I really can’t believe Marathon Weekend is over and I’m back in (cold, rainy) New York!
In case you missed them I posted quick updates on the WDW Marathon Weekend Expo and the Family Fun Run 5k while I was still in Florida that you can check out, but today it’s time to tell you about the Half Marathon – otherwise known as the first 13.1 miles of the Goofy Challenge!
My sister Christina was joining me for the half marathon (her first!), so when our alarm went off at 2:30am we both dragged ourselves out of bed an stumbled around the room to get ready. We met my friend Pat and his sister in the lobby and were on a bus to the starting area by 3:30am (I’m sure some of you are thinking this sounds CRAZY, but trust me, the early wake up calls are totally worth it for these races!).
Barely awake but ready to go at 3:30am!
Once we were at the starting area we met up with a few other friends…
Sister Christina, Me, friend Christina, Jenn, Pat, Mark and Dan
…and soon we started the long walk towards the starting corrals…
…the walk to the corrals was so long and moved so slowly that unfortunately we missed the National Anthem and just made it for the start of the race! The first corral took off at 5:30am and we followed a few minutes later in corral B – I love that Disney does fireworks for each corral start and not just the first one!
Corral B Start Fireworks!
And of course we had some Disney celebrities cheering us on as we went through the start!
Goofy, Mickey and Donald at the Starting Line!
I really wanted to make sure to save my legs for the full marathon the next day, and it was my sister’s first half marathon (her longest training run was only 8 miles!) so, we were planning on using 3 minute run / 1 minute walk intervals and we were definitely going to take a few breaks to stop for character photos (plus, it was ridiculously hot and humid so we wanted to take it slow!).
The first character stop we came across right along the highway was was Captain Jack Sparrow and his pirate ship…the line was pretty long so we ran past and then just took a picture in front of the ship from the other side…
Christina in front of Captain Jack’s ship!
We headed towards the Magic Kingdom…
…and entered the park right past Mile 5. As we turned onto Main Street we moved over to the left hand side and kept an eye out for our parents who had text and told me they were right across from the Confectionary. We quickly spotted them and stopped for a few pictures and then kept heading down Main Street towards the castle!
Past the castle we turned into Tomorrowland where I stopped for a picture with Buzz Lightyear while Christina ducked into the bathroom (LOVE being able to use “real” bathrooms during a race in the parks instead of the porta-potties!).
From Tomorrowland we went through Fantasyland and ran through the castle…
…and then headed towards Frontierland where we ran in to Jessie and Bullseye from Toy Story! Christina’s a horseback rider so I knew she’d want a photo with them!
Once we exited the Magic Kingdom we were back on the highway and headed towards Epcot. We passed a few more characters and stopped for the ones that didn’t have very long lines…
Totally one of my favorite characters!
And I made sure to take a picture of Christina next to the 10 mile marker since this was officially her first double digit run!
A mile or so later we ran into the Green Army Men from Toy Story! They are totally my favorite runDisney race characters…they’re always positioned on a hill shouting out orders and encouragement (“Move it Soldier!”, “Let’s GO, Let’s GO!”).
At mile 12 we headed into Epcot where we stopped for a few more quick photos…
…before heading out towards the finish in the Epcot parking lot!
Christina and I with our Half Marathon medals!
I had so much fun running this race with my sister and I am so proud of her for finishing her first half marathon (especially considering the minimal training she did!).
After the race it was time for some recovery to be ready for the full marathon the next day!
Also, LOVE this picture from breakfast at Cape May Cafe after the half…Donald tried to “steal” Christina’s half marathon medal because he was on it!
Stay tuned for my full marathon recap tomorrow! Plus, I’d love to hear what you think about this one…too many pictures? Is there anything specific about the races you’d like to know or hear more about??
Live, Run, Grow 
Great job on the half! We started in corral D and we didn’t stop for any character photos because the lines were so long! To me it felt way more crowded on the course in previous years.
Love the Donald pic at the end! You got some great photos along the way!
This was my first year doing the half, but I thought the marathon course felt a bit more crowded this year too. I’m glad we were able to stop for a lot of pictures, I kind of just decided with the heat and running the full the next day I’d take it easy and get some good photos!
Love that you ran with your sister for her first half. I started in Corral B also, but ran both the half and the full without photo stops. The heat and humidity scared me so my race memories are in my head! I love the character photos…you did a great job and had so much fun!
Love your recap, and I love all of the photos. I always think it’s fun to look through them, and to see which characters were around.
Congrats to you and your sister – so fun that you ran it together. And I can’t believe how hot it must have felt. I remember by the time you ran the end of your marathon last year it was getting warm, but nothing like this. Whew!
Yes, this year was definitely warmer than last year and the humidity was just terrible!
Wonderful re-cap! Hope to run my first 1/2 at Disneyland this year… Congratulations on the Goofy Challenge!!!!! Just so inspiring..and amazing…
Disneyland is such a great race, I really enjoyed it last year! It was my first time out to Disneyland too so that made it extra special…good luck with your training and let me know if you have any questions I can help with!
Sounds like the half marathon was so much fun! Look at all those great pictures! Too funny about the army soldiers shouting, albeit positive things 🙂
Great pictures and congrats to you and your sister! Very proud of you both!
Awesome job Danielle! Thanks for the recap- all the pics make me excited for the Princess!!!
Thanks Jody! So jealous you’ll be running Princess…I can’t wait to hear all about it!
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Awesome!! Love the pictures! Especially the one with Donald and your sister. Sounds like it was a lot of fun, even with the heat.
great recap! love all the photos, I did not take nearly as many. fun to see the different perspectives of the same race!
Thanks! Since I was doing Goofy (and the heat was so bad!) I decided to just have fun and take lots of fun pics!
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