2014 Cinderella Royal Family 5K Re-Cap

Note: This post originally appeared on my Blogger account. In the migration to Word Press, the spacing did not come through as I’d hoped. I’m working on fixing all the older posts, but this takes time. Thanks for your patience!

The last time I ran the Royal Family 5K at Walt Disney World I was 6 months pregnant with #OhLucy.

That was my first runDisney experience and I joke that it was the gateway drug to my addiction. I haven’t run the Disney 5Ks since because frankly, if I’m getting up that early, I want some real bling. Cold, hard, heavy BLING, yo. This year it still wasn’t the medallion that convinced me to run, though it was super cute. I got suckered in by the shirt.

I know I am not alone as I DisBroad Kristen also signed up for the Royal Family 5K … because of the shirt. It’s just as adorable in person!

DisBroads Suzanne and Kristen were also up for the challenge that morning. Sure, what’s another 3.1 on top of 19.2 right? I gotta tell ya- it’s not the miles, but the early morning wake up 3 days in a row that will kill you. But I loved running this race with the girls. We were joined by our friend Wendy and we all planned to pretty much walk this one. You know me, I’m all for a walk in the park!

I dressed as Gaston for this race and was delighted to discover that all 3 of my running partners were dressed as Belle. It wasn’t planned that way, but I loved how it worked out. Gaston was a big hit and I loved saying “No onnnneee…. photobombs like Gaston, run/walks like Gaston, no one plays in the parks like Gaston!”

You get the idea.

It probably got old to people around me, but I amused myself for all 3.1 miles.

The race starts in the Epcot parking lot and enters backstage of Epcot.

Ah yes, the grand parking lot tour Disney is so fond of!

Me, not so much. Anyway, this time it went by rather quickly as we chatted and did our intervals heading into Epcot. First character was Princess Atta and we decided to skip her.

The line was pretty long. Ha… if only we knew what long meant!

Backstage doesn’t last too long and soon we were in Epcot. First stop:

Come on y’all… you know me!

We hoped to see Anna and Elsa, but you know, we had to just Let It Go, Let It Gooooo…. when they were not found in Epcot.

Not a shocker, really, since the size of the lines on the course were incredibly huge! I can only imagine what it would look like if the sisters from Frozen had joined us for picture opportunities.

Just around the corner was a beautiful site: Mulan and Mushu! I have never stopped for her at a race and I didn’t care that the line was, oh, 50 people deep. I’m not kidding.

The lines for the 5K were killer. After a nice long rest of about 10 minutes it was finally our turn. She told me General Shang has bigger muscles than Gaston.

Uh. No.

The next stop was Germany and we stopped to pose with Dopey. And no, being in his presence did not fuel the urge for me to become a Dopey runner. No way. I’ll stick to my 19.3 challenges, thank you!

He was really cute and the cast members here must have been trained up on camera passing technique because we moved quickly through his line.

One note: Epcot is really such a beautiful place to have a race- the backgrounds are simply lovely!

After Dopey we saw Jiminy Cricket and the Genie from Aladdin. Both lines were huge and we felt it best to keep moving.

The last character we stopped for was a no brainer: the Beast! Since we were Beauty and the Beast themed, it was the perfect stop for our group.

The cast members were all so supportive and loud as they cheered us along the route.

As we went backstage again, I grabbed a couple of quick selfies with the cast members on the route. They have a hard job: they cheer for hours!

Most 5Ks are complete within an hour or so, but not the runDisney 5Ks. They allow the participants to run the course almost at a leisurely pace: no timing chip and no (real) concern about getting swept.

What I mean by this is evident in these pictures taken somewhere well before mile 3:

We obviously weren’t adhering to a 16-minute mile, but as you can tell by the people behind me, no one was being swept from the course at this point either.

I believe they do have their limits, however, so don’t think you can take 3 hours to finish the 5K races! But runDisney clearly makes this race a little less intimidating by keeping the sweep team a lot farther back than you might expect.

As I mentioned before, I typically skip the 5Ks but I’m really glad I ran this one.

We had a blast on the course and finished with huge smiles. Since we planned on going pretty slow, it was not surprising that we finished in 1:31. Yep. We really got our moneys worth out there!

I’m re-considering my game plans from here on out. If the characters are your thing (and you know they are mine!) and you don’t want to worry constantly about standing in a long line worrying over the sweepers, the 5Ks might be for you. I never felt the need to sprint to get to the next point or worry about balloon ladies right behind me with this race.

And the medallion and shirts were totes cray cray adorbs. Worth my $65!

Did you run the Royal Family 5K last weekend? Do you typically run the 5Ks are Disney races? Don’t you want some REAL bling for these races?

Patty Holliday

Patty Holliday has been running Disney since 2011. She knows just about every tip, trick, and hack there is to cover the runDisney Magical Miles at Disney World and Disneyland. She knows every mile isn’t *always* magical- but with training, tips, and a little bit of pixie dust, they can be a lot of fun! You can also find her at noguiltlife.com and noguiltfangirl.com

noguiltfangirl.com

Sunday 13th of July 2014

[…] did not run the 5k, but my BRF at My No Guilt Life did dressed as Gaston. Here’s her recap and you can see her photos and get an idea of the photo ops which were […]

Fairytales and Fitness

Friday 28th of February 2014

I think your first disney race was also our first Disney race and you are right, it was definitely the "gateway drug". We've done every 5K since then. We usually are able to run right through the course and get pics and still finish in about 40 minutes or so but this year it took us a little longer because I had a bummed knee and wanted to take it easy so I could do well for the other races that weekend. And you are right, the lines were super long. We ended up finishing in just less than an hour and I remember telling my mom that it was okay because we were just getting our monies worth out of this race! I also thought the medalion was super cute as was your Gaston costume. Too bad I didn't see you on the course!

Lauren

Thursday 27th of February 2014

After seeing the 5K shirt (and the cute medal), I totally would have done the race too! I haven't ran one of the 5K's yet but I plan to for Wine & Dine later this year!

Love all your photos (nooo ooone takes pics like Gaston haha) - looks like a GREAT time!!

HA! Thanks Lauren! It sure was- the Jingle Jungle 5K looks like a blast! Have fun!

Kristine Barnes

I loved your costume for the 5k!! It was so fun seeing you out on the course!! You really did look like you were having an amazing time!! :)

We were- and I could tell you were too! But man, have you ever seen lines like that? WOW!

Bonnie Santaguida

Loved running into you guys. I thought this race was lots of fun. We only stopped for Mushu. Mr. B was not into the character stops at the race. Only during park time for him I guess. Oh well.

He's a competitor! lol He looked like he was having fun- and had a GREAT Mushu pic!

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