The Rosy Wanderer

We woke up at 2 am on Friday, February 25 for the 2022 runDisney Princess Weekend 5K this was my first Princess Weekend, but it was my mom’s first 5K. RunDisney 5Ks are fun runs with no timing chip. They want you to do it with a 16-minute pace, but no one will remove you from the course.

My mom was nervous about it because she isn’t big into this kind of activity. I thought she could do it if she had the right mindset, and she did. This is a lot of participants’ first 5K, and that is especially true at Princess weekend. In addition to new runners, the costumes at the 5K were so elaborate! I’m sure some people plan to walk the whole way in them, but I don’t understand how they even do that!

The Race

We walked the whole race, which many people did. I tried to push my mom along because even though I knew there wasnt a time limit, I wanted to make sure we finished. I’m jealous of the people who don’t find finishing stressful.

The start was exciting with fireworks to set us off. I think my mom was really excited and impressed with it. RunDisney does a good job, so it’s hard not to be.

The Course

This 5K is one of the best courses that you can do a 5K it is almost entirely through Epcot, so you get to see around the world and finish by going past Spaceship Earth with its cool lights.

Character Stops

The 5k is a shorter close, but it has a very high concentration of characters, which is awesome! The downside is the lines are so long. Even this time we didn’t stop because I can’t imagine waiting for 15-20 minutes for a picture. People say they move fast, but I just can’t do it. I do take pictures as I go past, which works for me!

The characters were a lot of Disney Princesses and their prince, which I liked.

The Finish

Watching my mom finish her first 5K was really exciting for me. I’m really glad she went out of her comfort zone to do this with me, and I think she was proud (and surprised) with herself. We crossed the finish line hand-in-hand. Photo Pass photographers got some good ones.

We got our medals, a banana, water, and out box of Disney snacks before making our way out to the photo booths. We did it! Now it was time for a very long walk to the bus so we could shower and spend the day back in Epcot to eat yummy food in Italy and France.

But this was only the beginning for me. I would have another early morning to start the Fairy Tale Challenge with the Enchanted 10K.