that they
always try to keep the t-shirts a neutral color since it is a family run. For
months prior to this race I was trying to determine what the theme of the race
would be this year. Out of process of
elimination, I knew it wasn’t going to be Beauty and the Beast because that’s
what it was last year, the year prior it was Princess and the frog, and the
very first year it was loosely based on Cinderella. So this year I had it
narrowed down to two I thought it would
either be Tangled, because that was the new film coming out, or possibly Little
Mermaid, since that was the film coming out of the video vault that year. Turns out it was Tangled, which I had a
strong feeling it would be. The three
of us girls all bought tutu skirts to wear this year for the 5K, but after
carefully examining myself in the mirror with my skirt on, I decided that it
wasn’t quite the look I was going for. I looked silly. I just don’t think it was the right skirt for
me. So, we all decided to forego the
skirts for the 5K, and my sister would wear one of them for the half marathon.
We arrived on Thursday evening and were up
and ready for the expo on Friday Morning.
Although I feel Disney does it up, I felt
that they did skimp on some little detail this year. Last year we got little
backpacks, a goody bag, and free tickets to play miniature golf. We didn’t get
any of that this year. All we got was our T-shirt, which I am happy for, don’t
get me wrong. If I wouldn’t have participated in a Disney race before, I would
have never known the difference. The expo is full of vendors and official
Run Disney merchandise. There were many of give-aways and free samples; fruit,
luna bars, etc. and raffles. When we got home, my mom got a call that she
actually won one of the raffles. She won an I-pod touch! There were also guest
speakers. Since ESPN is part of the Run Disney events, one of the speakers was
Sage Steele from ESPN. ESPN was following her for the weekend because she was
running the Princess Half Marathon.
Saturday ( Race Day)
It is 4:00 am and we are up for the race. The buses start running at 5:00 am and you have to be in the parking lot by 6:15, and the race starts at 7:00.
It is 4:00 am and we are up for the race. The buses start running at 5:00 am and you have to be in the parking lot by 6:15, and the race starts at 7:00.
The morning of the 5k race started much like last years; up
early, breakfast, head to bus stop. We
had the same exact walk from the Epcot parking lot to the start corals. Since we had done this last year, we knew
what to expect this time. We didn’t get
our pictures done with Rapunzel and Flynn because the line was just too long. We thought maybe we could do it after the
race since they were suppose to come back out for photos then too. The dj’s and their music were as uplifting as
they were last year, maybe even a bit more.
As we were ushered into our corral, the dj introduced us to a lady who
had a remarkable story. Her name was Kimberly Sheenin. She told
her story of how she was in a horrible car crash and was left a quadriplegic.
Doctor’s didn’t think she would ever walk again, but through the power of
prayer and help from her therapy team she did! After she learned how to walk
again, she wanted to challenge herself to see what she could do next. She
wanted to complete this race. Her therapy team said they would do the race with
her. They all crossed the finish line together in less than an hour. Here is
live video of her inspirational story.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEHLgw8Xc2E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEHLgw8Xc2E
 |
| The start of the 5k race |
Soon it was time for the national
Anthem, and a display of fireworks signaling the start of the race. I hate to
admit this, but I am the slowest runner in my family. So the plan was that my
sister and mom would run together, and my dad and I would run together. My dad
has never done a race before so he wasn’t feeling very confident and was going
to hang back with me so I had someone to run with. Well, it turned out that
this became a friendly competition between my dad and my sister. ( I am proud of him for he had been training
for this for a while). So of course my mom hung back with me again this year. I
lost her somewhere around the UK, but caught up with her again as we entered
future world. I know this race is just for fun, but it did make me feel a tiny
bit better when I was running over the bridge in France and still saw all these
people just now making their way into Mexico. It is just so amazing to see the
park filled with so many runners! When we had less than a half mile to go, this one
girl decided she was going to take a detour and not run AROUND the fountain to
spaceship earth, but cross right through it! We crossed the finish line and we had shaved three minutes
off our time from last year, but we stopped last year and got pictures with all
the characters.
At the finish line we looked for my sister and dad, and then walked over to get
our finishers medal. If you want to be a spectator, there is a stand of
bleachers set up for people to watch. We
then got drinks and a goody box. It wasn’t even near 8:00 yet, so we had more than an hour before the park ( Epcot) opened. We thought it senseless to ride the bus
back to the resort and then hope back on to come to the park. So we passed the
time like so many others. We ate our snacks, took pictures, and watched the
other racers cross the finish line. One of the great things about watching a
Disney race is the unique costumes you see. One of my favorites was a lady who
was dressed as Mary Poppins. She even ran in her big hat! Another cute one was
a father and his daughter (she was about 10). She was dressed as Belle and he
had a full Beast costume. I’m sure he was warm in the morning, but by the end of
the race, he had to be hot.
 |
| The Tangled 5k medal |
More later.
Thanks for reading.
-M
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Fairytales and Fitness is a personal blog authored and edited by us, Meranda and Lacey. The thoughts expressed here represent only our own and are not meant to be taken as professional advice. Please note that our thoughts and opinions change from time to time. We consider this a necessary consequence of having an open mind in an ever changing society. Any thoughts and opinions expressed within our out-of-date posts may not be the same, nor even similar, to those we may express today. Some links may contain affiliate links. Some links are just to pages we'd like to share.