Disney Princess Half Marathon {Recap}

Well friends, sorry for the week of being MIA! I was out in Florida EXPO-ING it up with team Raw Threads as well as running the Disney Princess Half Marathon! This was my second Disney race and much, much better than my first. This past fall I did the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon (spontaneously), but didn’t really blog about it. It rained from beginning to end and I was thankful just to finish!

Here’s 10 fun things you should know about the Disney Princess Half Marathon:

#1. The races starts at the BUTT CRACK of dawn! They have to get all the runners through before the parks open, so most all races start at 5:30am which means you have to be at the start line at 4:30am and leaving your house or hotel even earlier! In my case 4am and had about 2 hours of sleep because I was not being able to sleep the night before (adrenaline) . Also did I mention I was working a 4 day expo right before the race, yep I am one of those crazy runners…officially!

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#2. I decided to run in Raw Threads, since they hooked me up with the race entry! It’s so easy to create a LOOK with their clothes. I went as Queen  Elsa, because how cute is this Frozen tank top?! I also had my snowflake capri’s from Raw Threads on, but sadly they aren’t selling them anymore. They are so comfortable, but all of their clothes are. I also wore a bit of sparkle, with my Sparkle Soul head band I got at the expo.

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#3. They have fire works for every corral (yes even the last ones), it makes the start a lot more exciting and you get super pumped up! I was in corral G and it took us about 20 minutes to get to the start line, so all the fireworks made the time fly by.

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#4. There were characters all along the highway from Epcot to Magic Kingdom and every so often there would be some kind of entertainment along the side of the road.  This varied from kites shaped like birds with “Let’s Go Fly A Kite” playing in the background (which was awesome because everyone started singing along!) to characters such as Jack Sparrow and the Heroes, and some music!

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#5. We got to run through the Cinderella’s CASTLE!  The first half of the race may have been my favorite and LOVED running before the humidity and heat picked up! But really I was just so excited to run down Main Street and run through Cinderella’s Castle, it made the race special! 

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and even got to wave to Princess Anna and Queen Elsa!

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#6. Yes there were lots of princess, but villains too! I didn’t wait in line to take pictures with a lot of the characters, because the lines were crazy long! But it was still fun to see them all lined up on the side lines.

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and by mile 6 the sun came up and the sky was absolutely beautiful!

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#7. Even though there are like 20,000 runners in this race (crazy right?!) I managed to still find friends a long the course and chat for a while. I love that it’s an all girls (well mostly) race, everyone is so sweet to run with and they are all super excited to be there!

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#8. Yes, the parks were fun to run through, but you actually race along Disney property outside the park for most of the second half of the race. I didn’t mind, because the views were spectacular. Maybe it’s because I am not used to seeing all of the GREEN!

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#9. All the mile markers, cheer squad signs were super cute and festive! I loved that they had each mile marked and had the time displayed as well. Even though I started almost 30 minutes after the first corral, so my time was off it was still nice to have an estimate.

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#10. Coming up to the finish line I was feeling GREAT (I still am so surprised how great I felt) and right as I turned the corner I saw Princess Sofia!!! It’s RJ’s favorite princess!!! I got a little teary eyed at this point, because I was missing her big time…but of course I had to get a photo. How cute is she?!

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And then I WAS FINISHED!!! I sprinted to the end and was SOAKED!!! Hello humidity 🙂

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I loved the metals this year, so girly and fun.

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At the finish I met up with my friend Kate from Raw threads and we celebrated!

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I tried my first Beermosa! A Blue Moon beer with a splash of orange juice.

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A couple race official photos….

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Cause, why not?! BE STRONG!

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The rest of the day was spent at Disney World soaking up the sun and enjoying Magic Kingdom!

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I would highly recommend this race for a few reasons:

*HIGH energy from other runners and spectators
*Lots of distractions in every mile, to keep your energy up!
*The opportunity to take pictures with characters if you didn’t care about time
*Getting to wear a costume
*Mostly all girls which made for a really fun atmosphere
*Tons of Disney music
*Running down Main Street and through the castle!
*Flat course
*Real bathrooms in Magic Kingdom!
*Tons of water stops
*VERY ORGANIZED! (but only at mile 9 do they have Guu)

Question: Have you ever run a Disney race?Â