Trip Report A Trip Fit for a Princess-2014 Princess Half Marathon Weekend Trip Report

PartOfYourWorld · Mar 16, 2014

Getting ready to go down the hill by the Beach Club..we got some good speed going down!! (with brakes of course)

Course we had to stick to.

Sea Breeze Point!

Just finished the big hill by the Swan and Dolphin

In 30 minutes we went around 3 times. The guy in charge was impressed because usually people only go two, he said it looked like we were having a blast going around fast! My legs were killing me after this too…probably not a good idea since I was running a Half Marathon in the morning.

Looks like a storm was a brewin over the Yacht and Beach.

We were getting hungry for a little snack so I suggested we walk across the way for some ice cream at Beaches n Cream! We made it just before the downpour too!

Strawberry and Vanilla shakes for us! They were delicious!

We headed back to the Boardwalk because it was time for the Team Studios Central meet up!

We had a lovely time chatting, meeting a few new faces, and catching up. I love these guys! Without them I wouldn’t be where I am today as a runner and person.

After our meet up we stayed a little for the Mickey Miles Podcast meetup but unfortunately, had to sneak out early to ensure we made it back to the Poly in time for our reservation at Kona!

Hello Hollywood Studios!

My Tower was teasing me….I’ll be back in May don’t you worry!

We got back with plenty of time to spare so we took the long way back to our room.

PartOfYourWorld · Mar 16, 2014

This little guy is cute

Mike always loves walking into my pictures

When we got back to our room we had some lovely swans waiting for us!!! I almost felt like I was on a Disney Cruise when you get all the towel animals!

Cute bow in the bathroom too!

We freshened up a bit and headed back out for our reservations!

I love this carpet

We were a little early since it wasn’t even open yet, but we were excited!

We were seated not too long after they opened and we’re ready to eat!

Mike loved these fans!

I love the detail in here

PartOfYourWorld · Mar 16, 2014

We were seated next to the opening of the restaurant but we didn’t mind! We loved people watching!

We started off with some pot stickers. These were really good!

And we both had the Pan Asian Noodles with Chicken. These are just THE BEST! It was Mike’s first time here and he absolutely loved it!

We sat for a little bit and just soaked up our surroundings before heading back to our room to rest up, especially me!

When we got back to our room we sat out on the balcony for about an hour and just listened to the sounds of the Luau and the resort.

We headed to bed early tonight, I think 9 o clock? I was out right away because I hadn’t taken a nap and was tired! I needed to be rested for the Princess Half in the morning!!!!

The alarm would go off earlier on Sunday morning! Stay tuned!

Betsyboo · Mar 17, 2014

PartOfYourWorld said:
Yay! So glad you've joined! Have you started posting yours yet? I have a tendency to not read trip reports when I come back from a trip until I write mine, or else I'll spend all my time reading instead of writing! haha. The rooms are definitely big at the Poly! I loved it!

I have! I'm having a hard time finishing but only because I'm excited to start planning for November. Love reading your report.
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/an-anniversary-a-birthday-and-no-kid.880763/

Ariel484 · Mar 17, 2014

Love the report so far, Jess!

Great pictures of the Poly! But what the heck is going on with Captain Cooks?! So disappointing!

I'm sorry they were out of the merch you wanted at the expo. I don't understand what their issue is with stocking that stuff! I mean, they know how many people signed up for the races, you'd think they'd have a better idea...and they have finally started putting some stuff online afterward but only a t-shirt or two. Why not all the other stuff?! People will buy it!

Great recap of the 10K! It looked like so much fun, and what a great course! Can't wait to hear about the half.

dancingtodisney · Mar 18, 2014

Well done on the 10km! I doubt I could've resisted the character stops though! Shame about Ariel, hopefully you'll be re-united later in the TR!

FlaggNL · Mar 18, 2014

again a great TR! Well done on the 10K

Allym146 · Mar 18, 2014

Love your trip reports! I admire anyone who can run haha

and one right after another!?! Impressive!

SarahBella82 · Mar 18, 2014

As always, I'm enjoying your TR.

PartOfYourWorld · Mar 18, 2014

Betsyboo said:
I have! I'm having a hard time finishing but only because I'm excited to start planning for November. Love reading your report.
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/an-anniversary-a-birthday-and-no-kid.880763/

Awesome! I will have to check it out!!!!
Always exciting to start planning another trip! I know how you feel, I'm excited for our May one coming up! Haven't even done online check in yet!
And thank you for tuning in!

Ariel484 said:
Love the report so far, Jess!

Great pictures of the Poly! But what the heck is going on with Captain Cooks?! So disappointing!

I'm sorry they were out of the merch you wanted at the expo. I don't understand what their issue is with stocking that stuff! I mean, they know how many people signed up for the races, you'd think they'd have a better idea...and they have finally started putting some stuff online afterward but only a t-shirt or two. Why not all the other stuff?! People will buy it!

Great recap of the 10K! It looked like so much fun, and what a great course! Can't wait to hear about the half.

Thanks Shannon!!

I think we just honestly picked the wrong things there, I'm sure everything else that we didn't pick was good!
But I had heard really good things about it being one of the best quick service hotel places too..maybe too high expectations??

I don't understand either. And it was only day 2! You would think after years and in recent years selling out, they would learn to have more merch! it's just crazy! At least the tech shirts they gave were pretty good! So it sort of made up for it.

Thanks! It was a lot of fun!

Half coming up later this week!

dancingtodisney said:
Well done on the 10km! I doubt I could've resisted the character stops though! Shame about Ariel, hopefully you'll be re-united later in the TR!

Thank you!!!! And don't you worry we will be re-united!

FlaggNL said:
again a great TR! Well done on the 10K

Thanks for tuning in! and thank you!!! Also thanks for reading all my older ones as well! I saw all the notifications I had from you liking the posts! I appreciate it!

Allym146 said:
Love your trip reports! I admire anyone who can run haha and one right after another!?! Impressive!

Thank you so much!!! If you set your mind to it you can totally do it!

akayw0718 said:
Love the report.

Also how you you ran a 10k in the morning and biked a few miles in the afternoon, like it was no big. You go girl!

Thank you so much! haha I have no idea how I pedaled on the surrey bike. Luckily there was two of us pedaling

SarahBella82 said:
As always, I'm enjoying your TR.

Thank you for tuning in!!!

lbrad · Mar 19, 2014

Just coming on board ... GREAT TR so far!!!
Congrats on the 10K :happy:

Can't wait to read more on the Princess Half.
Your pictures of the Poly are AWESOME ... keep em coming

FlaggNL · Mar 19, 2014

PartOfYourWorld said:
Thanks for tuning in! and thank you!!! Also thanks for reading all my older ones as well! I saw all the notifications I had from you liking the posts! I appreciate it!

You're welcome! We will be in WDW in October, so it is great to level up the pre feelings by reading all the TR's and watching the pics

PartOfYourWorld · Mar 21, 2014

lbrad said:
Just coming on board ... GREAT TR so far!!!
Congrats on the 10K
Can't wait to read more on the Princess Half.
Your pictures of the Poly are AWESOME ... keep em coming

Thanks for joining! Princess Half coming right up!!!

And thank you!!!

FlaggNL said:
You're welcome! We will be in WDW in October, so it is great to level up the pre feelings by reading all the TR's and watching the pics

October is going to be right around the corner

I love reading TRs to get the excitement going for Disney! It's always fun to read other's perspective on the parks!

PartOfYourWorld · Mar 22, 2014

Sunday Feb. 23rd

It was Princess Half morning!!!!!!! I was up right at 230 am! Said my goodbye to Mike (I would see him around mile 7.5 at the Poly) and was at the monorail about 10 minutes to 3. I was a little early, and unfortunately the monorails would be a little late. It wasn’t bad it came around 5 minutes after three and arrived at EPCOT bright and early! I met up with my friend Samantha again until she went into race retreat.

I waited for @Howe to arrive and then we waited until they opened up the corrals for us. We wanted to make sure we were in the front of our group!

A long wait we had in front of us.

Finally, it was time for the first corral to start. While we were walking towards the front I noticed someone in our corral that was dressed as Kristoff from Frozen!!! I think he caught me!

Here we are!!!

So excited to start my first half marathon!

With an awesome fireworks show we were off! I said bye to Christina and Courtney. We started at about 6:05 30 minutes after the first corral…so that means I had a 10 minute first mile??? Apparently there was nothing exciting that happened here, but I knew I wanted to hoof it because there were some fellas I really wanted to meet!

As we were running Mile 2 the lead runner passed on the other side, it was amazing to see her go. (Side note: the winner of the Princess Half, Kim Smith, just ran the half marathon I ran last weekend at home and she was first woman finisher thought that was pretty cool!) Such an inspiration. Everyone was cheering the runners on the opposite side on! It was great I loved seeing that!

I missed the Mile 2 marker, and passed up on Jack Sparrow and Barbossa

They had this cool banner flying

Before I knew it I was approaching the Magic Kingdom entrance…but there was one thing I had to do first which was the 1 thing I absolutely had to do for this race…..WAIT IN THIS LINE!

Luckily I had some nice people to pass the time with, and I was texting Mike because he was up and waiting for me to tell him when I would be near the Poly….I still had a while to go!

Heroes ahead!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen drumroll please….HEROES!!!!!!

Seriously, BEST MOMENT OF THE RACE (well besides crossing the finish line). I got to take a picture with 3 of my top 4 princes (John Smith was not there) and Herc!!!!!!! I was so excited because I had never met him in the parks! And some of you might recognize my friend Herc….And the Flynn Rider was my favorite Flynn Rider whom I’ve met at the Halloween and Christmas parties! I know Eric pulled me towards him since I was dressed as Ariel and called me his princess. I know I remember asking them if I could have all four of them….unfortunately I don’t remember what their response was. But when leaving Eric did say goodbye from my 4 heroes…so I guess that was a YES. Sorry, major girly moment having my picture with all four of them. ::::SWOON::: :inlove:

Coming off that high I was so happy going into the Kingdom!

Boy that 5K took me about an hour! But it was well worth it!

Approaching the speedway!

Thought about my dad, the big NASCAR fan (whom influences my love for it as well!) and had to stop for this picture with some “race car drivers”

Some villains were meeting, but I felt like I still needed to make up some time so I did a drive by shot: The Queen of Hearts, Cruella, and the Evil Queen.

Running through the TTC was surreal, there was people everywhere cheering all of us on! Such an inspiration! Some guy even had a sign that said something along the lines of you may think you don’t look good, but you’re a** sure looks good while your running away. Kind of creepy but gave me the laugh I needed to run through these crowds of runners

party like it's 99 · Mar 22, 2014

PartOfYourWorld said:
Love reading the chocolate containers!

Can’t get enough of this

Love the tiki torches being lit in the evenings

Pretty soon this pool will be revamped too…

I loved the location of our building!

It was a little bit early to wait for the fireworks so we took a leisurely stroll over to the Grand Floridian to check out the new villas and I met an instagram friend along the way! So many people were here for the weekend!

Poly from the walkway to the Grand

I wanted to go in so bad! But it was locked

oh no! do you know how they're revamping the volcano pool?!

PartOfYourWorld · Mar 22, 2014

Getting ready to head under the water

Coming out from under the water!

Running by a foggy Contemporary!

Mile 5 and we were almost in the Kingdom!

SPACE MOUNTAIN!

I was starting to get very emotional as I headed into the Magic Kingdom!

Where these lovely ladies were waiting for me!!!!! Complete with a sign that I didn’t even notice at this point because I was so excited to see some familiar faces!!! Thanks @HollyBelle, @plaz10 & @Ariel484 for cheering me on!!! BEST SELFIE EVER BTW

Running up Main Street with a foggy Cinderella Castle!

I couldn’t stop taking pictures of Cinderella’s Castle!

Turned right and into Tomorrowland!

The White Rabbit was meeting near the Mad Tea Party!

Mine Train is almost done! I can’t wait to ride it hopefully in May!

Royal Mickey & Minnie were meeting behind the castle but the line was suuuuuuper long. I couldn’t afford to wait 30 minutes! I guess I just have to do it again and skip the heroes and wait for Mickey and Minnie!

Yes I took a picture of the bathrooms I stopped at to remember lol. No line to wait in here!

Failed selfie with the back of the castle

PartOfYourWorld · Mar 22, 2014

Trumpets were playing at the back of the castle!

Almost out!

Ya, this is Main Street….super foggy!

I stopped to have my professional picture taken in front of the castle (which came out eh) and took one myself!

Ran through Liberty Square and found Louis! I stopped today since he had no line and I have never met him before! Apparently Tiana and Naveen were on break, but I’ve met them before so I didn’t mind.

Boy, that felt like a long mile! But almost halfway there!

I passed up Woody in Frontierland and made my way through the backway by Splash Mountain where I took a picture with the train and conductor!

They had the Celebrate a Dream Come True Princess Float out so I had to have my picture with it! Since it won’t be shown in the parade anymore. Aurora and Snow White were also meeting here with their princes, but they aren’t my favorites so I didn’t bother to wait.

10K flag! I let Mike know that I was coming out of the Kingdom and would be seeing him soon!

Can I tell you how much the runner tracking sucked??? For the 10k my 5K time pace was waaaay off it was like I stepped off at the same time as the first runner. For the Half no one got texts to say where I was….until I was at like Mile 7 they got two at once. I guess it’s a new company this year…they better get their act together. End runner tracking rant.

Back to the race…I would notice this vehicle backstage and stop to take a picture of it.

My apologies if I stopped short in front of someone…..

Here is where things got really tight on the course….I was running on the grass most of the time with a few other people. People were either running really slow or walking and blocking the way. Even when I stopped to walk I had no where to go so I tried to stay behind other walkers so others had room to pass. It was really tough.

DJ spinning some tunes! Backstreet Boys were playing when I ran by!

Let it Go! That means it was Mile 7! I was excited to take a picture with the sign!

Mile 7! That last mile was about a 16 min one!

I was approaching the Grand and when I saw the penguin from Mary Poppins and Bert who I never met before I had to stop! I waited about 5-10 minutes here.

While running by the Wedding Pavilion the wedding pavilion guys were out, but I was all the way on the opposite side and didn’t want to cut in front of people. I wish I would have though because they had a glass slipper out!

Right after I passed those guys, I just lit up because I spotted Mike standing there cheering me on passing the Poly!!!! Just what I needed. I was so happy to see him that I forgot to take a picture! It was a little late by the time I took this one right after I passed him…

Luckily he managed to capture a picture of me running by!

PartOfYourWorld · Mar 22, 2014

He mentioned to me after the race that it looked like everyone was having so much fun and he wanted to do a Disney race in the future! WOOOOHOOOOOO!

Of course hanging out by the Poly was Lilo and Stitch..I skipped them because I knew I was going to see them at breakfast the next morning.

For some reason I skipped the Genie and I have no idea why because I don’t think I’ve ever met him before! Oh well.

I did stop to get my picture with the famous Mickey Mouse golf cart though!

At this point I was beginning to hit some sort of wall…it was from Mile 8 to like 10…I definitely slowed down a bit but that’s okay because I was still having fun! I passed by the incredibles…not the biggest fan of them.

According to the last mile marker that was like a 20 minute mile because I stopped a few times and waited for Mary Poppins

At mile 8.5 I passed the clif gel shot space. I took one even though I’ve never tried anything like it before. It was DISGUSTING the flavor was okay, it was the texture I wasn’t fond with. And honestly it did nothing for me.

Making the long trek out of Magic Kingdom and back towards EPCOT, I passed these guys again….

Missed the Mile 9 marker and skipped straight to a blurry 10! Only a 5k left to do! I can do this!

Look at all the people….

Green Army Men for motivation!

Getting closer and closer now!

Princess Half running toes for @Disneyfalcon!

“And at last I see the liiiiight” or SSE I should say

Seeing this made me so happy because I knew the end was near!

Mile 12! Too many people so I grabbed a selfie instead with my girl Ariel 1 more mile to go!!!!

While heading into EPCOT the monorail was going by! You bet I stopped for this perfect shot!

As I was running into EPCOT I again saw @HollyBelle, @plaz10 , and @Ariel484 holding a sign saying I was awesome!

That definitely gave me the boost I needed to finish this race! Thanks guys again for being there!!!!!!!

Making the turn around near World Showcase

Picture in front of SSE!

Hello beautiful!

PartOfYourWorld · Mar 22, 2014

SSE selfie!

Hallelujah!

Mile 13! The finish is right around the corner!

I wanted to stop for a picture with Goofy at the finish but they weren’t letting anybody!!!

I FINISHED MY FIRST HALF MARATHON!!!!!!! 3:28:26 my finish time. Not too bad with waiting for a few characters! (Just as a comparison I ran my 2nd half last weekend and finished 2:38:17, thats almost an hour time difference! It's amazing how much stopping for characters, pictures, and or tons of people make a difference in time! That's why you go to race for fun!)

My preciouses :inlove:

After going through the finish chute I grabbed my free snacks, and my purple Princess Half mesh bag and onward I went! They had the princesses out again, so I waited for who was originally Cinderella, but she switched out with Rapunzel. That’s okay!

When I saw Ariel was out I jumped in line, unfortunately they cut it off but they kept squeezing some people in there. She was my princess I needed that picture!!! She let the two girls in front of me go, and stopped me. The girls behind me were telling the line lady to let me through because I couldn’t miss a picture with my race Princess! They were so nice

And luckily she let me and the people behind me through! I was so happy!

And with that it was over. I couldn’t believe I had just finished my first half marathon and in Disney World! I waited in line for the bus back to the resort. I was ready for a shower and some food! But first a picture with all my medals!

For lunch we decided to head over to Downtown Disney…my legs were starting to hurt me from all this running, but it felt good! I was ready to go!

Our first stop when we arrived was into the Art of Disney store! Where I saw this new Thomas Kinkade picture!!!!!!!!

We also stopped in the Christmas Store so I could get a ornament to commemorate the weekend! Luckily they already had this one personalized so I grabbed it!

We were hungry! We decided to try Wolfgang Pucks!

It was my first time here, surprisingly given the number of times I’ve been here. Mike and I both had the chicken fingers and fries and OMG were they the best we’ve EVER had. The fries were to die for too…it was awesome! I would 100% eat here again!

They had the Banners out from the Expo! Had to get my picture with my fancy new bling!

We continued on through the lego store, where I have discovered they have DISNEY PRINCESS LEGOS!!!!! I wanted the Ariel ones but they were all sold out….go figure.

PartOfYourWorld · Mar 22, 2014

I was beginning to fade fast….I was walking super slow because my legs were really sore, but we wanted to go to the West Side so we did. I picked up some vinyl’s for @jesemeca over at D-Street that she wanted and we headed straight for the buses…thank heavens for a bus depot over on the West Side. I was pooped.

We got back to the Poly and meandered through the lobby

Boutiki!

It was about 230 and we headed back to our room. We had dinner reservations at O’hana at 8 so we had plenty of time to relax and watch the Daytona 500! But that didn’t last very long because it went into a rain delay due to the crazy storms and tornado warnings they had over in Daytona. I ended up falling asleep because I was so tired.

Apparently the fun didn’t stop for Mike while I was sleeping…I woke up a few hours later to this series of pictures on my camera….enjoy.

Don’t ask me how I didn’t wake up or move during this entire time. I was dead to the world. Mike said Oswald fell over on my head a few times and I still didn’t wake up. I woke up to the scene of that last picture around me and I was so confused. But had a good laugh after looking at the pictures!

While waiting for our reservation time, I played around with my medals.

We were hungry again and couldn’t wait for O’hana for the first time EVER for dinner!