Pouty Pouty Princess

It is almost embarrassing how far my pursuit of shiny objects will take me. As promised in , I recently returned from Disney World where I completed my second Disney Princess Half Marathon.

The day before the race, I met my co-princess, Pam, for the Fitness Expo, a pleasant euphemism belying the actual experience of seeing thousands of women shopping for princess merchandise and picking up race bibs. We were happy to make it out without being suffocated by glitter and estrogen.

Race morning, after a fitful, restless "night of sleep," I grudgingly dragged myself out of bed at 2:30 a.m. I was hopped up on Disney fumes and excitement, and couldn't sleep the night before, so the 2:30 alarm was a harsh wake-up call. I've heard the most important thing is to get a good night's sleep two nights before your race, which thankfully I had. Still, in my photo with Snow White at our post-race lunch, my under-eye circles are so dark it looks like I have a black eye.

I grabbed my race-day breakfast, suited up with my saucy pink race bib and my iPod, and headed to the hotel lobby, where my other co-princess (and sister), Jill, and I waited for the bus to arrive.

Disney races are very well organized. Participants don't have much to worry about besides following the crowd of runners. If you're staying at a participating Disney hotel, you just need to be in their lobby around 3:30 a.m. and Disney provides many buses to take all princesses to the race, which begins and ends at Epcot. Once you arrive, you have to walk about a mile to your start corral, which, annoyingly, doesn't count toward your 13.1. (Rude, right? Disney: Work on that.)

Based on the estimated finish time you provided during race registration, Disney groups you into corrals for staggered start times. So don't panic—it's not just 17,000 people running at once. The wheelchair racers started at 5:43 a.m. The really fast people, Corral A, started at 5:45. Corral B started at 5:53, and so on, every 8 minutes until the final corral, F, started. I was in Corral E—the "I can do this in three hours!" group. As it turns out, that was an overestimate on my part.

I'll admit, I hadn't trained enough to run the whole thing. (I know.) But I did take another runner's advice and tried alternating—walked mile 1, jogged mile 2, walked mile 3, etc. That went pretty well until about mile 9, when I just lost it. I walked 9 through 12, and picked up jogging again for the last 1.1 miles.

My official time was 3:37:40, which is, mortifyingly, about two minutes longer than it took me last year, when I walked 12 out of the 13.1 miles. But no matter; I finished.

A note on the timing: Yes, Disney suggests that princesses keep a 16-minute-mile pace. As you can see, I didn't quite make it, but I never saw whatever Slow-Runner Retrieval System they had to pick up stragglers. The last woman who finished the race did so in 4:12:50. The last man finished in 4:09:46. (Yes, there were men, about 700 of them. As one's shirt said, "Real men aren't afraid to run like a princess.") It's Disney; they want you to leave happy. But they don't want you lollygagging around on the race course waiting an hour to have your photo taken with the hot firemen. So don't be intimidated by the 3:30:00. It's just to keep out the riffraff. Think of it as "3:30:00-ish."

A bit of very helpful advice my friend Leigh gave me: You'll want to sleep after the race. Don't. Force yourself to stretch and walk around as much as you can. Your muscles will thank you. I walked all over Epcot after the race (after a long shower and change of clothes). I was a little stiff the next day, but not nearly as bad as I was last year after my post-race nap.

Aside from alleviating soreness, it's amazing what five straight days of cardio will do for one's physique. My body looked visibly different when I got home—stronger, leaner. Disney should really start touting the weight-loss benefits of their "vacations." Disney is not a vacation, folks. You're doing a half-marathon every day, especially if you're chasing kids around. You're just taking more time and more breaks while you stand in line for rides or food. So when registration opens for the 2012 Princess Half (around July), you'd better be first in line!

Here's what I love most about the Princess Half: It's such a supportive and positive environment, especially for your first big race. Women of all shapes, ages and locations come to run it; men join in; total strangers are cheering from the sidelines; characters are on the course for photos. They do a great job. Plus, the water stations are perfectly spaced throughout the race. Just when you think, "Man, I could use a drink," there are the lovely volunteers handing out water or PowerAde. Later, they also hook you up with energy gels and Biofreeze. When you're done the race, if you wear your medal around the parks, strangers, park staff and princesses alike will congratulate you on a job well done.

If tiaras aren't your thing, check out Run Disney. I've had countless people tell me they didn't know Disney did marathons. They do tons of them. So choose your race and embrace the Mouse. Or, just keep your eye on West Deptford Patch for more of our fine upcoming—and cheaper—local races.

Next time, read all about the Phillies 5K, and as always, if you have anything you'd like to see here, please e-mail Editor Bryan Littel at bryan.littel@patch.com.