The Race I Became a *Real* Runner Part II Princess Half Recap

This year’s Princess Half weekend was quite a bit different than all my previous races since I had the kiddos in tow this time. Since Officer P just recently switched duty locations he was unable to get the time off so it left just my mom and I with the 4 kids. We had decided that since my mom was not use to wrangling  watching after 4 kids, especially in a crowd, that they would all stay at the hotel while I ran. I still think this was the best choice, but I sure did miss seeing my mom out there cheering me on.

Since our recent relocation to California the 2 younger ones had become quite the night owls and the fact that Florida is 3 hours ahead of California did not help matters much. I usually try to go to bed between 10 and 10:30 the right before a race, but this time it ended up being closer to midnight, which was not great with my alarm set for 2:30 am. I laid out my “flat Summer” and headed off to get what little precious sleep I could.

Flat Summer on her magic carpet ride.

It felt like I barely even closed my eyes and it was time to get up and get going. I woke surprisingly easy and started getting ready. At first I had a sweater on, but after stepping out of the hotel room door I turned right around and took it off. I was staying at Port Orleans Riverside in a Royal Guest Room booked through Leigh with Mousekeplanner (that I LOVED BTW) and headed to the North Depot bus stop at 3:15.

A little secret many Princesses don’t seem to know is that event transportation picks up at ALL bus stops at POR. When I got to the bus stop a bus had just left and there were only me and 2 other princesses sitting there waiting when another bus came by and picked us up; we went on to the East Depot and then to the South Depot (Front Lobby). I have stayed at POR all 3 years I have ran the PHM and the South depot always has the longest line by far! This year was no exception. Since this was our last stop we only had a handful of seats left so it really is so much easier to use one of the other bus stops. We picked up about 6 or 7 more princess and were on our way.

I chatted up the princess who I was sitting next to, who happened to be from the San Fernando Valley, the whole way to EPCOT. I have to say the ride over went very smoothly this year and we arrived at the EPCOT parking lot around 3:40. I headed straight over to the event merchandise area to meet up with Patty and found Sarah was there too! ! We took some pre-race pics and were ready to head off to the corrals.

Sarah and I before the race.	Moms Run This Town (MRTT) Disney Group Pic (I’m back centerish)

When I went to take the MRTT pic I lost Patty again, I tell you she is slippery one, so I headed back alone. The walk back also went very smoothly so I had plenty of time to hit a port-o-potty and get into my corral ( B ) and still be toward the front. A little tip about the P-O-P is that at Disney there are always more so don’t use the first ones you come to, if you walk farther down there will be shorter lines, and cleaner potties. Trust me. 

As I was waiting in my corral I decided to tweet my very first #Run3rd dedication. I decided to “run for those who can’t, because I can.” Simple as that. After what felt like forever it was time to get the party started. We counted down and corral A was off. One thing that I love about WDW races, opposed to Disneyland, is that they send off each corral with their own set of fireworks! Corral B moved up, our fireworks went off and we were on our way . . .