13.1 Royal Miles-A Princess Half Marathon TR - Complete

[DharmaLou]

late to your TR, but as I'm training for the Tink half next year I'm trying to check out all the race TRs - congrats on your accomplishment! I'm not a runner at. all. so I love the inspiration I'm getting from all of the ladies on the DIS!

 

[rani8600]

Awesome!!!!

Love that you are sporting your medal!

I knew that dvc members got to go to any pool... but that is pretty cool to go from pop to OKW

It was a nice perk...not having a hot tub at pop was not ideal so it was nice to be able to go somewhere and get some much needed post rae hot tub time.

late to your TR, but as I'm training for the Tink half next year I'm trying to check out all the race TRs - congrats on your accomplishment! I'm not a runner at. all. so I love the inspiration I'm getting from all of the ladies on the DIS!

Thank you...you are are going to do great. The key is to never think that you wont make it, because you will. Races like these are half mental.

 

[TXAng]

Just found your TR, so I'm joining in, too!

Congratulations on finishing your first half marathon! Especially while dealing with pain. I ran PHM, too, and it was a blast, even though it was so crowded. I stopped for way too many photos, so my finish time was awful, but I think it was a good tradeoff.

 

[rani8600]

Just found your TR, so I'm joining in, too!

Congratulations on finishing your first half marathon! Especially while dealing with pain. I ran PHM, too, and it was a blast, even though it was so crowded. I stopped for way too many photos, so my finish time was awful, but I think it was a good tradeoff.

Thank you and Welcome

I feel like in this race the experience was far more important than the finish time

 

[rani8600]

After a great lunch we went over to one of the quiet pools. We were hoping for a relaxing afternoon and I was hoping to get some time in the hot tub for my legs.

We spent a few hours just hanging out, getting a little sun. Around 4 we decided to pack up so we could go back to Pop to change and get to dinner. We had early reservations at Captains Grill. I had been to Captains Grill once before as a vegan and the chef was awesome. He made me a selection of sample size dishes out of all of the side dishes that were vegan. It was a great meal with all of the different flavors that surprisingly worked together on the plate. After this experience I had hi hopes for dinner.

Dinner did not disappoint. As with the Wave when I told the waitress that I was vegan she said she wasn’t sure if the chef was going to come out. As it was early and there was hardly anyone in the restaurant he came out to chat with me about the menu. On the menu there is a vegetarian entrée (that’s what it say as the description veggie entree) that much change from night to night. He told me that the vegetarian of the night was not vegan and asked about what I liked. I told him I liked all veggies except for mushrooms. I really don’t like mushrooms, never have. When your vegan that’s the first thing that people want to feed you too, not fun. I asked him to surprise me. I have found that this can be a great thing to say because you always get something original and great. It gives the chef a chance to be creative and not just be locked into the menu.

I ended up with another amazing meal. It was pumpkin ravioli with roasted veggie and describing does not do it justice.

We were very lucky with the rain…they had been predicting it all day but it only started on our way to dinner and let up before we were through.
After dinner we walk over to Epcot through the international gateway. First stop England for a nice after dinner drink.

I got my usual cider and black, this is cider with blackcurrant juice. It is sweet and refreshing, a perfect dessert after my meal. My sister go a cider, she doesn’t like the sweetness as much as I do. The Pub in England was the place to be for princess runners though…medals were everywhere.

It was crowded in there so we took our drinks with us to travel the world. Having looked around China the day before this evening we took our time shopping around Japan. Japan and China are my too favorite areas to shop in with Morocco right behind. I like them because they have different things.

After exploring the world for a second time this short trip we headed for future world to ride some ride. Having had a drink we quickly nixed test track and mission space. Instead, we went for the more gentle rides.

First stop, a visit to the seas to help find Nemo. We had some fun exploring and watching the fish for a while. After we had our fill of fish we wanted to go over to temporary character sport to try to see some more characters, but even though the wait time was predicted at 15 minutes. Once we got there, there was no way it was only 15 minutes. My mom though out the idea of SSE and we agreed it would be a much better option.

There is something about Spaceship Earth. I know a lot of people don’t like the new narration, but it is a classic and the dork in me loves the educational aspect. I also had a fondness for Living with the Land, another of my favorites. We didn’t do Living with the Land that night though because as I had found out on the trip previous, it is not really fun at night. It loses something without the sun. After SSE we thought it would be a good idea to try to get a spot for Illuminations. This is my favorite night show at Disney. We wanted to see it from the bridge connecting the UK to France because one, it offers a good view and two, it gives us a quick exit once the show is over. We got great spots right against the railing, but had a little over 30 minutes before it started.

Getting a spot early was a good idea, in no time we were surrounded by groups of people. Soon enough the show was starting. I tried to take some pictures, but they were coming out all blurry so I quickly gave up and just enjoyed the show. I would later find out my camera on my phone was on the wrong setting, I didn’t even know it had settings…sigh.

After the show we exited through the back entrance as we left our car in front of the Yacht Club for dinner.

Once we arrived back at the room it was time to start packing. My sister was going back to her place and we were leaving the next day. I took one last picture of my bib.

 

[TXAng]

Thank you and Welcome

I feel like in this race the experience was far more important than the finish time

Definitely!

That ravioli looks amazing.

 

[rani8600]

We woke up early on our last day. We had to get ready and finish the last minute packing. We also wanted to check in for our flight and leave our carry-ons with bell services. Since we had it in our heads that we were on a schedule we seemed to move more quickly than we thought. We had all of our morning plans finished before 8. We planned to go to Magic Kingdom that morning, but it didn’t open until 9. We were definitely early. Since we were check out of the room we couldn’t even go back to watch some TV. We decided to just go straight to the MK, as least we would get good seats for the opening show

We arrived at Magic Kingdom around 8:15, I don’t think we have ever been this early for a park opening…it was different. They were letting people through the turnstiles and into area in front of the train station. We sat on one of the planters and amused ourselves watching little kids. There were a whole range, kids who were crazy excited to kids who looked like they wanted to be anywhere else.

At ten to the opening show started. I think that I would be really sad if the ever do away with this show. I feel like it is part of Magic Kingdom.

Then it was time, they were letting us in.

Our plan was to go to Frontierland to get to Thunder Mountain. For some reason the had sections all roped off. We had though Advertureland past pirate to get back there. The rides were workings, so I don’t get it. Once we arrived we jumped straight into the standby line and walked right up. The put us in the front of the front car. As first I was disappointed as this is the slowest part of the train, but that soon changed. When the train came in the seats were wet. They said that it was from the rain outside (it wasn’t raining) and didn’t give us anything to dry them with. I think we were the first ride of that train that morning. Because of this we sat on the very edge of the seat, they were really wet. Well apparently when you sit on the edge of the seat it doesn’t matter where you are in the train you get quite a ride. I will have to note this for the future.

After our wide ride we walked towards Fantasyland…on our way we past some chipmuncks. I just had to stop to say hi. Chip and Dale are some of my favorite characters, I always have good interactions with them. They saw my medal and were very excited by it…they wanted to run…so we did.

We said goodbye and made our way to our destination. The Little Mermaid ride, the line was surprising still walk-on.

 

[rani8600]

Our plans were to eat lunch as Be Our Guest, but it was still early

We decided to head to Tomorrowland. Buzz is one of my mom’s favorites so we went there first. It was just before fastpasses started so the line went by really quickly. My score was 148400 I tried to take a picture but it didn’t work.

Next we tried for Monsters, Inc since it was right next door. We just missed the show so we had to wait for the next one. The show was really funny…I like when the mix up the jokes and acts.

Time got away from up though and we went straight to Be Our Guest. By the time we got there it was 10:40. The line was already 55-60 minutes, I asked. That kind of wait did not fit into our plans. Plus we were getting hungry and didn’t really want to wait an hour. We changed the plan and went to Columbia Harbor House instead. I really like this place and it was really quiet, I think BOG really helped move some of the crowd. I had the lighthouse sandwich with no broccoli slaw...it’s one of my favorites in MK.

After lunch the weather started to turn a bit. It seemed like we wouldn’t be able to outrun the rain much longer. Hoping that it would hold out for just a while more we headed towards Main Street to try to catch the Dapper Dans. As part of the new week of limited time magic they were doing boy band covers. For the majority of the show they were doing Disney songs, I was a little confused, then they changed it up a bit. It was hilarious; they did Backstreet Boys, N’sync and even One Direction. I’m really glad we made it to the front to see them.

As we were walking back into the park I wanted to get one more picture with my medal (told you, totally obsessed with it) in front of the castle.

As this point the rain was coming, it was starting to sprinkle and you could tell it wasn’t going to be a 5 minute storm. Luckily, we had umbrellas with us and we decided to do a couple more indoor rides. We went with the Haunted Mansion, because it was closest. There was a little bit of a line, but it was all under the cover so it wasn’t bad.

After that we headed back to do Pirates. We were trying to fit some last minute rides in because I couldn’t help but feel like we had come to Disney and not done anything. This is my own person thing, I know that I didn’t come down this trip to ride rides, I came to run, but I couldn’t help that feeling of needing to not waste Disney time. Pirates was a good ride, we didn’t even get stuck in a traffic jam in the unloading area…I can’t remember the last time that happened. As we exited the ride the light rain has turned into a downpour. We waited for a few and when it seemed to lighten up just a bit, we made a run for it.

It was after 1 at this point…our plan was to leave MK no later than 1:45 so that we could make the Magical express bus. Given the rain we decided to just call it a day…it had been a good morning and trying to fit one more thing in, in the rain would have just been stressful. We made it to the bus line and must have just missed a Pop bus, we waited about 20 minute for another to arrive, but we weren’t in a rush. The bus driver was super nice; she even turned the air off as we were all cold and super wet from the rain. She congratulated the princess runners and it opened up some conversation on the bus. There were two other runners onboard, it seemed like most of the remaining runners were making the trip home that day.

Once we were back at Pop we collected our bags from bell services and waited for our ride to the airport. While we were waiting, the sun came out and the day turned lovely. It was a nice cap on a great trip.

 

[annmarieda]

I can't believe how closely we followed eachothers footsteps!

We spent monday in Epcot. We ate dinner in France and were there when illumiations took place.

Tuesday, we went to MK for the morning. We ended up eating lunch at CHH as the rain began. We attempted to hit POTC on our way out from CHH. The rain was picking up though, and by the time we left the park it was torrential. We left the park about 1pm.

So sad that your trip is over!

 

[laurenvic1312959]

All caught up! Im glad you enjoyed the rest of your trip
I also love that you wore your pretty medal for the rest of the trip, It's definitely something to be proud of I'm planning to run the wine and dine half in a couple of years and I reckon i'll be glued to my medal for the whole trip, If i finish of course Wish me luck

 

[pagirlinnc]

I just wanted to say I enjoyed your trip report. I also did the PHM and it was nice to read about someone else's experience. I seem to have missed so much (blocked it from my mind??) so it was fun to read through. It also made me realize that I really need to get my thoughts about it all written down. I don't have enough posts to do my own trip report but I should at least get them down for myself. And then decide if I'm crazy enough to try again.
Congrats!

 

[rani8600]

I can't believe how closely we followed eachothers footsteps!

We spent monday in Epcot. We ate dinner in France and were there when illumiations took place.

Tuesday, we went to MK for the morning. We ended up eating lunch at CHH as the rain began. We attempted to hit POTC on our way out from CHH. The rain was picking up though, and by the time we left the park it was torrential. We left the park about 1pm.

So sad that your trip is over!

That’s crazy, we were practically in the same places at nearly the same times on Tuesday. Great minds

So sad, but I have a trip to Disneyland at the end of the month (first time) so I will have another soon.

All caught up! Im glad you enjoyed the rest of your trip
I also love that you wore your pretty medal for the rest of the trip, It's definitely something to be proud of I'm planning to run the wine and dine half in a couple of years and I reckon i'll be glued to my medal for the whole trip, If i finish of course Wish me luck

Lol…I wore my medal all the way home on the plane even….i worked too hard not to show it off.

Don’t even let the thoughts about not finishing enter your mind. You will do great!

I just wanted to say I enjoyed your trip report. I also did the PHM and it was nice to read about someone else's experience. I seem to have missed so much (blocked it from my mind??) so it was fun to read through. It also made me realize that I really need to get my thoughts about it all written down. I don't have enough posts to do my own trip report but I should at least get them down for myself. And then decide if I'm crazy enough to try again.
Congrats!

Thanks!

I would def write it all down. I find that writing a TR really helps me remember the trip and it’s nice to know that I can look back on them. I can’t remember how many post you have to have in order to be able to start your own thread, but you can always hang onto the report and post it once you get there.