COMPLETE- "We're Never Coming Back!...Until October" FEB '14 Princess Half Marathon

[annmarieda]

The week leading up to D-Day was sort of crazy. I had planned to do all my homework and get everything all set to go the weekend before but then I got sick and spent most of the weekend in bed. Now I had to get all my homework done, pack, and get everything at the office set up for my absence in three days! With two tests scheduled before I left for the airport, Thursday was the culmination of all the crazy!

I am sorry that you were not feeling well the week before your trip... but on doing well on those two tests!!!

We landed around 11:15 PM and hopped the Fake-O-Rail (first ride of the trip!) and took another selfie. If you haven’t figured it out, selfies were the theme of the night!


IMG_0327 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

Selfies are great!!

We grabbed our luggage and made a bee-line for ME. It didn’t seem busy down there but once we got on the bus for the All-Star, it surprised me how many people kept streaming on.

I bet a lot of people were headed down for just the weekend.

We departed MCO for Disney at about 12:15. At this point, I was getting very sleepy and was less than pleased at the thought of getting up in less than four hours. Luckily, we were the first All-Star stop.

Oh my goodness! That doesn't give you a lot of time to rest from travel and then race!

 

[emilyindisney]

I bet a lot of people were headed down for just the weekend.

It seemed like everyone was chatting about the upcoming races, so I bet you're right. A lot of people could have been waiting until after work to travel like we were, too, I suppose!

 

[emilyindisney]

Feeling a little loopy!

We were in the front of the bus, so as soon as we stopped we booked it off and up to the desk to check-in. Caitlin did this earlier today but I couldn’t get ahold of her at this point and wanted the room number. We settled everything quickly and headed for the Touch-Down section.


100_7079 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

We requested an upper floor so I was happy to see we were on 2! Our door faced the intersection of another hallway, and had some shrubbery on the ground below so it was a great, quiet location.


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Here it is!


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I thought this sticker was cute!


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Wall hooks to the left of the bathroom.


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The bed with the runner and the Mickey towel!


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This is a little dark, but it's the decor on the wall to the right of the bathroom. You can't see it any in of these photos but there was also a boarder with different fab five characters playing sports on it (to go with the theme!)


100_7075 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

There was a vanity/sink, and then the rest of the bathroom was closed off to the right of that (on the other side of the wall behind the Sports poster.)


100_7077 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

If you were wondering why Caitlin wouldn’t answer my calls, there you have it. At this point, MJ and I were feeling a little loopy so we didn’t let Caitlin sleep for long. She was not amused, haha! We finally settled down and set our alarm for 3:45 AM- it was almost time to knock out some magical miles in the (very early) morning!​

 

[annmarieda]

I have never stayed at All Start Sports. How cute is that room!!!

 

[emilyindisney]

I have never stayed at All Start Sports. How cute is that room!!!

Isn't it! I had these weird vibes in my mind about the All-Stars but I really liked them once I saw them in person. I think Sports is my favorite, actually! Very compact, and very clean and bright!

 

[wiigirl]

Follwing along!

 

[emilyindisney]

Follwing along!

Yay- thanks!

 

[emilyindisney]

Cinderella's Royal Family 5K part 1

When the alarm went off I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t feel like I’d only had two and a half hours of sleep. MJ said it felt like she’d had a nice nap, haha! For this race we were skipping costumes, and opted for matching t-shirts and tiaras.


100_7082 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

Caitlin and I went for the BBB-esque hairstyle while MJ went for what we fondly call ‘the poof’. Unfortunately, my mom’s traditional hairstyle doesn’t really support a tiara. Trust me, we tried!

We armed ourselves with cameras and phones before heading out to the bus stop at 4:30am. When we got there a bus was waiting for us so we got on and sat right down!


IMG_0333 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr


P1020095 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

We didn’t stop at any of the other All-Stars so we quickly were in the Epcot parking lot. We looped around from the bus drop off, through security and to the DJ area near the corrals. There we waited, and waited, and waited some more! We definitely over-estimated the time we needed pre-race.


100_7088 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr


P1020098 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr


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With thirty minutes to the start we moved into the corrals. This morning we were planning on walking together, so we were in E.


100_7089 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

At 6:30 corral A was off! They promptly sent off corrals every 8 minutes so we started at 7:02 AM. We got to hear (but couldn’t see) the winner of the 5k cross the finish before we even started…(s)he was certainly speedy!


100_7090 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

And we’re off! ​

 

[emilyindisney]

Cinderella's Royal Family 5K part 2


RoyalFamily5k by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

The course starts by winding through the Epcot parking lot and into an employee entrance to the park behind Test Track.We passed by Princess Atta (from a Bug’s Life) on our way but didn’t stop for pictures. In general, all the character lines were very long so we decided to stop for scenery/fun shots instead!


100_7092 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr


100_7093 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

We came into World Showcase between the Mexico and Norway. Mulan and Mushu were out in China but rather than stop for them, we stopped on the edge of the lagoon for some pictures.


100_7094 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr


P1020101 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

Doesn’t it look so pretty with all the torches lit?! (Looking at the pictures now I realize you can't really tell they're lit, haha!)

Tiana, Naveen and Louis were out at the American Adventure, Dopey was out somewhere near Germany, and the Beast was out in France. We also recognized someone from a runDisney blog we had read, so that was kind of exciting! We continued on towards the International Gateway.


100_7095 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr


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We excited the park, came through backstage and reentered between Canada and the U.K.


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Rounding out World Showcase, we made our way into Future World and by Spaceship Earth.


P1020103 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr


100_7098 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

We excited Future World and came across mile three- almost there!


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Even though we power walked most of the course, MJ, Cait and I jogged across the finish line to round out the first race of the weekend!


100_7102 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

This medal was made of a rubbery plastic and is totally adorable!


100_7253 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

I liked that it was so light weight. I found the other medals got heavy around my neck and I didn’t necessarily like wearing them all weekend. This one was comfy, though!

Overall, I thought the 5k was a lot of fun. Since we were only planning to walk, we started in E. The corral was very crowded with runners, run/walkers, and walkers, but for the most part everyone was very polite and did their best to not be pushy with the crowds. I thought the course was nice, but was hoping there would have been a few more characters. The weather was very humid, but cloudy which helped keep the heat down. I know the heat and humidity bothered a lot of runners throughout the weekend, but I never minded it. After the brutal New England winter that we have had, I was just so happy to not be cold that I would have taken any amount of humidity! I estimated that we finished the 5k in 55-60 minutes-not bad considering MJ’s PR for walking one is about 44 minutes, and we stopped for quite a few pictures.

My final thoughts are pretty much the same. The end of the course got a little congested but we tried our best not to walk three across so we didn’t contribute to it either. The route was good, and compact around the park which I liked. I too wish there had been a few more characters, but I wonder if by the time we got to them their lines would have been just as long. Overall, I enjoyed the 5k a lot- I was really fun for the three of us to do one of the races together!​

 

[jdd]

Just got caught up! Bummer about your flight. Some of my family had trouble with theirs as well. I went down solo on Friday morning and had no trouble, but they (my sister, two nieces and my oldest son) were scheduled on an afternoon flight and ended up being delayed about 4 hours. I was so glad I wasn't on that flight, because I would have completely missed the expo!!

Great recap of the 5K - looks like that would be such a nice, calm race to "warm up" with

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

I don't know how I missed the start of your TR! But I'm here now!

All of the characters lined up for the race makes me almost want to try a race. Almost

Great update on your 5K!

 

[KelleyK75]

Just found your report and I am following along. I hope to do the Half Marathon weekend probably not next year but the following, so I have enjoyed your report so far.

 

[emilyindisney]

Just got caught up! Bummer about your flight. Some of my family had trouble with theirs as well. I went down solo on Friday morning and had no trouble, but they (my sister, two nieces and my oldest son) were scheduled on an afternoon flight and ended up being delayed about 4 hours. I was so glad I wasn't on that flight, because I would have completely missed the expo!!

Great recap of the 5K - looks like that would be such a nice, calm race to "warm up" with

Were you picking up their packets? If so, good thing you made it!

The 5k was so much fun! It was a lot of fun to start the weekend off with something all three of us did together

I don't know how I missed the start of your TR! But I'm here now!

All of the characters lined up for the race makes me almost want to try a race. Almost

Great update on your 5K!

Dave!

Never say never

Just found your report and I am following along. I hope to do the Half Marathon weekend probably not next year but the following, so I have enjoyed your report so far.

Welcome! It was a great weekend and definitely a great introduction to runDisney!

 

[annmarieda]

Morning comes so quickly on race day, doesn't it?!

Looks like you gals had an awesome time. Good job!!!

 

[emilyindisney]

Morning comes so quickly on race day, doesn't it?!

Looks like you gals had an awesome time. Good job!!!

It sure does! Doing three races this weekend makes me wonder how all those Dopey runners did it four times in a row in January!

We certainly did- Thanks, Ann!

 

[emilyindisney]

Breakfast of Champions!

Our original plan was to shower, clean up and check out as soon as we got back to Sports. At this point, we were so hungry we decided breakfast was our number one priority.


IMG_2298 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

As you can see, I get scary when I'm hungry!

The snack box was a welcome sight, but couldn’t hold a candle to what we were all craving...Mickey waffles!


IMG_0337 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

We walked over to the bus area and were greeted by an already waiting All-Star bus. We were sharing on the way back but Sports was the first stop so no skin off our backs. We went to the room first to grab money and take a perfume shower (aka temporarily douse the sweat until we had time to clean up.)

The food court was busy but it was about 8:30 so I wasn’t surprised. Caitlin stayed behind to clean up a little so MJ held a table while I got in line for my waffle. This was the longest food station line and it certainly wasn’t moving very quickly. While I waited the women in front of me congratulated me on my medal so that was nice! With waffle in tow, I picked up my mug and checked out. While I was waiting in line, Caitlin had walked down to the food court and got her chocolate chip pancakes. MJ also got a Mickey waffle and we all dug in!


100_7104 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr


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They had both the old mugs, and the new mugs. I still have my old blue mug, so I opted for the new mug.


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100_7106 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

It also came in red, and purple. Cait and MJ bought the old pattern in green and purple.

With priority number one (ie food) taken care of we headed back up to the room so we could shower, get dressed, and pack things up to get checked out. We stopped in the gift shop to do some pin trading, where I picked up this adorable Simba pin-one of my favorite finds of the trip!


IMG_2408-002 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

This pin is much cuter in person I swear! The colors didn’t come out very good in a picture.

Warning- here comes a mini rant:

I thoroughly enjoyed All-Star Sports, really, I did! However, I would NEVER do a one night split stay again. I felt like I had tore through my suitcase like a mad-woman the night before (which was certainly added to by arriving so late) and now was stressed by trying to locate everything and get it back in. For some reason my suitcase was now overflowing and I was practically sitting on it to get it to zip. Maybe (if there is a) next time I need to pack a little better and consider that I only need one night’s worth of stuff taken out at first. On top of that, every time we thought we were ready to leave the room we realized something was missing. First we thought we lost a 5k medal, and then we thought was lost a camera. I swear that room was like a black hole! Luckily, everything turned up (and really it was us who had forgotten where we put it in the first place.)

End rant!

We dropped our luggage with bell services to be sent to the Boardwalk and started our resort touring extravaganza by seeing the rest of Sports! First stop was the Surf’s Up section right behind the main hall.


100_7107 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr


100_7108 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

Surf’s Up was really bright which I liked! Next we headed back by Hoops Hotel towards Center Court. I used to play a lot of tennis so I figured I’d like this section.


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100_7110 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

I thought this section was cute but definitely a little more dated/in need of a clean up as compared to Surf’s Up and Touchdown. One thing I thought was really strange was Huey, Duey and Luey playing baseball on the tennis court between the buildings. Did they get moved out of the baseball section and end up here? One of life’s great mysteries, I suppose!​

 

[KelleyK75]

How funny they were playing baseball on the tennis court! I wonder if that was meant to be like that, or an oops? Certainly Disney would have caught that. I wonder what the story is behind it? That just cracks me up!

 

[emilyindisney]

How funny they were playing baseball on the tennis court! I wonder if that was meant to be like that, or an oops? Certainly Disney would have caught that. I wonder what the story is behind it? That just cracks me up!

Who knows?! For some reason I had it in my mind that these guys used to be at the bases around the baseball field pool. I went back and looked at older pictures, and they're not there though. I'd sure love to know how they made it to the tennis court, though!

 

[KelleyK75]

Who knows?! For some reason I had it in my mind that these guys used to be at the bases around the baseball field pool. I went back and looked at older pictures, and they're not there though. I'd sure love to know how they made it to the tennis court, though!

Too funny!

 

[jdd]

Were you picking up their packets? If so, good thing you made it!

Actually, I was the only one running - they just came down for moral support (and to have an excuse for another Disney trip ). My original plan had been to fly down with them, but thought it would be cutting it too close for getting to the expo, so I changed to an early morning flight - so glad I did!!!