Trip Report **COMPLETED** The Princess 10K (and other adventures) !

Hello everyone! We got back from Disney World yesterday and it is very cold here (and slightly depressing) so I am going to start my trip report right away!

Who?
The usuals - my Mom (Mary) and myself (Megan) - some people refer to us as the M and M's :)
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Where?
Wilderness Lodge :)

When?
February 22 - 27, 2019

Why?
Well - as the title implies we went down for the Princess 10K! It was originally supposed to be both of my sisters and us but for various reasons it ended up being just the two of us :)

Day 1 February 22, 2019
Since our flight was scheduled for very early in the morning my Mom and I decided to stay at a hotel across the street from the airport. We did this once before thinking it was a good idea and again it was not. Any sleep we hoped to save by staying closer was lost due to horrible beds and loud other guests :oops:
In any case, we dragged ourselves out of bed at 3:30 AM and got ready for the airport. The breakfast at the hotel did open at 4 AM so we checked it out but there was nothing good so decided to just head on over to the airport.
We look super duper awake...
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Anyway, at the airport we had some bagels then headed to our gate.
(oops sorry accidentally hit post before finishing this post)
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About 10 minutes before we were supposed to board we noticed that the time for our departure changed by like 15 minutes. I did not think much of it until they made an announcement that all the computers systemwide at Southwest went down and they could not tell us when we would actually leave and could not board because they could not get a accurate weight of the plane without the computer.
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I was beyond frustrated at this point as we have had many issues in the last several months with Southwest and delayed flights. Overall we were only delayed by an hour but it was still pretty annoying. This is also like the third time in two months that Southwest's computers went down . It actually happened the night before too and they canceled over 400 flights due to this and/or weather. The flight attendants more than made up for it though with their charm and witty jokes (one especially good one about Tom Brady which naturally an entire plane of Buffalo people loved).
Anyway, our flight was fairly fast which was good. I think we watched a bit of Netflix :)
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FONORAIL!
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Then, the usual picture...(don't worry we did not travel from freezing Buffalo in shorts we changed in the airport to help save some/aka make up some time).
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Next up: some Expo fun
 
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Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 February 23, 2019
We slept decently well actually. I was expecting to be up most of the night nervous about the run but I slept pretty soundly until about 1:30 am then off and on until eventually getting up at 3 am 😴
We got ready pretty quietly and quickly
My sister (again...she literally makes everything for us haha) made our shirts!
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The headbands my Mom bought for us at the expo the day before (I can not remember the sellers name sorry) and the skirts are from sparkle athletic (we also wore them for NYE).
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Due to road closures you have to be on the bus no later than 4 am so we headed down around 3:30 am.
We got over to Epcot around 3:50 am with TONS of time to kill. IMO this is the worst part about Run Disney events. I appreciate the early start (especially when its hot) but it is a LOT of waiting around - especially when you are nervous (which we were!).
We stopped for a photo with the flower wall made by Pandora
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Then we did a whole lot of standing around.
Here is a horrible picture of the DJ stage
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Another selfie..
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Someone kindly took our photo for us
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Next up: more standing around...
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I just heard about it yesterday. One of my friends has/had an Etsy shop and she said she was looking for a new place to sell as Etsy was a "risky venture" now, and I looked it up, and that's what I found. https://sydneyschuster.wordpress.co...otDPSNSPfchMx3oE6XjT5pIUPYOXBcD3jW4K0om2dUNe8
Sorry...didn't mean to derail the TR, but thought I would mention it, just in case your sister WAS considering an etsy shop.

I appreciate it! Thank you for letting me know!
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
Since we were bored we headed over towards the corrals around 4:30 am
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At least you can sit in the corrals to rest your legs until closer to the start !
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At some point I got up to go to the bathroom and my Mom had to leave our spot to find me because I missed the everyone stand up and move forward moment. It was annoying because we dropped back a bit in the corral (and it was totally my fault) but we did get a PP picture out of it :hilarious:
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Around 5:10 they started bringing people on the race start stage to entertain us. These photos are awful but they include Miss America and Mulan.
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It got a bit chaotic in our corral as something happened and we kept having to yell back for a medic. I am actually not sure what ever happened to that person because no one went out on a stretcher or anything.
They also played this really sweet video about the Children's Miracle Network which made my Mom and I cry ....so many emotions so early in the AM!
This is what the crowd looked like in front of us
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They set off wheelchairs around 5:28 am the the elite runners at 5:30 am. We thought we would be starting pretty close to 5:30 due to the lack of corrals but each corral had like 10 subdivisions just based on where you were standing :hilarious:
This is much different than the half marathons where the entire corral goes at once.
Race stage and starting area
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Next up: maybe some actual running
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
They set off fireworks for every start :)
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I think we personally ended up starting around 6:13 (that's at least what I wrote down) - so we had been up for over 3 hours by that point. I do not have any pictures from the beginning of the race because our strategy was to run as much as we could until the sun came up. It was already almost 80 degrees (and 97% humidity) before the sun was up so we knew we needed to take advantage and run while we could. The sun of course came up before it was predicted but we still made it to mile 3 before stopping at all which I was pretty proud of. We trained in really cold weather so I was pleased we did ok up to that point.
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We sent that photo to our family and we got some nice encouragement back :)
After the 5K mark (at which we were questioning why we did not do the 5K) we passed the "parade buses" aka the sweep buses. A Run Disney guide who was on the course with us said that was the only main sweep point. PHEW! That took a HUGE worry off our back as we were afraid of getting swept due to the heat. It definitely helped to have 2 corrals after us too - we could see thousands of people behind us!
Feeling less stressed we stopped for more and more photos along the way
Backstage!
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We did not meet any characters again this race - it feels hard to justify waiting so long in line when you really just want to be done :)
Soon enough we were in Epcot - it was incredible ! They were blasting Disney music and it felt amazing to be running around World Showcase!
It got foggy due to the humidity so ignore all the bad photos :)
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I had actually commented about how they must not have PP photographers on the course for the 10K and who do we run right into?
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Next up: more running
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
More Epcot photos
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The we made our way over towards the Boardwalk (via the International Gateway)
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The Boardwalk was so cool to run around too because there were a ton of people out and about and cheering us on. At this point, though, it was really difficult to run due to a. the heat and b. the amount of other runners crowding the walkway and walking. We did not mind walking here and there but at times it does get frustrating when you can't really get around people.
We finally found mile 5!
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Next up - more....running
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
The Boardwalk portion of the run was obviously one big loop so it was reassuring to see how many people were behind us!
As we headed back into Epcot I heard someone cheer for me and it was @HauntedMansionFLA ! So awesome!!
Since its not like we were going for a PR or anything we stopped for a PP picture :hilarious:
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We finally headed towards the finish line...we held hands which you can see in the background of this photo but our actual finish line photos are individual:)
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We did it!
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Overall it took us an hour and 40 minutes :joyfull: We trained at a lot faster of a pace but whatever we had an absolute blast and unlike our half marathons we stopped for a ton of photos which was nice. This was actually our first ever 10 K! We did it a bit backwards - we have run half marathons, 15Ks, and 5Ks :) We went back and forth all week about if we missed the half marathon or not. I feel like this was the first Run Disney event that we had time/felt comfortable stopping and had fun because we weren't as pressured to finish/there weren't as many miles. But, and this is pretty ridiculous, I felt like a slacker for only running 6 miles and every time we saw half marathon people with their medals I felt a bit bummed. I don't know we still can't decide :hilarious: I think its like my sister said: once you have done a distance like a half marathon (and we have done plenty outside of even Disney) you know you can do that distance and it's hard to let go of that.
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Woohoo! At this point though we were super sweaty and could not wait to shower so we grabbed our snacks, got on the bus and headed back to the WL
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Next up: a lot of sitting around...
 

DisneyJeff

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Following along. I'm a little late because I just got home from my trip on Sunday. I'm bummed that we didn't have a chance to meet up while we were down. Maybe next time.

Ohhhhh---- cool!!!!! I've seen them use regular boats for the Pirates Pals Cruise before too! On a side note have you guys ever done a private fireworks cruise?

We had done an Illuminations Fireworks cruise last year. I would definitely recommend it. I actually want to do a MK fireworks cruise next. They provide snacks and sodas (or pops for you western NYers), and have blankets on board. You can place an order for real food and beverages if you want. The boats leave from the Yacht Club and cruise down to DHS and back before heading to Epcot. There they tie all the cruise boats together for the show. That part isn't that great as the show isn't really that "private". The best part is that it's one price for the boat, so you can have as many as 16 (I think) people. When we did our cruise, it was just my wife and me and my aunt. Since we had more room, we had @blgauger and Dylan join us. Had a great time!!!
 

Swissmiss

Premium Member
Your take on the 10k is interesting; I feel that was about 5k but I really enjoy the 10k distance. Maybe that is because I usually run 10k races as a training for a half marathon. And while I did not enjoy how cold it was last year during the half in January, I am grateful that it wasn’t warm (as I too had been training in cold weather).
 

HauntedMansionFLA

Well-Known Member
Day 2 continued
The Boardwalk portion of the run was obviously one big loop so it was reassuring to see how many people were behind us!
As we headed back into Epcot I heard someone cheer for me and it was @HauntedMansionFLA ! So awesome!!
Since its not like we were going for a PR or anything we stopped for a PP picture :hilarious:
View attachment 354414
View attachment 354415
We finally headed towards the finish line...we held hands which you can see in the background of this photo but our actual finish line photos are individual:)
View attachment 354416
We did it!
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View attachment 354418
Overall it took us an hour and 40 minutes :joyfull: We trained at a lot faster of a pace but whatever we had an absolute blast and unlike our half marathons we stopped for a ton of photos which was nice. This was actually our first ever 10 K! We did it a bit backwards - we have run half marathons, 15Ks, and 5Ks :) We went back and forth all week about if we missed the half marathon or not. I feel like this was the first Run Disney event that we had time/felt comfortable stopping and had fun because we weren't as pressured to finish/there weren't as many miles. But, and this is pretty ridiculous, I felt like a slacker for only running 6 miles and every time we saw half marathon people with their medals I felt a bit bummed. I don't know we still can't decide :hilarious: I think its like my sister said: once you have done a distance like a half marathon (and we have done plenty outside of even Disney) you know you can do that distance and it's hard to let go of that.
View attachment 354420
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Woohoo! At this point though we were super sweaty and could not wait to shower so we grabbed our snacks, got on the bus and headed back to the WL
View attachment 354423

Next up: a lot of sitting around...
Congratulations on finishing the race!!! I’ll cheer you on your next race :)
 

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
I'm here! Congrats on the race. It looks like so much fun despite the heat and the massive crowds. I feel you on doing the half. I think I'll probably sign up for the half just so I can run in MK, even though I swore I was done with long distances :joyfull:

Looking forward to the rest!
 

BrerWayne

Well-Known Member
Day 2 February 23, 2019
We slept decently well actually. I was expecting to be up most of the night nervous about the run but I slept pretty soundly until about 1:30 am then off and on until eventually getting up at 3 am 😴
We got ready pretty quietly and quickly
My sister (again...she literally makes everything for us haha) made our shirts!
View attachment 354258
View attachment 354259
The headbands my Mom bought for us at the expo the day before (I can not remember the sellers name sorry) and the skirts are from sparkle athletic (we also wore them for NYE).
View attachment 354260
Due to road closures you have to be on the bus no later than 4 am so we headed down around 3:30 am.
We got over to Epcot around 3:50 am with TONS of time to kill. IMO this is the worst part about Run Disney events. I appreciate the early start (especially when its hot) but it is a LOT of waiting around - especially when you are nervous (which we were!).
We stopped for a photo with the flower wall made by Pandora
View attachment 354265
View attachment 354266
Then we did a whole lot of standing around.
Here is a horrible picture of the DJ stage
View attachment 354271
Another selfie..
View attachment 354272
Someone kindly took our photo for us
View attachment 354273
View attachment 354274

Next up: more standing around...
Totally agree about the standing around. One year I did the marathon and stayed at the Grand Flo. I was able to catch the Monorail to the race start and the man working the Monorail told me that it was 27 degrees. That is probably no big deal for you since you are from Buffalo but being from the south that was No Bueno. Standing in that parking lot waiting to walk over to the starting line was miserable.
 

LadyBelle

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
I'm trying to get my sister to do a RunDisney race so I can tag along. Of course, I told her that I would cheer for her from my bed... 😂
 

AuburnBelle919

Active Member
A little late but following along! My friend and I ran the half marathon that weekend and it was crazy humid and hot even for those of us who live in Florida. Love your pictures from the 10K-I wish I had signed up for that race because Mulan is my favorite princess, but I definitely would not have made it through the half if I had. The 10K distance is my favorite to run-long enough to feel accomplished but not exhausted.
 

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