Princess Weekend 2022

[azrivest]

Oh and I really enjoyed running a few yards with @SheHulk coming out of MK. So fun to meet you and everyone

 

[striker1064]

Now that I've had a chance to rest and reflect...

I finished the HM in 1:58:06, 590th overall and a PR by 38 seconds. I'll take it!

A new injury popped up 2 weeks ago, so I mostly abandoned any notion of meeting my goal of a 5-minute PR and decided to just see what I could do. I ran the first 3 miles around M tempo and felt ok, so I pushed the rest of the race to between HM and M tempos. I tried pushing just a little more around mile 11, but I noticed I wasn't feeling great so I had to pull back. At mile marker 12, the heat got me and I knew I was going to be in trouble soon. Luckily, I was able to finish and at least got a PR.

I try to take something out of every race, because I still have so much to learn. This taught me about adjusting expectations on the fly (I began the race hoping for a ~3 minute PR, shifted to a 1 minute PR at the halfway mark, and just finishing at the end). I am a little frustrated the heat got to me, but now I know the importance of HAT. If it hadn't been for needing to stop running from injury, I would have done HAT over the last 2 weeks and maybe done a bit better. But that's all woulda, coulda, shoulda and I'm satisfied knowing I did the best I could today.

Want to give one last thank you to the group for allowing me to join the HH meetup yesterday and the pre race meetup today. I am always humbled to meet such accomplished runners and I love hearing your stories! I can't wait to see everyone again (and meet more!) at future races.

Safe travels all! I depart tonight.

 

[bumbershoot]

And the experience was advertised/described as 60 min

I didn’t experience it as being much less than that. I remember thinking I was, and then there was savasana.

From what my local cousin and her husband know, sunrise would have been off in Tomorrowland. It wouldn’t have been seen due to buildings. And wasn’t. We took ou time leaving and complimented every CM we could find for a fantastic experience, and as we walked down Main Street it was fully light.

Got to the pickup spot in front of the Conference Center around 2:55. Usually there's a bus here already or arriving shortly. 3:15 and no bus. The cast member lady is nice but says it's her first time doing this so she isn't familiar with how it's supposed to go.

It’s like a preview of Sunday.

An official just came thru the line at S&D announcing they are delaying the start since there is a delay with bus drop off and “half the race would be missing right now”

Our bus was just getting to Epcot as the first corral left. And tons of people were after us. 15 minutes was fair to the early birds but didn’t do a lot for us.

Well, God hates me. Blue Powerade again

I’m picky like you. I don’t rely on course refreshment. I bring my own.

Got myself swept at mile 9…. Made it a lot further than I thought but I couldn’t keep going

Same. Were you on the first bus?

With that said, they ROYALLY messed up the buses going to Beach Club this morning and I'm sending strongly worded emails to both Rundisney and Beach Club's general manager.

Excellent. I was there, too, but I got there at 3:30ish.

So I’ve been on this sweeper bus for over an hour.. we’ve been lost.. we’e been stuck… and we even did some off roading onto some grass… I should’ve just kept going at this point. I think I’m going to live on this bus

ETA: I finally made it off the stupid bus!

I bet you were on the first bus, tooDidn’t know about the grass!

I already have a theory. I think it was primarily the Epcot resorts that had issues (as I've heard similar stories from Boardwalk and Swan and Dolphin), and Beach Club's issue was exacerbated by sharing a bus with Yacht Club.

Just because they had 400 buses doesn't mean they had a)enough or b) deployed them effectively.

Other areas had troubles as well.

how could it have been soooooo bad?

It’s disney. When they are good they are very very good, but when they are bad they are wicked(ly bad).

I'd imagine they don't count on the Akl or Wl buses to get more than 2 bus loads due to distances involved.

Not everyone plans where they stay based on how close the resorts.

What's the resort GM going to do about any of this? RunDisney and bussing for the event are completely outside of the resorts control.

It happened on their property. They need to know.

I've heard all the negativity about Princess Weekend but I didn't pick up on any of that at all.

It was better this weekend than I’ve experienced since 2016.

Race etiquette was better.

Not in the back corrals! But it never is back there.

 

[bellanotte10]

@bumbershoot I think I was!!! I was up at the very very front because I was on before the actual mile marker. I technically stopped right out of the water station. Red hair, purple shirt. If you had a mutinous bus it was def the one I was on

 

[JJ2017]

I am back home and kind of in shock this is all over. Committed to running this race way back in January 2020. It changed it's "look" multiple times (different people, different training programs, different hotels, plans, etc....) and now it's all done! Thank you to everyone who helped calm me down about anything and everything about the logistics of the race (especially feeling trapped in the corral! I followed all the suggestions) and also to you guys for making me believe the 6.2 miles were possible even though I had given up on my training over a year ago. I trusted that the energy of the day would keep me going and somehow I ran straight through to mile 5 and then truly slowed down and took in the sights and sounds of Epcot which is my fave park. It was an absolutely wonderful experience! Now back to freeeeezing cold!

 

[bumbershoot]

@bumbershoot I think I was!!! I was up at the very very front because I was on before the actual mile marker. I technically stopped right out of the water station. Red hair, purple shirt. If you had a mutinous bus it was def the one I was on

Absolutely. I was in the back, sitting with the woman who finally went to the front to ask the driver what was going on. Those of us in the back went from being very sad and emotional to consoling each other to very angry with the lack of communication.

 

[bumbershoot]

Yoga: loved it. I liked how they led us in small groups to the set-up mats. It was a fabulous practice for 1200 people. I did yoga teacher training in late 2019, and my cousin has never done any yoga, and we were both met where we were and challenged at the same time. I cried, she felt serene, and our hips felt great. I loved that they had the main teacher and then demonstrators on raised platforms in smaller groups of us. The mats are not high end, but who wants to pay enough for it to take home a manduka?

Expo: went back to the room, got clean, and headed out. Got to the run disney merchandise bldg and in line at 10:05. It took us 2.5ish hours to get in. Sigh. And then we bought nothing. I hated everything in there (if the shirts didn’t say “I did it” I might have liked them, but I don’t do “I did it” shirts) and my cousin couldn’t find her size. All that time, and nothing. For me it was basically the same at the vendor area.

10k: was decent. I liked how quickly each group got out. My training plan fell apart in December and I was sick in January, so I was walking. And I hate walking. Oh well!

Half: I was at beach club and wasn’t in line at 2. That meant we waited. And waited. And waited. The people who had been there since 3ish and maybe the official finally told us that there had been 3 buses that left empty starting at 2 and then no buses. So frustrating.

A 15 minute delay barely helped imo. Many of us needed bathrooms, some had gear to check, and then to get to the corrals. A lot of stress.

My cousin’s husband was staying at the dolphin with their kids, and saw that firsthand because he wanted to spectate at MK. He gave up that plan and left much later to meet us at the finish.

I hadn’t gotten beyond 4 miles in this training cycle. I chose to walk. I had new shoes. It was a perfect storm. I got stuck in the 3:30 pacer group right around splash and then cone alley (hate hate hate) and couldn’t get past the group to do my own race.

We had two miles of being loudly warned of sweeping. (I don’t understand how “heat warning, take it easy, don’t go for a PR” goes along with the pace being insisted upon, especially since there were still people finishing half an hour after I got off the bus that took an hour to get to Epcot, or how it works when the balloon ladies have sped up to 13-14 min/mile as they showed up at 7ish miles, but oh well. I also don’t know how they were 7 minutes beyond at the Ariel ride and 1.5 minutes behind before plash… I was hoping rundisney would just cut the course, but that’s just selfish of me)

I made it 9 miles and got swept at the MASS sweep. I had purposely slowed down before that. When I tried to go along with the 3:30 pace group I couldn’t feel my legs during the runs. I couldn’t imagine doing that for another 5+ miles, to be pushing so hard and being so “scared.” I was shaking and my ears were doing weird things, and my hands were more swollen than ever.

I needed to stop and therefore didn’t fight it when they basically blocked the road at mile 9.

9 miles, given what was going on in my life, is something to be proud of.

Having seen a balloon lady up close and personal, along with being on the “parade bus,” are both good learning experiences.

At this hour I’m 95.5% fine and .5% sorry for myself. My cousin and her husband are livid that we don’t get challenge medals. If you get the medal for the race you attempted, in their eyes, you qualify for the challenge since you attempted it. But of course I knew I wouldn’t get it, and know it’s a sunk cost. I might make it up with selling my challenge shirt, since it makes me sad.

Our sad-bus driver was turned away at Epcot two separate times. He didn’t communicate until my new friend asked him specifically. It was maddening.

And when did they drop the letter signs for meeting up? That was maddening. The answer given when I asked about them was “you have a phone, don’t you?” Dude, that’s definitely not the point.

And during the year-long bus ride (lol) I realized I have the biggest blister on a non-big-toe that I’ve ever had. I had no idea it was there. It’s horrid. I’m sure it would have broken if I tried to keep going, and that would have been awful.

Lessons learned. Education received.

And I promised my parade bus buddy that we would see each other next year for our comeback.

 

[bellanotte10]

Yoga: loved it. I liked how they led us in small groups to the set-up mats. It was a fabulous practice for 1200 people. I did yoga teacher training in late 2019, and my cousin has never done any yoga, and we were both met where we were and challenged at the same time. I cried, she felt serene, and our hips felt great. I loved that they had the main teacher and then demonstrators on raised platforms in smaller groups of us. The mats are not high end, but who wants to pay enough for it to take home a manduka?

Expo: went back to the room, got clean, and headed out. Got to the run disney merchandise bldg and in line at 10:05. It took us 2.5ish hours to get in. Sigh. And then we bought nothing. I hated everything in there (if the shirts didn’t say “I did it” I might have liked them, but I don’t do “I did it” shirts) and my cousin couldn’t find her size. All that time, and nothing. For me it was basically the same at the vendor area.

10k: was decent. I liked how quickly each group got out. My training plan fell apart in December and I was sick in January, so I was walking. And I hate walking. Oh well!

Half: I was at beach club and wasn’t in line at 2. That meant we waited. And waited. And waited. The people who had been there since 3ish and maybe the official finally told us that there had been 3 buses that left empty starting at 2 and then no buses. So frustrating.

A 15 minute delay barely helped imo. Many of us needed bathrooms, some had gear to check, and then to get to the corrals. A lot of stress.

My cousin’s husband was staying at the dolphin with their kids, and saw that firsthand because he wanted to spectate at MK. He gave up that plan and left much later to meet us at the finish.

I hadn’t gotten beyond 4 miles in this training cycle. I chose to walk. I had new shoes. It was a perfect storm. I got stuck in the 3:30 pacer group right around splash and then cone alley (hate hate hate) and couldn’t get past the group to do my own race.

We had two miles of being loudly warned of sweeping. (I don’t understand how “heat warning, take it easy, don’t go for a PR” goes along with the pace being insisted upon, especially since there were still people finishing half an hour after I got off the bus that took an hour to get to Epcot, or how it works when the balloon ladies have sped up to 13-14 min/mile as they showed up at 7ish miles, but oh well. I also don’t know how they were 7 minutes beyond at the Ariel ride and 1.5 minutes behind before plash… I was hoping they would just cut the course, but that’s just selfish of me)

I made it 9 miles and got swept at the MASS sweep. I had purposely slowed down before that. When I tried to go along with the 3:30 pace group I couldn’t feel my legs during the runs. I couldn’t imagine doing that for another 5+ miles, to be pushing so hard and being so “scared.” I was shaking and my ears were doing weird things, and my hands were more swollen than ever.

I needed to stop and therefore didn’t fight it when they basically blocked the road at mile 9.

9 miles, given what was going on in my life, is something to be proud of.

Having seen a balloon lady up close and personal, along with being on the “parade bus,” are both good learning experiences.

At this hour I’m 95.5% fine and .5% sorry for myself. My cousin and her husband are livid that we don’t get challenge medals. If you get the medal for the race you attempted, in their eyes, you qualify for the challenge since you attempted it. But of course I knew I wouldn’t get it, and know it’s a sunk cost. I might make it up with selling my challenge shirt, since it makes me sad.

Our driver was turned away at Epcot two separate times. He didn’t communicate until my new friend asked him specifically. It was maddening.

And when did they drop the letter signs for meeting up? That was maddening. The answer given when I asked about them was “you have a phone, don’t you?” Dude, that’s definitely not the point.

And during the year-long bus ride (lol) I realized I have the biggest blister on a non-big-toe that I’ve ever had. I had no idea it was there. It’s horrid. I’m sure it would have broken if I tried to keep going, and that would have been awful.

Lessons learned. Education received.

And I promised my parade bus buddy that we would see each other next year for our comeback.

so I was also running with you at some point before we got on the same bus. I wish I’d known and we could’ve been together on that miserable miserable adventure.

I too made a promise to my run buddy we’d do it again next year.

 

[bumbershoot]

so I was also running with you at some point before we got on the same bus. I wish I’d known and we could’ve been together on that miserable miserable adventure.

Agreed. I was blue shirt, black shorts, rose gold sparkle athletic visor and skirt. Not that you could see the skirt because mine DO ride up. And I was carrying a water bottle.

I too made a promise to my run buddy we’d do it again next year.

I had told my cousin I was only doing the 5k because I’m tired of this. But I guess I’ve changed my mind lol.

I have to figure out shoes.

 

[flav]

If take that over the yellow Gatorade at Gaspirilla

This conjured the image of Aurora’s god fairies arguing over the colour of it: Blue Powerade, no Yellow Powerade, no Blue, no Yellow…

 

[amandolin]

This was my first RunDisney event. I signed up for the 5k with my sister and our friend. We just walked but had so much FUN! Anyway, I sent a photo to my mom of us at the end. She asked if we were the only ones who wore tutus? Made me laugh! We explained that probably over half of the participants were dressed in tutus or costumes!

Thanks to everyone on this thread who answered my rookie questions along the way. I learned a lot from all of you...and I can't wait to do it again!

 

[azrivest]

My legs felt like jelly yesterday, even after 30 minutes in the hot tub/pool at CSR. Really questioned my goal of Goofy in 2023.

Well today I'm pretty sure it was a poor choice of shoes. I wore a new pair for the 10k/HM that I hadn't had time to try out outside because, well, winter. Turns out it was a poor choice.

Wearing my trusty Adrenaline's for AK this morning and I feel much better. Lesson learned, nothing new on race day

 

[SheHulk]

This conjured the image of Aurora’s god fairies arguing over the colour of it: Blue Powerade, no Yellow Powerade, no Blue, no Yellow…

Also the correct answer is red gatorade. Sorry I'm late to settle this for everybody

Thank you to everybody who gave me Genie+ booking help yesterday morning! It was kind of successful. We got a lot of LL options in MK, and also Soarin at Epcot in the morning, which is where our park reservation was. However. A lot of the choices we got, especially later in the day, seemed to be for things that didn't have a line anyway. So it's hard to judge whether it was worth it. We have the opposite day today, MK then Epcot for dinner, and I bought it again just to see how it goes. Guessing it's worse going in the other direction park wise.

Boy howdy am I tired and starving today. Other than that, feeling good. Sorry to everybody who is back at work today

 

[YohoAPiratesLife4Me]

Did anyone stay at CSR for this race weekend? If so, were there any pasta options for grab and go at El Mercado? Thanks!

 

[huskies90]

So it's hard to judge whether it was worth it.

This is what I hate the most about Genie+ and wish they would add the $15 to the cost of ticket (which they will do anyways). If it is crowded, you can't get your choices so you feel like you wasted your money buying it and if it is not crowded you feel like you wasted your money because you didn't need it. Where as if Genie+ was "free" you would simply be happy to be in a relatively empty park and if it was crowded you would be glad you were able to at least grab a few LL's. Total negative mindset the way it is now.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

I didn’t have bus issues this morning. I was at AKL-Kidani. I do not think we shared with Jambo (not sure if they stopped there first and there weren’t any/many people from there). I did get to the bus stop just after 2:30, and our bus (presumably the 2nd bus, but maybe the first if they started at Jambo) showed up about 2:35ish and left at 2:45 and we were not full. I don’t know if there were any issues later.

We were at Jambo house. No bus issues, we got out at 2:45 and got on the 1st bus right before it left. We chatted with bus driver on 10k run. Our bus group for AK both jambo and kadani were all from the same bus group in New York. So they all new each other and work together to make sure there was someone always there. We loved our 10k bus driver. He was soo friendly. Then mom started talking to the greeter in the front of Akl this morning about how there was bus issues at other resorts like beach club and she said they had 12 bus in the back and they were actively managing the busses to make sure there was always a bus for the run in the morning. So akl is on top of it. Also she said that disney did sweep early beacuse the run started later and they had to open the road. I think that is unfair, it is not their fault that disney started the run late. If they were keeping pace they paid a lot of money to be able complete it. We learned a lot waiting for our driver to the airport.

I had a great race. I want to do a more detail report later but this was everything I could have dreamed had the best of time and got to stop for characters. I loooved it soo much and this was the perfect half marathon for my first one and I cannot wait to try my first marathon at Disney in 2023! Basically this was my dream weekend I cried soo many happy tears this weekend.

Flying back home today

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Here is the photo for half marathon meet up

 

[azrivest]

Did anyone stay at CSR for this race weekend? If so, were there any pasta options for grab and go at El Mercado? Thanks!

I
did. The only pasta dish on Saturday night was the Jumbo Meatballs which is on the standard menu.

I wanted one of those runner boxes for breakfast but had to go to CBR with the Skyliner from HS on Friday, cause they didn't sell them at El Mercado.

I now understand why Pop is such a great choice for runDisney weekends...

 

[YohoAPiratesLife4Me]

I
did. The only pasta dish on Saturday night was the Jumbo Meatballs which is on the standard menu.

I wanted one of those runner boxes for breakfast but had to go to CBR with the Skyliner from HS on Friday, cause they didn't sell them at El Mercado.

I now understand why Pop is such a great choice for runDisney weekends...

I totally understand! I wanted to book there for Springtime Surprise but chose CSR. We’ll see how I goes. Thanks for the info!

 

[Nessats]

We stayed at CSR. They had chicken parmesan and pasta with veggies on Friday. They also had a sign for runner's boxes there, so maybe you had to ask for them, but we did see the sign.