2015 runDisney Princess Half marathon weekend is here!

This weekend Walt Disney World will be taken over by princesses (and a few special princes) who are earning their tiaras and some pretty sweet medals during the runDisney Princess half marathon weekend!

photo courtesy of Disney Parks Blog

This race weekend really holds a special place in my heart as it was where I ran my very first half marathon back in 2013. 

I am so incredibly envious of all my friends who are jetting down to Orlando to participate in this year's races.  Whether you're running the 5k, 10k, half marathon, the Glass Slipper Challenge or ALL the races, always remember to take a minute and soak everything in.  Running at Disney is such a magical experience, one that you will never forget.

I'm super excited that this year they will have a live stream at the finish line of the half marathon!  You can get more information about this on the Disney Parks Blog.

Do you have runner tracking set up to see how your friends and family are doing during the race?  Go here to sign up now.

The runDisney Health and Fitness Expo is a great place to do a little shopping for official race merchandise as well as other fantastic vendors.  Make sure to swing by the runDisney booth to sneak a peek at the medals you'll be earning over the weekend!  Just in case you need a reminder, here are the times the expo will be open -

photo courtesy of runDisney

If you love social media like I do and want to share your pictures throughout the weekend, runDisney has created some hashtags for you to use -

photo courtesy of runDisney

And last, but not least, I thought I would share my recaps from my 2013 Princess half marathon weekend with you :) 

runDisney's Fit for a Princess expo - Day 1
runDisney's Fit for a Princess expo - Day 2
runDisney Princess half marathon - Part 1
runDisney Princess half marathon - Part 2

I hope each and every one of you have a magical time at Walt Disney World this weekend and I look forward to following along on social media and watching the live stream on Sunday morning!  I hope to get my recap of my Wine and Dine half marathon up in the next week or so.

What was your first half marathon? 

Until next time,

Disney Princess Half Marathon - Part 2

If you missed my other recaps, you can find them here!

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

And now...the conclusion of my first half marathon!

Once I sent Amanda ahead, I stopped at a medical tent for some Biofreeze and kept on going.  I finally began to follow my run/walk intervals when we came to the halfway point.

A couple of weeks before the race runDisney asked on the Facebook page what song you wanted to hear at that halfway mark.  People gave recommendations, and about a week before the race, the final choices were posted for everyone to vote.  I didn't really have a preference, but the winner was "Girl on Fire" by Alicia Keys.

I even decided to take a little video clip of the halfway point -

When I got to mile 7, I decided to text Sharon to see how far back she was.  She was only about half a mile, so I decided to wait on her so we could run together for a bit.  We started off and in the sea of people almost immediately got separated.  Amanda had texted me earlier to let me know Lilo and Stitch were close to mile 8, and since it's one of my favorite movies AND having just gotten home from a 2 week Hawaiian vacation, I wanted to get a picture with them.

Giving the "shaka"

Shortly after I saw Genie from "Aladdin", and since he didn't have a long line I jumped in for another photo op -

Between miles 8 and 9, an accordian club was playing some fun tunes.

After the water station at mile 9, I saw this, and it just cracked me up-

My dear friend, Jessica, had big plans to come down and watch me run, but it didn't work out that way, but she followed me through the texts from the runner tracking and texted me words of encouragement, so I sent her this lovely picture of me in return -

At mile 10 I believe I hit my "wall".  My feet were absolutely killing me, it hurt to run, and I felt so incredibly sluggish.  BUT...I kept telling myself "You only have a 5k left...you can do this"  And, of course, at mile 10 is the dreaded on ramp that you have to climb.  The Green Army dude from "Toy Story" was there helping the Princesses stay motivated to get up the ramp.  Honestly, I didn't think it was too bad.  Even if I wanted to run up it I couldn't...there were sooooo many other Princesses!!

The Princesses behind me!

Running on the overpass was actually a lot of fun.  Car after car of people driving into the parks were honking their horns and shouting words of encouragement.  I'm really glad I decided to run without my headphones!  We came to mile 11...not much further!  We were right outside Epcot and a very animated DJ was rocking some tunes and chatting it up on the microphone.  I ran by and saw Mulan and Mushu, and since the line wasn't long and I was almost done, I stopped for another picture!

As I mentioned before, one of my favorite things about the race was looking at all the awesome signs made by the spectators.  This one, just past mile 12, was one of my absolute favorites -

When we got behind the scenes at Epcot I knew we were sooooo close!  At the last water stop, I saw Sharon, sprinted up to her and said "We're finishing this race together!"  We were both in pain at our feet, so we decided to walk a majority of the way and save our energy to run across that finish line.  I saw Pinocchio and had to get a picture with him....but not before the Cast Member that was with him took one of himself with my phone :)

Thanks, random CM!

As we made our way to the edge of World Showcase and looped back around, that Epcot ball never looked so good.

We went to the right of the ball and saw the gospel choir - that's your signal that you're in the home stretch!!

At this point I texted J and tell him we were almost done!  He texted back to let me know where he and D were standing, and Sharon spotted them out.  They had huge grins on their faces (hopefully because they were proud of us?) and so did we.  We rounded that last turn and saw the finish line!!  As we crossed we hugged...we had done it!  We were half marathoners!  The volunteer put that beautiful medal around my neck and we walked to the area where they were handing out water and Powerade, then went to get our finisher pictures made.

We grabbed our runDisney snack box and went to find the boys. 

We hung out for awhile and I decided to take a seat on the ground to change out of my shoes and just relax.  J snapped this (cute) picture of me -

As we went to head back to the resort, i saw that Snow White was out taking pictures.  Of course, I had to get my picture made with her seeing as I chose to dress up as her!  J stood in the bus line and waited for me.  She complimented me on my sparkly skirt as we took a picture (for whatever reason the picture the CM took with my phone is really washed out - will have to post the pro pictures when I buy them).

We headed back to the resort to shower, pack up, grab some lunch, and head to the airport.  I was a little bummed to have to leave so soon, but the overall weekend was something that I will never forget.

On the way home, I sported my awesome new Team Sparkle shirt and my gorgeous new bling.  While the first half of the shirt might not be accurate (yet), I definitely kick ass.

I had such an amazing time doing the Princess half marathon as my first.  Will I do it again?  Hard to say - there are so many other awesome races that runDisney puts on that I want to do first, but maybe in a few years.  My next runDisney race(s) will be the Dumbo Double Dare in August.  I've never been to Disneyland before, so I plan to take it all in, check out the parks and see how it sizes up to Walt Disney World.  Maybe I'll see some of you there!

Before I end this post, I want to say thank you to my husband, Sharon, Amanda, my fellow Sweat Pink, Girls Gone Sporty, and Energybit amabassadors, my friends, my family, fellow bloggers, and you...my readers.  This journey wouldn't have been as memorable had it not been for all of you.  I hope that you'll stick around to see what happens in the next chapter of my running career, because I'm not ready to hang up my shoes yet...I'm just getting started!

Until next time,

Jen

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

Disney's Fit For A Princess Expo - Day 2

If you missed my Day 1 recap check it out here!

Saturday morning we opted out of going to the 5k and slept in a bit since Amanda didn't get much sleep the night before with her eye, so we got ready and headed to the expo early to get there right as it opened.  It just so happened that about a thousand other Princesses had the same idea!  The line was wrapped around the hotel.  Lucky for us, Jules and L got there even earlier so we were able to jump in line with them.

We all headed straight to the KT Tape booth to get our body parts taped up.  L got her feel, Amanda got her ankles, and I got a knee and ankle.  They will tape one body part for free, but if you want multiples, you have to buy a roll of tape, which really isn't a big deal if you're going to continue to use it.  I used some of Jule's tape (thanks lady!)

Amanda snagged a picture for me

And here's the finished product -

She said that it was supposed to help draw the fluid out from around my knee...I'm not sure if it did that, but my knee didn't hurt for the whole race!

We shopped around a bit more and then I headed to the Art of Animation resort, where J was waiting for me.  I picked him up, got Amanda, and we headed to Downtown Disney to grab some lunch.  Sharon and her husband, D, checked into the hotel and met us at Wolfgang Puck Cafe.  I had a delicious Curry Chicken salad, Amanda had a Chicken Caesar, and Sharon had a Cobb...we all thoroughly enjoyed our choices.  Amanda's husband, also known as J, had arrived, so she went to meet him.  Sharon hadn't been to the expo yet so I took her and we left J and D to do their own thing (scary thought, right?)

We picked up Sharon's bib, and she got moved up a corral at the Runner Relations booth!  The line for the shirts wasn't nearly as painful as it was the day before, and neither was the official race merchandise booth.  We walked back through the booths and she made a few purchases.  We saw the official countdown clock to the half marathon and had to get a picture with it.

Hiding behind the countdown clock we spotted runDisney training consultant Jeff Galloway and runDisney's "Diet Diva" Tara Gidus.  I got another picture :)

New Balance was there with their limited edition Mickey and Minnie Mouse inspired shoes.  On the back wall of their booth were all the names of the participants of the Princess Half Marathon.  Mine, of course, was at the very bottom so getting a picture was a little difficult.

Once we were done we headed back to the hotel to chill out beside the pool until the guys came back from wherever it was that they went (Port Orleans Riverside to the arcade I believe it was).  Once they arrived, we decided to meet for dinner at the resort's cafeteria.  We ordered my favorite food to carb load on - pizza!

After dinner, Sharon and I needed to get to sleep...we had an early wake up call in the morning!  The guys headed back to Downtown Disney to catch a movie and let us get a head start on our sleep.  I laid out my outfit to make getting ready in the morning a little easier -

I was all set to go!  I couldn't believe this day had finally come, so getting to sleep was a little hard.  I watched some TV and played on the iPad until my eyes got heavy and I finally drifted off to sleep.

Next up...the race!!!

Until next time,

Jen

Disney's Fit For a Princess Expo - Day 1

I can't believe this weekend finally came!!  I was up bright and early to catch an 8 a.m. flight out of Atlanta to head down to Orlando to start my magical weekend.  Amanda asked if I wanted to come a day early to hang out since we never get to see each other.  I was so anxious to get there and head to the expo!

As soon as I was dropped off at the Pop Century resort, I checked my bag with luggage assistance and hopped on a bus to the expo to meet up with Amanda and two of her friends who were also running.

This was my first major race expo, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  Amanda was waiting for me in the lobby of Coronado Springs, where the expo took place.  We hugged and got in line to get our bibs!

That was quick and painless...then we had to get our shirts.  The line was CRAZY!!!  One of Amanda's friends, L, went and stood in line for the shirts while Amanda, Jules, and I headed for the official merchandise booth.  There was actually a line to get in, and once we got in it was a madhouse.  We grabbed whatever we thought we might want, and then pondered on the purchases while we stood in line to check out.  I bought a pin that looks like the medal and a lanyard for them for myself, and I bought Sharon a magnet, pin, and Vinylmation medal, just in case they were out the next day when she got there.

I had seen a sneak peek of a limited edition shirt that Team Sparkle was going to have for the expo, so Amanda and I headed over to see if they had any left.  I met Kelly (who I follow on Twitter and Instagram as well as her blog) and she is as sweet as anything.  My stupid phone died so I didn't get a picture with her, but maybe at the Dumbo Double Dare we can make that happen...AND I was able to score a shirt!  (Picture of it to come in a future post)

We stopped by the runDisney booth to check out the medals and see if they had the new 10k and Dumbo Double Dare medals out yet (sadly they did not).  While we were there, we said hello to Jeff Galloway! Since my phone died, Amanda was nice enough to get a picture for me!

We did a little more shopping and decided it was too crowded, so we decided to head back to the hotel and come back when the expo opened in the morning to get taped up by KT Tape.

Amanda's eye had been bothering her, so later that evening Jules and L took her to urgent care and I stayed behind.  I was able to meet another fellow blogger and Twitter friend, Lena from The Beginner's Runner at the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa during a Run Disney So I Can Eat Disney meet up!  She's also very sweet and I look forward to seeing her again at Disneyland later this year!

Afterwards, I decided to jump on the monorail and stop off at the Polynesian resort for a Dole Whip!  I had to complete my research in determining which Dole Whip was better - one from the Dole Plantation in Hawai'i or one from Walt Disney World.  Blog post to come soon on my findings!

As I was walking past the Magic Kingdom on my way back to the resort buses, I heard the "Wishes" firework show playing, so I stopped at the gates to watch.

 Amanda was back from urgent care so I stopped by the hotel to check on her.  She also was having a migraine so I left her in the room to rest and headed to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping and grab some dinner.  I bought a couple more pins and got a BLT from Earl of Sandwich for dinner.  I did a TON of walking on Friday so I threw these babies on to help keep my legs fresh -

We had plans to get up and go cheer on the 5k participants, so I headed to bed.  It was a long but fun first day at Disney!

Part 2 of the expo to come tomorrow!

Until next time,

Jen