Walt Disney World Princess Half Marathon Weekend

Today we have an update from a new contributor, Renée , who brings us the first in what we hope will be many updates from parks in Florida and RunDisney events. 

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I participated in the inaugural Glass Slipper Challenge, which consisted of a 10k race on Saturday and a half marathon on Sunday. This bib was to be worn on both days. In the initial registration, you were asked who your favorite princess was, and whoever you chose would appear on the bib along with their colors. And since I ran in every Princess half marathon since it started 6 years ago, I was considered a "Perfect Princess."

I was hoping for a photo op with the Frozen princesses, since the line for the meet and greet at Epcot is always several hours long. This was the closest I got, with Elsa above the crowd on the road outside of the park giving out words of encouragement to the runners.

In these races I see some fairly common characters on the course that I don't bother stopping for, but I saw Baseball Goofy outside of the ESPN restaurant at the Boardwalk resort, and being a MLB fan, I had to stop for a quick shot.

At the New Balance booth at the expo for the weekend, I was disappointed that there was a wall for the names of the runners participating in the 10k and half marathon, but not both. I discovered at the finish area at the actual races, there was the wall listing for the Glass Slipper Challenge runners.

The medal the runners received after completing the inaugural Enchanted 10k race.

The day after the Enchanted 10k was the main event of the weekend, the Princess half marathon. Around 24,000 runners gathered before sunrise in the roads outside of Epcot for the start.

My view of the fireworks at the start of the race from corral C

As each corral was allowed to start, we inched closer to the starting line and they released fireworks for each group.

The race announcers next to the stage were dressed in their prince and princess costumes, and were joined by Cinderella's fairy godmother to greet the runners as we crossed the starting line.

The sight of the banner across the starting line, where we began our 13.1 mile journey

The race starts just outside of Epcot and from there we headed to the Magic Kingdom. Right before entering the park, we went through a small backstage area towards the front of Main Street.

Running through the Magic Kingdom park is a huge draw for Disney runners. No matter how many times I've done it, I still have to admit that it's pretty cool.

After running up Main Street, you see the castle and run through a good portion of the park.

And of course no Princess race would be complete without a jog through Cinderella's Castle

The rest of the Magic Kingdom course goes through Frontierland, where you can also get an idea of the fog and humidity that hovered over us all morning.

After leaving the on stage area of Magic Kingdom, it goes into another backstage area, next to Splash Mountain, where some of the parade floats are kept. Another character meet and greet was set of there, one of several along the course, and while I wasn't running to set a world record, stopping for each character would have been pretty time consuming.

There was no line for Princess Atta, in front of the billboard on the road outside of Magic Kingdom. I thought it made a nice photo op.

Once finishing the race, there were a few different areas to go to get certain medals for your achievement. I went to the "Perfect Tent", where I was given an extra lanyard for my medal to indicate that I have completed every Princess half marathon since the beginning.

In addition to the regular medal for the half marathon, I also received a medal for the Glass Slipper Challenge. 

Thanks for the update Renée. Congratulations on completing the Inaugural Glass Slipper Challenge and for being a Princess Half Marathon Legacy Runner!!! 

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