Running and Racing and Dancing and Chasing: A 2017 Princess Half Marathon Weekend Trip Report!

I got a little behind on your (awesome!) TR over the weekend, so I have a few comments:

- My DH and I giggled like children the entire time in the Tiki Room this trip. It was extra amusing to me this time- I think because I was so tired. We had a FP+ for HM, but if I didn't, I wouldn't ride it. I don't love it like everyone else. Please still be my friend!

- I also had a very relaxed expo experience. The dooney's just didn't do it for me, so I also looked but didn't purchase. Looking at past pictures of "I did it" shirts, I didn't expect to buy one, but I really loved the half one this year!

- Your 5K race pictures are awesome! I put my arms in the air in almost all of my pictures and look like a monkey... apparently my arms are really long- maybe they should put me in the tiki room.

Can't wait to keep reading!! :D
 
Am I the only one that when I read "3 2 1 Go" on trip reports, its in the voice of Rudy???

Great pics from the 5k!

And way to go being in Corral A! We were in B last year for the 10k and were surprised there were hardly any lines for the characters past mile 4 and on.
 
Hooray for another race/trip report!

Congrats on getting to start at the front of Corral A! It definitely seemed to make a difference and I would definitely not be too intimidated now to try to get up there if I have the opportunity!

I have to be honest, your wasted margarita made me really sad, but I totally understand needing to be able to drive! I am planning to rent a car in Sept, but I won't be the main driver, woohoo!

My next 2 trips, May and Sept, are not for races and I won't know what to do with myself. Staying in the parks past 9pm on a Friday and Saturday?? Unheard of! The last time I was at a Disney park not for a race was in 2012!
 
OMG!! Corral A, so exciting!! Can I ask what time you submitted to acquire that (and for what distance)?
She was in full, heavy make-up
This is so funny that it was for programming, becasue I always RACE in full eye-makeup! No concealer or anything like that so my skin can breath, but mascara and heavy shadow for sure. I guess it was a good way to pass the time at least, watching the film crew.

How was the line for Cindy, by comparison to those on the course? I've done character photos before the races, but never after, just wondering which is "better". Also was 7:15 the earliest time you could get on the buses or did they actually arrive sooner? Again looking to guage return times for next January planning. I guess it makes sense that those buses wouldn't be able to get in until all the corrals were through.
 


Loving the TR so far!

That is a great finish line photo of you!

I can't run in make-up either, I see no point because it all melts off my face. I do run with it when I run over the lunch hour at work though. Then I just hope that no one sees me in the afternoon / I have no face-to-face meetings. :P
 
Corral A life seems pretty awesome!! Great job on your race. That whole film crew thing was kinda strange huh? But, I guess it made the wait go by quickly. I love all your photos though. So great and I'm jealous of that empty course and your short character lines. And yes, that one running shot of you with Spaceship Earth behind you is fantastic!!
 
After looking at my abysmal step count so far today, it made me think that I am interested to see how many steps you got on Sunday! It will go down as my highest step count in history... (Assuming I never run a marathon. Which I won't.)
 


I got a little behind on your (awesome!) TR over the weekend, so I have a few comments:

- My DH and I giggled like children the entire time in the Tiki Room this trip. It was extra amusing to me this time- I think because I was so tired. We had a FP+ for HM, but if I didn't, I wouldn't ride it. I don't love it like everyone else. Please still be my friend!
I could totally see the Tiki Room being extra fun when one is a little loopy! :upsidedow
- I also had a very relaxed expo experience. The dooney's just didn't do it for me, so I also looked but didn't purchase. Looking at past pictures of "I did it" shirts, I didn't expect to buy one, but I really loved the half one this year!
Yeah, I made a vow to stop buying Dooneys, and I'm not a super princess-y gal, so I don't know why I was tempted by them at all - just because they were *there* I guess. I really liked the I Did It shirts this year - like the colors a lot and I liked the design on the half a lot too.
- Your 5K race pictures are awesome! I put my arms in the air in almost all of my pictures and look like a monkey... apparently my arms are really long- maybe they should put me in the tiki room.
I feel someone needs to offer classes on how to pose on the race course!
Can't wait to keep reading!! :D
:yay:
Am I the only one that when I read "3 2 1 Go" on trip reports, its in the voice of Rudy???
SEEEEET GOOOO!
Great pics from the 5k!
Thanks!
And way to go being in Corral A! We were in B last year for the 10k and were surprised there were hardly any lines for the characters past mile 4 and on.
Let's see...in 2014 at the Princess 10K I started in E with a friend. In January 2015 I started in B for the 5K/10K, and this past January I was in C for the 5K/10K. Getting a good corral TOTALLY helps!!
Hooray for another race/trip report!
:banana:
Congrats on getting to start at the front of Corral A! It definitely seemed to make a difference and I would definitely not be too intimidated now to try to get up there if I have the opportunity!
I think for the 5K it's okay, but would be a little more intimidating for the 10K since I feel like that one is seeded a little better (since there are challenge runners that submitted proof of time and not just anticipated pace).
I have to be honest, your wasted margarita made me really sad, but I totally understand needing to be able to drive! I am planning to rent a car in Sept, but I won't be the main driver, woohoo!
Ha, that's fair! I think I am just not a big margarita person!
My next 2 trips, May and Sept, are not for races and I won't know what to do with myself. Staying in the parks past 9pm on a Friday and Saturday?? Unheard of! The last time I was at a Disney park not for a race was in 2012!
Whaaaat?

Honestly, I am getting to the point where I feel I NEED a non-race trip! It seems like it would be so relaxing!
OMG!! Corral A, so exciting!! Can I ask what time you submitted to acquire that (and for what distance)?
No proof for the 5K, you submit your anticipated pace per mile! This is also how it works if you run the 10K by itself, i.e. not as part of the challenge. I think I said I anticipated a 9:00-10:00/mile pace, which is my normal 5K pace when I'm in better shape. :)
This is so funny that it was for programming, becasue I always RACE in full eye-makeup! No concealer or anything like that so my skin can breath, but mascara and heavy shadow for sure. I guess it was a good way to pass the time at least, watching the film crew.
See - if I did that, it would be all over my face by the end because I'd sweat a ton and then wipe it all over my face like a dummy!
How was the line for Cindy, by comparison to those on the course? I've done character photos before the races, but never after, just wondering which is "better". Also was 7:15 the earliest time you could get on the buses or did they actually arrive sooner? Again looking to guage return times for next January planning. I guess it makes sense that those buses wouldn't be able to get in until all the corrals were through.
The Cindy line was long! I think it was 15-20 minutes! I never would have waited if the buses were ready when I finished the race.

There were 2 princess lines - the one I got in originally had Snow White, but she switched out with Cindy. The other line originally had Belle - as you can imagine, that line was bigger than the one I was in. At some point Belle switched out with Rapunzel! I wonder if people were mad about that?
Loving the TR so far!
Thanks!
That is a great finish line photo of you!
PhotoPass does such a nice job with photos. Not all of them are good but I did get some nice ones this time!
I can't run in make-up either, I see no point because it all melts off my face. I do run with it when I run over the lunch hour at work though. Then I just hope that no one sees me in the afternoon / I have no face-to-face meetings. :P
Exactly, if I ran in make-up it would have to be sealed in somehow. Thankfully I run in the morning so it's not a problem for me - if I ran over lunchtime I think I'd have the same issue you do!
Corral A life seems pretty awesome!! Great job on your race. That whole film crew thing was kinda strange huh? But, I guess it made the wait go by quickly. I love all your photos though. So great and I'm jealous of that empty course and your short character lines. And yes, that one running shot of you with Spaceship Earth behind you is fantastic!!
Corral A life WAS awesome - made me wish I was faster so I could be in higher corrals all the time.

Film crew thing was definitely weird! I keep googling around for that video but haven't found anything yet. :confused3
After looking at my abysmal step count so far today, it made me think that I am interested to see how many steps you got on Sunday! It will go down as my highest step count in history... (Assuming I never run a marathon. Which I won't.)
My step count from Sunday was 45,833! But my all-time high is 68,108 from marathon day in January! :eek: Not sure if I will ever top that one!
 
Wow, good deals for Margarita Day! I have actually determined that a margarita with salt is an excellent race recovery beverage ;-) But, tequila and I get along!

Good looking sandwich at Norway! There are a few menu items I've been curious to try there....next time! We rode FEA, but I did notice it was down several times over the week too.

I ended up walking something like 20,000 steps the day before the half -- oops! It just adds up!! My count was around 42,000 on Sunday....before my fitbit died. I think it just got tired. :P

Great MK day -- those Starbucks lines are always massive. Glad they move decently fast.

Good work on avoiding the crazy part of the expo. I was there during the last hour it was open for the whole weekend -- it was busy, but not too crazy. Sold out of ornaments, but otherwise, vendors were pretty well stocked even then.

That's amazing that you were in Coral A! And great first mile! Your race photos are great -- mine, not so much. Maybe a face full of make-up would help ;-) Abu! So fun!!
 
Corral A! Maybe someday I'll get there. Best I have done is B.

I don't think I have ever met Abu so I would've definitely stopped for him.

Did you run the whole final 1.1 with your arms like that ;)

Congrats!
 
I'm so glad I got to say hi! Seriously the highlight of my trip! Love the pics! Haha....you should see my pics! Can you say jazz hands! Lol! I was surprised there were no buses when I finished then I saw the runners going by as I asked a CM. I jumped in Rapunzels line to pass the time but later than I should have but jumped out the second I saw the buses roll up! That's about where my trip finished on a good note....I'm feeling better, thank you!
 
so I'd purposely scheduled our day so that we'd be there right about now - late afternoon - hoping that the crazies* would be gone. And they were! And not only that, but everything seemed to be pretty well-stocked. We were very pleased with our decision to go to the expo later in the day!

I should have read your report because I went when the crazies were there. We went at the height of the craziness, being in my first rundisney event, I thought go early. Ha! big mistake. there was a line to get in J Center and it was out in the sun! When you get in, it was CRAZY mobbed. My family was in line outside longer than inside! next time I will heed your advise and come late in the afternoon. @chunkymonkey
 
Well I would have been annoyed for sure, I mean, on the inside, but I totally would have just rolled with it, externally.
I like Blondie, so I would have been annoyed but overall okay with it, I think. :scratchin
Girl that is phenomenal!! and definitley qualifies you to EAT ALL THE THINGS!!!
See - I KNEW that, but sometimes my stomach is a little iffy after a long run, so I ca't EAT ALL THE THINGS like I want to. This was one of those weekends...how sad! :(
Wow, good deals for Margarita Day! I have actually determined that a margarita with salt is an excellent race recovery beverage ;-) But, tequila and I get along!
I am with you on the salt, but I think tequila and I are back to not being friends! I was really trying to force that margarita down and it was just not enjoyable!
Good looking sandwich at Norway! There are a few menu items I've been curious to try there....next time! We rode FEA, but I did notice it was down several times over the week too.
I definitely recommend it! I also had a super good soup there once but I'm not even sure if they do soup anymore?
I ended up walking something like 20,000 steps the day before the half -- oops! It just adds up!! My count was around 42,000 on Sunday....before my fitbit died. I think it just got tired. :P
It's so easy to do at Disney. I know it's smart for a person to stay off their feet before a race...but how do you do that in DISNEY??
Great MK day -- those Starbucks lines are always massive. Glad they move decently fast.
Me too! And it's always worth the wait. :)
Good work on avoiding the crazy part of the expo. I was there during the last hour it was open for the whole weekend -- it was busy, but not too crazy. Sold out of ornaments, but otherwise, vendors were pretty well stocked even then.
Just judging by the leftover stuff on the shop parks app, it seems like they had a lot of stuff left over!
That's amazing that you were in Coral A! And great first mile! Your race photos are great -- mine, not so much. Maybe a face full of make-up would help ;-) Abu! So fun!!
Haha! Sometimes I think a face full of make-up would help, then I remind myself that I would sweat and it would streak all over the place. :)
Corral A! Maybe someday I'll get there. Best I have done is B.
Corral A was nice. I hope to get there again someday!
I don't think I have ever met Abu so I would've definitely stopped for him.
I *think* I had met him before but couldn't (still can't) remember, so the stop was necessary!
Did you run the whole final 1.1 with your arms like that ;)
Judging from my pictures...yes, yes I did. :rotfl2:
Congrats!
Thanks!
I'm so glad I got to say hi! Seriously the highlight of my trip! Love the pics! Haha....you should see my pics! Can you say jazz hands! Lol! I was surprised there were no buses when I finished then I saw the runners going by as I asked a CM. I jumped in Rapunzels line to pass the time but later than I should have but jumped out the second I saw the buses roll up! That's about where my trip finished on a good note....I'm feeling better, thank you!
Woohoo jazz hands! I don't know what you call my hand gesture...I feel like it's sometimes "raise the roof!" (such a dork) and sometimes it looks like shrugging?

Glad you are feeling better! :hug:
I should have read your report because I went when the crazies were there. We went at the height of the craziness, being in my first rundisney event, I thought go early. Ha! big mistake. there was a line to get in J Center and it was out in the sun! When you get in, it was CRAZY mobbed. My family was in line outside longer than inside! next time I will heed your advise and come late in the afternoon. @chunkymonkey
Hey, this is my seventh year of doing runDisney races and I didn't figure out how much better it is to go to the expo later in the day until just about a year ago. :confused3 For real though, unless there is some merchandise item you 100% cannot live without, I highly recommend NOT going right at opening!
 
Park Hopping!

I got back to the resort to find that K was in the shower and M was showered and pretty much cleaned up - they had, in fact, been up since I'd gotten up and had gone to the gym at 5AM! :eek:

We all got ready, grabbed a quick breakfast from the Mara (chocolate chip muffin for me) and headed to the Studios! We made a beeline for Toy Story. The wait was not actually 30 minutes, it was more like 15.

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K & M went together and I went solo. I scored 154,200...I think that's a personal best for me! :wizard:

Next, we headed to Starbucks. We were all dragging from an early morning! I asked the barista to write "Belle" on my cup but she wrote "Mel" instead. :upsidedow Okay! Still tasted good!

We watched the Stormtroopers show for a bit. Wait times were nuts already...longer than we wanted to wait (30-40 minutes for the bigger rides), so we checked out the stores and met Chewie before heading to our next park.

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Hellooooo Animal Kingdom!

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Perfect weather today.

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Originally we had a Safaris FP+ first on the agenda, but we ended up staying at DHS longer than expected - luckily I was able to move the Safaris FP+ to later in the day, closer to dinner time. So up first was Festival of the Lion King!

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My first time seeing it in this theater! Always a crowd pleaser.

Not the best picture, but here's this morning's medal!

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We checked out the Maharaja Jungle Trek and then headed on over to Everest. K isn't into thrill rides, so M and I rode twice - once in the single rider line (waited about 10 minutes) and second time with FP+.

During my single rider ride, I tried to hold up my medal for the photo but I hadn't ridden Everest in a while and sort of forgot where the camera was...photo fail! The guy next to me was even sort of coaching me on when to do it and I STILL missed it (M and I were on the same train but she was a few rows behind me).

We exited the ride and went right back to cash in our FP+! And M and I were both WRECKED after ride #2. :faint: It was hot out and I think the early morning was catching up to us...M especially.

K and I got ice cream and I made an executive decision that we needed to get inside and out of the sun for a bit - Nemo to the rescue!

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M caught a quick catnap during Nemo (I think she missed Crush's solo) and felt much better after the show was over!

Safari was up next. I remember thinking we had a slow start (no hippos or black rhinos), but then we saw zebras, giraffes and 3 lions! Awesome!

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Triceratops spin was after the Safari - my first time riding this one!

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Back to Asia...pretty tree. I stopped for a medal picture!

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Dinner tonight was at Yak & Yeti! K and M both ordered the kale salad, which was huge!

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I ordered the chicken lo mein - so, so good!

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I wanted dessert, but we were all completely dragging, so we headed out at about 7:45. Very happy with our meal at Yak & Yeti - decently-sized portions, and the prices weren't too crazy (relatively speaking). I need to look into that Landry's card where you get $25 for your birthday, because a free $25 to spend at Yak & Yeti sounds pretty good to me! I think you have to pay $25 to buy in though? Again, more research needed. ::yes::

Back at the resort, K and I got our stuff together for tomorrow's 10K. M was planning on sleeping in the next morning...can't say I blamed her!

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The good thing about K & M also getting up early was that no one had any problems getting to sleep early - we were all in bed at 9! :faint:

Up next: The Disney Princess Enchanted 10K!

Fitbit results:

Steps: 30,380
Miles: 13.52
 
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Great 5K photos! The Disney photopass people get way better race pics than any other race photographers I've experienced! I have the whole awkward "there's a photographer what do I do with my hands" thing too - I usually end up doing some stupid thumbs up pose :rolleyes:
How funny they were filming at the start! Maybe you'll be in the final video footage! That would be cool. Corral A is the bomb - I've only had it a couple of times, but it is lovely to not have to deal with the crowds:cloud9:
That really worked out that your friends were willing to get up early with you - so everyone was ready to crash early at night too! It's tough to do a race weekend with other people who aren't racing, when you are all wiped at 8pm and they want to go see fireworks or something.
 
Arm's up is classic though!!! I like Yak & Yeti a lot too, the dessert wontons (if they still have them) are sooo good! I'm only good for about 2 rides on Everest in a row, I'm always a little off after, but not as bad as after Tower.

Great pics! Abu is so cute! and yes Corral A is lovely for sure. Imagine the half or full from corral A, that's the dream!
 
Fun park day! AK has some great shows that allow you to rest your feet/legs and I could totally see how your friend fell asleep during Nemo! (They are CHAMPS for waking up so early btw).

Safari is always one of my favorites. Did you get to see the baby giraffe? (I think named Stella?) So Sweet!

Your lo mein looks delish!
 
I think that 5K medal is the best looking of that weekend.

FOTLK is my absolute favorite show, I have to see it ever trip. It's been a while since I've seen Finding Nemo the musical.

I've never done Yak & Yeti but it does look good.

Can't wait to hear about the 10K!
 
Mel...oh Mel! Lol
Love festival of lion king. My daughter was selected to participate the last time we were there.
Yak and yeti is a consistent favorite of ours. The lettuce cups are the best!
Looking forward to hearing about the 10K!
 

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