Princess Weekend 2019

Princess Weekend came and went so quickly this year! It’s one of my favorite weekends of the year and we were so excited to be back for the 10k. Many people plan vacations around this race weekend because it’s just that good. As you guys know we travel down to Disney often and because of that longer trips aren’t really in our schedule. Today I’m going to break down our 2 night race weekend trip to show you that you can sneak away for a few nights, run an amazing run disney event, soak in the magic, and be back to work on Monday ;)

It’s all about that bling right?! I LOVE adding to my medal collection. Each race tells a different story and different memories that go along with it. Maybe it’s your first race ever, or maybe you got that PR, or maybe it’s your first run postpartum, whatever the case is you DID IT and that feeling never gets old. I never feel stronger than when I’m crossing that finish line! Have I motivated you to run a Run Disney race? I hope so ;) Enough motivation talk now let’s break down our quick weekend trip.

We flew in on Friday of race weekend. Ideally I would have liked the earliest flight, but for some reason the flight schedule wasn’t great that day for us coming from Birmingham. We landed at MCO around 3:30pm and took an uber straight to the expo! Plus side of going to the expo much later than everyone else is that there are no lines and no crowds. Down side is some merchandise may be sold out. They only item that was sold out when we arrived was the Princess weekend spirit jersey, but that was ok because I wanted the Run Disney one (which I am wearing as I type this!). We grabbed our bibs, did a little shoping, and stopped for photo ops with no lines!

After the expo we took the expo bus to our resort, Pop Century! We completed online check in ahead of time and had been texted our room number, which meant we went straight to the room and to bed! Seriously when running a Run Disney race the most important thing in the days leading up to the run are hydration and rest, get off those feet people!

Next came our 3:30am wake up call! I know, I know that sounds terrible right? But something about paying Disney $$$ to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to go run excites me (insert crying laughing emoji face here). I jump right up when that alarm goes off, but at home it’s a different story. Maybe I should start paying my kids to let me go for a run with them in the jogging stroller?! LOL. When you stay at a Disney resort your transportation to the race is included, this is the easiest option to me. We board the bus with our fellow runners and we were off! *See sleepy eye picture for proof of early wake up*

Then we RUN! One of my favorite things about a Run Disney race are the photopass photographers that you find throughout each course! These photographers are capturing the pretty (and not so pretty moments) of your run. Better yet they are included with your race fee! You just log the race number into your MDE account and ta-da! I’m sharing a few of my favorite below :)

Once we earned our bling then we relaxed with a quick nap. After which we enjoyed a large pizza (yall know my love for a Disney pizza runs deep) and then we laid by the pool for the afternoon. That evening we went to Magic Kingdom for just a bit before meeting friends for dinner at Ohana. What. A. Day. From early wake up calls, to the feeling of pride as you cross the finish, to relaxing, to good food and friends! A run Disney race day is full of emotions and full of magic.

The next morning we headed home! Yep, our race weekend left just as quickly as it came. We were in Orlando for less than 48 hours, but I can’t tell you how refreshing a weekend like that is! We made so many memories and we are already counting down the days until our next Run Disney event. As I mentioned earlier all of that fun and yet we still made it to work on Monday ;)

XOXO & Pixie Dust,

Ashton