Disneyworld Half Marathon – Run Disney Review

Last year,

I ran the Disneyworld Half Marathon.

My Second Disney Race.

My first at DisneyWorld.

and the first on my Coast to Coast Journey!

Here is the trip report I wrote after my trip

with my beautiful cousin, Rachel!

We left Thursday evening and drove to Seattle.

Tickets were about $200-250 per person cheaper

So figured it was worth $500 to drive up there.

Our flight left at 1am on Friday morning.

We had a layover in Minneapolis,

Then onto Orlando.

We had the seat between us empty on this flight,

so we actually got a little sleep 🙂

Probably almost 3 hrs of sleep total (from both flights)

We arrived there around 11:30am Friday, East Coast time.

Got on the Magical Express which took us to the Pop Century Hotel.

Our room was in the 50’s area,

(last time, we stayed in the 70’s)

with the Bowling pin pool from our window.

Pop Century Hotel

We took quick showers and changed clothes,

grabbed some sandwiches from the food court,

and hopped on a bus to the Expo to get our race packets.

I had never been to the ESPN World of Sports Center before.

There were LOTS of people there!!

but getting our packets wasn’t too bad.

DisneyWorld Half Marathon Expo

But the expo center was PACKED!

I was surprised that it was a smaller expo than Disneyland Half,
or so it seemed.

Disneyland there was more room/booths/etc.

I was getting a bit overwhelmed with the sheer amount of people in that room!

DisneyWorld Half Marathon Expo crowds

We didn’t stay too long,

long enough to get our goodie bags (with our race shirts)

Buy our Coast to Coast shirts.

where they gave us special coast to coast backpacks for FREE!

While we were signing up, I looked over and

Olympian Jeff Galloway, was just standing there!

I wasn’t sure it was him because I assumed he would have a HUGE line around him,

so Rachel and I walked over to him,

got pictures and chatted with him

I use his walk/run method 🙂

He is a tiny man!

I think my arm was bigger than him!

I was SO excited to meet him!!

Jeff Galloway and Me!! DisneyWorld Half Marathon Expo

After the expo,

We dropped our goodies off at our hotel and headed to the Magic Kingdom.

We walked to the Contemporary Resort,

To eat at Chef Mickey!

Where we had dinner with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto!

It was one of my FAVORITE meals when we were there last December.

and it was just a DELICIOUS this time!

YUM!

It was fun with all the characters

We had a GREAT time!

I am glad we indulged in going 🙂

Rachel also got to see Cinderella’s castle all lit up with the Christmas lights

which is an awesome site!

After Chef Mickey,

We headed to Downtown Disney to get gifts for the kids.

The BIGGEST complaint about Disneyworld,

is that it takes FOREVER to get anywhere 😛

Disneyland is MUCH nicer about that because it is all so close together and you can just walk!

Anyway, I think we ended up back at the hotel and in bed around 9pm.

I called Joseph and the kids.

I had been doing fine – better than I thought

leaving them for the weekend.

But when the 18 month old

got on the phone and was like

“momma, momma”

It made me cry! 🙁

I had a hard time getting to sleep,

Which I didn’t think I would, since I had VERY little sleep on the planes.

Excitement for the race

and anxiety being away from my family,

I just couldn’t sleep well 🙁

We got ready and headed for the bus,

at 3:30am (we had to be on a bus between 3-4am)

The line was REALLY long for the bus,

but they were EXCELLENT

and it moved REALLY fast,

because they had LOTS of buses

Disney KNOWS how to do this!

We got dropped off at Epcot and made our way to the corrals.

At these big races there always seems to be like a mile just to get the start line 😛

We saw a guy peeing in the bushes on the way there,

Even though there were literally HUNDREDS of porta potties.

Lame!

We got to our corral and actually didn’t have to wait too long for it to start.

It started at 5:30am

FIREWORKS went off!

We weren’t expecting that, but it was AWESOME!

There were 3 people dressed as Peter Pan, Captain Hook, and Tinkerbell

They were all guys!

There guys in kilts

a guy dressed as Tarzan – no shirt, just a loin cloth and a monkey on his back

So MANY costumes

More than Disneyland Half, I think!

DisneyWorld Half Marathon

waiting for it to start!

I think we got started around 6am

It was a bit cold

Perfect for running I think

but I should have had gloves because my fingers were FROZEN!

They did fireworks for EACH corral start!

Around mile 1, there were TONS of guys peeing in the bushes

I have never experienced this in my other races!

No wonder they do women focused races 😛

There were TONS of porta poties though!

(the website showed OVER 22,000 finishers!!)

I attempted, right before the 5k mark

to stop and take a picture of the Magic Kingdom sign

Well, my fingers were so cold/frozen,

I couldn’t use the buttons through the running band

so I took it out, but I still wasn’t able to get my fingers to push the phone buttons properly

I did eventually get the picture

and it took me forever to get it back in the arm band because my fingers were just not working right 😛

I WOULD have had a record 5k time for me

but I wasted at LEAST 3-4 minutes on the stupid picture

My 5k time was 37 minutes

DisneyWorld Half Marathon – running through the parking lots!

Running into the Magic Kingdom was AMAZING and Magical!

I was so excited to run down main street and through Tomorrowland,

then Fantasyland, through Cinderella’s Castle

and out through Fronteirland.

It was just so much fun to run through!!

In front of the Cinderella’s Castle

They had characters everywhere

including Darkwing Duck

Who I have NEVER seen at the parks before!

(to this day, I am still kicking myself for not stopping and taking a picture!!)

They had these stilt walkers a couple different places on the race
there were BRAVE to let all these people run around them!!

I was crying when I crossed the finish line

I finished and this and it had been a long planned event/want of mine to do!!

I accomplished it!!

The nice thing about the Disneyworld race compared to Disneyland
is you are on Disney property the entire time,
so the entertainment/landscape is nicer
than just seeing Anaheim 😛

DisneyWorld Half Marathon Medal

I got my medal

Stood in a line for like 10 minutes to get food

(I have NO freaking idea why it took so long!)

then wondered around, trying to get a phone line,
and figure out where the family meet area was because it wasn’t clearly marked

so it took another 10 or so minutes to find Rachel 😛

The line for the bus back to the hotel was long

but again, it went FAST – lots of buses to get the job done quick!

Got back to the hotel

took hot shower
and

we both laid down for a rest

(I couldn’t fall asleep – what is wrong with me?!?!)

We packed up

Got some lunch in the hotel food court

and boarded the magical express back to the airport

I had NEVER sat on the tarmac until this flights
(considering I have been on like 100 flights!)

They told us it was because the air traffic into Atlanta was too busy?

Whatever, they should KNOW that when planning flights 😛

So we sat there a little over a half an hour on the taxi way just waiting

We were worried about missing our connecting flight

we only had an hour layover

We got into Atlanta about 11 minutes late (according to the pilot)

and then there was no one on the jet way to open our plane door,

so it took another few minutes just to start to get people off

and we were in the BACK of the plane

When we got off, we found our flight

and BOOKED it over to the next terminal

There was luckily a train waiting!

We made it to the gate just as they started to board!

We made it into Seattle a half an hour early

Got the car and started on the trek home

got some Arby’s for dinner

since we hadn’t eaten since lunch east coast time and it was now 10pm west coast!

There was some BAD fog on the way home!!
SCARY!

But there was hardly any traffic
and Rachel just drove slowly and carefully

and we made it home

a half an hour earlier than I had planned even 🙂
Left late Thursday night from Oregon
got back VERY late Saturday night
(or maybe it was early morning on Sunday?)
Basically a 48 hr journey!

So it was a once in a lifetime, whirlwind trip

It was AMAZING!

I LOVED IT!

I am so glad Rachel could go with me

and we could fulfill this Disney dream together

I would LOVE to do it again one year

just not when I have little kids
(too hard on this mommy to be away from them!!)

But seriously, other than that

it was an absolutely fantastic trip

full of lots of memories

and I am so happy and grateful I could do this

especially with Rachel 🙂