One race down, two races and 19.3 miles left to go! It was time for part one of the 2017 Glass Slipper Challenge, the Enchanted 10K. We ended up heading back to our hotel fairly early on Friday and spent some time at the pool and ate dinner at the resort. Even though we had "just a 10K" (which sounds silly saying because a 10K is a big deal), we didn't want to be too exhausted or standing on our feet too much before the race. After yesterday's bus fiasco getting to the 5K, we made sure we were at the bus stop early again. Actually, this time we walked to a different part of the resort to get to one of the earlier stops to help make sure that we didn't get passed by with several full buses again. Today only two full buses passed and we were on the third bus and on our way to the race site by 3:45. We got into our corral and waited for our turn to head to the start line. As corral A walked by everyone cheered for them which was really cool. There was a few minutes between the corrals starting (A-F) and before we knew it, it was our turn to take the 6.2 mile journey! As you exit the Imagination Lot and head Epcot Center Drive for the first 3 miles or so, we were greeted by Moana. This was a nice switch up from Anna and Elsa from the past two years, so thank you runDisney for "letting it go" and giving us some new love on course! This part of the course was definitely crowded. Between a narrow road, thousands of runners starting at once, and it still being dark I must admit that it was a little unnerving at times. While Momma K and I practice proper run-walk etiquette and signal our walk breaks and stay to the right, there are always those that find it necessary to act "un-princess like". This year the princesses (and princes) acted very polite especially compared to last year. There are a few reports on the interwebs of some folks getting knocked down (some with Glass Slipper Challenge ending results unfortunately), but for the most part it seemed a lot better than past years. The first character stop was around mile 1 where Elena was there to greet runners. Ok runDisney, we need to have a serious chat. Characters are GREAT! I love character photo ops as much as every other runDisney runner, however putting a character right at a sharp and narrow U-turn of a crowded race course is completely ridiculous and unsafe! Runners are already struggling to make that U-turn without tripping over each other, then you add a character right there that causes even more congestion is just insane! From people just simply trying to follow the course, to those stopping to see who is there, the line forming for a picture, and of course the runners passing the photo op and then turning back and running against the flow made this IMPOSSIBLE to get through! It is runDisney and it is a fun race for me, so I don't care about my time, but I do care about my safety and that is just poor placement of a character. If you could please consider moving the first character to just before or just after this U-turn that would be awesomeness! There were a number of character photo ops in the first few miles including Tinker Bell and her friends and the witch from Snow White. As we entered into the backstage area of Epcot, there were some pretty interesting "characters" on hand to greet us. We entered World Showcase around mile 3 near Japan and was greeted by magnificent lighting and some pretty awesome volunteers at the water station. We made our way around World Showcase counterclockwise heading towards France. Country by country we made our way through Epcot. There seemed to be less characters in World Showcase this morning that there were for the 5K, but we did run into a few familia Toy Story Aliens waiting in line for a picture with Dopey in Germany ;-) We finally made it through International Gateway and headed towards the boardwalk around. At this point we were about 4.5 miles into the race. While you aren't in the parks for this part, it is still an awesome part of the course! There is so much course support during this mile (or so) stretch from people purposely coming out to chEAR, to unsuspecting resort guests just heading to grab a cup of coffee. Regards on their initial intentions, I am always down for free high fives and cheers along the way. I love the part where you are entering/existing the boardwalk because runners are high-fiving and cheering each other on. Now THAT is the way that a princess should act! With a quick little backstage stretch before re-entering Epcot for a bit in World Showcase before the grand finale in Future World, we made our way through the last mile. We were almost there! With a beautiful sun-rise reflecting off of Spaceship Earth, we were about .5 mile away from the 2nd finish line of the weekend! Done and done! 2 races and 9.3 miles down, 1 race and 13.1 magical miles to go! It was such a wonderful morning of running with a number of friends along the way. Thank you to everyone who made this morning so special and magical! After the race we freshened up and grabbed a quick bite to eat at Disney Springs before heading to the We Run Social Meet-Up and Hollywood Studios for some dinner. Tomorrow has an early wake up of 2:15am with 13.1 miles ahead of us, so definitely wanted to stay off those feet and turn in early. Question of the Day: What is your favorite part of the Enchanted 10K course?
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BrandiI love to run and most importantly I love to have FUN while I run....I am the "Funner Runner" Feedspot's Top 100 Running Blogs
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