Of all the RunDisney events offered at Walt Disney World, my absolute favorite is the Princess Half. It’s always the fastest to sell out, and if you’re not online when it goes live, you’re probably out of luck. Thankfully, though I was scheduled to work that morning, my mom offered to register for me. She got it taken care of, and thus 2018 would be my fourth year running the Princess Half.
2018 marked the tenth anniversary of the Princess Half Marathon, and the fifth anniversary of the Glass Slipper Challenge, now renamed the Fairy Tale Challenge. I was okay with that, I was a little tired of the same medal in different colors.
I started planning my costumes out about a month ahead of time. After changing my mind about ten times about who I was going to run as, I got my friend Donna to whip up two running skirts. I decided on picking basic colors that would work for multiple characters. I wound up with a light blue skirt with a silver band, and a pale pink with a white band. It took me until two days before the races to decide officially on Stella Lou, Duffy’s bunny friend from Tokyo, and Marie from the Aristocats.
About a week before the race, I was cleaning out my closet and found a pair of dark blue shorts I’d forgotten I owned. I had a light bulb moment and grabbed a shirt I’d never worn to start putting together a Disneybound for the RunDisney Expo. Disneybounding is the art of dressing like a certain character without it being a costume, you essentially match colors. Donna had to loan me a bow to put it together but come Friday I had a Snow White Disneybound and headed for the Expo.
I pulled up the map online as Jay was driving, and was surprised to see a building marked with “Character Meet & Greet”. I’d seen characters at RunDisney Expos before, but it was always seemed like I’d randomly run into them. I’d never seen a sign marking where they were, or even an announcement that there were characters.
If I had to guess, Disney’s probably gotten complaints in the past because people missed characters and didn’t know they were there. I’m happy to see they took steps to fix this!
Once we parked, we headed for the Arena where the characters were. Outside was Cinderella’s coach and a short line for pictures so we hopped in.
Then we headed inside past ivory pillars and greenery decorations. To the right was a food stand and bar, past that were two different lines for characters. On the left was a display of the bright green Photopass tents to look for on the course, and straight ahead was the RunDisney Official Merchandise Store.
Since I was Disneybounding Snow White, we jumped in her line first. The other line was for Princess Minnie, who I had only ever encountered at the Princess Half finish line. Snow White’s line moved fairly quickly, and she was not at all happy to see the poison apple purse Jay got me.
Once we were done with Snow White, Jay jumped in Minnie’s rather long line while I went to check out the merchandise. It was the biggest RunDisney store I had ever seen, but that might just because they had more space than before. Normally the RunDisney store is crammed onto the Expo floor instead of being in a separate building. I really liked all the merchandise, but I kept telling myself I’d already spent enough money on this race. They had all of the usual items, but I finally found what I was looking for. I’d seen on a Disney Parks Blog post earlier that week about official Disney character running clothes and they did not disappoint.
They had tank tops, t-shirts, skirts, pants, and running sleeves themed to Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Stitch, the Cheshire Cat, Cinderella, Ariel, Maleficent, and Tinker Bell. I immediately went to tell Jay and we had to go back so he could see once we were done with the characters.
Meeting Princess Minnie was awesome. One of my favorite things in the world is meeting the Fab Five in special outfits.
Bib and t-shirt pick up went like clockwork. I got a little packet with my bib that included a luggage tag, pins that would attach the bib without poking a hole in the shirt, and a button. I was a little dismayed to be in the last starting corral for the 10K and second to last for the Half, but there was nothing I could do about it. We wandered around the Expo for a little while and then headed out. I had to get to bed nice and early for that 2:15 a.m. alarm for the Enchanted 10K! Our final stop was with the medal banners.
I had decided I was going to do Marie for the 10K but swapped for Stella Lou at the last second as I was getting ready in the middle of the night. I was worried about the Stella Lou headband giving me a headache, and if I was going to carry it for most of the race I decided I’d rather do it for the shorter one.
I arrived at Epcot right around four, which is an ungodly early hour to be anywhere. The character lines were already ridiculously long, and I wound up just waiting until the start corrals opened at 4:15 a.m. so I could try to get to the front. The more people between me and the balloon ladies the better. I found a spot and sat down, reading on my phone as I waited for the clock to tick closer and closer to race time.
John and Rudy, the announcers, arrived just before 5:30, wearing kilts which I thought was appropriate for the Brave 10K. There was a rush of cheering as the wheelchair racers went by. It was incredibly hard to hear – we were far from the stage and the speakers seemed oddly placed. You would think it being hard to hear anything would make everyone be quieter, but no, instead I just had to listen to rather loud complaints about how quiet it was rather than actually being able to hear. Then people proceeded to sing along with the National Anthem, so the whole morning was just a little strange all around.
The Fairy Godmother herself arrived to send the first corral off, and with a wave of her magic wand and the whole crowd chanting the magic words, the fireworks appeared and Corral A was off to a flying start.
Despite the Enchanted 10K starting at 5:30 a.m., my corral did not go until 6:20 a.m. I took off as quick as I could, wanting to put space between me and the end of the runners. They were sending the corrals off in short bursts, and I quickly caught up to the tail end of the corral in front of me. Merida herself was up on top of the overpass cheering everyone on about a quarter of a mile in, all lit up in green and yellow. I felt bad for all the people who had dressed as Merida hoping to meet her.
Just past the first mile marker was Mushu and Mulan in her Princess dress. I actually don’t like Mulan in her princess dress, I think we should meet her in the dress from the end of the movie instead of the beginning. You know, the one she saves China in?
At the top of the next hill were Lilo and Stitch. I wanted to stop for them because you so rarely see them together, but I met them on the Wine and Dine Half in 2016, and saw them last summer at Typhoon Lagoon.
I rounded the turn and kept going. Somewhere past the second mile marker I found Pocahontas and Meeko, and passed them too.
Are you seeing a theme here? I run these races for characters and then talk myself out of stopping because I’m worried about time.
Coming into the backstage area of Epcot there were what I refer to as “Americana Stilt Walkers;” they kind of look like they escaped from “it’s a small world” except they’re on stilts. I’ve always assumed they’re from a show I’ve never seen, but I have no idea what it is.
I entered the World Showcase just after hitting the 5K marker and didn’t encounter another character until Germany. Pinocchio was out, and his line was HUGE. I’ve never seen it so long. The Genie was out in Morocco, in his traditional outfit instead of the tourist one. I hate to say it, but his popularity has exploded since Robin Williams’ death. I’m glad I met him when I did on my first Princess Half, back when his line was super short.
Then in France I found Marie, and I was so angry at myself. If I hadn’t switched outfits at the last second, I could have gotten a photo with Marie as Marie. I decided to keep going, what was the point if we didn’t match? I regretted it a few minutes later, but it was too late to turn back.
I headed into the Boardwalk, where I actually hate to run. The wood is usually wet and it feels so slick, but it thankfully wasn’t as bad this time. RunDisney Goofy was hanging out outside of the ESPN café. I rounded the rest of the course without seeing any other characters, but there were a ton of people out cheering.
Coming back into Epcot, you enter behind France and it dumps you out between the U.K. and Canada pavilions. Behind France right now is a mess because of the construction on the Ratatouille ride, which is understandable, but it led to one of the most brilliant entertainment ideas I think RunDisney has ever had.
There were two big, burly, fairly attractive men with hardhats and microphones, posing as construction workers. Usually RunDisney has lost tourists out and cheering, but instead they found something that would blend in even better, and help the construction look intentional. I’m still kicking myself for not taking photos.
Just past Canada, things got a little awkward. There were a set of Photopass photographers, and everyone always stops and throws their arms out to get a better picture, effectively ruining the photo of everyone behind them. I prefer to just run when I see them as I like the action photos. This girl dressed as Tinker Bell stopped dead in front of me to jump for a photo, but I had to cut around her to not run into her. I’m pretty sure she was mad, but at least I didn’t completely ruin the photo.
IF YOU ARE GOING TO STOP, MAKE SURE THERE IS NOT SOMEONE RIGHT BEHIND YOU.
I rounded out the rest of World Showcase and found Pluto up near Duffy’s old meet and greet. I figured he would be the last character, and I started to stop, but kept going. You can literally meet Pluto anytime, he wasn’t even in a fun outfit.
Mostly I was just disappointed Duffy wasn’t out. They had him out for the Walt Disney World 10K and I was desperately hoping to see my Bear.
I finished strong through Future World, stopping for a quick Spaceship Earth selfie. It was about time I took some sort of photo during this race. One more trip through backstage past a drum line, and the finish line was straight ahead.
I heard another runner yelling to her group, “Let’s do this!” right as I kicked it into high gear, sprinting for the finish line.
I kept moving forward past the slew of photographers to the volunteers, who were once again handing out the medals instead of presenting them to the runners. This is a major pet peeve of mine. I just ran 6.2 miles, and you are supposed to put the medal around my neck instead of handing it to me. WATCH ANY MOVIE WHERE THE HERO GETS A MEDAL!
To my surprise, it was a spinner medal! It had Merida on one side and a Celtic drawing of three bears on the back.
I was super excited to see them handing out cooling towels further on. I’ve probably got four or five of them at this point, but they’re super useful and feel wonderful. I wiped my face off and headed down to get my Powerade and snack box. I moved straight through the gear check, trying to get to the characters as quickly as possible.
I jumped in line for Princess Minnie in her purple dress. When it was my turn, the character attendant took my phone and said, “Oh my goodness, you’re Stella Lou!”
“Thank you! You are the first person to know who I am!” Or at least the first to say anything.
Minnie nodded happily and put her hands over her head like a ballerina. I could have cried. They instantly fixed my disappointment about not being able to get a matching photo with Marie.
“Who’s Stella Lou?” The Photopass photographer asked. The character attendant started to explain and I said, “Just show her the phone case!” The character attendant almost squeaked when she looked at it. I looked at Minnie.
“I miss Duffy. You need to bring him back and bring Stella Lou to visit too!” She nodded eagerly and tapped me on the nose. I guess Minnie misses the bear she made too!
I went to jump in line for Ariel, but quickly figured out I wouldn’t make it by the time they pulled the characters. With Minnie having saved the day, I didn’t mind.
I headed for my car and vowed to make stopping more of a priority than time the next day on the half marathon.
Check out Part Two, and find out exactly who I stop for, and another rather interesting first for me on a race!
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