Official 2016 Princess Half Marathon Thread

[bumbershoot]

Several on the FB page have already signed up with Autism Speaks for Princess. http://events.autismspeaks.org/faf/...6004=17BBC012C1574658AB800EC981D1F7A6&login=t

 

[CPFromTheBigE]

Hoping to run the PHM! Will be my first bigger disney race, only having ran the ToT 5k this past fall. It was fun, but I need a challenge! Should I prepare myself for registration? Is the PHM one that will sell out day of?

 

[Planner2012]

I'm seriously considering running the PHM in 2016 (yay!), and I'm trying to figure out a budget for this. I think I've got the basics, but its the extras that always sneak up on me. Does anyone know the cost of photos from the run? Do you pre-purchase like photo pass or buy individually afterwards? Are there photographers at the character stops?
TIA

 

[DVCFan1994]

Hoping to run the PHM! Will be my first bigger disney race, only having ran the ToT 5k this past fall. It was fun, but I need a challenge! Should I prepare myself for registration? Is the PHM one that will sell out day of?

Yes, it will likely sell out quick if it repeats last years pattern. Sold out the first day, the challenge sold out in the first hour or two. Be ready to register right at noon, or early if you are a DVC member or AP holder.

 

[Ariel484]

I'm seriously considering running the PHM in 2016 (yay!), and I'm trying to figure out a budget for this. I think I've got the basics, but its the extras that always sneak up on me. Does anyone know the cost of photos from the run? Do you pre-purchase like photo pass or buy individually afterwards? Are there photographers at the character stops?
TIA

Photos are pricey! Lately runDisney has been using MarathonFoto for the races. Sometimes they'll post a discount code you can use if you buy in advance, so keep an eye out! Unless you pre-purchase with the code you can buy after the event.

ETA just looked at the package from Dopey this year - all photos downloaded for a little over $100.

There are photographers at the character stops, but they aren't guaranteed to be at every character. If the photos are important to you I highly recommend running with your own camera!

 

[FFigawi]

Photos are pricey! Lately runDisney has been using MarathonFoto for the races. Sometimes they'll post a discount code you can use if you buy in advance, so keep an eye out! Unless you pre-purchase with the code you can buy after the event.

ETA just looked at the package from Dopey this year - all photos downloaded for a little over $100.

There are photographers at the character stops, but they aren't guaranteed to be at every character. If the photos are important to you I highly recommend running with your own camera!

Using your own camera is also good if you want to post them online during or shortly after the race. The official photos are not usually available right away.

 

[doggydoc]

Neither! I just don't think they're up yet.

Well that's a relief! Thank you so much for your continued help. I have planned Disney trips for my DD's birthday every year for almost a decade but this one has me completely stressed! I am hoping to plan a special week around this trip and everything hinges on getting the run registrations.

If there is a American Heart Association or other similar charity to run for that would be perfect as MIL died of sudden massive cardiac arrest. My wife's grandmother died the same way so I find it especially important to encourage my wife and DD to be particularly aware and be proactive in insuring cardiovascular health. Until this happened I thought heart disease was a primarily man thing. I had no idea how many women are afflicted. It was a chilling and frightful revelation in light of the knowledge of genetic predisposition.

This run just appears to be a perfect way to combine a tribute to MIL, encouraging heart healthy exercise and our love of Disney.

 

[doggydoc]

Several on the FB page have already signed up with Autism Speaks for Princess. http://events.autismspeaks.org/faf/...6004=17BBC012C1574658AB800EC981D1F7A6&login=t

Thank you! I have an nephew and niece both diagnosed with Ausperger's Syndrome. I think my wife and DD would be proud to run for a such a charity, I will definitely look into it.

 

[bumbershoot]

Thank you! I have an nephew and niece both diagnosed with Ausperger's Syndrome. I think my wife and DD would be proud to run for a such a charity, I will definitely look into it.

Seems to be a high amount of fundraising involved, but if you know you can do it, seems to be a good thing!

 

[jmb367]

I will definitely be doing the 5K and I am starting to think about doing the 10K also! My first runDisney events! Cannot wait!!

I'm in the same boat - 5K and 10K. Though, since I won't be getting any extra medals out of it, may just shoot for the 10K and save my legs for long days hanging out in the park afterward. I do have a friend going with me who's in for the GSC. Maybe one day for me... but today's not that day.

 

[bamacmac]

I'm in the same boat - 5K and 10K. Though, since I won't be getting any extra medals out of it, may just shoot for the 10K and save my legs for long days hanging out in the park afterward. I do have a friend going with me who's in for the GSC. Maybe one day for me... but today's not that day.

I think I am just going to do the 5K now. I talked a friend into doing it with me and she hasn't been to Disney in a long time. So I really want us to have plenty of fun in the parks. I know I will be fine with the 5K and then some park days, but I think the 10K would be a little too much for me with park fun too. So I just want to have fun! I'm so excited for it though!

 

[lauriko]

So I'm tentatively thinking about the 5K as my first Disney race. Fun! My mother really wants to do one, but she has bad knees and can't actually run. Can you walk the whole thing? Is there a pace you need to keep? Since it can be "run" by those aged 5+ I figure maybe there isn't a pace you need to maintain.

I have a bad ankle myself that I hope to strengthen as we lead up to February. Gotta start that training now!

Thanks!

 

[SarahDisney]

So I'm tentatively thinking about the 5K as my first Disney race. Fun! My mother really wants to do one, but she has bad knees and can't actually run. Can you walk the whole thing? Is there a pace you need to keep? Since it can be "run" by those aged 5+ I figure maybe there isn't a pace you need to maintain.

I have a bad ankle myself that I hope to strengthen as we lead up to February. Gotta start that training now!

Thanks!

Technically there's a pace requirement of 16:00 min/mile.
In my experience, they don't enforce it for the 5K. Last year my pace was closer to 20:00 min/mile with all the stops, and there were still people who finished after me. Assuming she can walk the whole 3.1 miles without bothering her knees too much, I don't think you'll have any problems.

 

[princessluna14]

Okay ladies, real talk time. How well did you manage park time while doing GSC? We are planning on doing AK on Friday, MK on Saturday after the 10k, and Epcot on Sunday after the half. Did you feel like you could adequately tour the parks even with running both races? I have major FOMO thinking about NOT doing GSC, but I want to be able to enjoy myself in the parks too! Looking for any GSC alums experiences!

 

[Ariel484]

So I'm tentatively thinking about the 5K as my first Disney race. Fun! My mother really wants to do one, but she has bad knees and can't actually run. Can you walk the whole thing? Is there a pace you need to keep? Since it can be "run" by those aged 5+ I figure maybe there isn't a pace you need to maintain.

I have a bad ankle myself that I hope to strengthen as we lead up to February. Gotta start that training now!

Thanks!

I think their main concern with the 5Ks is clearing the park in time for opening. I have absolutely seen people walk the 5Ks, and I think I have read about finish times between 1:00-1:30. You will have a blast!

Okay ladies, real talk time. How well did you manage park time while doing GSC? We are planning on doing AK on Friday, MK on Saturday after the 10k, and Epcot on Sunday after the half. Did you feel like you could adequately tour the parks even with running both races? I have major FOMO thinking about NOT doing GSC, but I want to be able to enjoy myself in the parks too! Looking for any GSC alums experiences!

I haven't done GSC yet, but I have done multi-race weekends twice in January. The first time I really struggled with having less park time - the early wake-ups are tough, and I found that I needed to sleep a bit after the races to not feel horrible. Plus I then had to go to bed early - I just didn't realize how little time I'd actually get in the parks. The second time was better because I knew what to expect.

I think your plan of sticking to one park per day is a good one. That seems more realistic to me than planning on crazy park-hopping. Make sure not to spend too much time on your feet, drink tons of water, and eat REAL meals, not just snacks while going around the parks (I'm good at drinking the tons of water - the other two things, not so much).

 

[pigletliz]

Okay ladies, real talk time. How well did you manage park time while doing GSC? We are planning on doing AK on Friday, MK on Saturday after the 10k, and Epcot on Sunday after the half. Did you feel like you could adequately tour the parks even with running both races? I have major FOMO thinking about NOT doing GSC, but I want to be able to enjoy myself in the parks too! Looking for any GSC alums experiences!

We've done GSC for the last 2 years. The first year we went all out in the parks before the race. My sisters definitely felt the impact on race day. This year, we took it nice and easy, doing one park a day before the 10k. No crazy zigzagging across the parks because we got to the parks early and Fastpass+ worked really well. After the half, we were able to hit the parks hard, eat our favorite foods and stay up late. I should mention that we flew in on Wednesday, so that we could go to the expo on Thursday. We departed the following Wednesday. We had a great time.

 

[huggybuff]

Here's my (very) tentative schedule so far:

Thursday: Expo, do some DTD shopping and lunch at The Boathouse, dinner undecided
Friday: 1900 Park Fare, spa time at the GF, lunch, then head to MK for some light park touring, dinner at the Plaza Restaurant, Wishes
Saturday: 10K, Raglan Rd for brunch, maybe some DTD shopping, relax at the hotel, then dinner at Bull and Bear
Sunday: 13.1, Captains' Grille for lunch, then do the monorail crawl starting at Tambu Lounge at the Poly, then CR, then GF, dinner at Narcoossee's, then head to MK for Wishes

Hopefully that will be relaxing enough both pre and post races. After that I'm planning 5 days of park hopping so I'm not worried about squeezing in park time at the beginning.

 

[princessluna14]

I think their main concern with the 5Ks is clearing the park in time for opening. I have absolutely seen people walk the 5Ks, and I think I have read about finish times between 1:00-1:30. You will have a blast!

I haven't done GSC yet, but I have done multi-race weekends twice in January. The first time I really struggled with having less park time - the early wake-ups are tough, and I found that I needed to sleep a bit after the races to not feel horrible. Plus I then had to go to bed early - I just didn't realize how little time I'd actually get in the parks. The second time was better because I knew what to expect.

I think your plan of sticking to one park per day is a good one. That seems more realistic to me than planning on crazy park-hopping. Make sure not to spend too much time on your feet, drink tons of water, and eat REAL meals, not just snacks while going around the parks (I'm good at drinking the tons of water - the other two things, not so much).

I figured we would probably take the 10k easy too and really enjoy it, so that should hopefully help too! I will probably need a little nap after the races too haha

We've done GSC for the last 2 years. The first year we went all out in the parks before the race. My sisters definitely felt the impact on race day. This year, we took it nice and easy, doing one park a day before the 10k. No crazy zigzagging across the parks because we got to the parks early and Fastpass+ worked really well. After the half, we were able to hit the parks hard, eat our favorite foods and stay up late. I should mention that we flew in on Wednesday, so that we could go to the expo on Thursday. We departed the following Wednesday. We had a great time.

My plan is similar (to fly in early Thursday morning) and do the expo and DTD and take it easy for the rest of that day at least. I've done seven half marathons and countless other races so I feel like I will hopefully be able to handle the fatigue fairly well, but I know you can walk upwards of 10 miles sometimes in the parks, so I wanted to see what everyone thought.

Here's my (very) tentative schedule so far:

Thursday: Expo, do some DTD shopping and lunch at The Boathouse, dinner undecided
Friday: 1900 Park Fare, spa time at the GF, lunch, then head to MK for some light park touring, dinner at the Plaza Restaurant, Wishes
Saturday: 10K, Raglan Rd for brunch, maybe some DTD shopping, relax at the hotel, then dinner at Bull and Bear
Sunday: 13.1, Captains' Grille for lunch, then do the monorail crawl starting at Tambu Lounge at the Poly, then CR, then GF, dinner at Narcoossee's, then head to MK for Wishes

Hopefully that will be relaxing enough both pre and post races. After that I'm planning 5 days of park hopping so I'm not worried about squeezing in park time at the beginning.

That sounds amazing! I was a little nervous about squeezing all my park time Fri-Sun, as we will be cruising Mon-Fri, but I think we will be able to make it work. If not, we can always head back to the room to take a nap and recharge!

 

[Ariel484]

I figured we would probably take the 10k easy too and really enjoy it, so that should hopefully help too! I will probably need a little nap after the races too haha

This past January I did not take a nap after the 5K - the wake-up call was later (4:30) so I didn't feel TOO badly, and I was hoping that no nap would help me sleep better that night before the 10K. But I went to bed too late, so that was dumb.
For the 10K the next day I was up at 2:45. Even with a nap after that one I felt like a truck had hit me by dinner! I got to bed at a better time that night but still not early enough.
I had a repeat of this the next day. Up at 2:45 for the half, nap after, felt pretty good until dinner and then it all caught up to me, and I was just like, "OMG MUST SLEEP IMMEDIATELY." That night I finally got to bed at a good time (8PMish) and felt awesome the next day.

So going to bed at a decent hour is definitely something I am going to try to work on for GSC.

 

[Luv2Run]

Here's my (very) tentative schedule so far:

Thursday: Expo, do some DTD shopping and lunch at The Boathouse, dinner undecided
Friday: 1900 Park Fare, spa time at the GF, lunch, then head to MK for some light park touring, dinner at the Plaza Restaurant, Wishes
Saturday: 10K, Raglan Rd for brunch, maybe some DTD shopping, relax at the hotel, then dinner at Bull and Bear
Sunday: 13.1, Captains' Grille for lunch, then do the monorail crawl starting at Tambu Lounge at the Poly, then CR, then GF, dinner at Narcoossee's, then head to MK for Wishes

Hopefully that will be relaxing enough both pre and post races. After that I'm planning 5 days of park hopping so I'm not worried about squeezing in park time at the beginning.

I'm so glad I'm not the only super-planner! I have a tentative schedule going, as well:

Thursday: early flight to MCO (touch down around 9:30-10am), check-in around noon, then head to the Expo. Dinner at either Sanaa (since we'll be staying at AKL) or DTD.
Friday: the guys are running the 5K so they'll be up at 4am, so us girls will meet them at the finish line. Depending on the weather (it was FREEZING this year) we may just hop on the bus with them since it's such a short race, or if the weather is truly awful then we'll get up at 5 and hop on the bus to meet them when they finish. They'll most likely need a nap & shower, then we'll head to Animal Kingdom for the afternoon and evening. Dinner back at the resort. Early to bed (no later than 9pm, hopefully).
Saturday: all 4 of us are running the 10K, so we'll be up super early (2:30am). Nap & shower after we finish the race, head to Hollywood Studios for a late lunch at Sci-Fi. Head back to AKL after Fantasmic!, dinner back at AKL. Early to bed (no later than 9pm, hopefully).
Sunday: us girls are running the PHM, so we'll be up at 2:30am-3am, and the guys will get up around 6-6:30am and head for the buses to meet us at the finish line. Brunch/lunch, shower, nap & chill time back at the resort. Non-park day. Head to DTD for dinner at Raglan Road and the PHM after party OR we might head to the Poly for dinner since we've never been to that resort so it could be kinda cool to check out (we try to do this at least once per trip).
Monday: Epcot
Tuesday: Magic Kingdom
Wednesday: Fly home. Hopefully we can get a later flight so we can enjoy the resort before check-out at 11am.