Disney Princess Half Marathon Race Report

I know you were wondering if I would let a month pass before actually writing up a race report.  It's been just over 2 weeks... honestly, I spent an hour just narrowing down the 150+ photos to 25, and even that many is probably too many for the post! 

Anyhow, for once, other than lots of fun pictures, I don't have a huge detailed report of the race.  This race wasn't about me, it was about getting Ronda to her first half marathon finish. 

After 5 days walking around Disney, I decided to crash at Ronda's hotel the night before so we could take the shuttle together to the race (I wasn't at a host hotel AND it made it easier to not have to try to find each other in that huge crowd).  The alarm went off at 2-stinkin-am.  And RR insisted we have sparkly eyes... mine turned out looking like a bad case of pink-eye.

We were on the shuttle bus around 3:15am.  And to the race site by about 4am.  On a quick trip to the porta-potty, we ran into Lucy!  Lucy was running her first half marathon after losing over 200 lbs.  Wow!

Not long after that, we headed toward the starting corrals (which was an incredibly long walk).  We were in our corral (B) and just hanging out bored by 5am.  I was people-watching to see if I recognized any bloggers.  We met Giraffy briefly since she had to give something to RR.  And then I spotted Katye.  (RR did not get the Snow White memo.)

Katye stayed up with us through the start (even though I know those legs of hers would be leaving us in the dust).  Our corral started at 5:53am.  We were off.  Did I mention it was hot and very humid.  The first 2 miles just felt miserable.  It was a slight uphill, but the humidity was draining for some reason, and neither of us felt particularly good.  By mile 4, we decided to change our game plan of staying at a certain pace and just enjoy every moment... and that's exactly what we did.  We spent 15-20 minutes of our half marathon waiting in line or taking photos with characters.  Our first stop:

I insisted on this stop:

Then we started to have fun with the photos and got a little wacky!

Gotta make a Toy Story stop!

And Aladdin:

and then totally craziness ensued as we stole Belle's men... she looks like she could care less!

I have to include this next one because, well, Tico was doing something with his hand... not sure what... but it just isn't right.  Poccahantas would not approve.  Bad Tico!

Next was the most ridiculous moment.  I wanted to sit on the rock with Prince Eric because the Little Mermaid is Paige's favorite.  But he wouldn't shush it.  He pointed at my GU and asked if it was candy.  No, Eric, it isn't.  Then he wanted to know what it tasted like.  The whole time I was thinking "HUSH IT".  I didn't want to be in the middle of a sentence when the photo snapped.  Duh, Prince Eric.

Now you might interpret this next photo as a nice picture of the crowd of running princesses... but the truth is that this was Ronda's way of taking a break after the big hill.  I kept telling her I had a "no puking" rule and she had been light-headed for about a mile.

Some more characters after the hill...

By this point, I was pulling out my tricks with Ronda... from my "no puking rule" to reminding her that her mommy was at the finish to quoting her favorite - Prefontaine.  Not only was this her first half, but the day before she left, she was in the snow in Oregon and now we were in the heat and humidity.  That can really zap you fast.  I could completely understand how she was feeling, but I also knew the only cure was the finish line!!! For the last mile, it was slow and steady!

The end is just around the corner!!!

Loved seeing all the medals hanging there at the finish.  It looked so cool.

All done!  Congrats Ronda, you're a half-marathoner!!!  Most fun I've had in a race, EVER.  Seriously.  So glad we decided to just enjoy it.  I will definitely remember this one for a long, long time.  It was amazing!  You should put a Disney race on your to-do list at least once in your racing career.

I felt so good after the relaxing pace with the stops, that I went straight back to the hotel, took a quick 10 minute rinse, and walked right back out the door to take the kids to Magic Kingdom!