The Fairest Trip Report Of All: The 2020 WDW Half Marathon

And now for my favorite kind of post – the trip report! I’ll be covering my 2020 Marathon trip. You can read all the posts in this report here. Onward!

Another alarm successfully not slept through! I would celebrate without restraint, were I not too busy knocking on wood.

Yes, Erika and I woke to our 2:30am alarm on Saturday morning, determined as I am to not just be on time for the bus but among the most on-time-est. We dressed and wandered out into the night, climbing onto a bus without difficulty.

We took up the long march to the start, where I discovered my new favorite Cast Member of all time among the many guiding our way. His opening volley was “GO BACK TO BED!” which, I mean, can’t really argue with that, followed by “the water stop at mile 9 has been replaced with margaritas.” Can’t really argue with that either.

Anyway, our morale suitably bolstered with the lie of mile 9 margaritas that would never come, we took up our time-killing positions in the staging area until they let us take the long walk down to the corrals. I peed twice before the race start but still had to go during the race so it hardly did any good.

Oh, also, I had dropped back to corral F to run the half with Erika, and I saw someone with an H bib in our corral. I’m no narc, but BAD SHOW, SIR. Perhaps he’s practicing to join Club runDisney? ;D

The race went off at the appointed time, and Erika and I went with it – but slowly. As Goofy Challengers, I knew we had a lot of mileage ahead of us. Not to mention it was forecasted to be in 80s that day with high humidity, none of which is friendly to runners. A couple of times Erika would start to take off a bit, and I’d be like, hey, Speedypants, where are you off to? And then she would drop back and we’d continue our long slog.

And so we plodded through the first few miles of course. To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of the WDW Half/Princess Half course. Sure, running through the castle is nice and all, but once you’ve done that there’s sooooo much boring road between you and Epcot. I know a lot of people really dig that castle run, though.

Anyway. Erika didn’t want to stop for too many characters, preferring to save them for the marathon, but when I saw the toy soldiers and reindeer I had to call for a stop. This cost us the largest chunk of time that I myself experienced in either race but no regrets. Adorable and unique!

Have I mentioned Erika and I met in ballet class?

From there our next landmark was the castle; I was a bit bummed to note that with the combined forces of our later corral and slow pace we would not be approaching it at night. The lights were scarcely even noticeably on. Erika once again deferred a photo to the next day, and I didn’t argue.

One enjoyable distraction was the number of people complimenting me on my surprise Epcot leggings. One guy dressed as Sully even pulled up next to me and ran apace for a bit so he could grill me on where to get a pair for his daughter. However, I am VERY disappointed to report that not a single spectator thanked the Phoenicians. :/ What, you guys already thinking about the refurb? Hasn’t Dame Judi Dench suffered enough???

Most of the character stops we had seen had frickin’ huge lines, but a couple miles later we spotted Lilo with scarcely a wait at all, so we hopped on in.

Ah, yes, roads, roads, and more roads. I have no further tales of interest to regale you with before we hit Epcot and, weirdly, some of World Showcase? The course was clearly flexing to accommodate all the construction walls in the park. No matter; I called for a photo stop because PANCHITO PISTOLES!!!

Now I just need a photo with Joe Carioca and I’ll have the complete Three Caballeros set!

And then we ran backstage and out of the park. Finish line, boom, done!

Sorry; I know that was one of my more boring runDisney recaps. Honestly, it was so hot and muggy and we were taking it so easy so as to not prematurely exhaust ourselves before the marathon – and in that way, the race was a great success! It was not a PR in fun, but we made it happen. Don’t worry, the marathon recap will be way more stimulating.

But before that, we’ve got a day in Epcot to recap! See ya there!

Don’t forget, you can follow FRoA on Twitter @fairestrunofall and on Instagram @fairestrunofall. If you have any questions or thoughts, leave a comment or email fairestrunofall@gmail.com. See ya real soon!