Now I'm Really A Princess!! Princess 1/2 Report Update 6/24 Going Home

[DisneyMomma09]

Now that I have finished my spring grad classes, my computer time can become Dis time again! So I have decided to put our latest trip into a report while I still remember it!

After training for 15 months, through the cold and snowy PA winter, we were ready to head south! So who are we?

'We' are my DH Dan, DS Colby (22 months) and myself, Ashleigh. Here we are from our June, 2010 trip. Colby has grown up so much since then!

Once in Florida, we were joined by my SIL Katie who lives in St. Cloud. She would be running the 1/2 marathon with me! Here she is with our DS.

We were scheduled to fly from Buffalo to Orlando on Friday, February 25th in the evening and fly back home on Wednesday, March 1st. My wonderful in-laws used the DVC points for a studio at Bay Lake Towers! I was so excited to be staying so close to the Magic Kingdom and at a monorail resort!

A few other details that might be important: We were on the basic dining plan and my grandparents, who spend the winter in Ft. Myers, would be coming up for Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday to see us and the race!


Table of Contents:
Will we get there?
Day 1: Fit For A Princess Expo
Day 1: Swimming, Dinner, & Fireworks

Day 2: The Race, Part 1: The Wait
Day 2: The Race, Part 2: Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo...Off We Go!
Day 2: The Race, Part 3: Back to the Beginning
Day 2: Race Recovery
Day 2: A Royal Celebration!

Day 3: The Morning After
Day 3: Disney Disappointment
Day 3: A Nap and A Break
Day 3: Not the reaction I was expecting...

Day 4: Breakfast with Mickey
Day 4: Where is everyone?
Day 4: Our Last Supper

Day 5: Going Home

 

[heaven2dc]

I'm in!! and I'm 1st!

Colby is a doll - I can't wait to see how much he's grown! (I just became a grandma again - DS33 & fiance had a baby girl (Skylar Dawn). So I have a grandson and granddaughter - life doesn't get any better than that!)

 

[DisneyMomma09]

I'm in!! and I'm 1st!

Colby is a doll - I can't wait to see how much he's grown! (I just became a grandma again - DS33 & fiance had a baby girl (Skylar Dawn). So I have a grandson and granddaughter - life doesn't get any better than that!)

Yeah! My first reader!! Welcome!

Congrats on the new grandbaby! Colby is the only grandchild on both sides, so he is just a bit spoiled by all his grandparents!!

 

[DisneyMomma09]

Our escape from the cold grasp of winter was not an easy one. On Thursday night into Friday morning, a huge blizzard moved into the area. By the time we woke up on Friday morning, we had a new 6-8 inches of snow and it continued to fall and blow all morning. DH and I were supposed to work until 2:30 and then head up to Buffalo. We decided that the typically 90 minute drive might take a little longer, so we ended up leaving at 12:30.

The same storm that hit us had also hit Buffalo, as well as most of the east cost. Flights were being delayed and cancelled all over the place. We were anxiously watching our flight. As the earlier flights started being delayed and cancelled, I got more and more nervous. I was supposed to go the the Fit for a Princess Expo on Saturday to pick up all my race information! Fortunatly, we had faxed all the information to my SIL, so if our flight was delayed or cancelled, she would be able to pick up my things for me.

Fortunatly, all our prayers were answered and everything worked out for us! By the time we got to the NY state boarder, the snow started clearing up. There had been three huge accidents on the interstate, but all going in the other direction. Our side of the highway was open, but the other side was closed. Our flight was the last one of the day and it only ended up being delayed by 45 minutes.

The flight was pretty uneventful. Colby fell asleep pretty quckly. He woke up for about 40 minutes in the last hour of the flight and did cry a bit. It was pretty frustraiting. I walked him up and down the aisle a bit and took him into the bathrooms. Nothing really seemed to help. I'm pretty sure his ears were bothering him. Anyways, we did not get too many dirty looks. Thank goodness most people have earbuds or earphones on. They did not seem to notice too much.

Because our flight got in so late, we had to get our own luggage. Then, of course, we were the LAST Magical Express stop. We did not get to Bay Lake Tower until 1:30 in the morning. The one bright spot is that Katie, who lives near Orlando, had come over earlier in the afternoon and checked in, since she was staying with us. So we just called her and she came down and let us into the room. It was nice that we did not have to check in!

We quickly changed and crashed into bed, happy to be in the warm south at last!

*Sorry for the lack of pictures! I promise, there are many pictures to come, but with all the stress of the travel day, we were not in much of a mood to take pictures!!

 

[DisneyMomma09]

After a good nights sleep, we were ready to roll on Saturday morning. Katie and I were off to the Fit for a Princess Expo to pick up our race packets and Dan was off to the Magic Kingdom with Colby for a haircut.

It was a beautiful morning! What a change from the weather we had left at home...

Colby loved the view while we waited for the elevator! He got to see the choo-choo, aka the Monorail.

Katie drove us to the Expo and we arrived about 15 minutes before it opened up.

We spent about 1 1/2 hours at the expo. I bought Katie's 'I Did It!' shirt and she bought mine, so we would not jinx ourselves. We also bought Bondi Bands with crowns on them to wear during the race, Princess 1/2 Marathon shoe charms, and Katie bought a Sparkle Skirt. My mom got me a purple Sparkle Skirt for an early birthday present to wear during the race, so now Katie had a matching one! (We also had matching shirts to wear!)

After our shopping, we headed to pick up our packets and then our shirts. It was getting pretty crowded and we had spent enough money, so we decided to head back to the hotel.

While Katie and I were getting ready to become Princesses, Dan and Colby walked over to the Magic Kingdom. Colby had a 10:00 haircut at the Main Street Barber Shop.

Colby had gotten his first haircut here on our June, 2010 trip. They really do a nice job!

After the haircut, the boys took in a few rides, including Colby's current obsession, the Train!!

We all met back at Bay Lake Towers at about noon. We checked in with my grandparents, who were driving up, and they were still about an hour away. We decided to take the monorail over to the Poly for lunch at Captain Cooks.

I had the chicken sandwich, Dan had a cheeseburger, Katie had the Aloha Pork sandwich and we got Colby a grilled cheese. The food was all good, but we were most excited about dessert! Dan got his Mickey's Premium Bar...this is his favorite snack and I am pretty sure it is the only snack he ever eats at Disney...while Katie and I got Dole Whips! Yummy!

 

[I Believe In Magic]

Joining in!! Colby is adorable! I wish I would have thought to get my kids' haircut at the barber shop when they were little!!

Can't wait to hear about the marathon! Sounds like an expensive endeavor> Can't Disney do one thing w/o making it so much $$?? lol

 

[DisneyMomma09]

Joining in!! Colby is adorable! I wish I would have thought to get my kids' haircut at the barber shop when they were little!!

Can't wait to hear about the marathon! Sounds like an expensive endeavor> Can't Disney do one thing w/o making it so much $$?? lol

Welcome! The barber shop offers a cool package for a child's first haircut. They saved just about all of the hair cut off, he got a little certificate, and he got a pair of Mickey ears that are embroirdered with 'First Haircut' on the back! Very cute!

Yes, it can be an expensive endeavor! We are so fortunate that my in-laws were willing to let us use their DVC points for the hotel. We also had annual passes from our June trip. It did take some convincing to get my DH onboard with this!

 

[DisneyMomma09]

After lunch, we tried to get Colby to go down for a little nap in the room while we waited for my grandparents to get there, but he was having none of it and he was still awake 45 minutes later when my grandparents came. So we all got changed and headed for the pool!

Colby loved the zero entry pool, the kiddie slide and the water play area! We swam for a while, then we needed to get ready and leave for our dinner ADR and my grandparents needed to check into their hotel (they were staying off site).

We tood the monorail over to Epcot (I LOVE staying at a monorail resort!!!) and got there just in time for our dinner at LeCellier. This is one of our favorite places to eat. We are huge steak lovers! We wanted to eat there one more time before dinner changed to a signature restaurant. We had pretty early reservations because I did not want to eat too late before the race.

We all enjoyed our dinners. Katie and I both had the Mushroom Filet. I love this meal! I cannot remember what DH had, but I believe it was one of the steaks. Colby had pasta with sauce. The big surprise was dessert. All three of us got the seasonal sorbet. It was lemon lavendar. It was awsome! Very light and refreshing!

Katie and I did not want to do too much walking, so when we finished our dinner, we strolled around a little. We went on the Finding Nemo ride, which Colby loved! (Nemo is one of his favorite movies right now!) We also rode Spaceship Earth on our way out. I rode with Colby while DH rode with his sister. I tried to hold Colby up when they took the picture so he would be in it, but instead it just looked like I had a growth coming out of my head!

We took the monorail back to the hotel. Colby fell asleep in his stroller on the way back.

Since we were staying on DVC points, we were able to go up to the roof and watch Wishes from there. It was perfect, since Colby was asleep and we did not really want to fight the crowds. We had an awsome view!

We were back in our room about 3 minutes after the fireworks were over. We changed Colby into his PJ's and he fell right back to sleep. Katie and I had laid all our our clothes and items we would need for the morning out earlier. We double checked that we had everything we needed. We also set 3 cell phone alarms, the room alarm clock, called for a wake up call, and set the alarm on our iPod. We were in bed by 9:45.

Up next...The Race!!!

 

[DisneyMomma09]

The Race, Part 1: The Wait
After a pretty good nights sleep, considering how nervous we were, Katie and I were actually up before our many alarms went off. We quickly got dressed in our gear, grabbed our water, powerade, breakfast, and snacks for the race. We were in the car and on the road to Epcot by 2:50. They were starting to close some of the roads at that point, but fortunatly Katie knows where she is going, and quickly got us going in the right direction.

Before we knew it, we were pulling into the parking lot! We thought we would hang out in the car a while, so we would stay off our feet. That lasted less than 15 minutes! The excitement was pulling us to the pre-race area! There was lots of music and excitement! Our first order of buisness was to visit the Port-A-Potties-Yippie!

Since we had driven our own car, we did not have to leave anything at bag check. We made our way to the next area beyond the bag check and settled in for a little wait. It was really a beautiful morning (night?). It was around 60 degrees when we left the car. Katie was not wearing any throw away clothes and I only had on a long sleeved t-shirt over my race shirt. I was perfect in that! I was a little concerned that the temp was supposed to get to 80 today, probably close to 75 by the end of the race. I had done all my training in sub-freezing temperatures at home! But it was nice to only have to run in a t-shirt and running skirt, as opposed to all of my multiple layers I was used to!

Eventually, we were all released to begin the long walk to the corrals. I was placed in corral C and Katie was in D. I decided to start back in D with Katie so we could run together. But before we took our place in the corrals, we hit the potties one more time. I had already had one entire bottle of water as well as some powerade at this point. I wanted to stay well hydrated since it was so much warmer than I was used to.

We made it to our corral and were pretty close to the front. We sat down and settled in to wait some more. Again, I was very happy that the temperature was so nice and it was not raining. I first decided to run in a Disney race after reading the Jan 2010 Marathon weekend race reports. I cannot imagine doing all this waiting in the conditionn that weekend!

Here is Katie in our start corral:

And here I am:

And here we are together:

As we waited, the excitement continued to build, until it was finally start time! It was a little difficult to hear when corral A started, but as we moved closer to the front, we could hear the Fairy Godmother starting each corral. Everyone cheered each time a new corral started, until we finally reached the start line!

Just a couple more minutes and the Fairy Godmother sent us on our way!!

 

[I Believe In Magic]

Yay!!!! I know you already raced but I'm cheering you on anyways!!!

Can't wait to hear the rest! You girls look so excited! My son ran his first marathon last year, he came in first for his age (he was 18 at the time) and that was a miracle because there were over 10, 000 people at the race (some ran full marathon, like him, or they had 1/2 marathons and I think 5K.) I remember the adrenalin and the excitement. We kept driving to different points trying to find him. It was awesome! So I get the 'feel' of the race and am excited for the rest of your TR!

 

[DisneyMomma09]

Yay!!!! I know you already raced but I'm cheering you on anyways!!!

Can't wait to hear the rest! You girls look so excited! My son ran his first marathon last year, he came in first for his age (he was 18 at the time) and that was a miracle because there were over 10, 000 people at the race (some ran full marathon, like him, or they had 1/2 marathons and I think 5K.) I remember the adrenalin and the excitement. We kept driving to different points trying to find him. It was awesome! So I get the 'feel' of the race and am excited for the rest of your TR!

Thanks for the cheers! Congratulations to your son! I hope to someday do a full marathon. Thanks for following along!

 

[PirateKate]

I love the pictures of the views from BLT, especially the one with Colby looking out over the park. I can't wait to see how the race goes!

 

[DisneyMomma09]

The Race, Part 2: Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo...Off we Go!

We were finally off! All the anticipation that had been building since I had begun my training had all come to this! The first mile went very quickly! There were lots of people, including quite a few walkers. Katie and I were careful not to weave in and out of them too much, so we did not add too much distance to the 13.1 miles we were already running! There were quite a few spectators cheering us on as we started. There were also some high school bands along the way. The energy was sky high! We could not believe how quickly we came upon the first mile marker!

Here I am at the first mile marker. We had started 24 minutes after the first group, so we did the first mile in 11 minutes (that is blazing, for us!).

And here is Katie!

The second mile still seemed to go pretty quickly. There were not many spectators, but still some entertainment. We did enjoy following the road signs that were leading us to the Magic Kingdom! We were a little slower for the second mile-12:47

During the 3rd mile we passed a huge hot air balloon shaped like Spaceship Earth from Epcot. We also had our first photo ops of the race! The lines were not too long, so we decided to wait.
First we met some pirates:

As well as some heroes:

We also passed under the Magic Kingdom sign!!

With the stops, we were significantly slower this mile-22 minutes!!!!

Mile 4 took us past the Richard Petty Track and into the Magic Kingdom parking area. The excitement was still pretty high as there was pretty regular entertainment as well as the building anticipation of entering the Magic Kingdom! We were pretty steady at a 13 minute mile.

Mile 5 got pretty exciting as we passed the ticket and transportation center. We saw my grandparents there, cheering for us! There was an awsome drum group playing as we left the TTC. We also passed under the water bridge, where we saw this sign:

It is sort of hard to make out, but the sign says "You can go the distance" from Hurculese. When we had been watching Wishes the night before, they play part of this song. I looked at Katie and said, "That will be us tomorrow! We can go the distance!" So it became our mantra. It was cool seeing it in writing! There was also a DJ playing up there!

As we passed the Contemporary Resort, just before entering the Magic Kingdom, we passed Mile 5. Maintaining our pace of a 13 minute mile...we were still feeing good and super excited about heading into the Magic Kingdom!

We ran past the bus stops and ran behind the fence that runs along the path from the Contemporary, into the backstage area, and then out into the Magic Kingdom right next to the Confectionary. It was AWSOME to be running down Main Street! There were tons of spectators, or course, all cheering for us! It was awsome! (Did I say that already?) Right around the hub DH and Colby were waiting, cheering for us! We made the turn towards Tomorrowland and Katie and I decided to take a few pics in front of the castle. A couple other girls had the same idea, so we took turns taking eachothers pictures:

We took a potty break in Tomorrowland, using the REAL bathrooms! It was nice, but being soo sweaty made it a little difficult to get the compression shorts back up! (Sorry...maybe TMI?)

Buzz was out in Tomorrowland, but we did not stop. I did take a pic of him as we passed, though!

Alice was out near the Tea Cups, but again, we did not stop.

We rounded through Fantasyland and headed for the castle!!! We sprinted through, only to come to a dead stop on the other side! There was a HUGE line to have your picture taken. We were not going to be ordering any pictures, so we just skipped around the line and took our own pictures!
Here is Katie:

And here I am!

We continued on through Liberty Square and Frontierland. Here we passed mile marker 6. The potty break and photo stops slowed us down again-another 22 minute mile!!

Then we passed over the train tracks:

And into the backstage area. There were several parade floats out as well as some characters. But after another 22 minute mile, we dicided to keep on running!

Up next: The treck back to Epcot!!!

 

[DisneyMomma09]

I love the pictures of the views from BLT, especially the one with Colby looking out over the park. I can't wait to see how the race goes!

Glad you stopped over! DH took some great pics on his phone looking down at the pool. I will have to see if I can upload some of them!

 

[I Believe In Magic]

How exciting!!! The camaraderie had to be 'electric' is the only word I can think of. Again great job, can't wait to hear the rest!!!

 

[DisneyMomma09]

How exciting!!! The camaraderie had to be 'electric' is the only word I can think of. Again great job, can't wait to hear the rest!!!

It was SOOO awsome! Katie is planning on doing it again next year, but I hope to be significantly pregnant at that point, so I am aiming for 2013 to do it again!!

 

[PirateKate]

I'm surprised how much cool stuff they had out along the route. I bet it was really cool to meet the pirates. In some pictures it looks like there were a ton of people running. Were there ever any bottlenecks?

 

[DisneyMomma09]

I'm surprised how much cool stuff they had out along the route. I bet it was really cool to meet the pirates. In some pictures it looks like there were a ton of people running. Were there ever any bottlenecks?

It was really cool! Disney sure knows how to put on a race! There were about 17,000 people running this year. There were a few places where it got crowded and difficult to keep running. We always had people on all sides, but for the most part it was pretty easy to pass people.

 

[DisneyMomma09]

The Race, Part 3: Back to the Beginning

Once we let the excitement of the Magic Kingdom, we did not have too much to look forward to except the Finish Line! We were excited to be half way done, but the run back to Epcot seemed daunting. I did not take as many pictures along the way back, so my memory of what we saw and when might be a little mixed up.

It was not too long after leaving the Magic Kingdom that we came to Mile marker 7. Mile 7 took us about 13 minutes. Not too bad!

At this point we were taking water and Powerade at every stop. I had also emptied the bottles I was carrying with me, so I tried to fill them up at the water stops as well. I had begun eating some of the food I brought to carry with me. I had Pretzel M&Ms, raisins, and peanut butter crackers that I was alternatively munching on. I think I started just before mile 6 in the Magic Kingdom. It worked! My energy was good through the whole race!

Mile 8 took us past the Grand Floridian and some of the golf courses. Belle and the Beast were posing for pictures, but we opted not to stop for them. We did stop when we saw Cinderella's carriage, though!

As we approached mile 8, we were starting to feel the heat of the day and we were starting to get tired. We had slowed down quite a bit, but we were still running. Mile 8 was a 16 minutes mile.

I think mile 9 was the most difficult for us. I think Katie was having an even more difficult time than I was, so I was trying to encourage her. We decided that we would walk after we got to mile marker 9. The prospect of walking a bit must have motivated us to go faster! Mile 9 was a nice 12:30 minute pace! This was a slower stretch of the race, with not too much in the form of entertainment.

As we promised ourselves, we walked the 10th mile. I think this was a good choice for us. We had the first of the exit ramps coming up, so walking this mile gave us extra energy to face the incline. Walking did slow us down a little-we walked mile 10 in 16 minutes.

I was a little worried it might be difficult to start running again after taking the walk break. But surprisingly we were able to get going again pretty easily. The first thing we met as we began mile 11 was our first ramp. I had read that if you take the outside of the ramp, the incline is not so steep. So that is what we did. There was some entertainment at this point, as well. Some of the Toy Story army men were shouting orders of encouragement at us as we ran. There was also another DJ playing music. It gave us a nice boost during this difficult stretch. This mile went well, but as we approached the mile marker, we also approached another incline at a bridge. We had done well, though-a 12 minute mile!

Again, we decided to take a walk break for mile 12, so we could have plenty of energy for the last 1.1 mile! The excitement was starting to build again as we got closer and closer to Epcot! I think it was along this stretch that we passed an announcer from ESPN W. They were playing music and also telling us how much further we had. At some point during this mile we were able to see Spaceship Earth. That was a HUGE boost! Like practically being able to see the finish line! We walked mile 12 in 16 minutes again.

We picked it up to a run for mile 13. As we ran into the resort bus area there were a few photo ops with some different characters, but at this point, not many people were stopping. We were so close to the finish! Colby and my grandparents were here cheering for us again. Dan had gone into Epcot to get Colby a snack and we missed seeing him. Again, it was so awesome to hear people cheering our names! We stopped for kisses from Colby and then headed backstage and then into Epcot.

It was really cool running though Epcot, since it was open now. They had the path for the runners blocked off. Many of the guests were clapping and cheering as we ran by. There were also a lot of cast members making sure the running path stayed clear who were cheering. It was so encouraging to hear that we were almost there!

We ran under Spaceship Earth, down to the entrance of the World Showcase, and then back toward Spaceship Earth and then through the backstage area towards the finish line. Just before we hit the 13th mile marker we passed the Gospel Choir. I had read so many accounts of hearing them sing as you get to the end of the race and now I was living it!!! The emotions of realizing I was actually going to finish were unbelievable!!! Difficult as it was to stop so close to the finish line, we had pictures of us next to the first mile marker, so we stopped for pictures next to the last mile marker. This last mile was a 14 minute one. Here I am!

And here is Katie!

Just around the bend from this marker was the finish line! Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy were dressed in their royal finest just before the finish line, but again, not many people were stopping at that point! I forgot to listen for them saying our names as we crossed the finish line. I was just so excited, happy, proud, overwhelmed, and a lot of other things! 15 months of hard work, running through just about any weather condition imaginable from hot, humid summer days to cold, snowy, blowing winter ones. Katie and I could not stop grinning!

We slowed to a walk and moved through the finish area. We got our medals and got sprinkled with Pixie Dust! We also picked up some water, powerade, bananas, and some protein bars. A very nice cast member took our picture together in the finish area before we headed off to find our family!

Coming up: Finding the Family!

 

[1BLINDMICE]

Enjoying the report and pics. Kudo's to you and Katie.