What is the Glass Slipper Challenge?
It's a 19.3 mile new adventure held in Walt Disney World. You run the Disney Princess Enchanted 10k on Saturday followed by the Disney Princess Half Marathon on Sunday and earn three medals.
In addition to these 2 races, I added a third one to my challenge: the Royal Family 5k on Friday with my family.
Thursday, February 20th - Expo
At 10 am, we headed to the expo located at the ESPN World Wide of Sports Complex to pick up our bibs and the ones for 4 other friends that were arriving late that day and couldn't make it to the expo on-time. It was a little bit hectic but we survived.
This is a big and dangerous expo for all Disney fanatics out there. You can find everything from runDisney tutus to New Balance Disney themed running shoes. My advice is to leave the wallet at the hotel :-)
Friday, February 21st - Cinderella Royal Family 5k
I signed up my mom, husband and kids ( 8 & 5 year old) for this race. The start time was 6:15 am at Epcot. We took the bus around 5:00 am and walked to the staging area. My son was very sleepy and tired. My daughter, on the other hand, was excited and ready to go.
My mom and husband walked the 5K with my son. My daughter and I ran it all the way with several stops to greet the characters. First, we visited Mulan and Mushu in China.
Then, we swung by Morocco and said hi to Jasmine and the Genie.
We travelled to France and met the Beast.
We finished the race with big smiles on our faces!!
After the race, I met with my friends: Belle, Ariel, Cinderella. My Sleeping Beauty crashed almost immediately.
After the race, we went back to the hotel, took a long shower and headed to the parks for about 10 hours. Next day, we'd repeat it all over again.
Saturday, February 22nd - (Inaugural) Disney Princess Enchanted 10k
I woke up earlier today, at 3:00 am, after a few 4 hours of sleep. My running costume: Pretty Pink Minnie.
I took the same bus as the day before and headed to the staging area to meet my friends. We did some warm up exercises as you can see in this video :-)
The course was a big loop around Epcot with many miles on the highway and few on the park. I would have preferred it the other way around. My favorite was seeing Elsa throwing artificial snow to the runners. I remember wishing she could freeze the park for us. It was pretty hot and humid.
I also enjoyed seeing the characters from The Princess and the Frog, Goofy, Pocahontas and finally Donald Duck.
I love the finisher's medal for this race. After the race, I asked Rapunzel for advice on how to keep my hair straight with such humidity. She said "you need to comb it all the time or it will tangle". Big laughs!
After the race, we went back to the hotel, took a long shower and headed to the parks for about 10 hours. Next day, we'd repeat it all over again. Deja vu'
Sunday, February 23rd - Disney Princess Half Marathon
For the third day in a row, I woke up at 3:00 to get ready for the race. Now I was tired! Zzzzzz. My running costume: Maleficent.
This race, however, was different. This was my husband's first runDisney event. We planned on running it together from beginning to end.
My plan worked for the first few miles until we reached Cinderella's castle.
Around the corner, there was Tomorroland. I stopped to take a picture with Buzzlight. My husband continued running. "I'll catch you later", I yelled.
Little I knew that Mickey and Minnie were around the corner. Of course, I had to stop again to take a picture with them. The waiting line was 10 minutes now.
At mile 6 or so, I spotted a group of spectators dressed up as the Sleeping Beauty's good fairies. They were holding a poster stating "You are running Maleficent". I am pretty sure they were talking about me. I had to stop to take a picture.
There was also a very long line to greet Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip so I didn't stop but they both looked at me at shouted "Stay away Maleficient!". hahaha this was awesome. I love that they are totally into their characters!!
At mile 11, I was passed by my husband as we were crossing a bridge and heading back to Epcot for the last mile. "Aha we are going to cross the finish line together after all", I thought. Of course, this didn't happen as I spotted Sofia The First. Ok one more picture.
After meeting her, I couldn't get her song our of my head.
I was a girl in the village doing alright
Then I became a princess over night.
Now I gotta figure out how to do it right
Thank goodness there were only 1.5 miles left. I saw my husband at mile 12 and thought "cool! this is it! together forever!". Naaa, the moment he saw me he took off. "Heeeey, wait for me!". Now who is competitive in this family? Just in case you are wondering, we are still married. We even took a picture together after the race. See our happy smiling faces? :-) I am just kidding. I am very proud of my husband as he decided to run this race in the last minute with absolutely no training.
For finishing the Tinker Bell Half marathon earlier this year and the Princess Half Marathon, I received a special limited edition pink Coast to Coast medal. It's adorable. These are all the medals I received over the Disney Princess Marathon Weekend:
Royal Family 5k, Princess 10k, Princess Half, Glass Slipper Challenge and C2C special edition.
Have you enjoyed my recap! I have included lots of pictures not to bore you with three recaps and an long mile-to-mile report. However, if you are interested in more details about each one of these races, you can visit The Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend official site. They are all pretty flat, easy courses and what's most important lots of fun!
