Trip Report A Glass SNEAKER Challenge Report... Completed!

I have quietly clung to the shadows of this forum for a while, but after reading through several trip reports I am motivated to join in on the fun! I will be heading down for what in my opinion is the best, most exciting way to start the new year…Marathon Weekend! I have made upwards of 20 or so trips to Disney in my life for various reasons and there is just something about this weekend that keeps me wanting to come back every year! The energy and excitement of all the runners and the feeling of accomplishment once the weekend is over just can't be matched! Even with all the early mornings and exhaustion, it is something I wish I could re-live every time it's over. Here's some basic info on the trip:

When: Jan 6-11 (Heading to Disney's Vero Beach Resort Jan 4-6).

Where: Upon our arrival to Disney property we will be staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Who: Me (Maren). I am an avid RunDisney enthusiast and participant. I ran my first ever 1/2 Marathon at Disney in 2010 and I was hooked(Side note- I was a swimmer throughout high school and college and only began running as a way to stay in shape once my swim career ended). I have been back for another marathon weekend in 2011, Princess weekend in 2014, and in 2015 completed the Dopey Challenge

and earned my Coast 2 Coast medal by completing the Dumbo Double Dare plus the 5K at Disneyland

and adding to the fun I was somehow able to place in my age group in the 1/2!

Also joining me will be my boyfriend, his parents, and a group of our friends and a few of their family.

Why: I will be running everything but the full marathon (After last year's awful winter up here in Buffalo I was apprehensive about having to fit in long runs for Dopey again) and I am aiming to try and place/PR in the 1/2. My boyfriend will be running his first ever 5K and our friends will be joining in on a mixture of races with us too!

Plans: I will be heading down to spend some time to relax on the beach a few days before arriving on property (had the week off from work…so why not?!). My boyfriend will already be in Vero Beach for work so I will be picking him up early Wednesday morning (we have things to do, race packets to pick up and RunDisney merchandise to buy!) and driving back to the airport to catch the magical express. His parents fly in that morning as well. Because my boyfriend's parents are DVC members and make multiple (and i mean MULTIPLE) trips per year, they have taken care of making dinner reservations every night including Be Our Guest, Boma, Liberty Tree, Teppan Edo and Via Napoli as well as Kona Cafe for breakfast after the 1/2. Besides our fast passes and my plans for spending a significant amount of time at the Expo, we will see where the weekend takes us!

So there's our rundown…hopefully my first ever trip report will be successful! Stay tuned for a weekend of running, eating, a few first timer participants and more!

 

[LisaBelle]

So glad you decided to write a TR! I am a non- runner who has (kind of) taken up running so that I can celebrate my 50th birthday by running in the 2016 Princess 5k. It will be my first 5k ever. Looking forward to reading more about your plans. Good Luck and I will be watching for your full report after you return. Your medal collection is quite impressive!

 

[Rundisneyprincess27]

So I originally was going to write a trip report on my January weekend, but the whole thing felt so rushed and went so fast that I decided it would be better to write a more comprehensive trip report about my Princess 1/2 weekend instead!

Day 1: Thursday, February 18th

After teaching a spin class the night before , my travel partner (my mom) and I woke up to catch our 8am flight out of snowy & cold Buffalo to Orlando. Now Buffalo usually gets a bad rep during winter time, but leading up to this week the winter had be relatively mild and calm…until we left. In the week before the trip we got the most snow of the winter in addition to the coldest days of the winter! (a high of -1 on one of the days). So we were very glad to be getting away for a few days!

Our flight was pretty uneventful, we landed and went to get our luggage and began the hike to the magical express. We knew the weekend would be pretty busy with the race and it being a break for a lot of schools, but we both agreed we had never seen the lines as long as they were! (Even during Easter week every year and marathon weekends!). So after waiting about 30-45 mins to finally board our bus, we were out in the sunshine heading to our home away from home!

We arrived at our resort (AoA), walked right up to the desk and even though it was only about noon our room was ready!(score!). So with all of our bags and luggage we walked to our room which was in the farthest possible corner of the resort in the Little Mermaid section(was NOT looking forward to this walk every morning before the races). Because we got in so early, we decided to head to the expo to pick up all my stuff and check out the merchandise that was left after all the early-birds had been there that morning. So we showered, had a little lunch, and trekked back to where the busses were to get the bus to the expo. Now back in January I had a MAJOR issue with a rundisney bus (more on that later) but the whole weekend the rundisney busses from AoA were great. Never waited long, there was always a bus waiting to replace a full one, etc.

Coming up: Princess 1/2 marathon expo, race recaps, and jealousy over dance party leaders in the parks

 

[Rundisneyprincess27]

We got to the expo and joined in the crowds walking towards the Wide World of Sports. RunDisney expos (in my opinion) are such happy places to be…everyone is just so excited and theres so much going on. I love it! So as we were heading to pick up my merchandise first we passed everyone carrying pink RunDisney cups. Being a sucker for anything RunDisney, I really wanted one! But it looked like you could only get one if you bought a beer and I didn't really want one at that point (I like to use my calories on food at disney haha) I made a deal with my mom that I would get her a beer if I could have the cup! (we later found out you could buy JUST the cup…oh well!).

We headed into our first stop and picked up everything I had preordered: A Princess weekend jacket, the necklace you could preorder, and my FIRST dooney and bourke Disney purse! I was obsessed!

We then headed downstairs and picked up my Glass Slipper Challenge bib and 5k bib, then into the other building to pick up my shirts. Before going in I had to clearly get my picture with these gentleman…Pretty sure it's a right of passage if you are here this weekend!

After picking up my shirts we did a few laps of the expo, I picked up a "Princess up!" headband, and on the way out i bought my mom her beer haha. Although I love seeing all the cool things at the expo, the real reason we took multiple laps around was because we saw someone with a shirt on that said "My favorite Disney Princess is my daughter". We decided we just HAD to get it for my dad, and there MUST be one for boyfriends too…but we just could not find them! (don't worry, when we got home I found them on etsy right away). Since it was so nice out we headed outside and just sat at the tables for a while. I never realized how big the Wide World of Sports complex actually is…even after running around it last year during Dopey. I wish there was more there year round! So after we soaked up the sun that we definitely were NOT getting in Buffalo, we decided we were pretty hungry. We got all my race essentials and purchases packed up, got a few more pics, and headed to the busses.

We walked right up to a bus to Saratoga Springs, got off there, and took the short walk over to Disney Springs. We got dinner at Earl of Sandwich, took a look in a few stores around there, and got as far as the World of Disney store where we took note of the things we wanted to buy before we left and also did a comprehensive lap of the store looking for that shirt again!(we were extremely determined!). After that it was starting to get dark out and I had the 5k the next day, so we walked to the bus stop and went back to the hotel.

Once we got back we had to figure out a very crucial party of our morning…coffee! We were shocked to find there was NO coffee maker in our room, so every night we had to fill our mug with coffee from the food court and put it in the fridge so we would have some for the morning! Can't get up at 3am every day without some coffee! After that i got my expo stuff and bibs organized, made sure my headphones, iPod, and Garmin were charged and got right into bed!

 

[Doc Disney]

Hey I'm from Buffalo too!!! Loving the report so far!!!

 

[myhappyplace]

Love that purse!!!

 

[Rundisneyprincess27]

@Doc Disney so you know how cold it was here that week of Feb!

@myhappyplace I am obsessed with that purse!

 

[Rundisneyprincess27]

Day 2: Friday, February 19th

At the end of my last post I had written that I made sure all my things for the first race were charged and ready to go…Well good thing I am OCD about laying everything out the night before because as it happens, I had set my alarm for 4:00 PM instead of AM! I woke up at about 4:15 thinking "hm… something feels off…", then looked at my phone for the time. Yikes! Thankfully the 5k started at 6:00 and not 5:30 like the other races or it would have been a scene straight out of Home Alone! So I hurried to put my clothes and bib on, my hair up (I always run with a Disney bow from Hot Topic…if you've never checked them out you should!) and my mom and I grabbed an english muffin and our coffee to eat on the way to the bus.

There were no issues getting on the bus or getting to the start and soon we were standing near the dj just looking around and checking out everyone's costumes! Obviously lots of versions of princess costumes, but I think our favorite (which we ended up seeing every morning that weekend) was a guy dressed up as the Beast who had a furry hood/hat that went over his head. We also checked out which princes/princesses were out for pictures. The lines before the race were extremely long but since I was in Corral A I had a game plan of catching them all once I was done!

They finally started calling for everyone to head to their corrals so I took off all my sweatshirt and sweatpants layers and left my stuff with my mom and headed over! I got into my corral and after about 10 minutes they finally let us start walking to the start. As we were going I got behind this little girl and her dad, and I don't think she was enjoying being up so early…she was sobbing the whole way to the start lol.

We weren't waiting long before Ariel and Eric came out to "endorse" their race, the national anthem was sung, and we were off!

If I do a challenge I usually use the first few races to just stop and take as many pictures as I can while still going a semi-decent pace, and this race was no exception. Here are a few pictures from along the course…I was happy to see different characters out than were out in January too!

I finished the race, grabbed my rubber "medal"(LOVE it), stocked up on water and powerade and met up with my mom. Since the 5k route takes you directly by where the busses pick up you, we had some time to kill before we could go back to the hotel because some of the later corrals still had to go by. So we maximized our time by getting as many pictures with characters as we could! I have NEVER seen Sebastian out so I was pretty excited to get this one!

Since there weren't a lot of people done yet, I feel like the princesses really interacted for a while with each person which was fun! It's crazy what they come up with to talk about! I think Ariel was telling me how well we matched haha.

After these pics and another one with the Princess 1/2 Marathon weekend backdrop, the busses were finally starting to pull up so we rushed over because it was starting to get chilly! We managed to get on the first bus back to AoA and took a lap through the food court (for more coffee) on our way back to the room. It was too late to take a nap but we managed to lay down for a while (and eat a second breakfast) before getting started with the day.

Coming up later: Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and that dance party!

 

[Disney-leaf]

A really great start to your TR! Love the Sebastian photo!!

 

[Doc Disney]

Yes...it was freezing!! I actually thought about that because we did the PHM last year and it was just as cold that week in Feb too! Thats so cool that Sebastian was out!!!

 

[LisaBelle]

My sister and I ran the 5K, too. It was our first runDisney race and we loved every minute of it. Enjoying your report.

 

[farrellbarrel]

Loving this report, I dream of running this race!

 

[Rundisneyprincess27]

Friday, February 19th cont'd….

After we got back to the room and opted not to nap, we showered and got ready and began another 5k back to the bus stop(just kidding, but really it was far). We waited what felt like forever for an Animal Kingdom bus to show up, but we were finally on our way and shortly after were heading into the park.

Since we were only doing 2 park days, we decided to do fast passes for Hollywood Studios later this day so we didn't have any for Animal Kingdom. Our first stop was Starbucks (we like our coffee), and as we sat and drank we checked all the wait times in the park on the MDE app. The wait for the safari was already over an hour! So we unfortunately said never mind to that, and decided to head towards Everest since magically, that wait time was shorter. On our way over we decided to visit the tigers and watched the monkeys play for a few.

We continued on our way to Everest and got into the stand by line. This was actually one of our only times waiting in the stand by line..we've always had fast passes! The reason I bring this up is because I never really noticed all the bells hanging all through the line..until now. because the family of boys in front of us insisted on ringing every single one we passed by…loudly. Did their mother say anything to them? of COURSE not! Everyone around us was getting pretty irritated haha. Thankfully, we only waited about 30 minutes until we got on the ride and it was great, as always! After we got off it was about noon, and we decided we were pretty much done in this park and we should head over to Studios.

We walked back through the park and I pulled out my non-iphone camera to snap a few pics…

We got to the bus stop and all of a sudden we were both really hungry! (Being up since 4 will do that to ya). We packed a bunch of the snacks that I had gotten in the RunDisney "snack pack" and so we ate those while I looked on the MDE app as to where we could eat when we got to Studios (we are both vegetarians so we usually have to check menus ahead of time…we are mostly a quick service family haha ).

Once we got there and got through bag check we walked back through Pixar Place and to the Studio Catering Co. We also passed the High Octane Refreshments bar and I kind of wished I was getting a drink but ugh, I had more races to run! (My boyfriend and I always hit this bar up whenever we go!). My mom and I both got veggie wraps and were pretty pleased with how good they were. We still had a while until our first fast pass so we decided to get in line for Great Movie Ride. If you know Pixar Place, you know theres a Joffrey's coffee cart right at the end…well I had to stop for one more iced coffee for the day before waiting in line lol.

We both really liked the new cycle of film clips in the "theater" part of the line for Great Movie Ride. I even think it was a different group of movies than I had seen in January. But, with the new narration on the ride I feel like there is barely anything for the ride attendants to do now haha. But we exited and finally went over to our first fast pass of the day….Rock n Rollercoaster! I didn't get to go on this in January so I was pretty excited as it's probably my favorite ride at Studios!

We walked back to the bakery at the end of Hollywood Blvd and got a quick treat to sit and eat while we waited for our next fast pass time to roll around…

We found a non-crowded section of tables and sat and relaxed and ate. Soon it was time for our next ride…ToT!

After we rode we tried to decide what we wanted to do- our next fast pass wasn't for a while and it was for Star Tours…we are not huge Star Wars fans but we do enjoy the ride. We decided we'd walk over and do the Muppets (one of my faves) and see where we were at time-wise once that was over. On our way we happened upon the dance party that takes place where the hat used to be. Now, backstory, my mom owns a dance studio and I help run it with her. Growing up I danced my whole life, and our studio performs at Disney every other year too. I also swam at the same time so I wasn't THAT serious, but my dream job was ALWAYS to dance at Disney World… more specifically in the High School Musical show or the Tarzan show(who remembers these?!). I just never took the plunge to actually audition. So imagine my jealousy when we come upon this dance party and people are actually getting paid to stand up on the stage and teach the crowd choreography to popular songs…UGH!! Talk about living the dream haha.

We watched for probably longer than we needed to, and kept going towards the Muppets. No matter how many times I watch this show and how corny the jokes are, I always chuckle. Statler and Waldorf are prob my faves…my dad has that same sense of humor. We STILL had time to kill when we got out, so we just decided to wait stand-by for Star Tours. It didn't last long though, we walked up to the line, decided we didn't actually want to wait, and walked back out haha. We did end up catching the end of the Jedi show though…

We started walking towards the exit, but not before doing some shopping up and down the street and getting a few pics with the Chinese Theater in the background instead of the hat

We returned to the hotel ready for dinner, so we booked it into the food court as soon as we got off the bus…but not before a quick walk through of the gift shop! We came upon these wines…has anyone ever tried them?! I liked their names!

We finally went in and got our food, both deciding to get an individual veggie pizza that came with a caesar salad…good deal! We also totally bypassed the longgggg line of everyone waiting for pasta haha. We stocked up on our coffee for the following morning and finally walked back to our room. I got all my clothes and iPod and bib ready for the 10k the following morning, made sure my alarm was set for PM and not AM, and fell right asleep!

Coming up: Enchanted 10k, Disney Springs, and Princess 1/2 Marathon!

 

[prfctlyximprct]

Loving your trip report! That Disney bag, man you guys on these forums are reallyyyyyyyyyyyy making me want to buy one my next trip! So cool you got to meet Sebastian! That is one awesome picture, I am sooo jealous! Definitely following along

 

[Rundisneyprincess27]

Day 3 - Saturday, February 20

No alarm malfunctions this morning for the 10k! We woke up at about 3:30 and I started getting all my race stuff together. After my clothes were on, iPod packed, breakfast eaten and coffee grabbed out of the fridge, we began our daily trek to the bus stop. Once we got there we were able to walk right onto the bus and were on our way. It was pretty nice to not to have to stand in a big long line and wait! We got to Epcot with about an hour to go still before the race started, so we took our time walking through bag check and into the staging area. Once we got in we found a spot way way back by the medical/massage tent where it was somewhat quiet and just hung out! (hang out=people watching haha). We took in the inventory of everyone's costumes, I stretched a little bit, and we decided we would walk closer to the DJ before I went to my corral. Again, we checked to see which princesses/princes were out for photos so I could get a game plan for who I wanted a picture with once I was done with the race! They finally announced that it was time to head to the corrals so I opted to give my bag to my mom instead of checking it and started walking to Corral A.

My game plan for the race was the same as the 5k, stop for as many pictures as I could while still going a somewhat controlled pace. The 10k is a weird distance to me, maybe because I relate it to what my event used to be when I was a swimmer…the 200 free (ugh!). It's a little bit too long to be a full on sprint, but also too short to be considered "distance". Can anyone else relate?! But because I wasn't actually racing this race I wasn't too concerned!

They did the National Anthem, the Fairy Godmother came out, and soon we were on our way!

In a complete 180 from the 10k in January, the weather was perfect! (meaning that it was not pouring rain). We took a left after the start and started running out towards the Epcot parking booths. We passed under the overpass which we would be running over in the 1/2 the next day and the Frozen girls were out and it was snowing! Didn't I just leave the snow in Buffalo!? But really I love passing underneath them I think it's so cool! We continued on and after another minute or so I could see to the right the leaders of the race heading back the other way…they looked like they were just gliding along, not even running!

We came up to the turnaround and I stopped for my first picture… I have never seen this set up before so I was pretty excited!

Moving along I came up to the Tinkerbell/pixie hollow photo set up but the line was pretty long already so I decided to skip that one. We kept running along the outskirts of Epcot and another photo set-up with almost no line!

Love her boots. After this we were almost at the 5k mark and then into Epcot we went. Running around World Showcase in the dark with all the lights on/the music going…there is just something about it! Pretty magical! I knew a lot of characters would probably be out in their respective countries so I kept to the left of the course preparing to stop.

We exited Epcot, ran around the Boardwalk/Yacht & Beach Club loop, and back into the park. At this point I felt pretty good so I decided to just keep running at the pace I was going. I forgot to wear my Garmin to help with my pacing( I did have to race the next day too) so I was just going based on feel. We did the loop by Soarin and I stopped by this cool coral reef person…

After that it was just a short distance to the finish! Here are some pics captured by Marathon Foto…

Even with all the picture stops I kind of had an "oops!" moment with my time. I wanted to actually race the 1/2 the next day so I was a little bit nervous I hadn't taken it easy enough but it was too late to do anything about it!

Once I went through all the beverages and food and met back up with my mom, we ran over to get some princess pics while it was still relatively light on the crowds.

Since the course today didn't run by the bus stops, we were able to get right on our bus back to the hotel after all the pictures! Once we got back we did a loop through the food court to grab some more coffee and stock up on some silverware to take back to the room. I was pretty excited to get back to the room because we weren't going into the parks today so I could rest for the 1/2 marathon the next day. That meant I could take a NAP!! I took a quick shower to warm up, ate a second breakfast (haha), uploaded some of my pictures to my phone and hopped into my bed!

Coming up: Disney Springs, hotel hangin' out, and the Princess 1/2 Marathon!

 

[Rundisneyprincess27]

Day 3- Saturday February 20th cont'd :

After our little nap, we started to get ready to head to Disney Springs. It was super nice to not have to rush to be anywhere at a certain time, especially because I was pretty exhausted and felt like a zombie! We walked down to the bus stop and waited about 15-20 min for a bus, but it was so nice outside we really didn't mind waiting in the sun. It was also early enough that the line of people going to Disney Springs was relatively short too.

Once we got there we went right into the Christmas Shop. I have my own "Disney tree" at Christmas with only Disney ornaments so this is always a very important stop! I had seen an ornament in January that I wanted to get customized for the race weekend but when I went in they weren't there anymore! So we continued on through Mickey's Pantry, Tren-D, checked out the Dooney and Bourkes in the Marketplace, and through Arribas brothers and into Basin. After walking around the entire store and smelling everything, we each picked up some bath bombs and some soap to take home with us. Continuing on we did a lap of the World of Disney store, not really finding anything that jumped out at us (i hate when that happens!). We decided to go grab some coffee and sit for a while since i DID still have to run a half marathon the next day! The Starbucks had these cute princess weekend themed drinks but I stuck with plain coffee so my stomach would cooperate the next day!

We sat by Ghirardelli and just hung out watching everyone around us enjoy their huge ice cream sundaes (jealous!). Once we finished our coffees we kept walking towards the West Side (is it still called this?!). My mom wanted to sit and relax at Raglan Road but it was SUPER packed there, so unfortunately we had to give up on those plans. We stopped by the Boathouse and watched one of the amphicars go into the water…so cool!

At this point it was starting to get EXTREMELY crowded, and the construction made for some tight walking spaces. We managed to get all the way to Fit2Run/House of Blues area. I picked up some fuel for the race the next day and at that point my patience was wearing very thin thanks to the crowds/tiredness from getting up early! We were both about ready to head back to the hotel so the best we could maneuver ourselves we walked all the way back to the Disney Springs bus stop. We took a quick time out in the Art of Disney store and admired all the paintings we wished we could bring back home with us…seriously how amazing would it be to have all that artwork in your home!? We FINALLY made it to the bus stop, and thankfully a bus pulled up not too long after. We were both ready to just sit by the pool bar and relax for the rest of the day!

Once we got back we did just that! I ran into the food court and got myself a huge salad since I hadn't eaten lunch yet, and my mom just set up shop at a table in the sun by the bar at the pool. We both got a beer or 2 (Mich ultra for me… believe it or not its becoming a pre-race tradition for me!). At around 4:30-ish we decided we really wanted to go check out the Cars section of the hotel…it was so cute!! I took a bunch of pictures using my actual camera…we really loved this section!

We started walking back to our room on the complete other side of the hotel (naturally!). It was still a little too early to get dinner so we relaxed in the room and watched some Pawn Stars….my mom had never seen this show and now I catch her watching it back at home haha. Finally 6 o clock rolled around and it was time to go get dinner!

We walked back to the food court and once again the pasta line was ginormous!!! Good thing we were getting pizza again! Our large veggie pizza took less time to get than it probably took people to get through the pasta line! Once we were done we killed some time and strolled through the hotel gift shop again. At that point something i have NEVER seen happened….all of the custodial staff were taking a "dance break" in the lobby! I mean full-on, choreographed dance break to your typical wedding reception songs (cupid shuffle, cotton eyed joe, etc). It was hilarious! I couldn't stop watching!

Once we got back to our room it was time to make sure everything was charging for the next morning and to set all my race clothes out! Once I was organized it was early bed time….

Coming next: Princess 1/2 Marathon!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Disney and running? This is my kind of trip report!! Loving it so far!

I know what you mean about the 10k.. I'm a distance running and really don't like shorter races because I'm slow.. LOL. I've always wanted to run a Disney race but because I'm already a slow runner, I'm afraid the stops would kill my time! I still hope I can do one one day though! I'm running my 10th half this September. My last full marathon was in 2013!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[LisaBelle]

Loved seeing all the characters you got to meet! Looking forward to reading about the 1/2.

 

[Maggie Mae]

Can't wait to read more!

 

[LAKid53]

Great trip report and photos!

The commemorative ESPN beer cups can be bought without the adult beverage included. The price is $4. I agree, I didn't want to drink a beer the day before I ran...that's for the celebration AFTER I complete the run, lol. I am hoping to add to my collection from the Princess Half Marathon Weekend and the Inaugural SW Half Marathon with a cup from this year's Wine & Dine.

Yeah, I understand about the expo and all the merchandise. Was so disappointed that by Friday morning for the SW Half, most of the good stuff was gone. All I wanted was a magnet commemorating my race. But I can pay upwards of $30 for a $10-15 magnet on eBay. *shakes head*

I've decided most of my visits to WDW (and eventually DLR) will now be to run in just about every runDisney event I can. Really want the Kessel Run medal, but that may have to wait until 2018, once I have a few more halfs under my belt, since I just started running about 8 months ago after taking years off.

For those of you who are seasoned half & full marathon runners, I have a question about hydration during training. I live in Florida so most of my training for the Wine & Dine half will be done in the wonderful warm, damp (make that humid) Florida weather from July to November (using Galloway's training schedule). I thought about purchasing and wearing a small camelback during the longer training runs on the weekend. Has anyone worn one while running distances greater than say 8 miles? During the races, there are hydration tables, but sadly, no one in my neighborhood is willing to hand me water every 2-3 miles, starting at 8:00 AM on a Saturday morning. And I don't want to run on the TM at my gym - BORING! I have a Flipbelt (love, love, love it) that will have my phone and ID, but don't want to add anymore weight to my waist with small bottles. And I drink a lot of water since I sweat a lot (my trainer at the gym used to joke about all the drops of me on the gym floor). So your thoughts and suggestions?

Thanks! And I hope to see some of you in November. Just look for the old lady huffing and puffing, thinking "why did I do this?!"