Castle to Chateau - Disneyland Paris Inaugural Rundisney Weekend *completed 06/30

I LOVE this parade. The music is still stuck in my head. I think it's one of my favourite Disney parades. I'm sad I will miss it and Dreams. I'm sure the new shows are good, but I wish we'd watched them both a second time. We weren't thinking about them being changed and planned to see them when we went back.

We'll be there Sunday. I've purposely avoided any videos of the new parade and illuminations. I want to see them fresh.
 
Day 5 - Disneyland Paris Inaugural Half Marathon
Part 1 - Race Morning

We woke up nice and early this morning as the hotel had a shuttle bus arriving at 5.30am. We got dressed and made our way down to the bus stop and joined the other runners waiting. We waited... and waited... and waited but no bus arrived. We could see the bus driving past and realised that there was literally one bus running for all four hotels and it was obviously getting full each time! I ordered a taxi from reception as I wasn't hanging around and taking a risk! Myself, Rachel, Nick (who we shared the taxi with yesterday) hopped in and offered the spare seats in the 6 seater to some other runners that had been waiting with us. The taxi was 5-10mins max and we were charged 25e which is absolutely outrageous but I'd rather pay it and save on stress!

(Side note an uber ride two weeks ago for the same journey was 6e!)

We got dropped off closer the event area this time and went in the correct entrance! We lined up for coral B and were pretty close to the front. Shortly after we made our way out into the corals.

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It was really cold this morning so we were super happy that we brought ponchos to protect us from the wind chill!

The set the corals off in mini-waves so there were several A corals that got going before it was our turn.

trois.... deux..... un....!!

ALLEZ!!

And we were off! The course today took us into Walt Disney Studios Park first and we entered via a backstage area

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We hit the 1KM marker right as we entered
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Km markers are kinda nice because they are more frequent and it breaks the longer race up a bit more..

We actually ran out onto the stage area of the Motor Stunt show so that was pretty cool! They had the screen that you would normally watch the show on displaying the runners going past!


We came out into the park and across our first photo opportunity...
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followed by our first character stop, which was selfie only (@Ariel484 you feel our pain!)
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And right then a photopass guy just appeared and he took our photo!
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How much better is that?? Seriously... cut it with the selfie stops! I'm 99% sure we also stopped for Spiderman and it was selfie only but I've not got the picture... maybe @RachelDoesDisney can help me out??!

Love that you can get Marvel pictures in Disneyland Paris!

KM marker number 2
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We came around by the entrance and spotted some cheeky chipmunks!

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We went through the entrance/exit studio and they'd turned it into a sort of crazy run through disco... I'm not sure how to describe it! Similar to one that I've run through in Hollywood Studios before with lots of lights and music and dance running lol I got a short recording for our vlog as we ran through!

We then made around way around to the Toy Story area where the cast member support was fantastic! Then into the Ratatouille area where we stopped for Marie
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For some reason the official photo has 'finish line' in French on it?? I don't like how all the official photos has banners

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Running away from the
Ratatouille are we were picked up by another photopass stop, unfortunately Rachel wasn't positioned well for this one
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We ran backstage and over towards the Disneyland Paris Park.. For some reason we weren't expecting there to be loads of people on Main Street but it was SO BUSY! The support was fantastic!

Just off Main Street on our way into Discoveryland we hit KM 3
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And shortly after and an AWESOME character stop... It was a longish wait and another 'group' photo where the characters would swap in and out and you were at risk of not getting everyone.. Luckily for us Darth Vader went in just before our turn but came straight back out a minute later!
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We ran around the path towards Fantasyland and hit another AWESOME photo... It was Castle (Cinderella) and Chateau (Belle) how perfect!

Again there was a swapping issue and it was looking like we would only have Cinderella for ours but Belle and her prince came back right before our turn! YAH!
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We were having such a blast but I was already having some right leg issues (forever my problem) and I knew at this point that I was going to struggle with the non park portions of the course... which was only like... 16 KILOMETERS!!!

We came around the back of the castle and ran through to the hub and into Adventureland where we spotted our next character with no wait! Thank you @cavepig for identifying him as Sheriff of Nottingham from Robin Hood!

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We reached some Jungle Book friends just up the path
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I love how @RachelDoesDisney is trying to get in on this picture
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Luckily she got her own one
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Then we came across one of favourite character stops EVER...


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I'm just going to leave this section on that awesome note... IT'S ONLY THE SULTAN!!

 
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THE SULTAN!!! DYING. You guys got some awesome character pics, the one with the chipmunks is SO cute!

WHAT is with those selfie stops? Cut it out, runDisney!! :mad:
 
Wow! The Aladdin group shot is amazing!! You're definitely getting some great and varied character stops with this race. The pictures are all great! And that is fun that they did km markers. That's a lot more signs that they had to print haha
 
Day 5 - Disneyland Paris Inaugural Half Marathon
Part 1 - Race Morning

We woke up nice and early this morning as the hotel had a shuttle bus arriving at 5.30am. We got dressed and made our way down to the bus stop and joined the other runners waiting. We waited... and waited... and waited but no bus arrived. We could see the bus driving past and realised that there was literally one bus running for all four hotels and it was obviously getting full each time! I ordered a taxi from reception as I wasn't hanging around and taking a risk! Myself, Rachel, Nick (who we shared the taxi with yesterday) hopped in and offered the spare seats in the 6 seater to some other runners that had been waiting with us. The taxi was 5-10mins max and we were charged 25e which is absolutely outrageous but I'd rather pay it and save on stress!

(Side note an uber ride two weeks ago for the same journey was 6e!)



Km markers are kinda nice because they are more frequent and it breaks the longer race up a bit more..


For some reason the official photo has 'finish line' in French on it?? I don't like how all the official photos has banners

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We were having such a blast but I was already having some right leg issues (forever my problem) and I knew at this point that I was going to struggle with the non park portions of the course... which was only like... 16 KILOMETERS!!!



Then we came across one of favourite character stops EVER...

I'm just going to leave this section on that awesome note... IT'S ONLY THE SULTAN!!

Yay! The Half!

I can't believe the bus situation. :scared1: I would be freaking out! And the cost for that taxi was outrageous!

KM markers are nice to break up the distance, but that's a lot more stopping you're doing. Did it become an issue to get all the sign photos? I'd also have a problem with the conversions. I'd spend most of the race trying to do math in my head and just getting confused.

Not only does it have "Finish Line," but it also says Kids Races. They biffed on that one!

Uh oh on the leg issues. Hope you were able to finish strong!

You got some GREAT character photos, and I feel like you've just begun the race!
 


Day 5 - Disneyland Paris Inaugural Half Marathon
Part 2 - Half Marathon

We were on a MASSIVE high after meeting the characters from Aladdin! We didn't even have to wait to long for the photo and I think that is down to the sheer number of character stops which gets a big thumbs up from me!

We hit the 5KM marker just as left the park
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We hit a beverage stop right after and I took the time to walk and assess my situation... it was not looking good. I knew that my right leg was just not having it today. I find it hard to pin point where exactly the pain was but it seemed to be mainly in my hamstring and my hamstring felt really tight, I also had knee pain. I wasn't going to let it get me down but it meant we had a long road ahead!

Rachel got a hand in this one... haha She was really not on her photopass game today!
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I tried to keep up a run walk split for the next few kilometers but it was no where near our original plan (and beeping watches)
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I knew there was an aid station around KM 9 so I was holding out for something to help.. biofreeze/painkillers whatever!

We ran around a rugby stadium
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A hit KM 8
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It was getting pretty hot!! The best weather we'd had all trip! Typical!

Rachel took a quick selfie at KM 9 while I popped to the Medical tent
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Except it wasn't really a medical tent.. it was kinda the back of a van and there wasn't anyone that spoke great English and understood my problem. I was eventually given some sort of a gel thing to put on my hamstring not really knowing what it was supposed to do! I got on my phone and sent out an SOS in a Facebook group I'm part of to see if anyone had painkillers and luckily I hadn't passed @chelynnah yet and she had some! I had about 4k to go before I'd reach her. At this point I had to switch to just walking :(

Feeling better around 10km as I wasn't forcing myself to run anymore
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The on course entertainment was pretty decent, they had bands and cheerleaders keeping our spirits up!

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We hit 12k
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And then met up with the lovely @chelynnah for some painkillers
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Unfortunately at this stage painkillers wasn't going to be enough to get me running again but it did help!

There were some fantastic cheerleaders around this point, they would look out for people's names on their bibs and scream ALLEZ ALLEZ KAREN... ALLEZ ALLEZ RACHEL!

It's the little things! :o

Lucky number 13
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I guess my camera was fogging up around 14. These few kms were part of a sort of out and back but we kept thinking we were nearly on the 'back' part and then we'd take another detour! It played mind games with us!
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By 15 we were heading back towards Disney and it was here that we spotted the dreaded sweepers. I had been starting to worry about our pace, it was by far the slowest half marathon as we were power walking instead of running. Luckily they were almost 5km behind us so we figured we'd be ok if we kept up our pace
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KM 16 was right on the turn towards the Disney hotels... I was excited to get back on property!
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We passed the car entrance to Disneyland Paris
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And reached Hotel Sante Fe
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And our next km marker
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There was fantastic support around the hotels! I was so happy to see people still out supporting for the back of the pack!

By 18km we were in Hotel Cheyenne
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Where we met our next photopass photographer!
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We continued along the lovely path from Cheyenne to the Disney Village area which runs alongside a canal. I was so happy to reach resort area around Lake Disney and see our next km marker
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We were so DONE with walking but still smiling!
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We hit the village and I tried my best to get some short run intervals in... particular for the cameras!
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We hit our penultimate km marker
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The last KM felt like a lifetime! But finally we hit our last marker... well if that's what you'd call it! I like that it's something different!
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And round the corner to the finish line!
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WE DID IT!!

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Rachel did a really good job with the pictures. I just love the Alice in Wonderland float.

She did!! She's definitely got a better eye for pictures than me!
I know, I really like it too!

That parade looks awesome!! Really great pictures!

It was awesome! I'm kinda sad that it's the new anniversary parade running but that has some pretty cool floats too.

I LOVE this parade. The music is still stuck in my head. I think it's one of my favourite Disney parades. I'm sad I will miss it and Dreams. I'm sure the new shows are good, but I wish we'd watched them both a second time. We weren't thinking about them being changed and planned to see them when we went back.

We'll be there Sunday. I've purposely avoided any videos of the new parade and illuminations. I want to see them fresh.

I loved the music too, I find myself singing it every now and then! We were lucky enough to see them both in March again knowing they would be leaving, as this was our first trip we definitely weren't ready for them to go!

THE SULTAN!!! DYING. You guys got some awesome character pics, the one with the chipmunks is SO cute!

WHAT is with those selfie stops? Cut it out, runDisney!! :mad:

Ye I was pretty overwhelmed when I spotted the sultan
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Character pics was something they definitely got RIGHT for this event... such a simple thing made our experience so awesome!

Yep! I sure hope they do!

Wow! The Aladdin group shot is amazing!! You're definitely getting some great and varied character stops with this race. The pictures are all great! And that is fun that they did km markers. That's a lot more signs that they had to print haha

Isn't it just?! Ye it is a LOT! I'm used to KM as we have that in Ireland but in the UK they have miles so luckily I'm familiar with both! There were a lot of people getting very confused trying to do their conversions though haha

Yay! The Half!

I can't believe the bus situation. :scared1: I would be freaking out! And the cost for that taxi was outrageous!

KM markers are nice to break up the distance, but that's a lot more stopping you're doing. Did it become an issue to get all the sign photos? I'd also have a problem with the conversions. I'd spend most of the race trying to do math in my head and just getting confused.

Not only does it have "Finish Line," but it also says Kids Races. They biffed on that one!

Uh oh on the leg issues. Hope you were able to finish strong!

You got some GREAT character photos, and I feel like you've just begun the race!

The bus situation wasn't great at all, it was my one complaint about staying in the hotel.

It is a lot more stopping! I think if we had a normal race and we were running we wouldn't have taken a pic at each one.

Ye I don't know why they don't just have the banner as an optional thing like with the US photopass

We finished... maybe not strong though!

Unfortunately that was it for the one course photos but we didn't even stop for them all!

Thanks for reading along :)
 
Day 5 - Disneyland Paris Inaugural Half Marathon
Part 3 - Post race

It was a lot less *Crazy* at the finish line this time around and we got a cute pic with runner Goofy
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And another with Runner Pluto!
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And finally one with our half marathon bling
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We picked up our Castle to Chateau medal and went straight back to the hotel to freshen up and REST! My legs were super sore!

We had extended our stay at our hotel room which I'm so glad we did! We chilled for quite a while before grabbing a bus back to the park for a photoshoot! I took my case with me and checked it into luggage storage as I was getting the train from right outside the parks but Rachel was being collected from the hotel.

The bling this was all about... isn't it beautiful?
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It was a bit cooler now so we had our jumpers back on!
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Rachel got PHOTOBOMED in her medal photo.. so funny!
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Rachel hadn't been on Pirates of the Carribean so we went for a quick ride.... excuse the terribly dark selfie
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We took some selfies in front of the castle on the way out
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We said our goodbyes to the castle and took the sad stroll down Main Street for the last time
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And that is it! The end of our trip!

We had a fantastic time and we're really excited to head back in September and do it all over again. This time we'll be joined by our Dad who's never been so that'll be fun!

Thank you so much for following along!

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Check out our Disneyland Paris Vlog covered this part of the trip


 
I just caught up in time for the end. I love reading about and seeing pictures of Disneyland Paris because I've never been there. I subscribed to your channel, and I'm going to check out all the vlogs soon. I started vlogging on my last trip to Disney, and it was so much fun!
 
Congrats on finishing! This sounds so good. There were so many rare characters out! Although I feel like you should run the boring stuff first and get to the parks towards the end. I would totally lose my steam once I was running that outer part at the end. But WOOO :cool1:

Please let me know if you write about the August/September 2016 trip, I don't want to miss it!!
 

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