runDisney Princess Half Marathon 2013 - how it came to be

2013 was the third year that I participated in runDisney's Princess Half Marathon weekend! In 2011 I went for myself with my two girls and my parents.  We had a blast!  My older daughter ran the 5k with me and they both did the kids mile.  The whole weekend my sister was sitting at home cheering us on and not so quietly planning Princess 2012!  In 2012 we were all there!  Our parents spent 2 weeks at Disney.  The first week with me and the girls, then we all overlapped Princess weekend, followed by the second week with my sister and her family after we left.  It was an extravagant trip any Princess young or older would love.

I always stop to say hello to Mickey at the airport when I arrive!

2013s Princess weekend was going to be different.  I was not planning on going, but a friend asked if I wanted to go and make a girls weekend of it!  It was mid October when I registered.  I was literally on a training run for my second marathon and stopped at mile 17 to try and take care of the registration.  She was trying to register us onsite at the Tower of Terror expo, but the computers were not working.  After a couple of days my registration was completed by a helpful runDisney rep in Florida!  It all worked out, I ran my marathon, shoot some video for my Disney Moms Panel application, did my third marathon in DC at the Marine Corps Marathon, ran a few holiday races, oh and runDisney marathon weekend's Goofy Challenge, and finally it was time for Princess weekend.

5 Princesses at the Airport

There were 3 of us travelling down from Rhode Island together and we met up with 2 other Princesses at the Orlando airport before heading to our home at Disney's Yacht Club!  Before we left the airport Linda gave us all Princesses sashes that they had made!  There were more treats in store, but let's get to the resort first.  The resort itself is beautiful.  It looks out over the boardwalk and the water.  At night all of the lights come on and the boardwalk is enchanted!

In the lobby at the Yacht Club!

We were staying on the concierges level so we wanted for nothing.  Not only that, but we were on the deluxe dining plan so our biggest issue of the weekend was too much food!  I knew this was going to be an issue heading into the weekend, but after the first lunch it was already a problem.

Our first lunch was at Les Chefs de France! Thanks chef...it was spectacular!

...quiche and salad...

Cheese Board...

 and a profiterole!

Princesses at lunch!

There is no pacing yourself when you have already paid for it and the meals are far too frequent.  My best solution was to share my meals with other run buddies.  This is strictly against Disney policy, but there was no way I could eat that much.  As it was I ate too much all weekend.  For me...the deluxe dining plan and concierges level were overkill and I would opt out in the future...although it was fun to do it once!

For dinner we were at Via Napoli.  These two restaurants are my favorites at Epcot and eating at both of them on the same day was a blessing and a curse!

Appetizers!

That's where the pizza is cooked!

My favorite pizza in the whole world!
I could only eat one piece because I was so full!

Dessert! Lemon Gelato! 

Our server...great job!

The 5 Princesses had a very special room on the 5th floor overlooking the boardwalk.  You could hear the boats coming and going between us and Epcot.  I choose the daybed by the balcony doors.  It was very comfortable and gave me my own space in the room.

The view from our room!

I found myself coming and going at different times from the other Princesses and I was able to leave without disturbing them in the morning and climb under the covers before they arrived in the evening.  We were keeping crazy hours.  I got up early for a shakeout run on Friday and then the 5k on Saturday and was out the door while everyone else was still asleep.  I came in late for me and was usually in bed by 11 pm with the room all to myself.  We all ran the half marathon though so on Sunday morning we were all up and at it fairly early.  Both race mornings I was on the first bus out of the Yacht Club and there were less than 5 of us on it each morning!  Crazy I know, but the buses filled up at the Beach Club and we were off to the races.

So that is a bit of the background story for Princess Half Weekend.  I will share race details in separate posts!