Disney Princess Half Marathon 2013 Weekend-Day 2

Going in to Saturday, we had grand plans. Patty had registered for the 5k that morning, but with the heat and humidity, she didn't want to push herself, especially given the fact that she had done nearly 3 miles at the meet-up the day before. She suggested I do it instead, and I accepted the challenge. Fast forward to Saturday morning...yeah, that totally changed. The alarm went off at 5 am, and neither of us felt like getting out of bed. A quick exchange of words and we agreed to skip it, and go back to sleep. When we finally did get up, we headed back to the Expo. Patty wanted to get taped at the KT Tape booth as I had done the day before. I decided to wander around. Before heading in, I did what any princess would do, and I met with my royal escorts.

I headed inside and wandered around, doing my best to fight the shopping bug. The Expo has so many vendor booths, packed full of any kind of running gear you could imagine. I stopped by the New Balance booth and inquired about the runDisney New Balance shoes they put out, and only sell at the races. I had to fight with every fiber of my being to avoid buying a pair, knowing that certain death(or at least an eye roll, a sigh and the "Another pair of running shoes?" from my husband) would be waiting for me. I did find that NB had a wall with the name of every runner in the Princess Half. I found me!

I continued to wander, seeking out any free food I could find. I mean come on, I'm getting ready to run a half marathon, and I'm in Disney, land of expensive food, I'll take anything free I can get. This is about the time I hear a voice descend from the heavens, or probably the loud speakers, announcing that Sean Astin will be at the runDisney booth shortly. If you don't know who Sean Astin is, well, shame shame know your name. He is an actor from the Goonies, Rudy and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He has run a few of the Disney races, and he was to be running in this race as well. Sean started a bit of a running "club" called Run 3rd. I'll touch on that in a later post, because it's something I connected with. He attended the meet-up, the meet-up I tried so hard to get in to, the meet-up I did just missed out on. Here was my chance. I scarfed down the rest of my free yogurt and tossed it, and hurried over the the booth. I did get to meet him, and chatted with him for a bit. Super nice guy, very down to earth, and just seems to connect with the story of each individual he meets. He is a great representative of runDisney.

I was so thrilled. I made my way back to Patty and we said good-bye to the Expo. The Expo also said good-bye to us.

We headed to Magic Kingdom, as we had dinner booked there that evening. This was my 6th visit to WDW, I've been to MK every time, and every time I enter Main Street, and my eyes meet the castle, it's magic all over again. We headed over to check out the new Fantasyland. Walking around, I happened upon a character meet up. I guess I'm just a big kid inside, but I love pictures with the characters. I stood in line and got my picture taken with Gaston.

Patty and I parted ways, and I continued my character hunt. I found Merida, the newest princess from Brave, and of course I hopped in line. I have a strong Irish/Scottish heritage, so I felt it was only appropriate for one Scottish princess to introduce herself to another. She was just adorable!

After meeting Merida, I made my way across the park to hang out near the Liberty Tree Tavern, where we'd be having dinner. Patty met me, as did a new friend I met from a few of the Disney/running boards I'm on, Sarah. This was the perfect place for a pre-race dinner. I love this restaurant any time, so I'll take any excuse to eat there again. But it really was an awesome meal. 3 different meats(protein!), mashed potatoes and gravy(carbs!), mac and cheese(more carbs!), rolls, dessert, just awesome. Being that we had to be up the following morning at 2:30 am, and we had stuff to get ready, we called it a very early day. We headed back to our resort. I began my mad dash to prepare. Shower, make sure I had everything ready, double check a second time, and head to bed. Surprisingly I wasn't terribly anxious. We went to bed about 9pm, I did wake up at 11:30 and got a little antsy, but that was mainly nerves about hurrying up and getting back to sleep, so I had enough rest(which in turn, kept me up longer). Race hour was quickly approaching.