I think I got even less sleep on Saturday night than I did on Friday night. Frustrating, but not unusual for me. Maybe I perform better when I’m sleep deprived…

I was awake before the wakeup call, and I canceled it so that it wouldn’t wake Deb up. Did the usual routine of having something to eat (yogurt, though I also had a bagel and almond butter available – and I should’ve had at least half of the bagel because I was hungry an hour later), and getting ready to go, with last-minute checks to make sure I had essentials like my bib, hydration belt, Magic Band, car keys, phone, driver’s license, and throwaway clothes. I was wearing my favorite Cinderella running outfit again. But that’s the third time for it this year…I may need to change it up a little bit. 🙂

I went to pick up Jill and Hilary before going to Epcot. I arrived in the Epcot area a little later than the day before, and with twice as many runners as for the 10K there was more traffic headed to Epcot, but it still didn’t take long to drive there. Once past the parking booths I Chose Wisely (stay left) and ended up parking closer to the Family Reunion area (aka the start/finish area) than I had the day before.

The temperature was 57 outside – balmy compared to Saturday. It really was significantly warmer. I had a trash bag and a throwaway t-shirt, but probably would’ve been fine with just the trash bag. It was one of the big ones and came down to my knees.

There’s a security bag check outside the Reunion area and we all had to go through that, but it was pretty efficient – lots of lanes open.

With twice as many runners the Reunion area was much more crowded than it was on Saturday. And people also weren’t huddled together for warmth near heat lamps, either. No heat lamps this time!

I said goodbye to Jill and Hilary, who were in an earlier start corral, and went to find the Mickey Milers – even made it in time for the pre-race photo! It was nice to see quite a few running friends from all over the country. Most of them were really enjoying the warmer weather in Florida.

The 1/2-mile walk to the start corral wasn’t bad at all – it hasn’t been bad the last several times I’ve done it, but the memories of the times when it was an agonizingly slow shuffle still linger. I have to say that Disney has done a much better job of supplying lots of porta-potties. In addition to those in the Reunion area there are more in the “runner’s only” area, and then there are also several sets of them near the start corrals. That’s really made the lines much shorter. (During the half marathon I also thought that there were more along the course as well.)

I was in Corral E. Close enough that I could actually see the stage and the start line, unlike marathon weekend when I was in Corral J and couldn’t see it at all. I had the same proof of time for both, but there’s so many more faster (male) runners at Marathon weekend that there were a lot more people ahead of me. In this race the ratio of men to women was about 1:11, which improved my corral position a lot. 🙂

Before the race started a runDisney spokeswoman came on stage to play a video and make an announcement. I wasn’t close enough to a video screen to see much, but as soon as I heard the music, which was recognizably French, I knew that they were going to (finally) be announcing the long-awaited Disneyland Paris Half Marathon Weekend. And sure enough, the Inaugural Disneyland Paris Half Marathon Weekend is scheduled for September 23-25, 2016. Disneyland Paris is the only Disney resort that I haven’t yet visited…and of course this race will have that “I” word, too! 🙂

There’s not much real information available yet, but you can visit this web site to be added to a mailing list.

I think that because of the announcement the race started about 5 minutes late – a bit unusual for a Disney event. There was a nice burst of fireworks at the start, and again for each corral.

The earlier corrals are smaller than the later ones, and they were sending us off about 2 minutes apart. I started just about 10 minutes after the official race start. That was nice – it made it much easier when I was at the mile markers – I just subtracted 10 minutes and that was pretty close to what my net time was.

Over the last year or so Disney has gotten much stricter about proof of time submissions, and I think that has really improved the course congestion in the early part of the races. I know that my experience has been that when I start I’m with people that are going approximately my same pace. Yes, some are a little faster, some a little slower, but overall we’ve been able to have room to spread out enough that the single lane parts of the course that we encounter in the first two miles are much less crowded and frustrating than they have been in the past.

In the first mile I could tell that my legs were a little tired after the PR the day before. Not a surprise, and I was planning to take it easy for this one anyway. But this is why you don’t PR two days in a row! 🙂

This is the same half marathon course I’ve run a number of times, and which you may have read about a number of times. But just in case this is new to you: the 13.1-mile half marathon course leaves Epcot and heads to the Magic Kingdom, then back to Epcot.

There are several character stops between miles 2-4, but they are always the most crowded, so I rarely stop. One of them is the villains – this had a huge line so I just stopped long enough to take a quick photo. There’s also the pirates and the heroes, but those we also hit on the way back, and I wait until then when the lines are much shorter. People seem to be much less willing to stop for photos at mile 9 than they are at mile 2. 🙂

We arrive at Magic Kingdom about mile 5 and run down Main Street towards the Castle. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve done it – it’s always a thrill for me.

The course takes us through quite a bit of Magic Kingdom: Main Street, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Liberty Square, and Frontierland. I was surprised not to see any characters in the new Fantasyland part – I’ve seen Gaston and Belle/Beast there in the past. But Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff were on the balcony behind the castle, cheering on the runners as we prepared to run through the castle.

There weren’t any characters in Liberty Square, either. Another surprise. Woody was in Frontierland. Just after we went backstage near Splash Mountain there were Snow White and her prince, but a very long line so I didn’t stop. I was kind of glad it was Snow White, because if it had been Cinderella I would’ve had to think about stopping…

My least favorite part of the course is the section after leaving the Magic Kingdom: about mile 6.4 through mile 8. A lot of it is single lane and we call it “Cone Alley” because of the wall of cones in the center to keep the runners out of the traffic lane. It can get very congested for the runners. This time it wasn’t bad for me, since I was still among the top 20% of runners, even though I’d stopped for quite a few character photos. Those later in the race probably had a different experience.

In the mile 7-8 section Luna Bar had some fun inspirational signs posted – things like: “My other shoes are glass slippers” and “Run like a beast, sleep like a Beauty”. It was nice to see the signs because there aren’t too many spectators in that area, and I know that’s often when I start to get tired and need a distraction.

Just past mile 9 were the Heroes again. Aladdin, Prince Eric, Flynn Rider, Phoebus (that was a surprise) and Hercules. The line was a lot shorter than it was earlier – I only waited about two minutes before it was my turn. This is one of my favorite photo ops in the Princess Half Marathon.

There was an even shorter line for the pirates. This is a terrible photo of me, but he was a really excellent Jack Sparrow.

Mile 10 is always a milestone for me in a half marathon, since it means there’s only 5K left in the race. And I know I can do a 5K. I was still feeling pretty good. Though I was getting pretty warm and sweaty – it was a lot warmer than the day before. The sun had come out and even though it was only about 60, that’s warm when you’re running.

The next two miles went pretty quickly, and I was soon backstage at Epcot less than a mile from the finish. I stopped for a photo with Princess Sophia – no line!

I managed to pick up the pace in that last mile to make the final kick to the finish line. My time was 2:28:20, and that included lots of photo stops. I was very happy with that, especially on top of the PR the day before. I felt really good – my legs weren’t sore at all. Tired, yes, but not sore.

After I got my half marathon medal there was a Fairy Godmother to sprinkle pixie dust if I wanted it. 🙂 Oh, and they were handing out mylar sheets, too, but it was warm enough that I didn’t need one.

I went to the Glass Slipper Challenge tent where they quickly verified that yes, I had finished the 10K, and that yes, my photo matched the runDisney mug shot taken at the Expo, and I received my Glass Slipper Challenge medal. Ah…that familiar “clank clank” sound of multiple medals as I walk! 🙂

I guess because of the Frozen theme the medals are silver this year instead of gold, and they all have snowflakes on the ribbons.

There was the usual runDisney MRE box…though it seemed like it had a lot more items in it this time than in the January races. Almond Roca…yum. One of my boxes had a chocolate coconut Luna bar that was really good.

I wanted to celebrate with a glass of champagne but the line was long…and I really needed to get back to the room since I still had to pack because I was checking out and headed home later in the day. (Fire the travel agent who set that up! Oh, yes, that would be me…)

There were 20215 finishers this year: 18498 women and 1717 men. Or “1717 of the smartest guys on the planet”, as race announcer Rudy Novotny puts it. 🙂 It’s really fun to see the guys get into the Princess theme – I saw quite a few running as princes alongside their princesses, as well as some dressed as princesses themselves. I saw a couple of men dressed in Belle’s yellow ball gown, and others as Cinderella or Snow White.

It didn’t seem as though I saw as many runners in costume this year as previous years. But there were lots of sparkle skirts and tutus. And while I expected LOTS of Elsas (and there were quite a few) the most popular princess by far was Cinderella! (Another reason to re-think my costume.) I think the most unique costumes I saw were a couple who finished just ahead of me in the 10K – he was dressed as Quasimodo, and she wore a really detailed Esmeralda costume.

As they did for the Marathon in January, Disney live-streamed the start and the finish. You can see the finish HERE It was fun to go back and see myself run across the finish line! (You can see me at 1:56:28.)

I want to say “Thank you!” to all of the wonderful volunteers and cast members who work so hard and get up so early to make it possible for us to run. And to all the bands and groups and individuals who come out on the course to cheer us on – we love your signs and your enthusiasm!

I really enjoy this race weekend. The Princess theme is a lot of fun, and I think it’s great that it’s an event that encourages friends to share it together. This year was extra special for me, not just because of my 10K PR, but because I was able to spend some quality time with some very dear friends. I’m hoping we can do it again next year – but next year I’m not leaving until Monday! 🙂

Learn more about my runDisney experiences on AllEarsNet TV Show #33:

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