It’s been a week since my dreamy weekend at Disney for the 2014 Princess Half Weekend where I participated in the Glass Slipper Challenge. I know a lot of you dream about this particular race weekend, so instead of a lengthy trip report (and since Beth did such a great overview of the half!) I thought I’d just do a quick review of the different elements of the weekend instead.

Originally I had planned on doing quite a bit more shopping but time with my friends ended up taking priority. I arrived at the Expo at ESPN Wide World of Sports via bus from my resort, Disney’s Old Key West (more on that as a race home base at the end). There was no line, walked right up and got everything I needed. I had to go to four different booths – one for my bib, one for my race retreat, one for my pins, and then the stand for the shirts. Now, since there was no line this was easy but that could have been a tad time consuming otherwise. Sara and I ate at the Grill that’s right there and although it’s not the best food in the world, it’s oh so convenient and we were both starving so our “snacky” lunch of soup and french fries hit the spot!

(side note: I will give no details of how I know this or what I did with the information, but volunteers were giving Glass Slipper Challenge participants who were doing Race Retreat TWO bracelets. I got one in my packet with my pins and one at the race retreat booth. Theoretically, this meant that I could have given the other one to a friend to get in for free. Not sure if Run Disney knew this was happening? Anybody else have that happen?And that’s all I’ll say about that.)

I REALLY like the 10K distance. My first one was at the Disneyland Half as part of Dumbo Double Dare and it’s just a fun distance where I can push myself and before you know it, it’s over! However, I found the first half of this course to be dullsville. Literally just running in the dark on the freeway dullsville. Yes, I loved that they had Elsa from Frozen on the overpass (and I got chill bumps hearing all the princesses singing along to Let it go! What a fun moment!) but it just felt long and dark. (uh, OK, maybe I should tell you that we accidentally had decaf in the room before this race. I won’t say who’s fault it was because it was mine:) but I know that tainted my impression of this race. Sorry again, Sara. I hope someday you can find it in your heart to forgive me . . . 😉

Once we got into Epcot however, I really liked it (maybe the endorphins were somehow making up for my lack of caffeine!). I wish I had been more familiar with the route as I was a tad confused about how long we’d be in Epcot after the Boardwalk/YC/BC loop which is awesome. Love running on the “boards” of the Boardwalk!

I was pretty happy with my time for this race and I only walked through water stops so I felt really good about my effort. But I don’t think I’ll do it again. I’ll tell you why at the end.

I ALWAYS love this race and this year was no different. However, because Sara and I were walking due to her IT band issues, I was further back than I’ve ever been and I’ll tell you something, it’s PACKED towards the back! And we were in Corral E so I can’t imagine what it must have been like for those in O or P! I know they keep saying they’re limiting the number of registrations but it seemed more crowded to me than ever. Still enjoyable, but at times very annoying.

RANT having never been a walker in one of these races, I totally get now those that gripe about how rude the “runners” can be! Sara and I were very careful to move to the side although sometimes we’d get caught in the middle, and the number of snarky remarks we were blessed to hear was truly ridiculous. GET OVER YOURSELF, LADIES! I feel like I’ve look at life from both sides now (and sure, I’ve been known to complain about walkers that go 5 abreast on the road) but SERIOUSLY, Ladies, were running a race dressed as princesses. Let’s act like them, shall we? I was tempted to tell the Fairy Godmother on a few of you. Truly just flat out rude.

Sara and I stopped for a ton of photos, chatted about our lives, complained about the humidity some, and overall just had a great time.

I already reviewed race retreat so I won’t do that but you can find my review of that here.

Old Key West was a great home base for us. The two bedroom is GYNORMOUS and having two queen beds in the second bedroom (instead of a bed and a sofa bed that many of the DVC resorts have) was a huge bonus. All princesses involved had “real” beds which made the 12 hours of sleep TOTAL that we got all three nights worth it. We had no problems with race transportation and the buses were always right where we needed them. Would definitely stay here again for any race weekend! But it did help immensely that we were near the Hospitality House so keep that in mind – it’s a huge resort and being close to the transportation was important.

And on that, here’s why I won’t do Glass Slipper Challenge again . . wait for it.

I DON’T EVER WANT TO GET UP AT 2:30 AM TWO MORNINGS IN A ROW AGAIN. EVER.

That is all. Thanks for reading. If the Princess Half is on your bucket list, I highly encourage you to sign up! It’s a great weekend and I’ll be back next year!

Happy Running!

Jen