Race Report: Disney Princess Enchanted 10K 2017

Princess weekend, day two! The 10K race was the first part of the Glass Slipper Challenge, which was followed by the half marathon on Sunday.

I ran this race as Anna from Frozen. It was the first time I ran with my hair in two braids and I was afraid it might be annoying. Luckily it was comfortable.

The 10K course took us from the Epcot parking lot, out to Epcot Center Drive, and then back to Epcot for some miles in the theme park and around the Boardwalk resort area. It was identical to the Wine & Dine 10K route.

Training & Goals
Disney challenge weekend means the plan for this race was to take it easy and rest my legs for the upcoming half marathon on Sunday. I planned to stop for many, if not all, of the photo ops.


Race Day: February 25, 2017
Arthur came with me for this race. We left home at around 3:35AM and were parked by about 4:30AM. We went to get in line for a photo with Ariel. The race was to start at 5:30AM and when we got in line we were a few parties behind the "last in line" castmember. We knew we might not make it but Ariel stayed out for a long time and I was able to get a photo with about 5 minutes to spare.


I had time to use a portapotty before hurrying to my corral (C for the 10K) where I found position near the middle of the pack. It was about 61°F at the start with near 100% humidity.

Mile 1
Arthur took a short video of my starting wave.


I have no split data for this race due to reasons, but it was another long parade-style "run" with lots of photo stops and fun.

Leaving the Epcot parking lot we ran under an overpass where Moana was encouraging the crowd from above.

Mile 2
Shortly after the Mile 1 marker, there was a princess photo op with Elena of Avalor. The line wasn't too long and I haven't seen this character before so I decided to wait. After that came a photo op with Tinker Bell and some of her friends from Pixie Hollow. The line was pretty long and I elected to skip this photo op.


Mile 3
The next photo op was with the Evil Queen from Snow White dressed up as the old witch. After a bit more road running we finally made it to Epcot where we entered at a backstage area around Mexico.


Mile 4
The sun had started to come up as I got to Epcot. The first photo op here was a bunch of stilt walkers. I skipped the next two photo stops as well: Dopey in Germany and Pinocchio with Gepetto in Italy.


Mile 5
In France there was a very long line for a photo op with cast members holding giant wine bottles. I got line for this before I found out what it was for. This was kind of standard operating procedure for many of the photo opportunities during Princess race weekend. I would get in line and there would be a small chorus from all of the new arrivals -- "who is this?" "what are we in line for?" "which character is here?" Inevitably someone from a group would run ahead to find out or the info would get passed on from those already waiting. It was pretty funny. I decided not to wait for the wino photo and went on to have a picture taken with a cat. Marie from The Aristocrats was posing in France. This is a somewhat "rare" character appearance so I decided to wait in line for a photo with her.

Next runners headed into the Boardwalk area from the International Gateway of Epcot. I took a short video here.


Mile 6
As we headed back into Epcot from a backstage area there was an epic line for Princess Minnie, also a somewhat "rare" character. I elected to skip this line and just snap a picture of her on the run.



Back around World Showcase, we headed towards Spaceship Earth and back out to the parking lot for the finish. For a while I was running behind a pack of Meridas. If you look closely at the video I posted above at the Boardwalk, you can see them running.

After the race I met up with Arthur and we stood in line for another princess photo. This time we got Jasmine, where I complimented her on her shoes.

We headed to our favorite changing-booth/resort, Art of Animation, where I had a quick clean up and change of clothes before heading out to Animal Kingdom for breakfast at Rainforest Cafe and some park fun. Later we checked into our Disney Springs hotel and spent some time at the Springs before an early dinner at Noodles & Co. and an early bedtime for the big half marathon the following morning.


Recommendation
It's a Disney race, what can I say? This felt crowded the entire time and I thought the huge lines for characters were daunting. I would have liked to stop for Minnie but the line looked like it would take over a half hour and I didn't want to waste that much time. The 10K course for Disney races is getting a bit stale as well. If the course doesn't change for this race I don't know if I would do it again. (Right, who am I kidding?)

Chip time: 1:47:08
Placement details: 1106 of 1311 in Age Group; 9753 overall out of 11593 finishers
Race Amenities: All the fun Disney stuff, including a tech t-shirt and a cute medal
Cost: $331.11 (the cost of the Glass Slipper Challenge, which is the 10K and the half)


Report written March 9, 2017