Princess Weekend 2023 (Feb 23-26, 2023)

[azrivest]

Okay @Bree i figured out the red dress is Elena… I had Tiana in the same spot. But the other 2 were on breaks (clarabelle and the final character).

You didn't miss much. It was Mira, a Disney Junior character

 

[DianaMB333]

For the ones that drove in, what time the parking access did open? 2:30?

 

[Bree]

Okay @Bree i figured out the red dress is Elena… I had Tiana in the same spot. But the other 2 were on breaks (clarabelle and the final character).

Oh man! I would have rather had a pic with Tiana. It’s my daughter’s favorite princess and I have no clue who Elena is other than the name.

 

[Bree]

So I am old and still use Facebook

I hopped onto memories and realized that my very first half marathon (and challenge) was on this day 6 years ago during Princess Weekend!

2017 Finish Photo

 

[Mr_Incr3dible]

I am in LOVE with the challenge medal. Only photo I missed was the Figment statue. I was too in the zone at that point and ready to be done so I didn’t hear my running friends calling out to me to stop Weather was so much better than yesterday.

I should have stopped for Figment, but didn’t. <sigh>

 

[DopeyBadger]

1:40:21, 97th overall, 17th AG, lots of fun and lots of characters. Played to the crowd and other runners all morning.

 

[nancipants]

Amazing job, @DopeyBadger!

I finished right in the middle of the 10k field, which I’m happy about for my first big race!

I love my photopass pics, especially in front of Tower. I never knew I could feel so happy while running! Also, you can sort of tell I was close to crying when I crossed the finish line.

 

[Naomeri]

Me too! I guess they were trying to get those trucks filled before opening the others. Those steps at the end of the race were extra painful!

They had 1, 2, & 3 open when I went through, but the guy told me I had to go to truck 1. I almost didn’t make it after the race

 

[Stitch&Co.]

These medals are awesome. So much better than last year. Really sorry I missed out on the 5K one. Picked up a couple of nice tshirts and a sweatshirt at the Expo.

Overall a great weekend. The 10K was my fun run where I got to enjoy myself and get some character photos. I tend to stick to the half distance where I am more focused.

Today I gave everything I had the entire time. I never stopped. No characters or photos. Finished in 3:17:17. Now I can use that as a starting point for future training to see how much I can improve throughout the year. I’ve found a good training plan that I look forward to using. The few weeks that I got to use it before Princess really helped me power through the overpasses without feeling too stressed. Such a big difference from January.

It was great to meet everyone at the meetups this weekend. I hope everyone had a great time and met all your goals.

 

[xjillianpaige]

The FOMO was so real this weekend. Congrats to you all! Can't wait for the recaps and photos!

 

[DWVol]

I took almost 35 minutes off my time from last year. 2 hr 6 min. It must have been the mile and a half warm up to the start line.

 

[PrincessOfAllDisneys]

Yep I don't think I've corraled (is that even a word?) in that spot since pre-covid races. I forgot how far away those can be. I don't quite understand how they build the corrals. I thought it was by time and maybe bib number if there are too many of the same time but some of us had the same exact times registered in the same account and we were split between corrals. This year we ended up super far back and the race was so congested at several points we weren't even walking we were just shuffling.

I am now on a mission. I wanna train like @DopeyBadger and get my time down so I too can have great pictures! Most of my pix are of me and 100 of my closest running buddies Sometimes it's literally just the part of me with the bib you can see lol.

 

[JulieODC]

What a fun race weekend! It was my first multi-race weekend, and though I could do a little better at recovery (hard to balance with a family who loves park time), I feel better than expected today!

So glad Mother Nature cooperated with cooler temps yesterday morning!

The only issue is that we missed our flight home last night by 2 minutes. Got to MCO 2hrs early - but a super long baggage drop line and ridiculous security line - we got to the gate just after the door closed. 13 people missed our flight! Now back at the Dolphin waiting until the next flight we could get tomorrow.

I had almost 44,000 steps yesterday- including a terminal sprint to our gate. Not a great ending to a fab trip!

 

[NYC_MW]

Sad to miss all the morning meetups this time around. The pre-race character lines were so much longer for PW than MW! The weekend was a blast, it's gonna take awhile to get around to race journaling everything. One of L's observations of this weekend: I thought you were a bit crazy, now I realize there's a whole bunch of you. Don't know if I've made a rD convert, but she definitely had fun.

Random side thought: it seemed the buses were leaving earlier than posted? Definitely on Sunday our bus left Pop before 2:30 (with <10 people on it). We saw one leave before ours and there was another one already lined up behind us as well.

 

[kps7795]

View attachment 742692
Sad to miss all the morning meetups this time around. The pre-race character lines were so much longer for PW than MW! The weekend was a blast, it's gonna take awhile to get around to race journaling everything. One of L's observations of this weekend: I thought you were a bit crazy, now I realize there's a whole bunch of you. Don't know if I've made a rD convert, but she definitely had fun.

Random side thought: it seemed the buses were leaving earlier than posted? Definitely on Sunday our bus left Pop before 2:30 (with <10 people on it). We saw one leave before ours and there was another one already lined up behind us as well.

Regarding the bus situation, I suppose it depended upon the hotel. Our bus was the first on our route leaving from the Yacht Club and it was supposed to leave at 2:30, but didn't end up leaving to pick up runners at the Beach Club and Boardwalk until 2:40.

 

[DWVol]

Regarding the bus situation, I suppose it depended upon the hotel. Our bus was the first on our route leaving from the Yacht Club and it was supposed to leave at 2:30, but didn't end up leaving to pick up runners at the Beach Club and Boardwalk until 2:40.

I think that GF and Poly must have been on the monorail only. The Shades of Green bus was there when my wife and I showed up around 3:15, and I don't think it had anyone from the other two resorts. It took off shortly after we got on.

Last year they forgot about the S.O.G. and we were part of the reason for the 15 min delay (I think).

 

[DWVol]

Also, did anyone find a couple boards that were a little extra soft or springy along the boardwalk? I feel like I hit one or two that made me think I was going to go through or end up propelled into the lake.

 

[PrincessOfAllDisneys]

Also, did anyone find a couple boards that were a little extra soft or springy along the boardwalk? I feel like I hit one or two that made me think I was going to go through or end up propelled into the lake.

Yep we did too...they also felt slippery. Over the years I've seen several people fall there which makes me so cautious I feel like I'm tip toeing over them lol.

Speaking of soft and springy those mats they supplied for yoga felt more like a pilates mat to me and even though I used the towel to mop it off from all the condensation on it I still slipped around on it. Next time I'm bringing a yogitoes for sure.

 

[Naomeri]

View attachment 742692
Sad to miss all the morning meetups this time around. The pre-race character lines were so much longer for PW than MW! The weekend was a blast, it's gonna take awhile to get around to race journaling everything. One of L's observations of this weekend: I thought you were a bit crazy, now I realize there's a whole bunch of you. Don't know if I've made a rD convert, but she definitely had fun.

Random side thought: it seemed the buses were leaving earlier than posted? Definitely on Sunday our bus left Pop before 2:30 (with <10 people on it). We saw one leave before ours and there was another one already lined up behind us as well.

The All Stars had a stupid number of buses all lined up before 2:30—like out the main road lined up—so they were sending off buses with half a dozen runners even before 2:30. I was on at least the third bus to leave, and we left at 2:27 with just 7 people.

 

[Novatrix]

Did anyone stay at Yacht or Beach Club this year? Curious how the bus situation was after the debacle last year.