Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend Recap

I cannot believe after so many months of training, planning, and prepping, my Princess Half Marathon Weekend is officially over. It was an amazing trip and a fabulous race. Well worth every drop of sweat 🙂

I decided to divide my blog postings about the race into two parts. Today’s post will be about the pre-race events

Expo

Although we arrived on Thursday morning, the official Princess Half Marathon kicked off on Friday morning at 9 am with the opening of the Fit for a Princess Expo. Located at the Jostens Center in in the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex,  participants could visit over 65 fitness/running related vendor booths. In addition to the vendors there was also a speaker series. The list of guest speakers included Jeff Galloway, Sage Steele, Susy Favor-Hamilton, and Jon Hughes. Topics discussed raced from nutrition to training to just plain motivation. We did not have the opportunity to sit and listen to the presentations as we were far too excited to visit the vendor booths and to be quite honest Baby Girl was not really in the mood to listen to advice on proper nutrition when running. 

The expo was great but the best moments came while vising the runDisney booth. As my sister, Becca, and I walked passed, I noticed a TINY sign that said “Limited number of Disneyland Half Marathon spots available” WHAT?!?  I couldn’t believe it.  In the week before the Princess Half, the Disneyland Half Marathon sold out (and in only 32 days), squashing my dream of earning my Coast to Coast Medal. Since this was Becca’s first half marathon, she wanted to wait until she completed the Princess Half before she committed to another one, just to make sure she could do it.  Although I knew she could do it, I understood her feelings and we decided to wait. We  never dreamed the Disneyland half would sell out in only 32 days. If you are unfamiliar with the Coast to Coast (C2C) medal, it is a special medal given to participants who run a half or full marathon in WDW and Disneyland within the same calender year. This is in addition to the regular medal that is given that the end of each race, so you really earn three medals for two races. The reason the Disneyland race sold out so quickly is that there are only two races in California that qualify for the C2C medal. One is the Tinkerbell half, which occurred in January, and the Disneyland half, which will take place Labor Day weekend.  So, if a guy were to want to earn a C2C medal, but did not want to wear fairy wings, there is really only one option.

Back to the sign…so I cannot believe my eyes. I turn to my sister (actually, I think I grabbed her arm and shook it hard) and show her the sign. We casually (and by casually, I mean we ran over like a couple of maniacs) strolled over the the guy running the booth and ask him if the sign was true. He says that they did indeed have spots. Apparently runDisney had saved 100 slots to offer at the Princess Expo. When we arrived at 11am on Friday, there were only 50 left.  We had to register right then and there. I quickly called DH to make sure this was okay, as we would all be traveling to California for this race (There was no WAY the kids were going to let me go to CA alone) and Becca called her husband. Once I got the go ahead, I began the registration process. While I was registering, Becca poked me in the side (actually, I’m pretty sure this time SHE shook ME) and said “He’s here! He’s really here!”. I was so wrapped up in this most fortunate event that I gave her a half hearted mumble of some sort.  I had only one thing on my mind. Once I completed my registration, I turned the computer over to Becca so she could register herself and her husband (DH was considering doing it but since we would not have anyone to watch the kids for the race, he was unable to commit).  As I walked to the other side of the table, I realized what she was trying to tell me…..HE WAS HERE. It was Jeff Galloway himself, standing right next to us. OMG!  What a day. If you do not know who Jeff is, is is the official runDisney running “coach”. He has written a multitude of books on running. He teaches new runners that anyone can run and uses the run/walk/run method.  I had to get a picture with him. After Becca finished her registration, I meandered over to him and introduced myself. Now, for those of you who know me personally, you know that I am a VERY shy person and it is very difficult for me to talk to a complete stranger. I don’t even call for pizza delivery for this reason. But the adrenaline from my excitement overpowered my fear and I did it! Jeff and I talked for a few minutes. He played with Baby Girl a bit and commented on writing a new book called “Crawl/Run/Crawl”. He had talked about research he and his wife have done on the benefits of kids running and the effects on school work and standardized tests. I mentioned how my three older children run with me, which he thought was awesome. I also told him how I did not come from a running family but that we have evolved into a running family. My dad has become a running, finishing his first 5k at age 56. We talked for a few more minutes about family bonding and running but I didn’t want to “hog” him as I was sure there were others who wanted to talk to him. I asked if we could get a photo together and he said “absolutely”.  It was a wonderful experience. He was so nice and talked to you as if you were an old friend (and not some crazy fan ). 

After we made our way around the expo, our final stop was the Official Merchandise booth. I was hoping to snag one of the Princess Half Marathon Dooney and Bourke handbags that were made exclusively for this race. When we had entered the expo, I peeked into the merchandise booth to see if I could find one, but I did not see them. Becca thought they may have their own booth somewhere due to their popularity. Much to my disappointment, we did not see them anywhere.  When we went back into the merchandise booth, I purchased a tech jacket. At the checkout, I asked the cashier what happened to the bags. She informed me that they had sold out in an hour. She thought it was strange because  last year, the bags did not sell out, so she was surprised that they went so quickly. I was disappointed but I was actually annoyed when, upon returning home, I discovered that there are a ton of them for sale on EBAY! So runDisney, if you are looking for suggestions for next year, how about limiting the number of bags you can buy or perhaps only half marathon participants  can buy one or two bags on the first day of the expo. I do feel that race participants should have first crack at such exclusive items…..just a thought.

So that was our experience at the Fit for a Princess Expo. It was a great time, came home with a bunch of freebies and samples, and best of all we got to meet Jeff Galloway AND are now on our way to earning our C2C medal! Next up….race day

Becca and I waiting for race transportation to take us to the Expo