The Great and Powerful Oz - A Disney Parks Blog Preview Party

A little back story re: the weekend as a whole and how I ended up going to a Disney Parks Blog event!

Princess Half Marathon weekend was a dream come true as all runDisney race weekends are for me.  I really love running and running at Disney throws me over the top...okay maybe it has something to do with all of the costumes and the entertainment...but I think it is really due to all the amazing runners and spectators who are at runDisney races!  Each weekend is unique in it's own way and I always manage to add elements that make it even more special for me and for others.  I am just a value added kind of girl!  It is a great way to live life I think.

In an effort to RSVP for the runDisney social media run on the Friday morning before the Princess Half I and many others found themselves stalking the Disney Parks Blog...for days in hopes of getting our RSVPs in on time and being chosen for that event.  Through a series of events I was not able to achieve my RSVP goal, however I was introduced to the coming of the Great and Powerful Oz along the way.  And low and behold the Disney Parks Blog was going to have an event of their own the same weekend as the Princess Half Marathon.  In fact it was going to the be the evening of the race.  Once again I did not RSVP on time again...I bet you did not see that coming...but other Princess runners did and one of them was gracious enough to offer me a ticket to the event!  Thank yous go to Julie Franklin who had two extra tickets for two lucky runners!  Without you I would not have been able to complete the second leg of my journey that day.  For on that Sunday I was able to run through Cinderella's Castle and go over the rainbow!

The checked us in at the customer service end of the main gate at EPCOT.  If you did not have a park pass they had a one day pass for you to use.  Everyone was issues a wrist band to get into the event space.

My wrist bands were starting to stack up from the weekend!

Here is our group of lovely Princess Half runners! You better believe we were sporting our medals!

The event space entrance was between Canada and the United Kingdom.  We waited in line to get into the building.  It was a rather large event with several hundred people attending. 

Everyone was in great spirits!  We were still on a runners high and going to the movies! Double bonus!

It was definitely a Disney Parks Blog event, but Mickey was going to have to check his camera.
There were no electronic allowed!

There is a reason they call it the fine print!

I could not resist jumping in for a picture! I was reaching for the other wall!
I did not even know the wicked witch was there!

There's nothing like green to take you to the Emerald City!

The movie was fantastic! They gave us punch and some yummy popcorn pretzel snack mix to enjoy while we watched.  I have to say I did not eat anything during the show.  I had my 3-D glasses on and was spell bound by the action.  The movie was a mix of action, fantasy and love story...but it is complicated as all good love stories are!

There was something magical about seeing the movie while I was at Walt Disney World! We were sitting in the back row, primarily because WE RAN 13.1 MILES that morning.  There was a need to be close to the drinks, bathrooms and standing room.  I d have to say that half way through the movie my legs started twitching!  But is was so worth it! I do have to say that every so often I was reminded of where we were...you could hear the band rocking out in the UK.  That's right their was some noise pollution  but it just made me happy because it reminded me I was at DISNEY!

Not only was the Disney Parks Blog showing previews of the movie, but they put together an amazing garden to celebrate it!

Now that is an entry way!

I think Oz landed in the middle of the International Flower and Garden Festival!

Beautiful glass poppies!  I'm getting tired!

5 Princesses going over the rainbow!

 The movie opens tomorrow, March 8th and I the plan is to be in the audience watching with my youngest.  She claims she is not nor ever has been afraid of 3-D movies.  We have a different memory of our movie going experiences with her, but the girl wants to go and I am going to take her!  When will you be watching the movie?

Royal Family 5K - Princess Half Weekend - runDisney 2013

Anyone who knows me and my runDisney habits knows I never just run the big event race weekend...I run all the races!  Princess Half weekend was no exception!  Not only was I running the Princess Half on Sunday, but I was also running the Royal Family 5K Saturday morning!  And since Mickey and Minnie were on the bling I felt right at home wearing my Minnie Mouse outfit (ears, dress and shoes)!

I had a big decision to make with this race...I thought I could probably really run it and do well time wise, but those of you who know me also know that I can not resist a good character photo op!  So I did a little of both and finished about 5 minutes off my PR. Okay...talking with Kellie Nickerson before we started convinced me that no matter how fast I ran there were other ladies in the race who would always out kick me.  She did not need to say it...she is amazingly sweet and sincere...you could just look at her and the other ladies up at the start and figure that one out!  This was my first time running a runDisney 5K without my daughter.  She was not along on this trip otherwise she would have been out there with me!

After the race I headed back to the resort and took a moment before getting cleaned up to shoot a video recap of the 5K and preview of the half.



 The 5K was a lot of fun, but only 3.1 miles of it...so let's get onto the main race! 13.1 miles of runDisney fun and entertainment!

If you watch runDisneyTv's 5K video you might even recognize me running around EPCOT! Watch for Minnie at 1:30!

Tangled 5K - Feb. 25th, 2012

The first race of Princess 1/2 Marathon weekend was the Tangled 5K.  There were four of us running.  We had set out all of our race gear and costumes that night before.  The bibs were pinned on and the race bags were packed.  I was dressed as Rapunzel in my custom made running dress made by Me.  My oldest daughter was running with me, as were my brother-in-law and my niece.  My sister came along race morning as fan support and because nothing could have kept her from being there it was so much fun!  There were lots of photos taken of the running group. 

Our race team - cousins and their parents

We spent some time over near the DJ were the tunes were getting everyone in the running grove.  I of course was checking out everyone's costumes.  I was drawn to another Rapunzel who was beautifully dressed and had flowers similar to mine in her hair.  It turned out to be Kristy Barnes who I know from FB.  We got a quick picture and then I returned to my family. 

Kristy Barns & myself near the start line before the race.  I was drawn to her costume and then realized I knew her!  I loved that she ran with Pascal!  (He eluded us!  He was sold out for weeks leading up to this race.)

I also ran into Heather Montgomery who was having quite the trip!  You want to see how good it was check out her blog entry http://www.runningwithsass.com/princess-pampering/ and the event posts that followed!

Jeff Galloway giving some race advice.

Love the hat, love the shirt, love the banner...

When it came time to get everyone into the corral it seemed like they had waited just a little too long.  We all went nowhere fast.  I don't think everyone was officially in the corral when the race started.  There is no way they were in the correct zones based on their mile splits.  Oh well...it was an untimed fun run. 

Great costumes waiting to run.

Packed into the corral.

Look at all these happy runners.

Off in the distance - the lovers!

And we were off, kind of...my daughter walked for quite a while trying to prove a point.
We were still not going anywhere fast.

With the fireworks shooting overhead we all took off to run around the EPCOT parking lot.  The race came in the back-lot near Mexico and then rounded the lagoon before finishing back in the EPCOT parking lot.  Along the way we stopped to see some of our favorite characters.  At first my daughter did not want to stop, but when I explained that it was an untimed race and we could take as much time as we wanted she totally embraced the character sprint concept.  A Character Sprint is when you litterally sprint from Disney character to character getting your photo taken with them.  You get a real emotional boost from seeing the characters that you can ride to the next character.  We were flying through air as we rounded every bend literally sticking out our airplane wings.  She was having so much fun it made me over the top happy! 

Pocahontas the natural born runner!

Jasmine & Aladdin

Les Chefs de France

Race clocks and mile markers - did they think it was going to rain?

Calling all runners - This is a great race!

Okay we are having fun now!

 

I've got it mom!

Another runner offered to take our picture - Thanks!

Happy as a duck with a mouse!

The whole park was her's that morning!

I guess the chance of rain had cleared by mile 3.

Happy runner - happy volunteer!

Thanks to all of the volunteers!

Medal shot - The number of medals hanging there always impresses me.

Happy finishers

Somewhere along the way my brother-in-law and niece passed us.  She did not want to stop for characters and wanted to run the whole race.  I tried to watch for them to drag them into one of our photos, but I never saw them. 

The race team back together!

Yes I am taking your picture!  Nice of you to notice!

There is always time for a little conversation after a run!

Always the gracious hostess, Rapunzel never lost her brilliance through 3 days of runner meet and greets.

A horse at a 5K - never thought I would see this!

We were all happy campers at the end of our race.  We grabbed our snack boxes and headed for the expo.  Since my sister and her family had gotten into town the night before they had missed the expo experience on Friday and my sister was really looking forward to doing some shopping!

People give all kind of reasons for not doing the runDisney 5ks, but I say they are a must for us!  I love sharing the experience with my daughter.  When I think of our time together at Disney these 5ks top the list of best times together!  Yes, the medallion is plastic and it does cost more than other 5ks, but we have a fantastic time running together which we will always remember!

Next up - Expo Saturday!

RunDisney Princess Social Media Meetup at EPCOT

Early morning at EPCOT with runDisney & Jeff Galloway!

I think it was after the Princess race last year when I was reading all the race reports that I could find that I first stumbled upon a report from a runDisney social media meetup.  It sounded and looked fantastic and I sooo wanted to be included the next runDisney race that I ran.  As it turned out I did not runDisney again until Princess 2012.  So for almost a year I was watching how the social media meetups were publisized and reading about them during and after the fact.  To say that I was anticipating the notice for the Princess 2012 meetup is a gross understatement.  I had it all planned out.  I was going to be there this year!  I am active on the Disney Blog, Facebook, Twitter and of course my own blog so when the notice went out I would see it in time and respond immediately.  Of course runDisney mixed it up a bit this time.  The notice only went out on the Disney blog and Twitter.  I am sure quite a few loyal Facebook fans missed out this time.  Anyway, once I saw the notice I replied with fingers shaking as the moment had finally arrived.  I waited rather distractedly at work until the appointed time to learn if I had in fact been chosen.  And finally the email came..."Congratulations! You are among a select group of qualified applicants who get to enjoy a special opportunity, tied to Princess Half Marathon Weekend at Walt Disney World Resort."

It was really going to happen!  I had been chosen!  There were no problems with travel dates.  I was accepted on the 16th of February and heading to Disney on the 18th.  The meetup was on Friday the 24th at 6:30 am.  In total they had accepted 80 respondents and invited about 10-15 media reps. We were going to start with the run portion after a round of introductions.  Everyone was mingling and taking pictures in our new black runDisney skirts.  There had been quite the discussion leading up to the event on Twitter regarding running skirts.  Check it out at #PrinceHalfMeetUp.  I of course wore a skirt I whipped up the morning before my flight made from my Tinkerbell costume scraps.  From the start they encouraged us all to be on our phones Facebooking and tweeting away.  They were all very accessible for photos, questions, and formal interviews.  Some of the participants were very media savvy and cut to the chase when interacting with the presenters.

Social media at work!

Introductions

They gave us a choice for our run.  We could either go with Jeff Galloway and do a run walk or we could go with Rachel Booth and do a straight up run.  I quickly chose to go with Rachel.  The group split around 1/4 for Rachel and 3/4 for Jeff.  It was nice being with the smaller group.  I was able to run along with Suzy Favor Hamilton.  What an insiration!  Of course we did not know what our destination was and really I did not care.  I would have happily kept on running to wherever they took us and as long as it took.  Our destination turned out to be the Biergarten in Germany. 

Go Heather!  (Heather Bridges Montgomery)   

After the whole group came together again they led us in to enjoy a wonderful breakfast spread.  When we arrived at our seats we found a race tiara for each of us.  Most of them went straight onto our heads!  We listened to the presentations as we munched away and asked questions.  Suzy got us all up dancing toward the end.  She has a ton of energy and is more than willing to share it with whomever she is with...thankfully us!  At the end of the presentations they announched that as part of the One More Day event they were going to give us all one more day in the parks.  We were each given a one day complemetary park hopper ticket that is good until 12/31/2012.  I immediately started to think Wine & Dine! 

Rachel Booth - She talked to us on Friday morning and went out and won the Princess 1/2 in front of her family!

Moms Panel Lori - Ask her your runDisney questions.

She told personal stories of trials and tribulations and how to succeed and be supportive!  Thanks Suzi!

Suzi Favor Hamilton leading the pep rally!

After the event wrapped up inside we all went outside to meet Minnie Mouse in her pink Princess gown, Rapunzel & Snow White.  This was the first morning of three that I got to meet the same Rapunzel.  She was a wonderful thread running through my race weekend.  I had made my running costume for both races and I was going to be Rapunzel for the 5K.  I let her know I would see her Sat. morning and she remembered me when I did!

Moms Panel runDisney Mom Lori

Suzi Favor Hamilton - She is fantastic and she finished the 1/2 Third!

At that point it was close to 9 am and EPCOT would be openning soon.  We were left to walk back to the entrance on our own.  I met up with Karen Velardi Harris at that point.  I was doing my best to talk to people at the meetup never quite sure if I knew them from online or not.  In the end it did not matter.  I met some great people who all share a love of runDisney.  Anyway Karen & I hit it off as we worked our way back to the main gate.  We knew we would see each other on Sat. at the kids mile!  My father was at the gate to wisk me away to the expo and away we went.  More on the expo in another blog.

Working our way back to the entrance of EPCOT.  Thanks Team Possible for taking our picture!

The morning had started off in fantastic fashion.  I am so greatful to runDisney for including me in this amazing experience.  I hope I get to participate again in the future.  I am already planning my next trip to W&D with my big goal being going Dopey at marathon weekend!  They were already talking up the 20th year marathon Mickey medals at the meetup.  I will be registering the day it opens!  I encorage anyone who is big into runDisney & Disney Sports social media to RSVP for the social media meetups!  They are fantastic experiences that kick off race weekend in grand style!  Thanks runDisney!