Disney Princess Half Marathon - Part 1

If you missed my recaps of the expo, you can find them here!

Disney's Fit For A Princess Expo - Day 1
Disney's Fit For A Princess Expo - Day 2

This was it!  I kept waking up through the night, terrified that I was going to oversleep (even though I had 2 alarms set and a wake up call for 2:30 a.m.).

I jumped up at the first alarm and stood by the phone waiting for the wake up call, which was Sebastian singing "Under the Sea" (nice touch, AoA!)  I grabbed a quick shower, threw my outfit on, and met Sharon downstairs to catch a bus to ride to the pre-race area.  We got right on and in no time at all we were there...walking through a sea of people to get to the festivities.

I ate my Luna bar and we hit up the POPs (Port O Potties), and then we saw Rapunzel, who Sharon was dressed up as for the race, so we jumped in line.  When we were almost there, they switched the characters out for Ariel.  Sharon was disappointed but we still snagged a picture.

I was waiting for Amanda, Jules, and L to get there, so we did a lot of standing around and taking it all in.  Soon, they started calling out corral letters to start heading to the start line.  The other girls hadn't yet arrived, so Sharon and I hugged and she headed to her corral while I waited for them.  Finally they got there and Amanda and I had to get a picture -

Once everyone had arrived, we headed to the start line.  Amanda and Jules were in Corral B, but moved back to C to start with L and I (thanks ladies!)

We watched as they sent off the wheelchair athletes, followed by the elites, and Corrals A and B.  Finally, it was time for the Fairy Godmother to send us on our way!

I couldn't believe it!  Amanda and I were beginning our journey to finishing our first half marathon!  I had plans to follow my run/walk intervals, but threw them to the wind as we headed toward the Magic Kingdom.  I wanted to run as much as I could in between characters and water stops.

Awesome volunteers cheering us on!

Miles 1 and 2 came and went super fast.  Just before mile 3 we were heading towards the toll booth for the Magic Kingdom!

Woo hoo!

Amanda at Mile 3

We kept trekking along and got closer and closer.  The atmosphere was so incredible and I couldn't wipe the huge cheesy grin off my face!

Lighning McQueen as we passed the Speedway

Performance group from the Japan Pavilion at Epcot I believe

We were getting closer to entering the park, and I loved the inspirational signs that were set up along the course -

Soon, we rounded the backstage area where it dumped us out onto Main Street USA.  Talk about an adrenaline rush!  Tons of people cheering and holding up signs....it's such an amazing feeling!

Here we go!

And then...it comes into your sight...that glorious structure that is often one of the main reasons that people run at Disney World....Cinderella's Castle

The cheesy grin on my face got even bigger (as just about every single picture that Marathon Foto took of me will show) and I just enjoyed cheering along with the crowd and checking out the fun signs everyone was holding up.

We veered off into Tomorrowland where the music got to Amanda and she jumped over and started dancing with one of the volunteers!  He was such a good sport about it :)

We saw Buzz Lightyear but he line was too long, so I took a picture of Amanda with him in the background.  We ran past the new Fantasyland and saw Alice and the Mad Hatter, Gaston, and Tiana, but bypassed them, ready to do one of the highlights of the race - run through Cinderella's Castle!

After running through we took a pit stop to get our pictures made in front of the castle - an absolute must do during a Disney race.  After seeing some of the castle pictures from earlier that morning, I'm kind of glad we got there after it was light out because the castle didn't show in some of the pictures that were taken while it was still dark.

Check it out!

After the castle we entered Frontierland and stopped so Amanda could get her picture made with who else but Jessie!  Right around there we crossed mile 6 and I waved Amanda to go ahead of me and run her own race for the rest of the way.  She had a goal time of under 3 hours and I didn't want to hold her back, but was very appreciative that she ran with me for so long.  Thanks Amanda!

Check back tomorrow when I finish my recap of my first runDisney race and my first half marathon!!

Until next time,

Jen