Disney Princess Half Marathon Part I: Expo
This weekend was the Disney Princess Half Marathon weekend. My friends and I made a plan to run this race last April and it was A and F’s very first half marathon.
A came with her family (husband, cousin, mom, and dad) early and F followed a day later. Mo and I taught Friday and then drove halfway Friday night and the rest of the way Saturday morning.
ready to get out of the Bates Motel and onto a Disney Resort!
Expo
The first thing I wanted to do when I got in was go to the expo. I’ve only done a few races big enough to have a real expo, and this one would be very girl focused. The expo is usually at Disney Wide World of Sports but was moved to the Coronado Springs Resort, which made transportation a challenge. You were only allowed to take a Disney bus there, even if your were coming from off site. No driving your own car, no getting dropped off.
I forgot to print out my race waiver in advance which A said I should definitely do. Thankfully the lines were short to print yours out.
Actually, all the lines except a few were short. We walked straight over to my bib booth and picked up m
how cool…it’s got my favorite princess and my preferred name on it. Take note world, I am in Corral A!
We walked straight up to the bag pickup, which was clear on the other side of the expo, and got my bag. I wanted to wander the expo a bit but the booths were right on top of each other and crowded so we didn’t stay long.
The only booth I wanted to go in was the official merchandise booth. I’d been looking for official merchandise online and they hasn’t released any of it before the race and the booth had curtains all around it so you couldn’t even see in. And about 200 people waiting to get in. Mo said I could stand in that line but he sure wasn’t.
By that point, we were hungry and grumpy so we grabbed lunch at the resort and jumped on a bus to meet our friends at Hollywood Studios. It was great that part of the swag was a drawstring backpack so that I could stuff everything in there and be ready to Disney it up.
Have you done any races with big expos?
If you could be one Disney Princess/character, who would you be?
Look for Part II: Race Day!
Posted on February 26, 2013, in Race Recap and tagged disney, expo, race recap, running, running with friends, vacation. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
I did the Princess a couple of years ago, when the expo was still at WWofS. Overall, I thought the race was VERY well organized. But I was alone. So the whole “princess” vibe kind of got to me.
The Kidless Kronicles
I really liked the Disney Princess theme, probably because I’m spoiled rotten. I think they moved the expo because the Braves were doing Spring Training at WWoS. But I heard several people say the expo was better when it was over there.
Big expos are my nightmare!! Ugh! I’ve never done a Disney race, but I’d love to do the Goofy Challenge at some point!
The Disney race was definitely fun. I’m usually too anxious about getting my stuff or making someone wait to really enjoy a big expo, but I’ve only been to a few.