Princess Triple Crown Weekend Recap - Part 1!

First things first… did ya hear today’s announcement? A new runDisney race weekend!  With… an AVENGERS theme!!!  I adore the Avengers.  Okay, I think Capt. America’s a little prissy, and I’d really like the Hulk to get some language lessons, but yeah – big, HUGE fan of the Avengers here.  Phil is my hero.  Nick Fury rocks my world.  RDJ as Ironman?  Please… ~SWOON~  So I’d be all sorts of stoked for this race, except… it’s in Disneyland.  Which is NOT in Florida.  

Yeah, not gonna happen for me.  But rumors continue to swirl about a possible STAR WARS themed race and you know who has this thing called STARWARS Weekends every year?  Walt Disney World.  In Florida!  Know what I adore even more than the Avengers?  STAR WARS!!!  Here’s hoping.

Okay, back to business… a 2014 Princess Half-Marathon Weekend Recap!

Oh my goodness – what a weekend!  The runDisney Cinderella Royal Family 5K Friday, Inaugural Enchanted 10K Saturday, and the Princess Half-Marathon Sunday, plus lots of amazing time spent with running friends between equals one very, VERY tired, but very, very VERY happy PrincessV!

This would be one epically long recap if I were to tackle it all at once.  And frankly, as a reader of blogs, I don’t ever want to see a post that long, let alone be the writer of it.  So I’ll take a small steps approach if you’re willing to keep coming back for more, dear reader.

Day One: Disney’s Fit For A Princess Expo

I am so happy to report that Disney moved the Princess expo back to its original ESPN Wide World of Sports location this year and gave it more room to spread out, too.  Last year’s fiasco of an expo at the Coronado Springs Resort was a special kind of hell: long on lines, short on space, and bursting at the seams with disgruntled Princesses.  Not so this year!

I arrived at the expo around 11am, after making the drive to WDW and checking in at my hotel.  As they’d done for Marathon Weekend in January, Disney spread things out by housing bib pickup in a building separate from the expo itself and providing ample room for folks to get their race shirts, commemorative items and Race Retreat wristbands.

Plenty of space to move around at packet pickup!

The main expo floor, where vendors sell their wares, was loud and busy, but still felt better than last year.  There was a huge section of real estate given over to official race and runDisney (rD) merchandise, which eliminated the insane lines and congestion of last year.

rD merchandise was at the far end, while New Balance set up its shoe shop at the near end, with assorted other vendors in between.

After picking up my bibs and race shirts, I was on a mission to find the booth for one of my favorite brands – Another Mother Runner.  You may recall that I sported a Badass Mother Runner shirt in my first long distance race, the 2012 Tower of Terror 10-Miler.  Well, that super-awesome shirt is now much too big on me, so I wanted something new, plus I hoped to see one of the Mother Runners again, as it had been so nice to meet Sarah last year.  I was in luck!  I came away with two shirts that fit and a nice visit with Dimity!

Yes, I am very short - but Dimity is also very tall.

Two of my favorite running brands together - yay!

The Mother Runners just recently announced their official partnership with the rD brand and I couldn’t be more thrilled for them.  WTG ladies!

I didn’t spend a lot of time at the expo because, well, I’m not a shopper.  So I got in, ate some lunch (and enjoyed a quick visit with the lovely Tracy from my running group!), grabbed my stuff, and got out.  If you are a shopper, and are thinking about a future Princess race, plan to spend some time and money there – there was lots and lots to peruse!

By the time I’d finished up, I’d gotten a text alert that my room at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort (CBR) was ready, and I still had a car full of stuff to unload, so that’s where I headed.  I love the CBR and have stayed there many times over the years, but this was my first stay there over a race weekend.  I’ll give a full review on it as a race resort later, I promise.

I’d had thoughts of heading over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios (it’ll always be MGM to me!) for a ride or two and dinner, but after getting all of my stuff unloaded, and getting tings arranged and prepped for the 5K the next morning, I was pretty tired.  So I opted to grab dinner at CBR’s food court and enjoyed this lovely view as I relaxed and ate.

With a start time of 6:15am, I needed to be up at 3:45am to get ready, and in my car by 4:45 to get to Epcot before they closed down roads for the Royal Family 5K: bedtime came early for the first of three nights.  I was in bed, falling asleep by 8pm, ready to get the party started the next day.

Next: Race #1, the Cinderella Royal Family 5K!

Shirts and bibs for #ALLTHERACES!

PSST: want another review of the expo? Head over to Run.Walk.FASTPASS.Repeat.!