As you pass by Contemporary Resort and approach the Magic Kingdom, you run under this little bridge and head back up with Space Mountain fully in view. I've seen multiple photos of this bridge from the different blog posts I've read about all the RunDisney races at Disney World with the guy dancing on top with the gigantic Mickey gloves. I felt like my blog post would be lacking if I didn't include a photo of him as well.
This guy is so great! I want a pair of those gloves.
The course sends you towards Space Mountain, but you don't actually enter the Magic Kingdom from the front. You run back through some alley ways, employee only areas - there's no view of the castle or Main Street USA, but you know you're close, you know you're on property and the excitement just continues to grow. There were cast members hanging out and cheering us on in this area - in fact, they were throughout the park offering support and encouragement, cheers and hi-fives. I know Disney excels in customer service - but this was just so cool. It's around 730 a.m. and there they are, hanging out, waiting for us. It was around this point I took my headphones out. I wanted to take in the entire experience - I didn't want to miss anything.
Suddenly, we crossed through a gate and it was incredible - there it was. Main Street USA. And the people. Good gravy, the people. They block the street off down the center - we ran towards the castle on the right side and the crowd lined the streets 5-6-7 deep on the holding signs and ringing cowbells. It's hard to describe the experience. I grabbed some video of my run down Main Street. Yes - I'm a dork. I always forget that you can't turn your camera to portrait when you're filming..... but I managed to remember a couple seconds in on this one.
After running down Main Street, they send you to the right and straight to Tomorrowland. After running through, Kacey needed to make a pit stop herself. I took advantage of the break to send a few text messages and grab a couple photos. And dig a pebble out of my shoe that was bugging me.
The castle is that way ladies - keep going!!
A look at where we had just come from - Tomorrowland
When Kacey returned, I informed her that my Garmin was reporting we were maintaining a 13+ minute pace, even with the 2 bathroom stops. We were both relieved to see that and decided to stop for photos if the lines were short enough. After leaving Tomorrowland, we entered Fantasyland. We hopped in line to meet the White Rabbit - my photo came out blurry, but I've seen several people comment online that their photos were blurry too, so I'm guessing the cast member assigned to that spot was struggling taking photos. As we rounded the corner from the White Rabbit we could see the castle again - and this time, we were heading through!
If you haven't figured it out yet, I read a lot of blogs on past Princess Half Marathons to try to help me get a small idea of what to expect. One of the biggest complaints I had read about the past year or two was how crowded it was while actually running through the castle and that you could barely run. I'm so happy to report that we didn't experience that. Sure, there were a lot of people, but you can tell from my bumpy video that we had plenty of room to jog and move and enjoy the experience. After exiting the castle we made the hard left and found a short line to stand in for our official castle photo.
Oh yes, I'm beginning to feel like a princess.
We took off towards Liberty Square where we met Louis from The Princess and the Frog and then to Frontierland where we saw Woody. We were hanging out around a 16+ minute pace right now and we knew the long stretch was ahead of us, so we bypassed the princess photo set up and rounded the corner outside the Magic Kingdom.
Hey Louis - I play the trumpet too!!
Hey there Cowboy!
Not too far outside the park, we hit the halfway point. Each year, they have a contest to vote on what the song for the halfway point of the race would be. For a while, I was pretty sure Katy Perry's "Roar" would win easily when the time came to vote. And then "Frozen" came out and it became clear that "Let It Go" would be our song - I'm sure the vote wasn't even close. And so there I was, halfway through my first half-marathon and the emotions began to take over. You see, "Let it Go" is my Kennedy's favorite song right now. She sings it all the time - I am not ashamed to admit that I will belt it out as loud as I can when it comes on the radio myself. It was at this point that I realized what I was doing, just how incredible of an accomplishment it had been so far, and just how much I love and missed my kids. I got very choked up - it took everything I had not to break down completely. We stopped for photos in front of the halfway sign and I didn't care who was around - I sang along to the song as loud as I possibly could, arms in the air, even dancing a little bit. This was my celebration time - and I knew that I needed to enjoy this while I could because the hardest was yet to come.
Oh, don't worry - I will!! Tired, sweaty and probably off-key, I definitely sang along.
Part 3 coming soon....
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