For
years, I’ve watched friends on social media run in the Princess Weekend
marathons and wanted to join in. It just looked like so much fun!
Back in 2016, my friend Stephanie and I made a deal - we would participate in
2017! When registration day came around in June, we bought our bibs and
started to plan.
Just
for clarification, I am not a runner. I have zero athletic ability but I
love Disney so I wanted to be there. We decided to do the 5k so we’d
still have energy left to explore the theme parks.
On
marathon weekend, we arrived in Orlando on Thursday afternoon.
We checked in at our resort and then headed straight to the Expo. Each
runner has to check in at the Expo to pick up your race packet and bib.
The
5K was scheduled to start at 6am on Friday morning and the buses
from our resort started leaving for Epcot at 4am. We definitely
wanted to be on an early bus! We didn’t want the race starting without
us.
Once
we arrived at the Epcot parking lot, we checked our bags (very easy process!)
and found a spot to sit and wait. Once we noticed character lines
{it was 4am so we weren’t quite awake yet} we got in line to meet
Belle.
The line was long so you definitely want to get in the
character lines ASAP. By the time we saw Belle the race was about to
start!!
Each corral is broken into
sections for the beginning of the race. Each section starts in 30
second increments so it took a while to get to us (I was in corral E.)
Finally, around 6:35 we
got to start our race! Disney does a great job of making each group
feel special as they begin their race. Once the fireworks had gone
off, we {and about 500 other people} started our 5K.
In the beginning, it was a
little claustrophobic with everyone being right at the start together. But
once the runners found their pace and us walkers found ours, you had a little
more room to move.
The course takes you from the
Epcot parking lot, down an access road and into the cast member entrance of
Epcot.
Walking under Test Track was
pretty cool!
Coming into World Showcase
was a memory I’ll always treasure. The sun had just come up and we
were surrounded on the course by Cast Members cheering us on and Disney music
was playing on the loudspeakers.
Once we rounded World
Showcase {with character stops along the way!} we exited Epcot for a short
distance and came back in to walk through Future World. As we
crossed the finish line, the Star Wars theme was playing on the speakers. After
the race we collected our medals, snack boxes and bags and spent the rest of
the day touring theme parks.
Like
I said, I am not a runner and will never claim to be. But RunDisney
races are so much fun!! They do a great job at getting you excited
{even at 4am!} and staying motivated the whole race.
I
highly recommend participating in Princess Marathon Weekend races - especially
the 5K! The 5K Race is very relaxed and there’s really no push to be fast
in this race.
It’s
all about having fun and taking it all in.
Princess
Weekend is such a great trip with your girlfriends and there were even a lot of
couples there as well. We saw several husbands dressed as
Princesses. =)
Registration
for Princess Marathon Weekend 2018 starts May 2, 2017. Contact
your Memory Maker to start planning your next RunDisney race!
Your Memory Maker, Jenney
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