Princess Half Marathon recap - part 2

To read race recap part one - click here!
We found the second set of port of potty's to have a  much shorter line than the first set, so I stopped! So much better running with an empty bladder! We were off! We stopped to take pics with the sign of Magic Kingdom and other landmarks. We mostly took selfies to help our time - we were scared of getting swept!

Jack Sparrow and Barbosa were both there - the line was long! You could also catch them on the ending side of the race too. You went by this spot twice. Line was much shorter headed to the finish line!

Heading into Magic Kingdom!

The Villians!

This line wasn't too bad maybe 7-10 people so we stopped. When you take pics together the line looks longer, but it goes quick!

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We were so excited to head into Magic Kingdom and run down Main Street and see the castle! Even if it was in fog! 

This was the one picture I knew that I wanted before the run! If I saw them I wanted to stop! It was a little hairy standing in line for 20 minutes, but it was sooo worth it! Love them all dressed up! The official RunDisney people came over and said "the end was coming" which scared us, but we stuck it out even though we were scared! 

Rather than stand in some of the long lines for some of the pics, we just took selfies! Ha! This line was incredibly long! I would say 40+ people. Just as long, if not longer for Mickey.

Mile 7 they played Let It Go and my girls and I LOVE that song! So of course I sang along as I ran! Ha! This was a very congested area where you had to walk at times since it was narrow and we didn't want to get into the grass and twist an ankle.

This was Steph's first half marathon and longest run ever - so after 10 miles we took pics with the signs! That was a big deal! 

Come on - we can do it! 

Steph did not want to stop for this pic, which was fine. I had told myself that I really wanted pictures with characters you don't typically see in the parks. Rare characters. So since Hercules and Prince Eric were in this shot - I wanted it! I had some catching up to do, but I caught her after a potty break and then having to run with no walking breaks. I didn't realize how many people were dressed up like Aurora til I was searching for a certain one! ha! 

Coming into EPCOT into the final mile or so, there was an area set up for a character with lights and a little camper, for them to have a break and no one was there. Then I spotted out of my eye - Sofia! I beelined it over to her and was first in line! I cried! I knew my girls would be sooo excited to see that I saw her and it was sinking in that we were getting close to the finish! 

 Yes we stopped for this pic. Love that we did!

The gospel choir, at mile 12.9 probably - so moving and a tearjerker as well. I knew the course and how close we were to the finish and Steph kept asking how much further. It was getting hot! 

Yahoo! We made it to 13!! 

So proud of these 3! I earned my Coast to Coast! 

We may not have had the fastess time, but we had a fun time and made memories that will last for a lifetime!  If you are on the fence about starting to run or you think that a half marathon distance is not something you can do - training, hardwork and believing in yourself that you can do it is all part of the journey! Also having some great running friends makes the miles go by faster!  It was so rewarding to say I was gonna do something I had never even dreamed of and then to do it twice! I am so proud of myself! I will be floating on cloud9 for awhile! Coast to Coast is marked off the Disney bucket list!

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Princess Half marathon recap part 1 - The Start

Running the Princess Half Marathon was bittersweet. One of our running mates wasn't able to go with us at the last minute and that was hard to swallow. We had been planning and training for so long and were so excited to be on the final countdown only to have that high of an upcoming trip come crashing to a low and find out that if she goes she could die. I cried for her, she tried to be strong and play it off, but I knew how devastated I would be if I were in her running shoes. She had signed up for the Glass Slipper Challenge and was so excited to run the 10k and Half Marathon. We weren't going to PR on the race, but rather have a great time together and be silly and have fun! Running 13 miles isn't a joke or to be taken lightly by any means, but we were running it for the joy of accomplishing a goal and to reward ourselves for all of our hard work!
The night before the run we set out our clothes and got our running belts ready to go. Morning food was set out and ready to be eaten and I even slept in my running shorts and bra so I'd have two less things to put on in the morning! Ha! I thought that was a great idea! We were both nervous. The time change adding an hour, walking the parks both days beforehand, not to mention me running the 5k and the 10k the days before as well. Being a die hard Disney fan I couldn't be that close to the parks and not go! We did 2 days park hopper and I tried to make myself turn in early at night, but I just couldn't do it! I had to get up at 4am both Friday and Saturday and at 3 am on Sunday, so I was tired! It was all worth it though! We had an absolute blast! If you ever get a chance to take a trip with friends that love something like Disney as much as you and you complete something like running 13.1 miles, it's memorable!

We hopped on the bus and didn't wait too long to get on, although the line got long quick! 

The buses at the POP were very well run and there were multiple buses there the morning of the Half.

 Walking to the corrals was a long trek. We walked a half mile to get to the start line I think. We used the restroom after we did bag check and waited in a very long line for the port a potty. That is were I lost my cape too. We were glad we had stopped though!

In our corral ready to start! People were sitting on the ground and it was amazing all the pregnant bellies we saw! So cool to see runners who were expecting and still running strong!

I had on my MagicBand, and my two wrist bands to earn my Coast to Coast and the Glass Slipper Challenge.

 Waiting around for the race to start felt like forever!! I had to pee before we even started which is so hard to run when you have to go!

Moving towards the front! Getting a little closer!

Here we go!

You ready Ang?

So close we can taste it!

And here is the starting fireworks!! Let's do this! And let's find the closest port a potty cause I gotta go!!

To read part 2 - click here!

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Disney Side @Home Celebration - Mom's Disney Trip Planning

“I received free products in order to host the Disney Side @Home Celebration. The opinions expressed here are my own.”

I have a blog dedicated to Disney, I really would love to be on the Disney moms panel and it was such a surprise to get a Disney Side @Home Celebration kit! I truly do have a #disneyside which is practically everyday. I have friends ask me if I own other shirts besides Disney shirts. I am truly a Disney nerd at heart and love teaching others.

So for my Disney Side party I invited moms over with their kiddos to learn about planning their first trips with kids or maybe just a first trip ever!! I have been to Disney as a couple and as a family and the planning is so different! Mainly naps, but even men need those sometimes too! ha!
I invited 10 moms to come over who showed interest in learning more about planning a future Disney vacation either to Disneyland or Walt Disney World and 7 moms showed up. That also meant 11 kiddos under 5 playing upstairs too- not the most quiet house that was for sure! I had breakfast items and finger foods, but nothing over the top. I did have my food displayed on my Mickey plates that I love and made a few special things to snack on. There are tons of great ideas for themed Disney food on Spoonful and pinned on my Pinterest account.
I just got back from a girls trip to Walt Disney World so I was now familiar with the Magic Bands and I went to Disneyland in January to run the Tinkerbell half and as a family vacation so both parks were fresh on my mind.

A popcorn bucket from our trip and some Mickey plates
were a simple touch to jazz up the food and treats.

I started off my party with a short fun quiz. I asked them 10 questions. Some questions about the parks, some trivia about myself and or my trips and then some other fun Disney trivia. Kinda was an ice breaker thing and as we went through the answers I covered some of my topics that I had already decided I wanted to hit.
Planning a trip - to Disneyland or Disneyworld.
We discussed great times to go, how to possibly earn a coveted pin number (which is a discount code that Disney sends out randomly), how to save money while at the parks as well as before you go. How to plan where to stay and the pros and cons I had for either place. Dining and making reservations ahead of time, magicbands and fastpasses for either Park. We also talked about Photopass and sanity savers on trips. They had lots of great questions and I had a few people ask if I would just go with them, which of course I would! I had two moms want to plan trips in the next 6 months and the rest were in the next year or so category.

I had my table displayed like an information booth. I had the
giveaways as well as the items I wanted to touch on during my
lesson about planning a trip to Disney!

I had out for them to see some of my shirts that we've made for trips, which I think is so fun and can be very inexpensive. I had out maps, unused fastpasses, my magicband, favorite souvenirs, autograph books, our recent trip Photopass book. I love sharing my knowledge and love for visiting the parks with families.

My neighbor/running buddy made me this sign
from running my RunDisney races. So I left it up as decor!

I also had my credenza set up as walk down memory lane from our previous trips. Favorite photos and Photopass books. If you notice the picture on the wall, I took window crayons and added ears to my girls in the pic. They wash off with Windex, but my children thought that was hilarious! I love to look at albums from other peoples trips and it gets you excited about going too!

Disclaimer - I am not a travel agent, nor do I work for one. I truly just love helping others, sharing contests to win trips to Disney on my FB account and I love doing my Disney vacations myself! I hope they learned some great tips and I am more than willing to help in any way! For more fun or to see my last trips you can follow me on Pinterest, FB, Twitter , Google+ and  Instagram!

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How to survive a RunDisney expo and Graves Disease

After going to another building to pick up packets with bibs, shirts for the Glass Slipper Challenge and commemorative items along with an official RunDisney merchandise booth. You headed to another nearby building to pick up shirts and bags at a building across the way. We just happened to not go to the hotel room when we got there and hopped on the expo bus when we saw that it was at the hotel. Having that luggage came in handy! We picked up 5 runners packets with 9 races between us. It was very well organized and there was no wait time when we got there around 5 o'clock. I was happy to see that there was a an official RunDisney official merchandise booth in the same building as packet pick up for runners! There wasn't much in the booth - shirts, car magnets, pins, but one thing they did have was the Princess Mickey ears! I already had those on my list of must haves! They had another booth in the expo building too. 

The spot for this classic picture was upstairs after you picked up the 5k and 10k bibs. You had to follow RunDisney on Instagram and they did verify that by looking on your phone. I already was following them, but my girlfriend just had to follow them in the line and that was it! They emailed the pic to us by that evening. So easy and so fun! 

These are some of the vendors who were at the expo. I really only shopped a few booths since I wanted to save my money for park souvenirs. Plus I already had shopped the Tinkerbell Expo 5 weeks beforehand. (Most vendors were different this expo) My favorites were - Team Sparkle, I had a pick up from them. I ordered online a black sparkle skirt and it was super easy to grab and go. My cousins shopped BondiBands and bought a couple of their bands. Rawthreads had some really cute shirts, not that I bought one, but I browsed! So much cute stuff! I knew that the New Balance  Disney shoes would be gone by the time we got there, so that booth was skipped - almost! They did have some cute shirts and they had a cool wall with all the names of the runners on it. They had a spot for 5k/10k/and half marathon. I noticed the Glass Slipper challenge people were on their own wall near the finish line of the run.

 

We had our third caballero not be able to go on our trip last minute due to a Graves disease/hypothyroidism diagnosis a few days before we were going to leave. Her Dr said she was not able to get her heart rate up in fear of heart failure. They told her she couldn't even walk her runs. She was so sad and we were so bummed for her. There is nothing more disappointing than training so hard for something and be told you can't do it even though you feel fine, or so you think. She has a rapid heartbeat from her thyroid being larger than it should be and it's pressing on her artery. She most likely would have had a heart attack on the run and who knows what would have happened! So scary to think about! I knew how bummed she was and being a former teacher, I remembered Flat Stanley and all the adventures he had, so I created #flatangela to make her feel like she was apart of our girls trip and I had the blessing of my other running buddy. We actually had a blast taking her along and being silly with her. More on that to come! 

I would say don't go crazy at the expos. It's so easy to spend like crazy! I bought a magnet for my fridge, picked up my sparkle skirt, bought my ears and that was about it. (I had preordered my pins for my runs) You get a shirt for your runs from RunDisney and along with a sample of Craisins and a Luna Bar. I really loved the shirt that said My favorite Princess is my wife, but they only had smalls. They were so cute! Especially if you are a new runner you see so many cool things, but they say nothing new on race day for a reason!! It took until almost 8pm which was 3 hours to get all the bibs and shop the expo.

DIY Disney Vacation Shadowbox

I had previously created a shadowbox for Walt Disney World and since we just got back from Disneyland, I wanted to create one for that trip too. I have three kiddos and don't have much time to think about or be too crazy about my box design. I would describe it as simple, clean, but nostalgic too. It's a simple shadowbox I picked up from Hobby Lobby and with two stickers, a picture, a magnet and three pins = you have a shadowbox! My house is slowly starting to have a #disneyside, much to my husbands dismay! Ha!

My next shadowbox will be for Disneyland Paris! If only I had a magnet for the castle! I have everything else!!