From views of Cinderella’s castle to Mulan sightings, tiaras, tutus and running shoes - all these things mean the Disney Princess Half Marathon weekend just wrapped. After two years of having this race on her bucket list and seven months of planning, I finally crossed the finish line at Disney’s Epcot and have been riding a high since.

The experience was made even sweeter by running with my big sister. She has been a runner far longer than me, but is new to race culture. Her smile at the finish line after completing 13.1 miles was almost as sweet as the medal itself.

This was truly a race dream come true for me and I am excited to share ALL the details with you. In fact, it is quite a bit to get through so let’s just jump right in.

Registration and Costume Prep

Be Early and Ready To Purchase

Registration for runDisney events opens six to seven months in advance. Sign-ups for my February 2022 race went live in June 2021. I highly recommend logging into the site at least 10 minutes before it goes live. I have missed out on more than enough events due to not being ready to purchase or scalpers snatching up all the goods. Thirty minutes and a few coins later, I secured spots in the runDisney Half Marathon for myself and my sister and became immediately obsessed with all things princess and race-related!

Now the real prep begins.

For the next few weeks, I found blog recaps from previous races and read at least one each night before going to bed for weeks! (No, I’m not type-A at all….ha!) One of the fun and unique things about running in a Disney race is becoming your favorite character. When it came time to choose my costume, it was a no-brainer for me that I’d go as Tiana. Children believe what they see, and growing up, I did not see a black princess. Not only is Tiana the first Black princess we’ve seen on screen from Disney, but she is also depicted as having a darker skin tone. That level of representation from the brand was important to me, and I wanted to do it justice.

Tip: Order everything early to account for shipping delays and ensure everything will make it to you in time.

Etsy was my go-to for everything from my pins to my tutu. I had a top-notch experience with everything I ordered and would highly recommend every one of the vendors I rocked during race weekend.

Fun Fact: The magnolia I wore on the side of my tutu was a separate piece and specially ordered. I’ve tagged the vendor below, but I was over the moon with how it turned out.

All in the Details

Crown: i Love chaRming YarNs
Tank: Run the Impossible
Magnolia: April L Creations (custom)
Tutu: Texas Made Tutus
Shorts: Athleta

Race Training

Create a Run Schedule

If you have followed our blog or even my personal social pages, you've seen my relationship with running evolve. As a avid runner, I don't like to "start over" when race training. So, I set up a run schedule that was realistic for me. I began running two to three times a week – two short runs of two to four miles during the week and a long run which progressed by one mile every Sunday. The runDisney team also provides training assets on the website. I saved the half marathon program to my phone and kept it in the back of my mind as a marker for where I should be progressing my long runs along the way. Check those out here!

Disney Princess Weekend Balloon Ladies — The infamous balloon ladies. I took a photo with them to get the anxiety out of the way! I did not see them again. :)

Run Shorter-Distant Races Along the Way

I ran a few races in the months leading up to race day as benchmarkers to stay motivated. I completed a 10K, 15K, and two half marathons leading up to the big race.

Honestly, I overdid it a bit, but Memphis has such a great running community. It was hard not giving in to the FOMO, especially since I was training anyway. During this time, I also needed to complete a qualifying race to submit my time into runDisney and secure a spot in a good corral.

The St. Jude Memphis Marathon was the perfect race for me because it allowed me to submit a suitable time for an early corral, it was 10 weeks out from the RunDisney race, and the Memphis community really comes out in support of the children and hospital.

A quick word about race times:

The Princess Half is timed, and the course is swept between a 16 – 17 minute per mile pace. I did not want to encounter the infamous (but sweet) balloon ladies. Everyone has anxiety around these three racers, but they are simply the last participants to cross the start line and maintain a 16-minute pace. Fall too far behind, and you risk being picked up along the course before making your way into the final stretch at Epcot. Ensuring my spot in an earlier corral gave me a cushion to stop for character photos and at hydration stations along the way.

Health and Fitness Expo

The runDisney Health & Fitness Expo took place at the ESPN World of Sports building. They kept it all in the ABC family for the weekend, and it was my first time visiting this section of the property 😊.

The Expo had everything you could want and more, with large activations by race sponsors: Corkcsicle, Advent Health, and Pandora. The most useful vendor (with the longest line) was the KT tape area. Plenty of runners were getting wrapped and taped up for the long weekend full of movement ahead. And if you decided last minute to add to your costume, there were plenty of embellished shirts, tutus, and crowns for purchase.

Adding the finishing touches

Once on-site, we opted to stop in the merchandise area and then head to pick up our bibs. While the merchandise was cute, nothing was overly spectacular about the place. I grabbed a Tiana shirt to go along with my costume since that was my personal theme for the weekend. I had also pre-purchased a Pandora charm commemorating the 13.1 distance. I grabbed it and chatted with the Pandora team for a while about bracelet options. There were plenty of photo opportunities set up as you walked in to help you commemorate the various race distances. I honestly spent most of my time in this area taking photos.

Fun Fact: I’ve started a Pandora collection of charms from some of the larger trips I’ve taken the past few years. I never bought an actual bracelet for them, though. The time was now, right?

Race Day!

The Fear of Oversleeping

Everything prior to race day was for fun and preparation. Here is the part that actually scared me…missing my alarm! The Princess Half is meant to be finished before or shortly after the parks open for the day. The first corral takes off around 5 a.m., and the first buses from Disney properties to the start area begin at 3 a.m. My sister and I wanted to be on that first bus, so we were set our alarms for 2 a.m. I was terrified we were both going to sleep straight through them.

As much as we tried to set ourselves up for success by being back in our hotel room and ready for bed at 8:30 p.m. the night before the race, I still only got about four hours of sleep. I was too paranoid we would not wake up on time and couldn't get into a good sleep! Our alarms went off, and we were up, dressed, and ready to take our first photos while most normal people were just getting into their REM cycle good. 😊

Tip: None, this fear is really common lol

Off to the races!

Once we got on-site, we took a few photos and danced around at the pre-race festivities. We fueled up with some oatmeal and headed to our corral holding area. Corrals were numbered S1 through S5. I was placed in S3 according to the time I submitted, but my sister was in S4. I opted to move back and start with her, as runners are not allowed to move up in corrals. This ended up being a great decision. There were two pacing groups in our corral, those believed to finish between two hours and 30 minutes to two hours and 45 minutes. Earlier in the fall, my pace had improved significantly, which is how I managed an S3 placement. By race day, my body was tired, and my pace had slowed a bit. Keeping the 2:30 pace in mind, I was much more comfortable with where we landed. My fastest Half to date has been 2:32.

By golly, there are fireworks!

By 5:40 a.m. our corral saw the fireworks go off and we were on our way! The race started in Epcot and pretty quickly headed onto the highway alongside the park.

By mile five, we were crossing under the Magic Kingdom sign and headed into the park. The sun was rising and it was truly exciting to run through Tomorrowland and Cinderella’s Castle. We stopped for our first photos and got some great shots in front of the castle.

By mile seven, we were exiting through Magic Kingdom’s backlot staging area and onto more highway. The next two to three miles were along Disney’s hotel properties and back onto the highway.

Around mile 11, we neared Epcot, ran past Spaceship Earth, and finished in a parking area.

The Big Finish was not as spectacular

I had no problem with the course and loved the time in the parks. The finish line was the most disappointing part of the race experience. We were ushered quickly to get our medal and continue moving. There are plenty of Disney photographers in the finish area, and I received great photos of my finish through Disney Photo Pass.

However, I was not able to take photos of my own near the finish line due to being swiftly ushered along, and I wasn’t allowed to wait for my sister to finish (we stayed together about the first 6-7 miles, and then I set my mind on finishing as close to the 2:30 group as possible). The trek to get water was a little further, and we kept being moved deeper into the parking area.

While the morning temperature started off perfect at 64 degrees, the temperate at the race finish was climbing quickly. The finish area was not shaded, and the sun was beaming. We were handed cooling towels (much needed!!!), and I grabbed two bottles of water with my race snack pack. I experienced a bit of dizziness after the race due to the temperature, and there were plenty of people who were at the medic area or ushered onto their buses quickly due to feeling dizzy in the heat. For such a great experience, I would have loved more time to take photos and commemorate the accomplishment at the finish line.

The big question: Would I do It again?

Absolutely!! The energy and positivity at this race was different - it was purely electric. People were cheering each other on, complimenting each other’s costumes, and open with sharing stories from their past Disney race experiences. While much of the race is not in the park, how often do you have access to a Disney property while it is closed, access to characters, and are able to get so up close and personal to iconic symbols like THEE castle?! I had feelings of pure joy running this race. It was a reminder that we should all have the fun and innocence of childhood inside us.

While I do have my heart set on other race experiences in various cities, I also want to complete the Fairytale Challenge – running the 10K and Half Marathon on consecutive days during race weekend. What can I say, I love to do it for the medals.

There’s so much more to share. Get into the photo gallery below for more feels from the race. Would you do a RunDisney event? Sound off in the comments below!.