit. We made it to Riverside Mill around 7:30 for breakfast…I got a muffin and a banana, and everyone else got the Power Wrap – turkey sausage, egg whites, tomato pesto and some other delicious stuff on a spinach wrap. I thought it was pretty tasty!

We caught a bus to Hollywood Studios for Extra Magic Hours, arriving about 10 minutes after opening. My and Will’s first stop was to Guest Relations to activate our first-ever annual passes! Woohoo!



Toy Story Midway Mania was next on the list…it was almost a walk-on. The line was just long enough that we could take in the whole queue, but was moving the entire time, so it wasn’t like we were waiting forever. Yay!



This was a great way to start the day…we all had a blast. My mom and brother loved it!

Next up was my and Will’s favorite…Tower of Terror!



On the bus ride over to the Studios, Will caught sight of the scaffolding on ToT and was very concerned – was the ride still operational? I assured him that it was, thanks to reading about it on this message board! Whew.

A 10-minute wait? Fine by me!



We walked through the queue and right into the library. Woohoo! This ride was excellent…after multiple drops we saw the silhouettes of the 5 characters from the pre-show and thought for sure that the ride was over, only to be launched up once again! Love it.



(Why does my scared face look like Blue Steel? Any Zoolander fans out there?? )

Our last attraction at Hollywood Studios was Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster. Mom elected to sit it out, so Will, my brother and I headed over to the single rider line. We were on in 5 minutes!



This picture reminds me that I should note that the weather was perfect...sunny, mid-80s and no rain. Beautiful.

By then it was about 9:45…we needed to get over to the race expo, which was due to open in 15 minutes, so we began to make our way out of the park.



(Despite evidence to the contrary, it was not ESPN: The Weekend).

Transportation to the race expo only left from the host resorts, and I figured that the All-Stars was our best bet. From looking at a map of the property, it seemed like going here from the Studios would be the least out-of-the-way route. Unfortunately we were met with a giant line when we got there…everyone else was on their way to the expo as well.

We arrived at the Wide World of Sports around 10:30.





We got into the expo somewhat quickly, but it was completely packed.



Anyone with race waivers already printed could go right ahead to bib pick-up…if waivers needed to be printed, there was an additional line. Luckily I had our waivers, so we went right to bib pick-up. They had the lines divided by bib number (which was on our waivers) and I hopped into the 5000-5500 line. My brother was a few lines down from me. For whatever reason, my line was moving incredibly slowly…I think someone up front had a problem of some sort. The building we were in was so full and crowded that the situation quickly became overwhelming and just sort of uncomfortable. Eventually that awful line came to an end, and I got my bib and corral placement.



For their races, Disney assigns runners into “corrals” (7 total) based on when the runners estimate they will finish the race, which is indicated when registering for the race online. The wheelchair racers start at 5:43AM, followed by the fastest runners, in the first corral, at 5:45AM. The next fastest group, in Corral B, starts 8 minutes later, and so on. Runners can submit a time from a previous race (10K or longer that took place after July 1, 2008), and those who do not submit a time are automatically assigned to the last corral, Corral F. This means they don’t begin running until 6:25AM, even though everyone must be in the corrals at 5 freaking AM.

The way I see it, there are a couple of big disadvantages to being in that last corral: 1. You have more runners to dodge when you actually do get going, and 2. You have to stand around in the cold for longer waiting for the race to begin, so that’s more time to tense up, be nervous, etc. And this is in addition to making sure you’re at the corrals by 5AM at the latest.

In the first post of this report, I mentioned that I have done one 10k. This 10k was part of a marathon relay (which was my first “big race” experience – very cool), and I was the third leg. My run started about 9 miles in on the marathon course, so I was there for the start of the marathon but waited for over an hour until my teammate got to me for the hand-off…and by then my legs and back were tight from waiting and being nervous, and I was freezing. This made the first couple of miles of my run pretty tough…it wasn’t the end of the world, but keeping that experience in mind I was looking for any way to cut down the amount of time I had to wait if I could.

I would imagine that the Disney Marathon relay, making its debut in 2012, will be set up similarly to the one that I did (the Akron Marathon relay in 2009). My relay was myself and 4 teammates – the legs were 3.5 miles, 5.7 miles, 6.3 miles (me), 2.8 miles and 7.9 miles, which = 26.2. If Disney is doing something similar (I’m sure the distances would be tweaked to work with the Disney course), I think it’s a great idea to add new distances in for those who want something in between a 5k and a half or full marathon. They could really put some great variety in there and appeal to a lot more potential runners. It just seems like a mess to organize, what with busing the relay team members to the various relay hand-off points, but hey, that’s what race directors are for.

Anyhoo, back to corral placement. For whatever reason, I did not submit a proof of time to Disney when I registered for the race. I think I was worried that my brother (who is much faster than I am) and I would end up in different corrals. When researching the race later on, however, on I learned that if he was assigned to a faster corral he could drop back to mine and we could still run together. So I submitted my 2010 Cleveland 10-miler time to Disney in October, figuring it couldn’t hurt (I was shocked to get a quick – and personalized – response via email from Disney confirming that they received my time!). At worse we’d still be in the last corral…at best we’d move up a corral or two and begin running a little earlier with a few less people to dodge. Now the time that I submitted was not my best by a long shot – that race came 3 months after I’d fallen down the stairs in our house, injuring myself so badly that I couldn’t walk for a week…running was out of the question until about a month before the race, and I was completely out of shape come race day – so it’s not like you need to submit a blazing-fast time to benefit.

So anyway…I ended up in Corral C!



In the interest of full disclosure, the time I submitted was 2:00:42 for 10 miles, a little over a 12 min/mile pace (from this, Disney predicted I’d finish 13.1 in 2:31, according to the email I mentioned above…apparently they had faith that I’d pick up the pace a little more this time around). :shrug: They must not have gotten many times submitted...I was shocked that I was in C and not D or E.

As you can see, I decided to represent my girl Ariel in the race…Tiana and Belle were in the running as well.

My brother had not submitted a time and ended up in Corral D. Luckily I had brought a printout of his 10-miler finish time (a whopping 20 minutes faster than I’d finished) and he was able to get his corral changed…it was a pretty easy process. The guy at the information booth just asked what corral he wanted, and he said same as mine, and that was that (I guess he could have been in Corral B…his time was that good).



So the moral of the story is this: if you’re planning on running a Disney race, I’d suggest signing up for a local race beforehand (at least a 10K) so that you can get a proof of time and possibly move up to a better corral. As an added bonus you would be getting some race day experience, which is never a bad thing.



(The swag was sort of meh. Mostly coupons and ads.)

My brother was also easily able to exchange his tech shirt – he’d ordered a medium, not realizing that they come in woman’s sizes. He asked for an extra large and made the change in about a minute. At this point, Will decided that the heat and crowds were too much and told me he’d be waiting at the exit. I only had 2 booths I wanted to visit, so I told him we’d meet up.

I hit the Sweaty Bands booth first and quickly picked out a sparkly green number for the race (they’re athletic headbands). Those things were selling like hotcakes! People were buying 5 and 6 at a time.

The only other booth I was interested in was the official merchandise booth. They basically had t-shirts, princess half ears, and things like that. I grabbed a coffee mug (I’m on a mission to replace the generic ones that came with our dinner wear set) and looked around to find the line…it was huge! Easily 150 people long. I sadly placed the mug back on the shelf and headed out of the expo.

More tomorrow!

I can't wait to read more! I also ran the Princess Half Marathon with my DH! The characters were awesome, and it was the most fun I've ever had running a race!:sohappy: We were also at the Expo on Saturday. It was quite the madhouse. Lesson learned...we will forever visit the Expo on Friday, not Saturday. Corrals..We didn't even submit a time and we were put in Corral D. That must mean a lot of people didn't submit times. Yet we found that there were a lot of walkers to pass. So I think you are right, and the situation runs that quite a few people don't submit a race time. One gripe I had was that the Expo needed to be in a larger building, it was way too cramped. And another was the walk from the staging/family meeting area to the Corrals. I don't think the walk part was unreasonable, but I think the Port-a-Potty placement was ludacris! It took forever for people to walk to the corrals just because the lines to the Port-a-Potties made it so difficult for the crowd to progress forward.

TakeMeThere81 said:

I can't wait to read more! I also ran the Princess Half Marathon with my DH! The characters were awesome, and it was the most fun I've ever had running a race!:sohappy:

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Thanks! Congrats to you and your husband...and I can't wait to read more of your report as well. I totally agree with you, the characters were great...it seemed like there were tons of them! :sohappy:

This is something I really hope to do one day. I'm trying a beginner 5K training plan at the moment and slowly but surely I'm finding my pace...not easy, but I'm getting there!

Great report so far!

Oh! And my husband and I totally just stayed in Oak Manor at Riverside this past October!

diddy_mouse said:

This is something I really hope to do one day. I'm trying a beginner 5K training plan at the moment and slowly but surely I'm finding my pace...not easy, but I'm getting there!

Great report so far!

Oh! And my husband and I totally just stayed in Oak Manor at Riverside this past October!

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You absolutely can do it! Just keep at it! I used to whine and complain when I had to run across the street, so if I can do this, anyone can. Good luck!!

Ooh, Disney in October sounds really nice! I'm not sure we'll ever get there with Will's schedule though. We loved Oak Manor, it was so peaceful and perfectly located. I think we got really lucky getting into that building!

What kind of dog is Archie? Love the report so far!

DWLove said:

What kind of dog is Archie? Love the report so far!

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Why thank you for asking! I love talking about the pup! He's a beagle/Cavalier King Charles mix. He was the perfect find...I wanted a Cavalier, Will wanted a beagle. It was meant to be.

Thanks for reading! :wave:

So when I last left off, we’d just left the race expo, and I was feeling pretty overwhelmed. I am not sure what they can do to improve the situation in that place – maybe move it to a bigger space with better ventilation? :shrug: Who knows.

We left the building and headed back to the front of the Wide World of Sports. My mom had mentioned that she wanted to see a deluxe resort, and I thought Animal Kingdom Lodge (another race host resort) would be a good place to show her and my brother. There were no signs pointing us in the direction of the resort buses, and the CM that I asked had a really heavy accent and spoke really quickly, so I couldn’t understand his directions…like I said, overwhelmed. Eventually I figured out where the bus stop was and we hopped on a Mears bus headed straight for the Lodge. The whole experience – picking up our bibs, activating our d-tags (which just involves walking over a timing mat), picking up our shirts and me waiting in the Sweaty Bands line took an hour and a half.

Overall I was slightly disappointed in the expo. Like I said in my previous post, the race swag was just okay and the expo itself was hot and crowded. More signage for the buses would have been great. Oh well…in the grand scheme of things it was just a small part of the weekend.

We arrived at Jambo House pretty quickly and I silently pouted that we weren’t eating at Jiko, my and Will’s favorite restaurant, on this trip. But I quickly forgot my worries as we took in the grandness of the lobby…I just love this resort.



Mom wanted to check out the pool, so we headed out back…the weather was sunny and mid-80s. Perfect pool weather.



Our next stop was the savanna, which was pretty empty. I suggested that we hop on the Downtown Disney bus to check out Kidani before lunch. I really wanted them to see a more active savanna, and Will and I are actually staying in Kidani for part of our trip in June, so I wanted to check it out for myself.



I’ve read it before online, but I was really very shocked at how small the lobby in Kidani is compared to the one in Jambo. Still very impressive and beautiful, just smaller.



Animals were out and about on the savanna…we were in luck!





Looking back at the lobby:



I love the lamps they have out on the savanna!



(At this point I’m pretty sure my brother said something snarky about my taking photos of the lamps and signs…he just doesn’t get it. I thought they were cool!)

Our tour of the Lodge ended, and by then, my stomach was talking to me. Time for lunch!

We got a bus to Downtown Disney (I think we waited about 10 minutes for it…the longest wait on this trip). The bus made a quick stop at Typhoon Lagoon and then got off at the Marketplace. Destination: Earl of Sandwich!

The place was packed, but we lucked out in finding a table. My brother and I ordered the club…Mom and Will got the Hawaiian BBQ. Everyone was pretty pleased with our meals, and I ate mine so fast that I forgot to take a picture! Boohiss.

I did get a picture of my Coke and strawberry shortcake though…such excitement!



This was our first time at the Earl, and we’ll definitely be back in the future. It was delicious! :slurp:

At this point, Mom and Craig wanted to go back to the resort, while Will and I decided to stay in Downtown Disney. We had a couple of stops we wanted to make. First on the list was a visit to Guest Relations to purchase our first-ever Tables in Wonderland card! This took awhile – there was an issue with the printer or something – but we got it after about 30 minutes. So I never realized that if the card gets lost, it’s $50 to replace it! Yikes!

Next up was a visit to the Lego Store. I thought I’d seen someone on these boards (can’t remember who it was) post a picture of a Little Green Man Lego keychain, and I really wanted one! Apparently they’re revamping the Lego Store, because they were set up in a giant, yellow, temporary…tent-type thing. I mean, it was REALLY yellow in there. Headache inducing. It made me feel sorry for the CMs that work there.

I struck out on the LGM keychain, so we moved on to the World of Disney store. Will had forgotten his sunglasses at home and was tired of squinting in that glorious sun, so he wanted a replacement pair. And I wanted this little beauty!

(Dedicated to Kelly, aka sweetpee! )



Woohoo! I got a 10% discount on it, but I forget why (AP or Disney Visa, not sure which one). Anyway, this thing is the perfect size – fits my cards and phone splendidly, and it’s adorable! Will didn’t fare as well as I did – none of the sunglasses appealed to him.

Our last stop in Downtown Disney was Disney’s Days of Christmas. Everyone has that one thing that they want to get on every trip – my thing is a personalized Christmas ornament. I was in the market for something that would appropriately represent the Princess Half, and I found just the thing!

After dropping the ornament off to be personalized (we’d pick it up the next day), we headed to the boat dock around 3:30.





We’d just missed a boat, which meant that we had about a 20 minute wait. This was about the time that I realized that I hadn’t put sunscreen on that day! I don’t know what I was thinking…d’oh! :hammerMaybe I should have titled this report The Trip of D’ohs.) Anyway, standing in that line, I suddenly felt like I was frying in the sun. We decided to get out of the boat line and wait for a bus instead to save my skin.

This was not how I’d wanted to time this afternoon…I had been hoping to get back to the room for a nap around 2PM or so, then relax, clean up and board a bus to Epcot around 4 to get there in plenty of time for our dinner reservations. On the bus back to Riverside, I called Disney dining to see if I could push dinner back…no such luck. They were booked! No nap for us.

We made it back to the hotel around 4PM. Will promptly laid down and fell asleep, while I inspected my sunburn (I got lucky...it wasn't too bad) and got to work laying out all of my race-day essentials.



(Yes, sunscreen IS in the pile!)

I also filled a leftover bottle with water, set up the coffee, and set my alarm for 2:50AM…woof.

I checked in with the fam and they said they’d meet us at the front bus stop. Will and I headed out to wait for them.



We quickly caught an Epcot bus and got to the park around 5:30…oops! Reservations at Chefs de France were at 5:20!



We quickly made our way to France and checked in. There was a bit of a wait…no big deal since it was our fault for being late, and we’d had a later lunch. While waiting we were treated to a family with 3 adorable French children trying to pretend they were tough. They would turn their hats to the side, cross their arms and sneer at one another. Then they would flash “gang signs” at one another and giggle. It was very cute and entertaining.

We were seated at about 6PM and had a great table…one of the ones right in the front near the windows. Perfect for people-watching.

People-watching had to be temporarily suspended so that we could meet the chef.



(So yes, Remy is still at Chefs de France! We saw him at about 6:10.)

There were also lots of birthdays being celebrated that evening…I counted and we heard bonne anniversaire sung 6 times throughout the course of the meal!

I ordered the salade maison and gratin de macaroni for my pre-race meal…and drank tons of water. Tasty!





At this point my mom and brother asked me if I was writing a blog or something. Apparently they noticed my excessive picture-taking! And speaking of my brother…he ordered a beer! Beer the night before a race? Questionable.

Everyone agreed that it was completely necessary to walk off that meal, and we made our way toward the International Gateway to check out the Boardwalk. Will and I love it there…this is “our” hotel. We stayed there in May and November 2009, and are going back to the villas for the second half of our stay in June. I can’t wait!







We checked out the lobby and went back outside to head back into Epcot. By then it was about 8:30, and the lack of sleep over the past 2 nights was really catching up to me. It was time to call it a day.

We headed back to Riverside and took showers. I checked and re-checked my race gear (including one last camera battery test! ) and got into bed around 9:45. Almost time for the race!

Ariel484 said:

Why thank you for asking! I love talking about the pup! He's a beagle/Cavalier King Charles mix. He was the perfect find...I wanted a Cavalier, Will wanted a beagle. It was meant to be.

Thanks for reading! :wave:

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o ok, looks very sweet. I asked because he looks a little like my pup who is a puggle. Can't wait to read more

DWLove said:

o ok, looks very sweet. I asked because he looks a little like my pup who is a puggle. Can't wait to read more

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He IS very sweet...a little challenging at times because he's a puppy mill rescue, but we love him to death. I love puggles...they are hilarious!

Day 2 – Sunday, February 27, 2011.

Race day! But first, some reflections on training for this race…

I decided to use this Jeff Galloway plan to train for the Princess Half. One 30-minute run on Tuesdays and Thursdays, followed by a long run on Saturdays, with every other Saturday being a “step back” week. I’d been really going back and forth on how I wanted to train for the race (I even started a thread about it in the Running forum of this board) and had heard others praise the Galloway plans. I liked the step-back weeks he had built in (by that I mean, doing a LONG long run, like 9.5 miles on Saturday, and then a 4-miler the next Saturday) and the simplicity of the plan in general, so I went with it. I followed the plan to the letter, and it was fine, but it just didn’t seem like enough running to me. I’m going to try something different for my next half in May (not a Disney race ). Having said that, I’d definitely recommend it to anyone that wants to complete their first half, especially if you’re crunched for time and the most you can fit in each week is 3 runs. The long runs seem intimidating, but they’re great confidence boosters once you finish them. I tried to keep mine at a relaxed, steady pace, and would walk a minute after each mile. This helped a lot – I felt better and I don’t think it hurt my times very much, plus I read somewhere (possibly in the Galloway plan, I forget) that the pace of the long runs isn’t super important, rather the time spent on your feet is. Actually I think in most of the running articles I’ve read it’s encouraged to go at a pace about 60-90 seconds slower then what you want to do on race day. Like I said before, when I started running I used Couch-to-5k, which was perfect for helping me get ready for my first 5k many moons ago.

There’s also a Galloway plan for beginning runners, and from what I saw it’s pretty similar to the one I used…I think the long runs in the beginning are a bit shorter, and the step-back weeks are 3 miles instead of 4 most of the time. Something like that.

It’s ironic that I say I modified the training plan to include more running, because starting in February (damn you, February!) I sort of fell off the wagon. I was sick of running in the cold (as in, temperatures in the teens and 20s, wind chills in the single digits ) and even more sick of the treadmill. But I promised myself that, if nothing else, I’d do the pinnacle 14-miler on February 12. I was actually really looking forward to it; it would be such a great feeling to finish that distance (my longest ever) and know that now I could definitely finish the race. I spent the week prior to that 14-miler hyping it up in my head, telling myself over and over that I could do it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t. The 14-miler became a 10.5-miler. Don’t get me wrong, 10.5 miles is nothing to sneeze at, but I really wanted to finish that 14…it just wasn’t in the cards. That day our sidewalks were still covered in ice, so I thought it would be safer for me to run in the street against traffic – no chances of slipping on an ice patch or anything like that. While I think avoiding the sidewalks was the right call, I didn’t realize that by doing this my left foot was on a slight slope the entire time. I still can’t figure out how I didn’t notice it…or maybe I did and didn’t think it was a big deal? At any rate, the pain was slightly building in my left knee beginning at about mile 8. And then it happened: at mile 9, after months with virtually no knee pain whatsoever, after finishing every long run (including a 9.5-, 11- and 12.5-miler) feeling pretty good and like I could run even further, I was stopped in my tracks. I felt like I’d been stabbed in the knee, right in the good ol’ IT band. I couldn’t run another step. After walking another 1.5 miles on the sidewalk, which felt fine, and trying to resume running a few times (I’d make it a few steps and then feel like my knee was going to completely give out) I decided to call it a day. I had to call Will to pick me up…luckily I had my cell phone with me and he was close by, otherwise I’d probably still be walking home! Not a great way to end my last long-long run of training, and I spent the rest of that day icing, stretching, and wondering if I’d be able to finish the race at all. It was hard not to beat myself up over not finishing, and I’m sort of proud of myself for not crying and/or throwing some sort of tantrum over the thought that I’d possibly injured myself 2 weeks before race day. Luckily I realized that the slope on the street was the problem, not just my knee getting weak or something (I did the 12.5-miler on a treadmill :hurl: and the 9.5- and 11-milers on a different street with no slope – hence, no pain), and my knee felt fine within a day or two. I was also able to take some positives from that run – at least I went 10.5 miles, which is a long way, and I felt properly hydrated and fueled, and pretty good from a cardiovascular standpoint. The last few weeks of training were fine. WHEW.

When I was originally thinking about this trip report, I was planning on including a small list of little things I learned during training…nothing earth-shattering, just some tidbits. But I thought I’d just include what happened during that 14...er...10.5-miler to illustrate that one of the most important things I personally think someone can do when training for a race like this, or any race really (beyond getting a good pair of running shoes and things like that), is to listen to your body, even if it means you cut a run short or skip a run because you’re tired and a rest day would be more beneficial (which I did a few times). I think this is hard for people – we see a plan, decide to follow it, and feel super guilty if we deviate at all. Like I said, I really wanted to finish that 14, but it would have been a mistake…who knows how long it would have taken me to recover? If I’d gone any further I very well could have seriously injured myself. And really, in the grand scheme of things, was missing that last 3.5 miles or a few 30-45 minute runs here and there going to negate the past 18 or so weeks of training? No way! I think this is especially important for people doing these Disney races though, since my guess is that most are beginners and are probably prone to over-use injuries and things like that. So I thought I’d put that out there.

I also wanted to mention that I did keep track of how many miles I ran during training in a Google doc (what can I say, I’m a nerd). If I think of it later, and if anyone’s interested, I’ll post a screen shot. I had a column for Year Total and Notes (so for 2/12 I noted the knee injury…and that I was an idiot for not running at all in the week leading up to that 14-miler! I’m sure that didn’t help). :brick:

Anyhoo, total miles on the plan: just over 229, not including race day

This sounds like a ton (well, to me it does), but that’s the total over 18 weeks. The average weekly mileage came out to a little over 12.5 miles per week (it ebbed and flowed for weeks where I had a LONG long run and weeks where I took days off or had a step-back week). Take from that what you will…I’m certainly no expert on training or anything, but I think 12 miles per week isn’t completely out of reach for anyone that decides they’re seriously interested in doing one of these races. Really I was surprised I was ready for the race on so little mileage. :shrug:

Lastly, I really realized that a little determination can go a long way. I never thought I would be a runner, and Will likes to remind me that when I first started a few years back, I would say to him, “I’d really like to finish a 5K someday. It would be cool if I could do that.” That was my ultimate goal. And here I am writing my half marathon trip report!

So if anyone is on the fence about trying one of these things, I say go for it! You just may end up surprising yourself. I sure did.

Okay, so training is done…and it’s race day! Let’s get to it!

Earlier I mentioned that in the months leading up to this trip I had nightmares where I forgot my running shoes or didn’t charge my camera battery In another dream l was snoozing in my bed when my brother casually sauntered into my room and said, quite indifferently, “Hey, so I guess we should probably go to the race now”…10 minutes before the race began! The dream ended with us running to Epcot to try to make it to the starting line on time. So it should come as no surprise that I had 2 alarms set - my phone and Will’s phone - along with a request to the front desk for a wake-up call all ready to go at 2:50 AM.

I actually woke up early, at 2:40 (thankfully…I had a dream I was the girl singing in the music video for that “Airplanes” song…and I hate that song) and got going quickly. Turned off the phone alarms, grabbed the wake-up call (Stitch wanted me to get going already!), and turned on the coffee maker. I got dressed, sunscreened and Body Glided up, and checked my camera again (it was fine…I didn’t have a spare battery so what could I have done at that point anyway?). I quickly ran out to knock on my brother’s door to make sure he was awake (he was!), went back to my room to get the rest of my crap (including Will’s phone…mine wouldn’t fit in my fuel belt), and stepped outside after saying good-bye to Will (he managed to grumble “good luck, love you” in response). The weather was perfect race weather – mid-60s with a slight breeze. We didn’t even bring any throwaway clothes.

We quickly headed to the entrance of Riverside and hopped on a bus around 3:30 AM.



The ride went pretty quickly and we were dropped off in the Epcot parking lot (forgive me for lack of specifics…I’m not familiar with the lots). We walked over to the staging area, maybe about a half-mile, to find a DJ, other runners, photo-ops, and porta-potties galore.

They had screens of princess castles set up, and we had a good amount of time to kill, so we decided to take some silly pictures. I was having trouble identifying the castles, so feel free to correct me if these are not right!

Ariel’s castle:



Jasmine’s castle (I KNOW this one is right!):



I think I read somewhere online that this is from Rapunzel? I must confess that I haven’t seen Tangled yet!



And I believe this is Snow White’s crib:



We made our first trip to the porta potties, which had pretty long lines. While waiting we marveled at the costumes…people are so creative! I saw a couple dressed as Snow White and Prince Charming (really detailed), a man with a t-shirt that said “Coach Charming” on the back, 2 frogs (one I think of as “runner frog” – green shorts, compression socks, a frog hat and covers on his shoes that looked like frog feet – the other I think of as “insane frog” – a green, polyester full bodysuit with long sleeves, pants, and a hood that had a crown on top. I thought this guy would surely get heatstroke later, but I did see him sprinting through Epcot around mile 11 – silly me!), a Princess Leia, Wonder Woman, Captain America, and people from Tron (they had black outfits with blue glow sticks – they looked great in the dark, but later when we saw them on the racecourse in the daylight it just looked like they were wearing plastic tubing). And then of course people were dressed as the various princesses, Minnie and Mickey, and many were wearing tutus. No pictures - the thought of taking pictures of strangers made me feel weird. This was the only point in the morning that I regretted not having throwaway clothes (which Disney collects, cleans, and donates to charity) – I got a bit chilly standing in line, but it was no big deal.

We went through the No Bag Check area and began to make our way through the corrals. After about 5 minutes of walking, we heard loud cheers. I looked to see a line of women standing with their backs to the bushes and was confused – what was everyone cheering for? They didn’t even have on clever costumes! Then I walked a little further and saw what the fuss was about – the line of women was a human wall, formed to shield their pals who were squatting in the bushes! I expected to see this happen at some point in the race (and it did happen throughout the course), but not beforehand! The funny part was, as soon as we turned the corner, there was another huge batch of porta-potties with no lines whatsoever. I guess they just couldn’t wait.

I broke out the bagels and peanut butter I’d brought from home around 5AM and we made our way over to Corral C.



A volunteer checked our bibs to make sure we were in the correct corral and we joined our fellow runners. While waiting, we were treated to “witty” banter from a couple of RunDisney folks (gems included “I think Corral A knows how to party!,” “Corral B…I bet the ‘B’ stands for beautiful!,” and “Corral C…C is for courageous!”) and a variety of music – if you ever wanted to hear a techno version of “Beauty and the Beast” or “Under the Sea,” this is the place to do it. They were also playing “Firework” by Katy Perry quite a bit.

From our position we had a good view of the Fairy Godmother up on the giant screen. She was saying magical, whimsical things while talking to the RunDisney people.



They started gearing up for the wheelchair start and put the one woman in the wheelchair division up on the screen – I was really surprised that she was the only one! The Fairy Godmother counted down to her start at 5:43 AM:



(Yes, my firework photography is amazing )

After the wheelchair start, we each took a vanilla Gu for a little kick of energy. Corral A started 2 minutes later (“I can tell this is a party corral!”), followed by Corral B at 5:53 AM.

Here we are, just before our start:



Finally, at 6:01AM, it was our turn! 3 2 1 GO!



Normally I get super nervous before the start of any race, no matter what the distance, but not today! I was just so excited and happy to be there!

We took off and ran past Spaceship Earth, which was looking particularly luminous this morning. The first mile was pretty uneventful and crowded…we kept a pretty slow pace. At one point I saw a billboard for Cirque du Soleil and thought that we’d reached the first mile marker already! Alas, we had not. I should have known, I mean, I WAS wearing a Garmin, which read 0.5 miles or something like that! D’oh!

After passing some stiltwalkers, we were at the first mile marker!



After running a bit, I looked at the return part of the course, to see Princess Atta waiting for the wheelchair racer! Awesome! I made a mental note to stop for her on the way back.

Next up were 5 leading men! There was a line, but it wasn’t too bad. I yelled for my brother to stop – and he said no! and for whatever reason, I listened to him and kept going.