2017 Princess Half Marathon Recap

Happy Spring, everyone! It's crazy to think this year is flying by so fast! Thank you for your patience with me - I've had a sick little one here this past weekend and had to take him to see his pediatrician yesterday. I intended to have this post up yesterday, but you know how plans with babies go...so, here it is today!

 

Up next in my recaps of our Princess Half Marathon Weekend trip is the Princess Half Marathon itself!

• 2017 Princess Weekend Expo & VLOG
• 2017 Diaper Dash & VLOG
• 2017 Enchanted 10K & VLOG
• 2017 Princess Half Marathon & VLOG

I'd been looking forward to this race for a long time as I had to defer 2016's Princess Half due to pregnancy. Sadly, runDisney doesn't allow deferrals anymore which I think is pretty darn silly but whatever.

When my alarm went off at 2:30 a.m., I wasn't prepared for it and it scared me. I woke up thinking I'd missed the race somehow. Thankfully, that wasn't so!

By 3:30 a.m., I was out the door and on my way to the bus. Three buses were at the Yacht Club waiting to pick runners up, so I didn't have to wait long.

We arrived at EPCOT at oh dark thirty and began the walk to the family reunion area.

Runners were milling around, waiting to begin the long walk to the corrals. Also, check out the "Last In Line" sign! I'd never seen that before! 

In order to find my friend Melissa, I stood around in a large open space for a little while and that's when I heard my name. It was Jill and her sister Jennalyn! So nice to meet and have a chance to talk to both of them!! 

After finding Melissa, we decided to begin our long walk to the corrals. It wasn't as congested this year, which was nice!

Mid way there, we also realized we didn't have a picture yet from the morning, so we stopped a friendly cast member and asked him to take a picture.

We parted ways because we were in different corrals, then I made my way to find Heather and Jen! 

It didn't take long to find them as the corrals weren't super crowded yet. It was fun hanging out with them and chatting before the race began! 

There was a short delay with the race start time but it didn't seem to last very long...and with that, our corral was up next!

We began running and I stuck around with Heather and Jen until the first character stop.

These guys cracked me up. Jack Sparrow asked what I was reading, so I said, "A book, of course!"

A quick stop with these fellas was a must as well!

While in line for both the pirates and princes, I ran into Jennalyn again. We began chatting and ran together for a couple of miles. Come to find out, she's also a nurse so we had plenty to talk about!

I love seeing that Magic Kingdom sign! It means one of my favorite parts of the runDisney course is not too far off!

Another fun stop I just had to make was with these two ladies.

 

So many characters commented on my book! "A little light reading for your run?" 

"Don't read while running...you might trip!" 

We hit mile 4 while passing through the TTC. I also noticed that my favorite bathroom stop was closed and heard they weren't open during Marathon weekend either. Sad times. 

 These drummers are always fun, too!

With a quick water stop, we were on our way to the Contemporary and the dreaded hill! 

The upswing portion wasn't so bad this time, thankfully!

Before I knew it, we were turning down the cast member parking lot and on to Main Street!

The left side was lined with spectators as always and they cheered us on as we passed by! This is seriously one of my favorite parts of a runDisney race! Such a cool experience!

Hi castle!

The sun was beginning to rise as we ran through the Magic Kingdom. I spotted Buzz Lightyear his little corner of Tomrrowland, but I decided to skip him as I've stopped for him in the past.

The Queen of Hearts, though...she cracked me up! She took my book before I could do anything with it!

On our way to New Fantasyland, I saw a super long line and couldn't figure out what was going on at first. Someone hollered, "It's Gaston!" and I knew I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

This guy was hysterical!! He kept all of us laughing while we were waiting! Once it was my turn, he took one look at my book and said, "What's this?! To the fire with this one!" He tossed my book to the Cast Member, then posed for this picture! Hilarious!!

Much to his dismay, the Cast Member had to return the book to me! 

I calculated my time in line with him was right at 10 minutes but it was totally worth it! After rounding the corner, I saw another huge line...this time for Beast in his new movie costume. I knew we were going to eat at Be Our Guest the following evening, so I skipped that line and continued on my way through the Magic Kingdom.

Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff were at the castle to say hello to runners. This was the first time I couldn't actually run through the castle because it was so bottle necked. I DID like that they opened up both sides of the off ramps, though! Runners could take a right or left out of the castle which helped a ton with the congestion!

There were photographers in front of the castle for pictures, so I had to stop!

The remainder of the Magic Kingdom portion of the race was fun and went by all to fast! After leaving the Magic Kingdom, we were on the road to the Grand Floridian and the Polynesian.

After passing these resorts, the remainder of the race got a little boring. There's also a huge overpass bridge that likes to mess with my IT Band. Thankfully, it wasn't too bad this time and a green army man who's always mid way through the overpass was there to keep us all on our toes!

As per usual, I had to stop for a selfie with the mile 12 sign! :)

As we took the turn into the back of Epcot, I was surprised to see Mushu there. Of course, I had to stop and take a picture!

Also, Daisy was there to cheer runners on! I loved her Princess outfit!

Almost done!

I stopped here to check my phone because I could see that Heather had sent a text to me. She asked where I was in relation to the finish line because she was there, cheering runners on!

Gospel Choir....the best and one of the most fun parts of a runDisney event! It's like a sigh of relief because when you hear the gospel choir, you know you are almost there! 

Belle was on the Mile 13 sign, so I just had to stop for a picture! I also shot Heather another text to let her know I was almost there.

I spotted the finish line and kept to the right so I could make sure and wave to Heather. I even heard Rudy say my name overhead! Awesome!! :)

Done! Another super fun race experience was in the books! 

The medal for this race was beautiful and I LOVE the rose! It's definitely one of my favorites! :)

Thanks for sticking around for my Princess Half Marathon Weekend updates! Stay tuned for more from our first trip with Brayden to his first haircut and more! Also, I'm running Tink this year so there will be more runDisney updates to come! Have a great day!