Saturday was the Royal Family 5k at Walt Disney World – part of the Disney Princess Half Marathon weekend. On Friday we picked the kids up from school and drove to Disney’s Wide World of Sports. Alice and I got our race packets and visited the expo booths with my husband and other daughter. The expo was very tiny compared to the others I’ve been to. Kind of a let down. We enjoyed getting annointed with fairy dust and handing out Mobigrips to random confused women.

After the expo we went to Magic Kingdom to drop off our Space Mountain forms. We did the Laugh Floor and rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad twice – the 2nd time during the fireworks. We left at the 8pm closing and checked in to our hotel – the Radisson. The room was a nice size, we had a fridge, the clock was not plugged in but Wendy took care of setting that, the beds were comfy with plush, white comforters.
I pinned Alice’s race bib on her shirt that night – remembering someone who blogged that her hands were shaky on race morning. We calculated when we needed to wake up and when we needed to leave for EPCOT. I set the alarm clock and my cell phone alarm and went to bed.

I woke up at 5:22 am and got dressed. Then I woke up Alice, and soon all 4 of us were getting ready. I asked my husband to take many photos and video clips, and explained about condensation on the lens early in the AM – hoping that if he were insane camera guy for a while that at least 3 of our photos would be good. We left for EPCOT.

There was a long line of cars entering EPCOT and when we parked and got out it was dark, chilly (about 54 degrees) and music was playing. Suzy Q was MC and the DJ was Prince somebody, who I tried to videotape but had the setting down to video for email so his lovely prince jacket is probably not even going to show up. Oh well. People were milling about, waiting for port-a-potties, drinking water, taking photos, etc.
Many women were wearing Princess costumes. Most were in groups and each woman in the group was a different princess. Some teams were just in matching shirts – like the Nerd Herd behind us. There was a woman dressed as Cinderella with a man dressed as Prince Charming – she even had rhinestone sneakers – who Suzy Q was interviewing. They had come in town just for the 5k. Beauty and the Beast were there with a backdrop for photo opps.

Alice and I jogged a bit to stay warm, made a meeting place with our family – since she would finish first and would have to exit alone to find Daddy – and then we gave our jackets to Daddy and headed into the coral. There were signs by pace, and she should have been in 7-9 mins and I should have been behind her in 10-13 mins. So we stood between the 2 signs, with her at the back of her group and me at the front of mine. We chatted and stretched and put our hands in prayer position to activate our heart shakras, even though I don’t really know what that means. By now it was light out and we weren’t cold. Then we asked a tall college-aged looking girl in front of us (who seemed like a serious runner) what her goal time was. She said probably 24 mins. Alice wanted to break her 26:42, so I told her to pace herself with this woman. She was tall enough to see above much of the Mommy crowd and could help Alice acheive her goal.

My goal was to break 35, but having never run a 5k I was not sure how I’d be in a large group.
We counted down for the wheelchair start, but there was only one wheelchair up front. Then the whole crowd moved forward to close up the space to the starting line. This put me next to the 7 min mile pace sign, and I toyed with standing still and letting others flow around me – but I had no guarantee they were actually faster than I was, and I wanted to be near Alice, so I moved with the crowd.

Then we all counted down from 10, purple and white streamers shot out, and we started running. I activated my husband’s Garmin that I was wearing when I crossed the Start and began the first 1/2 mile through the parking lot. I lost my daughter after about 20 seconds – she went up ahead, ponytail bopping to the beat of her feet.
I remember a mom pushing a toddler in a stroller with a 6-ish year old daughter running along side holding on to the stroller.
The first thing I noticed was that once we past the cars and started curving back towards EPCOT I could see my breath and the breath of those around me. That meant it was colder in this little pocket and I hoped I wouldn’t start getting goosebumps. Then I noticed lots and lots of people passing me. I was at about a 9:40 pace and wanted to hold it but figured I’d tire out quickly at the end if I stayed at 9:40 so I forced myself to drop to 10 and let people go around me. I repeated over and over in my head that it was OK to let people pass me because I knew where my pace needed to be to finish at my goal time. Slow and steady would do better than fast at first and dragging at the end. As we neared the entrance between Mexico and Norway I saw a guy in a kilt with a boy in a kilt. His shirt had cartoon guys on the back I thought I recognized from a Disney Podcast show. They were talking to a cast member. We passed a smell of trash, then a smell of onions, and then we were in the park. Right away I noticed the quiet. There were a few cast members – less than 10 in Mexico. Some were waving flags or saying good luck, but no real cheering and no music. (Later my daughter said she heard “Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride” as she entered the Mexico pavillion, which is a song I run to often and would have really pumped me up. But sadly, I heard nothing.) As I hit Norway I saw the kilt guys again talking to a cast member, and they went through a side door back by the bathrooms. I wondered if they were just doing the start and finish to report about later.
We went over the bridge, and I ran through countries of World Showcase letting little Disney memories from previous vacations come to mind, forgetting entirely that I was running. This helped the first mile go by instantly. I remember running past the America Pavillion and thinking how weird it was to see the funnel cake booth without being able to smell funnel cakes. I remember saying “salam alekem” to a cast member in Morocco. We were in Italy and a mom with a teen daughter said “MMM Italian food” and I said back “Gelato!” and they said “That sounds good right now.” That’s when I realized all that I was hearing were snippets of runner’s conversations. The cast members in the countries weren’t saying much at all. So I tried to pump them up so they would pump US up. I put my hand by my ear and said, “I can’t hear you” or “raised the roof” with my hands. A few giggled, some got louder, most ignored me and stayed quiet. Look, if you’re gonna stand along side a race, at least make the runners feel good!
Soon I passed Sleeping Beauty and the Prince. Some people were getting photos.
I remember passing France and thinking of the great time we had there, and then there was an uphill bridge. A mom looked back at her young daughter and said something like “Come on, keep it up.” and she said “I’m trying mom.” I said to her, “It’s uphill here but it will even out in just a second.” I was starting to feel my heart pound and thought I would walk the next uphill we encountered. I remember running downhill towards the boats to the Boardwalk next to a dad speaking French to his son and daughter. There we went backstage and had a 2nd water station. I thanked the volunteers, but didn’t stop for water. One guy said “2.5 more” and I wanted to say “no, 2.5 down!”
We came out near Canada. I looked at the stage used by Off Kilter and said, “Hi Jamie” to the closed stage. Then I realized I could vaguely hear music in the distance. There was another uphill into Canada and I determined I didn’t need to walk, I just slowed to about 12 m/m pace. Donald Duck was there in a Prince jacket and I high-fived him. I started hearing some music again and thought to myself that it was pretty lousy that I hadn’t heard any music until I was practically exiting World Showcase and hardly any cast members were cheering.
Then we headed into future world. I took the downhill under Spaceship Earth as fast as could, taking advantage of what I thought to be the last downhill. We went alongside the stupid monuments and along the full entrance area of the park. Then we turned back up toward Spaceship Earth again. A woman with a double stroller past me and scared me half to death. She apologized and I thought – and almost said – any woman running faster than me while pushing 2 kids should not apologize. I could hear and barely see the crowd at the finish from there.
I went back under Spaceship Earth on the opposite side and took the time to really look around me and said hello to Dame Judy Dench, the new narrator of the ride whose voice often gives me the 7 min nap I need at EPCOT.
We turned out toward the parking lot. I wanted to walk. I realized I had walked only once and it was for 20 seconds around mile 1, and now I felt my heart pound terribly, but right at that second I saw the 3 mile mark with a 33 min clock. I knew if I walked now I would not make my 35 min goal. In fact I was awfully close to missing it. So I put a skip in my step, pounded my fists in the air for the event photographer, and kept running.

I could see the finish. I saw more photographers. I tried to see the sign my family had for me and my husband’s red shirt, when I realized I was far left and my family with the video camera would be far right. I veered right and was basically dead center of the road when I crossed the finish line – arms overhead – and hit the STOP button on the Garmin. I smiled, realized I was NOT crying, and got a bit amazed that that.
I ran about 5 more steps, then started walking, then thought better of it and jogged in place a bit to slow my heart down less suddenly. I saw people with their medals around their necks, and saw people handing out Gatorade, and realized I had walked right past the people with the medals. I saw a guy replenishing the medals and asked for one. “I ran right past them,” I said. “Do I have to turn around and go back?” He didn’t seem happy, but he put one around my neck.
I got a water, a muffin for Wendy, a banana for me, an orange for Alice (this is what I was thinking as I was taking the food) and about 10 feet beyond those booths I saw my family. The first thing I told them was that I made my goal! I broke 35 with 34:26. Then Alice told me she thinks she crossed the finish at 26:24 and that means ‘real time’ she hit her goal too. For me to get out of the fenced area to meet my family I had to go past a Royal Family 5k backdrop where people were getting individual photos. I asked Brian if there were photo opp places outside the fence and he said yes, so I ducked behind the backdrop and snuck out without a photo, avoiding the line. There I kissed everyone and we went to a castle backdrop. There was a hula hoop contest that a few kids were taking part in – but no event photographer, so my husband took my photo with the 2 girls. Then we walked back to the spectator area and he took our photo with the Finish line behind us.

My husband told me about a dad dressed as Aladdin who had somehow put plywood on top of the stroller and made it look like a magic carpet with his toddler riding up on top (on video). I shouted some spirited stuff to the runners who were just making it to the finishing chute, and then we headed back to the hotel. My daughter said something about “my medal… I mean my plastic” because the medals were not metal, they were rubbery vinyl. But we earned it fair and square.
I told my husband it was too quiet – not enough fanfair. He said, “then you’re going to think every other 5k is deadly silent compared to this.”
It was my best run ever. I felt tight in the core, I hardly walked, my legs didn’t bother me once, my breathing was even and I could have done another 2 miles.

I stretched before taking a 25 min shower back at the hotel and laughed at taking a shower that was almost as long as my run.

I did it, I did it well, I’ll do it better next time

As soon as I was home & in front of my computer, I went to active.com and looked up the next 5ks in my zip code!