PHM weekend plans

[oommggitskait]

Hey everyone - new to this subthread so if I'm asking stupid questions I apologize!

Running my first Princess Half with my soon to be sister in law next year and looking for suggestions on booking our trip.
As much as it saddens me to say, this will just be a "long weekend" trip for my family. I'm getting married next year, so my fiance and I are saving our PTO for a nice long honeymoon. We're located in the North East so flying/travel time also plays a roll here for us.

I'm curious as to what everyones suggestions are for arrival day. We're really only trying to take 2 days off work, so we are trying to decide if it should be thursday - monday or friday - tuesday.
I've read some trip reports and I know everyone says the Expo is nuts and I can imagine it'll be worst on Saturday? But if we get there too early I'll want to tour the parks and I know thats a big pre-race no-no.

Just wondering what everyones thoughts are?

Thanks!

Any other race weekend planning suggestions are super welcome!

 

[dreamfinder]

When you say 2 days off, do you intend to fly down after work on Thurs/Fri? Otherwise my math shows that as being 3 days off. (I always try to fly in as early as possible and leave as late as possible.......)

I think the Expo is a bit of an unknown right now. Since they added the 10k, that means that any 5k, 10k, and Glass Slipper people need to check in Thursday or Friday. So Saturday, especially late Saturday will very possibly be a slower period at the expo. However this means that much of the merchandise is likely to be sold out, along with some of the vendors running out as well.

What type of run will this be for you? If this is a run in the park, you are doing 10-20 mile runs every weekend, then I don't see a huge problem with going to the park anytime during your trip, as long as you do it wisely, don't push it, and keep hydrating. However if this is your goal run that you are working up for, then touring on Saturday might be pushing yourself. Alternatively, how are you the day after a 13 mile run? Are you walking fine, or dragging your legs around like a zombie? If its the latter, going to the parks Sun/Mon after the race might be slow and tough. You really need to judge how you handle the race, as well as park touring.

I've flown in Friday morning, and back out first thing Monday morning. Then again I've also flown in Sat morning for a full Marathon Sun morning, to fly out Sunday afternoon, strongly recommend against ever doing that. However, coming from the North East, I would probably suggest erring on the cautious side, and flying in on Thursday. The last thing you would want is a storm to hit Friday PM, and the airports not opening again til late Sat PM and you miss the expo.

 

[oommggitskait]

When you say 2 days off, do you intend to fly down after work on Thurs/Fri? Otherwise my math shows that as being 3 days off. (I always try to fly in as early as possible and leave as late as possible.......)

I think the Expo is a bit of an unknown right now. Since they added the 10k, that means that any 5k, 10k, and Glass Slipper people need to check in Thursday or Friday. So Saturday, especially late Saturday will very possibly be a slower period at the expo. However this means that much of the merchandise is likely to be sold out, along with some of the vendors running out as well.

What type of run will this be for you? If this is a run in the park, you are doing 10-20 mile runs every weekend, then I don't see a huge problem with going to the park anytime during your trip, as long as you do it wisely, don't push it, and keep hydrating. However if this is your goal run that you are working up for, then touring on Saturday might be pushing yourself. Alternatively, how are you the day after a 13 mile run? Are you walking fine, or dragging your legs around like a zombie? If its the latter, going to the parks Sun/Mon after the race might be slow and tough. You really need to judge how you handle the race, as well as park touring.

I've flown in Friday morning, and back out first thing Monday morning. Then again I've also flown in Sat morning for a full Marathon Sun morning, to fly out Sunday afternoon, strongly recommend against ever doing that. However, coming from the North East, I would probably suggest erring on the cautious side, and flying in on Thursday. The last thing you would want is a storm to hit Friday PM, and the airports not opening again til late Sat PM and you miss the expo.

Thanks for the insight.
I usually like to fly in first thing as well, but I shoul dhave clarified that if we flew out on Thursday or Friday it would be in the evening AFTER work.
I'm only doing about 8-9 on the weekends right now, but am gearing up for my first half this fall, so I won't have a better idea of how my body handles that many miles until a little later unfortunately.
Yeah - a winter storm would really set us back. I didn't even consider that. What happens when you miss the Epxo? It seems like there isn't another place to get your bib, understandably.

Thanks again! This was all very helpful.

 

[LindsayLoves]

Yes, you have to hit the expo to get your bib. They do have a waiver process that is a bit strict but if you are worried about missing bib pickup it might be a good idea to have someone as a backup plan to get your stuff if by some force of nature your flight is delayed and you miss the expo.

 

[Sumrdog]

Hello, I am so excited for you I did the PHM this last February and it was so fun!!

In response to your question,there was a winter storm last year that delayed a significant amount of people to the point that they had additional bib pick up the morning of the race.

I also wanted to say that I arrived late Thursday evening and went to the expo midday Friday it was utterly insane. I returned the following morning, it was still insane...I toured the parks heavily pre and post race and I don't think it negatively impacted my ability to run. I returned home the Tuesday after the run at the crack of dawn. So I really had Friday-Monday at Disney and it was a really nice little trip, I got to every park and did some relaxing, I had two days to attempt to navigate the expo and allow my self to recover from my long travel day and get rehydrated, rested and race ready.

Since you live in the northeast you probably have access to those direct flights to Orlando. So if you fly down early Friday and return late Monday or early Tuesday you should have enough time to not feel rushed. I live in Montana and it takes me all day to get anywhere because we only have a few little flights in and out a day here. I am guessing that your options are much less limited.

If it were me I wouldn't want to get there any later than Friday morning, because you need time to experience the expo. And as for going to the parks, I don't think that you necessarily need to avoid them, just take it easy and get plenty of rest. I hope this helps!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

I'll be going down for my first PHM as well, and I'm from the Northeast as well. Praying for no snow and only going down for the long weekend with no park time since I'm running the Glass Slipper Challenge. Have flights coming in first thing Friday morning and leaving later in the afternoon on the Monday. Not worth going to the parks at the end of school vacation.