And that’s a wrap on the 2024 Disney Princess race weekend! Today’s half was the last of the weekend’s 3 races and the second part of the Fairytale Challenge.
Course
2024 Disney Princess Half Marathon Course Map
Not gonna lie, this wasn’t my favorite course. It makes such a big difference when we can at least dip into EPCOT at the start. Instead, today, we ran the road for the first 5 miles, entered Magic Kingdom for the next mile or so, and then spent miles 6-12 back on the road to EPCOT, where we entered by The Land and circled Future World to the finish line. I had a great time, and Magic Kingdom is always the highlight of the race, but the roads in the cold were admittedly not my favorite part of the morning.
Arrival; Pre-Race Meet & Greets
Like I mentioned in the 5K recap, I wasn’t going to run to the staging area quite as early for the 10K and Half Marathon. I’d gotten all of the pre-race character pictures at the 5K and they didn’t change for the rest of the weekend, so I’d just pop in for a picture or two with my medals after the race.
Weather
The 5K was cold, the 10K was warmer but with damp air—today was sort of a combination. Temperatures were in the upper 40s and low 50s again and my hands would not unfreeze for the whole race no matter how warm my core was. I’ve been trying to rest up and heal since Dopey and focusing more on strength building, and I knew my conditioning wouldn’t be stellar this weekend–it’s funny how your body forgets how to be uncomfortable when you take a little time off.
I’d packed sweats in my gEAR Check bag and couldn’t wait to get them on after.
Corrals
Corrals were A-E and again seemed to be released in well spaced waves. Like I said yesterday, the weather is largely to thank for that — when there are storms or extreme temperatures rolling in, they have to push us out a little faster so that everyone has the chance to finish. Weekends like this, though, they can space us out more and it makes for a much more open course.
Characters
I didn’t count them but there were a lot of characters on the course and it did so much, along with the other entertainment, to break off the long stretches of road time. There were lots of repeats from the last two days in case you’d missed them or were “only” running the half. And we had lots of new faces, including:
- Isabella with Mirabel for her world debut in the Parks (they were a bit distanced and CMs took photos for us with our own camaras)
- Wendy
- Knight Donald
- Olaf
- Tink & Fawn
- Beast & Belle
- Vanellope
- Aurora, Snow White, and Cinderella (on parade float exiting MK)
- Esmerelda
There were also PhotoPass staffed photo ops with Spaceship Earth in the Background and in front of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.
Note again that the 5Ks, because of their courses through EPCOT, seem to be the ones that are offering PhotoPass with the new Walt statue.
Walt Statue PhotoPass Picture from the 5K
Medals
The half marathon medals were themed to Tiana—they called this her “Almost There” Half Marathon. We also got our Fairytale Challenge medals today! They were themed to Frozen.
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And that’s it for the weekend!! I won’t be at yoga tomorrow morning but I’m excited to hear all about it!
I loved sharing these miles with all of you—see you at Springtime Surprise!
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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.
