Keep Knowing & Keep Kicking, Kiddo – A 2015 Princess 5K PTR/Mini-TR ~ Completed 5/1

[SarahDisney]

So glad the race turned out great. Do you have the next one planned out? I think that is how it usually goes with those races.

Um ... we're thinking 5K & 10K Marathon Weekend in January 2016, and then either 5K & Half or just 5K (depending on how we feel after the 10K) at Disneyland in September 2016 (we can't do the 10K that weekend because it's a Saturday and we can't do Saturday races because of our Sabbath). Problem will be Beth's school schedule (she's going back to school starting this summer) ... I'm hoping January will be doable if she's not back in school yet (I think her spring semester may start late January), but September she will probably be in school so it may not be possible. Which is sad, because Disneyland September 2016 was supposed to be my belated 30th birthday trip (my birthday is over the summer, but I don't really want to have to deal with summer crowds).

Have you decided on your first runDisney race yet? You definitely have to do one, they're amazing!!!

 

[ksl5f123]

Great teasers! This on got me - 17 FP in a day! No way! Maybe under the old system I could see it but it sure would be a challenge now!

 

[SarahDisney]

Great teasers! This on got me - 17 FP in a day! No way! Maybe under the old system I could see it but it sure would be a challenge now!

We didn't make it quite that high ... but it's our goal for next time. We did get a lot more than I thought we would ... one of the CMs at the FP+ kiosks recognized us after our 2nd or 3rd trip there (we kept going to the same kiosks by Mickey's Philharmagic).

 

[SarahDisney]

TR Decision Update:
I've decided not to do a full TR, but I will be doing a "Mini-TR" with recaps of every day, posted here. Expect the first update to come either later today or tomorrow.

 

[Disneychix]

I'm glad you enjoyed your freezing cold race Hopefully your next RunDisney race will not be the Frozen race!!
We had fun but man, there were a lot of people in the parks!

 

[SarahDisney]

I'm glad you enjoyed your freezing cold race Hopefully your next RunDisney race will not be the Frozen race!!
We had fun but man, there were a lot of people in the parks!

I definitely could have gone for warmer weather, but it was still fun. Next time I'll take 60-70 degree race weather, please.
I'm glad to hear you had fun too! Definitely agree with you on the crowds ... evening/night was okay, but it was hard to get things done in the mornings/early afternoons because there were so many people!

 

[SarahDisney]

Mini-TR Part 1 - Day 1 – Thursday, February 19th
​

Nothing too exciting happened on arrival day (other than some annoying plane stuff), so this is a pretty short post. I promise the next one will be longer (next one is race update!)

We were scheduled to leave New York at 1:17 PM, but alas, delays plagued our trip down. We actually left the gate at about 1:45 PM, and then spent about 45 minutes waiting on the runway. Not fun. And, there was no coffee on the plane. JetBlue and I are not friends anymore.

But, eventually we made it to Florida, caught a bus to our hotel, and headed out to the Expo … (sorry this pic is so big, I'm still learning to use the whole uploading pictures straight to the thread thing ... especially because it will only accept 1 out of every 4 pictures I try to upload)


We took some pictures...

(this one we just took because it had Olaf)


We picked up our bibs (and Beth’s pin – see below) at the HP Field House, and then went over to the Jostens Center for t-shirt pickup and to browse. I ended up buying the official commemorative necklace, as well as a Sweaty Bands headband (for $5 + tax). The expo itself was pretty cool ... I was definitely impressed (although it was a bit cluttered for my claustrophobic sensitivities, but not terrible). They didn't have so much 5K merchandise, which was a bit disappointing to me, but there were a lot of cool exhibitors and if we had gotten there earlier, we would have spent a lot more time browsing.

Our Purchases…

(Yes, I am aware that I’m making a strange face in this picture … welcome to the world of me trying to take selfies with my phone)

We left the Expo when it closed at 8, and headed to the bus back to our hotel. We ate dinner in our room while waiting for our luggage … which ended up showing up after 9:45. We had wanted to go to sleep closer to 9:30. Oops.

Anyways … we went to sleep a little before 10:30, and had alarms set for 3:30 AM and 3:35 AM. Buses to the race started running at 4, and while I didn’t need to be on the first bus, I wanted to be on a bus by 4:30, so I figured this was good timing.

NEXT POST: The Race!

 

[KatMark]

I hate airport delays and not taking off on time...one of my biggest pet peeves. And then to not have coffee on the plane. Oh no...I'd be done with that airline.

Glad you got to the expo and picked up a few things and love the photos.

 

[SarahDisney]

I hate airport delays and not taking off on time...one of my biggest pet peeves. And then to not have coffee on the plane. Oh no...I'd be done with that airline.

Yeah, JetBlue and I are not friends right now. I can handle a small delay, but this was insane. Next time I fly without having had coffee yet (or if I might want my own coffee), I'm bringing a Starbucks Frappuccino or Iced Coffee bottle just in case.

Glad you got to the expo and picked up a few things and love the photos.

Thanks! I wish we had gotten to spend more time at the expo, but I'm really just glad we got there in time to get our bibs and shirts and got to do a little browsing.

 

[dreamseeker9]

Yeah, JetBlue and I are not friends right now. I can handle a small delay, but this was insane. Next time I fly without having had coffee yet (or if I might want my own coffee), I'm bringing a Starbucks Frappuccino or Iced Coffee bottle just in case.

That stinks! I usually have such a great experience with JetBlue out of JFK.

Can't wait to hear the rest of the details about your trip!

 

[SarahDisney]

That stinks! I usually have such a great experience with JetBlue out of JFK.

This was out of LaGuardia.
I've flown JetBlue out of JFK quite a few times and always had pretty good experiences. I think that because they have their own terminal at JFK, the experience a lot better. I didn't like LaGuardia at all (I haven't flown out of there in a few years so I didn't really remember much about the airport), so I'm definitely hoping to fly out of JFK on my next trip.

 

[dreamseeker9]

This was out of LaGuardia.
I've flown JetBlue out of JFK quite a few times and always had pretty good experiences. I think that because they have their own terminal at JFK, the experience a lot better. I didn't like LaGuardia at all (I haven't flown out of there in a few years so I didn't really remember much about the airport), so I'm definitely hoping to fly out of JFK on my next trip.

Oh right - sorry! Yep, I think JetBlue at JFK is definitely better than JetBlue out of LaGuardia! Except for TSA at security check at JetBlue's terminal at JFK - they are always backed up, and it's an awkward set-up, but that's TSA's fault, not JetBlue's.

 

[SarahDisney]

Yep, I think JetBlue at JFK is definitely better than JetBlue out of LaGuardia! Except for TSA at security check at JetBlue's terminal at JFK - they are always backed up, and it's an awkward set-up, but that's TSA's fault, not JetBlue's.

Totally agree on that one. I hate security at JFK, but security at LaGuardia was a breeze!

 

[SarahDisney]

Mini-TR Part 2 - Day 2 – Friday, February 20th – Part A: Race Day
​

Since I know a lot of people were looking forward to reading all about the race, this will probably be one of my more detailed recaps.

We woke up obscenely early, got dressed, grabbed our stuff, and were on a (Disney Cruise Line) bus around 4:20ish. We did take a bus selfie:

It was actually a little warmer than I had expected … mid-30’s, not low-30’s. “Frozen” 5K was definitely an appropriate description of race weather, though. Thankfully, unlike the freezing days in New York, there was no ice to deal with.

I finished my disposable water bottle before we even got to the start area (I drink a lot of water!), so we dumped that (I still had my regular 32 oz water bottle, but I was saving that for the race). Since we didn’t have bags to check, we went straight to the start area. They weren’t letting people into corrals yet, but there was an area with seating, tables, coffee/hot chocolate/breakfast (available for purchase), “characters” for photos, and a DJ who was a little too high energy for that early in the morning:

First off we took our character pictures…

After that, we kinda just walked around to keep warm. IT WAS REALLY COLD!! Finally, they announced that it was time to go line up in our corrals. We were in corral E (the last corral), which is exactly what we expected.

After a little while, they brought the first corral to the starting area. Then, at around 6:15 AM, we saw this …

(picture stolen from runDisney … we didn’t manage to get a good one)

That was corral A starting the race. They let off the corrals 6-8 minutes apart, and each corral got fireworks at the start. One of the corrals took so long to get out that they set off a second set of fireworks towards the end of that corral. It was kinda cool.

Beth and I had lined up together, but planned to separate when we crossed the start line (I was running, she was walking). I started my music, set up my stopwatch, and they started our corral around 6:45ish. We were close to the front of the corral (I did that on purpose), and when I crossed the start line I started my stopwatch.

The race starts in the Epcot parking lots, and the beginning of the race is all backstage. I started running, and I had to weave around people a lot to get around, but I did it, and tried to say “excuse me” as much as I could. I was expecting runners to stay on one side and walkers on the other, but it was really all mixed up and I ended up running on grass more than road because I was just trying to get ahead of the slower people.

Finally, I reached a point where I saw a long line. I figured it had to be a character line, so I stopped running and went to wait on line. I couldn’t see who the character was (this was actually the only line where the line was before the character), but I heard someone say that it was Minnie in a blue dress. I love Minnie, so I was excited.
A lot of people passed me while I was waiting on line. It was kinda discouraging to see all of these people who I had passed now passing me … especially because as I waited on line, I saw the people really thin out. But whatever. I had said that I wanted to stop for all the characters, so I had to be okay with it.
While I was waiting on line, I saw Beth get on line not that far behind me. It took me a while to get her attention, but when I did, I waved. In hindsight, I should have fallen back to wait with her so that we could take this one picture together … but I didn’t. We got separate pictures instead:

When I finished my picture with Minnie, I went back to running. It was a lot easier to run now that the crowd had thinned out – a lot less weaving around people. I just kept running and trying to enjoy the experience. While I was still backstage, I passed the 1-mile marker. I looked at my watch … about 24 minutes. I know a decent chunk of that was waiting on line for Minnie, but … it was still a lot slower than I wanted to be.

Finally we went into World Showcase, through the entrance in Mexico (near where Donald usually is). It was really cool to be running through a fairly empty World Showcase. They were playing “Let It Go” – I thought it might have been in Norwegian, but I really wasn’t sure. I still don’t know. I just know that they kept playing the same stinkin song in many different languages.

Once I got to Norway, I saw Pluto, so I had to stop.

While waiting on line, I took a few pictures:

Finally, I got to the front of the line and got my picture with Pluto:

Beth, who had originally not planned to stop for all the characters, decided to stop for everyone. I didn’t see her on the Pluto line (I had gotten too far ahead of her by this point), but I do have her picture:

A little bit past that was the first water stop. I didn’t stop, because I still had plenty left in my water bottle and didn’t want to lose my momentum. But the volunteers at the water stop (and the CMs throughout the course) were really amazing!

Next character stop was at American Adventure, where Mickey was just going off for his break. I had two options – I could keep running, which would help me meet my goal of finishing in under an hour, but would mean I missed a character (and Mickey no less), or I could stop and spend a little time waiting for him to get back (and waiting on a long line). I decided to stop. I’m still trying to decide if it was the right decision. I really don’t know. But I do know that while waiting on this long line (I think Mickey had gotten back from his longer-than-I-had-expected break by this point), Beth once again “caught up” to me.

I did take a picture of the pavilion:

Our Mickey pictures:

Once I finished with Mickey, I waved to Beth, restarted my music (I paused it when I stopped for characters), and headed back out. The race continued along World Showcase until we got past the International Gateway, where we headed backstage. The second water stop was while we were backstage, and I actually grabbed a cup of water there, because the straw in my water bottle had gotten dislodged (it happens a lot, it’s easy to fix, I just have to stop running to fix it). Mile marker 2 was right after that, and my watch said 54 minutes … aka 30 minutes for mile 2. OUCH! But a decent chunk of that was waiting for Mickey.

We went back into World Showcase between UK and Canada. We passed the phone booths, and people were stopped to take pictures, but I did not, mostly because I don’t care about the phone booths. My next stop was in Canada, for my Goofy picture (and while waiting on line I fixed my water bottle):

Apparently Beth stopped for Goofy as well:

Finally we got out of World Showcase and into Future World. There was one point (I don’t remember the exact location) where Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff were off on a stage, there to encourage us, but not posing for pictures. I tried to take a selfie, but … I couldn’t do it. So here’s a picture Beth took of them:

We ran past The Land (and the sign for Soarin’) and The Seas with Nemo and Friends. We also ran past Fountain View, but I didn’t check to see if it was open (free Starbucks stops along the course would have been nice, though). I remember that I was starting to feel exhausted around Nemo (don’t know why), but I knew that there wasn’t much left to go, so I just kept pushing. I think some previous races have run under Spaceship Earth, but we were supposed to be running next to it.

As I started to see Spaceship Earth in front of me, I made a realization:
I’m running a race in Epcot. Yes, I wanted to run the whole thing. But really, isn’t the experience more important than running 100% of the time?
I slowed my run to a walk so that I could take this picture: (this was actually the second picture, but I like it better than the first one)

After I took that picture, I went back to running. Finally, I exited the park, which I knew meant the end was near. I passed the 3-mile marker and looked at my watch – 1 hour, 9 minutes. Mile 3 was 15 minutes, making it my fastest mile by far. That was the pace I was hoping for overall, so I was happy to see that.

0.1 miles later … I crossed the finish line. Total time from start to finish: 1 hour, 10 minutes, 58 seconds. 11 minutes more than I wanted … but at least I was finished. I jumped up and down and the one earbud I was wearing (the other one was tucked into my shirt so that I could hear what was going on) fell out. I was entertained. Of course, because I was finishing, I couldn’t get a picture, and the official race photographers apparently didn’t get a picture either. Not cool.

Anyway … I went to a volunteer, got my medal put on, said thank you, and then just kept walking. They had the heat blanket thingies, but I didn’t take one because I just didn’t feel like it. I kept walking, and saw tables where they had water and Powerade. I took a water (I don’t drink sports drinks) and started to drink. Once I got a little past the tables, I stopped and texted Beth to tell her where I was waiting (she still had no idea and didn’t know where I was until she actually saw me … but I knew she’d have to pass by me eventually).

Once Beth and I were reunited, we walked towards the buses. We passed by tables where we picked up bananas and food boxes (which actually had some stuff we could eat – not everything was kosher, but I’d say around half of the stuff was, including Krave cereal, which I saved for my mom). Before we reached the area where the buses are, there was a place for official finish pictures, and we had one taken together (if I ever get around to buying my official race photos, I’ll post that one). The race photographers couldn’t take pictures with our camera (/phones), so we had a random CM take one for us in the parking lots:

So now that the race is over, the big question is: would we do it again?
Beth said yes. She wanted to do a 10K next. She is now a runDisney addict. (See, I told you one of us became a runDisney addict … you guys thought it was going to be me, didn’t you? Well you were wrong!)
I decided to reserve judgment until after Shabbos (I don’t care how much I enjoyed the race, Shabbos had the potential to ruin the experience). But at the end of the trip I did decide that I enjoyed the experience and while (unlike Beth) I wasn’t rushing to up my distance and do the next race right away, I would definitely do a Disney race again!
Next on our runDisney agenda is either Marathon Weekend 2016 5K & 10K (hopefully with our cousin) or Princess Weekend 2016 5K (hopefully with our aunt & cousin). After that will be Disneyland Half-Marathon Weekend 5K (and possibly half-marathon, depending on whether or not we did the 10K in January and how we felt).

And now, back to the narrative …
We found our way to bus stop #1 and got on a bus headed back to the All-Stars. There was a bus already there, and we only waited a few minutes before it left. Sports was the first stop, and we were back at the hotel by 8:30. Before going back to the room, we made one stop, where we happened to run into a fellow guest who took a picture for us:

For those of you who have never been to All-Star Sports, that’s a random Mickey statue whose purpose I don’t know, but it’s there and was on our way to our room, so I thought it would be really fun to take a picture there.

Once we got back to the room, it was quick showers and time to get ready for our park of the day. Where were we headed? You’ll have to wait for the next update to find out (or you could go back a few pages to check …).

 

[dreamseeker9]

I am not a runner at all and would be walking like Beth! Kudos to you both for doing the race! And the character meets sound like something I couldn't pass up, either.

 

[ursalita]

Hi Sarah! Just catching up on your updates. I'm so happy you finished the race and had a good experience! Even though you had hoped to finish in less time at least you got all the character pics.

Boo to plane delays but at least you got out of the Northeast for awhile. Wow, I wouldn't have expected 30s in Florida but at least you're used to it.

I'm glad you decided to do a Mini-TR, I'm looking forward to reading all about it.

 

[SarahDisney]

I am not a runner at all and would be walking like Beth! Kudos to you both for doing the race! And the character meets sound like something I couldn't pass up, either.

Thanks! I had heard that runDisney races are very walker-friendly, and that was definitely the case with this 5K. We really enjoyed and I am glad I stopped for all the characters.

Hi Sarah! Just catching up on your updates. I'm so happy you finished the race and had a good experience! Even though you had hoped to finish in less time at least you got all the character pics.

Thanks! I'm definitely glad to have gotten all of the pictures, even though it messed up my time.

Boo to plane delays but at least you got out of the Northeast for awhile. Wow, I wouldn't have expected 30s in Florida but at least you're used to it.

Even with the cold, it was really nice to get away from all the snow. It was definitely colder than I wanted, but at least I had experience running in that weather. And by Saturday & Sunday the weather had gotten a bit better (much better by Sunday), so it was fine.

I'm glad you decided to do a Mini-TR, I'm looking forward to reading all about it.

Thanks! Hopefully reading my recaps will help get you in the spirit for your trip next month!!

 

[Disneychix]

Nice race recap! I'm surprised you aren't complaining about the cold, even coming from NY, because everyone I heard that did the 5k complained about it! The RunDIsney people were still complaining about it on Saturday morning!

Just make sure your sister knows that the 5k is walker friendly but they will sweep you for the longer races if you don't maintain that 16min mile. Still walkable but the sweepers will be there.

Your pictures turned out really nice. You don't have to hurry to order the MarathonPhoto prints, and in fact I think they send coupons if you wait a little.

 

[SarahDisney]

Nice race recap! I'm surprised you aren't complaining about the cold, even coming from NY, because everyone I heard that did the 5k complained about it! The RunDIsney people were still complaining about it on Saturday morning!

Oh, I was complaining about it that morning, but a few weeks later I've finally stopped complaining (mostly). I felt really bad for the volunteers - at least I was running, which warmed me up a bit - they had to stay in the same (general) place the whole time!

Just make sure your sister knows that the 5k is walker friendly but they will sweep you for the longer races if you don't maintain that 16min mile. Still walkable but the sweepers will be there.

She's planning to start running, so hopefully by then she'll be running enough that she doesn't have to worry about being swept. She does generally walk pretty fast, so even if she walks the whole thing, as long as she doesn't spend too much time in character lines, she should be okay (I don't think she's currently planning to stop for characters, but we'll see what she decides closer to the event).

Your pictures turned out really nice. You don't have to hurry to order the MarathonPhoto prints, and in fact I think they send coupons if you wait a little.

Thanks! I did not know that they send coupons - that's good to know. It'll definitely be a little spend the money if I get a coupon.

 

[KatMark]

I tell everyone I know who has done one of the races at Disney...good for you. I sure couldn't do it, and I admire each and every one of you who does it. I love the picture of you and Beth with the characters.

We stayed at All Star Sports for two nights back in 2000 (before asking to be moved) and I don't remember that Mickey. Could be that we were only there for two days or it's new???