Royal Family 5K 2011!

Today was my first 5K, and it was amazing.  I loved every second of it!!!  I'll be telling you this story through pictures because I took a million of them. 


My goals of my first race ever:
- Never stop running
- Finish with a smile
- Get as close to 30 minutes as possible


I consider this race successful!  I learned a lot about some do's and don't from my first race, but I'll save that for another post.

We all left the house at 5:30.  I kept felt like I was forgetting something...and I was.  My bib. 5:40 we turned around to grab it.  Good thing we left a lot of time.   The race was all set to start at 7 am, and my mom and I wore matching T-shirts that I had made for us.  The front said "My first 5K", the back said our last names and 3.1, and the sleeves each had 3.1 on them.  They were pretty snazzy. 

My dad and I, he came with Joe and my aunt to support us!

Me and the boyf pre-race.  He must love me a lot to wake up at 5 am. 

The Royal Family 5K was hosted by beauty and the beast this year!!  Love it!

The first mile and a half was around the parking lots of Epcot.  You bascially started and finished in the same lot where you parked, so the first part of the race got you to the complete opposite side of the park.  After we entered the park, the first path was around the countries.  I literally ran around the world.



Norway..



Italy..

The path around the countries was also next to this beautiful lake.  Can you spot the ball?

Germany

America

Japan

Aladin in bush form hanging out and cheering us on

It felt good after 2+ miles to finally spot the ball, It was a sign we were nearing the end.

We passed the ball and went around this area.  Those rocks have teeny tiny pictures of people who visited in the year 2000 on them. My families picture is there.  I waved to the 11 year old imprint of us. 

I spotted the finish line and started to full on sprint.

My mom crossed a few minutes later and she even had a smile on her face!!  She is not normally a runner so this race a challenge for her.

My first medal!

Unofficial time: 32:50 for 3.15 miles. 

I am very happy with my time.  I got into the corrals 15 minutes before the start and didn't realize that there were gates around the pacing markers.  I had to start a corral back than I wanted to and push ahead.  Plus I had to tie my shoe mid race.  I have very high hopes that I will soon break a 30 minute 5K.  You've gotta start somewhere and this time was a great starting point for me. 

Overall,  I loved the race.  Everything Disney does it does right.  I am going to run another race here next week!  I hope I don't get spoiled by the efficency of Disney when I start to go run other races.  I'm sure that they all can't be that nice. 

Did any readers run in Disney Princess Weekend this year?  If you are running tomorrow in the half marathon good luck!!!  Next year I will be running with you!!!