Credit to Disney PhotoPass for all of the Race Pictures in this Post!!
We’ve officially kicked off Princess race weekend at Walt Disney World with the Expo starting yesterday and the Disney Princess 5K this morning. If you’re running any of the races this weekend, definitely make use of the full guide that I put together earlier this week. But now we’re actually running, so let’s take a minute to regroup after this morning’s race.
Course
I love this 5K course. There’s not much road time and you do it early on, then spend the rest of the time in the park!
Arrival; Pre-Race Meet & Greets
I parked at EPCOT right at 3:00 a.m. and ended up in row 202, which is pretty good if you pay attention to these sorts of things. Made it through security quickly and did the long walk to the staging area. The pre-race meet & greets were each of the weekend theme/medal princesses—Ariel, Rapunzel and Flynn, Tiana, and Anna & Elsa. Ariel was the longest line since she was today’s race theme so I saved her for after the race, when I’d have my medal, and hopped in the Anna & Elsa line.
This is probably the earliest I’ll arrive this weekend since I don’t expect much change in the meet & greets. They were each of the race themes today, so we can probably expect the same or nearly the same tomorrow and Sunday. (Just an educated guess, so definitely make your own decisions on this!)
Weather
The weather was chilly but not terrible while we were waiting—upper 40s for most of the time. Most of us were using blankets or mylar and I plan to bring them again tomorrow (although it’s looking like it might actually be 5-10 degrees warmer, which would be lovely).
They gave out mylar after the race but I’ll probably also do gEAR Check for the 10K tomorrow and the half marathon on Sunday so that I have something to throw on if I want to hang out for awhile after we finish. I dropped my layers on the course today and cooled off really quickly after I stopped running.
Corrals and Starting Line
They released the first wave of runners right at 5:00 a.m. We were in the second wave and started a couple of minutes later. They seemed to be spacing things out well—at around 5:45 I was back in the staging area after the race and they were just releasing the 2nd wave of Corral D. If you’re in a later Corral tomorrow or Sunday and tend to get cold, consider hanging onto your cold weather gear into corrals and dropping it at the start so that you and your muscles are comfortable waiting.
Meet & Greet Characters on the Course
In addition to the theme / medal characters in the pre-race staging area, there were 5 character stops on the course:
- Prince Eric
- Cinderella, Prince Charming, and Suzy (mouse)
- Sleeping Beauty and Price Phillip
- Jester Goofie
- Bo Peep
There were also PhotoPass staffed photo ops with Spaceship Earth in the Background, at the new Walt statue, and in front of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.
Disney Princess 5K Medals
The medals were themed to the Little Mermaid. They waited to give them to us until after we passed drinks and turned the corner. Guessing that’s to curb the habit of stopping in the chute to take a picture and blocking the flow of traffic, which is understandable—but I did miss getting it right at the finish.
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That’s a wrap on the 5K recap! I’ll be at the 10K and half marathon as well, so stand by for coverage of those events here and real time on my Instagram @thecastlerunner. And in the meantime, if you are running them, here is the full guide from earlier in the week. If you’re considering checking a bag, especially given the colder temps, you can find find a guide to gEAR Check and what to bring right here.
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Please join me on Instagram for my day-to-day adventures living a mile from the magic.
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Planning a run while you’re here? You can find my complete guide to running trails on Walt Disney World property right here.
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When I’m not running races I’m running around with a camera! If you’re missing this Home (or love someone who is) and are looking for a way to bring the magic to your own home, I’d love for you to check out my photography prints over at Thousand Circles Images.
