{"id":16441,"date":"2016-02-29T10:03:41","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T18:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/?p=16441"},"modified":"2024-01-20T17:08:48","modified_gmt":"2024-01-21T01:08:48","slug":"the-princessmen-return-to-disneyworlds-phm-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/the-princessmen-return-to-disneyworlds-phm-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"The #PrincessMen return to Disneyworld’s 2016 PHM Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s already been a year since our appearance as the #PrincessMen at the Disneyworld Princess Half Marathon weekend in Orlando. And while this year was much smaller than last year in terms of the size of our group, it was arguably a race we were looking forward to even more.<\/p>\n

(For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, check out my huge writeup from last year here: Princess Half 2015<\/a>\u00a0)<\/p>\n

Planning this year’s race was somewhat tricky in the sense that, well, Life happens. And what I mean by that is 50% of last year’s group wasn’t going to be attending. This was a huge disappointment for me because I knew how much the\u00a0other<\/em> runners were looking forward to our return. As I wrote last year,\u00a0a lot of ladies out on the course found extra energy to continue running\u00a0and paced with us for a portion of their race. And I knew they were looking forward to us coming back again.<\/p>\n

…we even made Buzzfeed this year<\/h3>\n

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So Buzzfeed reached out to me several days after the race. We were featured in the Top 10 list of Best Costumes from the race. We came in at Number 1! How awesome is that! Thanks for the support everyone! We’ll be back to full-strength in our numbers next year!<\/p>\n

…and on the topic of the smaller-group thing…<\/p>\n

Half the group<\/h3>\n

This year we would be missing Charming, Mulan, Anna, and Beast. For various reasons they couldn’t make the race work with their schedules. Whether it was due to travel during that timeframe. Scheduling and simply not having time to train. Or in the case of Charming, running elsewhere in the race and not with us this year.<\/p>\n

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So this was going to be the group.
\nSmaller, yes. But we were still going to have a great time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Another positive reception<\/h3>\n

First and foremost, Thank You to everyone who welcomed us again. We had another extremely positive reception by everyone when we arrived at the race.
\nThere were lots of people that quickly came up to take a photo with us – and it started with the car that parked next to us in the parking lot. We arrived, got out of the car, could see the wide-eyed shock on the girls faces next us, and they got out of their car and asked for a photo.<\/p>\n

As we made our way through the security check point we stopped and talked to other runners, taking photos and saying hello.<\/p>\n

There were several memorable ladies who came to talk to us either on the course, or afterward. These are just a couple we remember who stand out:
\n1. One girl we passed was just after Mile 2; she SO excited to see us. Said that it was her goal to find us on the course this year and she was ecstatic that she managed to so quickly. We chatted briefly, took a photo and then continued on. She said we made her day. That was an awesome way for us to start the race.
\n2. A woman who came up at the end of the race and said she was 60 last year (or maybe this year?) and recently started doing races. And she had seen us last year running was hoping to find us on the course to get a photo this time around
\n3. One of the security team thought we were hilarious and got a photo of us before the race, then found us after for a quick photo when things were pretty much empty and cleared out
\n4.\u00a0The runDisney rep\u00a0who said “Oh everyone (at runDisney) knows who you are! We track everything on social (media).”
\n5. When we stopped at the castle there were girls who knew us from last year who came to take a photo with us. One of the ladies who stopped even gave Joe\/Belle pins from her bib to pin his sign back onto his shirt!<\/p>\n

As we made our way toward the corrals it got dark and cold passing out onto the street on Epcot Center Drive<\/p>\n

Pocahontas\/Beau split off at this point and started in his early corral placement. He had a few fractured bones from being in a accident the week before, and was going to walk the entire thing slowly to still get his medal.
\nThe rest of us headed over\u00a0to M corral.<\/p>\n

…that applause though<\/strong><\/p>\n

So as we wandered down toward M, chatting among\u00a0ourselves, we could hear whispers from corrals N\/O\/P\/etc of “..oh my god..” and “…look… LOOK!” from other runners who realized we were actually dudes and not just very tall manly\u00a0looking women. ha! Seriously though, we’re all over 6’1″. We stand out.
\nA random girl yelled “Wooo!” and we quickly responded with a “Woo!” back. Then everyone started clapping and cheering.
\nIt was almost awkward. We had our own little parade.<\/p>\n

No.Clue.Whattodo<\/p>\n

We waved… and kept walking. And waving. It was the only thing we could think of other than laughing and questioning if this was really happening. hahaha!<\/p>\n

The Race<\/h3>\n

The race was great. We kept a better pace and made sure not to stop as often as we did last year. The “problem” with stopping was that a line quickly formed to take photos with other runners – and we don’t want to break Disney’s rules on this and get kicked out. So this year we kept a solid pace through most of the run, and waited after the finish line for nearly an hour taking photos and meeting other runners that day.<\/p>\n

(I’ll save more info in my captions with the photos below)<\/p>\n

The Response<\/h3>\n

It was another great response. And we came prepared this year with our own hashtag printed to add to our costumes to make finding photos of us online easier after the race through social media. (thank you to everyone who used the hashtag!)<\/p>\n

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There were immediately posts like this online. Haha! This is still race morning!<\/p>\n

But afterward, the response online from everyone was awesome.<\/p>\n

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You all rocked with sharing photos with us!<\/h3>\n

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awesome response to Kayla’s post above<\/p>\n

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And Frances’ post above<\/p>\n

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And I think that covers all the photos that were shared with us that I could find online between Instagram and Facebook…<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

So How About Our Photos<\/h2>\n

Arrival, Check in, and the 10k<\/h3>\n

For those who follow my photography work online, you know that I’m from California. So, the Princess Half is a small cross-country trip for me :)<\/p>\n

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Early morning flight from California to Florida<\/p>\n

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Friends and family were sending selfies of their morning… mine was cramped on an airplane with no leg room :\/<\/p>\n

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Connecting flights… Garmin billboard in the airport, while rocking my 920 cuz I was curious of my step count that day<\/p>\n

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Apparently Delta runs Linux<\/p>\n

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Arrived in Orlando, waiting for Joe to pick me up<\/p>\n

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Decided to do a quick shake out run with Joe. Honestly it’s good I did after sitting all day.<\/p>\n

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We kept it short and\u00a0easy. Joe’s been training for the Half Iron Relay we’re doing in April. The Princess Run was going to be just a for-fun event, and not one we would be running anywhere near a PR speed.
\nAll of us are pretty athletic, which helps us remain so high energy through the Princess Half that we jog at a slower pace.<\/p>\n

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That night we went and grabbed dinner with Aaron\/Ariel to catch up on life, talk about the weekend ahead, and also talk about the upcoming relay we’re doing in April. Those of you who will be in Haines city for the Half Ironman… Aaron is swimming, I’m cycling, and Joe is running. So we’ll see you there! (Probably WON’T be dressed as princesses though! LOL)<\/p>\n

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The next morning Beau\/Pocahontas arrived after received clearance from his doctor to travel. He had been in a motorcycle accident (non-fault) a week before and has a couple cracked bones. Fortunately nothing so bad that he couldn’t move\/travel, and he was able to make the trip. This was our response to our group-chat when someone asked if I thought Beau was going to make it to Florida that day.<\/p>\n

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Heading over to Check In<\/p>\n

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Ready for Challenge!<\/p>\n

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The expo\u00a0looks<\/em> pretty.. but to be honest, these things are dangerous for the less-experienced. Mark-up on products is very very high. And with the exception of the Disney-logo’d event-only merchandise you guys are much better buying anything you find here online for cheaper (read: normal) prices.<\/p>\n

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Star Wars medal for April’s event.
\nBeau and I ran the January Disneyland Star Wars race… So, we signed up for the April Star Wars in Florida to get this medal, the Kessel Run Coast to Coast medal.<\/p>\n

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Group dinner the night before.
\nNow… a LOT of people seem to think you need to “carb up” for a race… and that is just so terribly inaccurate for nearly everyone. We had pasta because it’s cheap and simple and there was a group of us<\/em>. Even when I did my Ironman races I ate only slightly more than normal the night before. Don’t<\/strong> overeat before a race everyone. ESPECIALLY a race that you’re not going to be running at some ridiculously fast pace. I would never “carb up” before a half marathon, and I can run one in about 1:40ish at a normal pace.<\/p>\n

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More t shirts from Disney. I have a box of all these now. I’m up to… 13 disney running shirts I think?<\/p>\n

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4am Saturday morning. Getting ready for the 10k with Joe!<\/p>\n

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Arriving at Epcot… so little traffic compared the Half<\/p>\n

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Very easy to walk in for the start. Very small crowd<\/p>\n

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It was cold though<\/p>\n

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Waiting at the start gate.
\nJoe and I were in a slower corral. I don’t know why we get put in the back all the time, but no matter what anyone\u00a0in our group submits for times, we always gets put in the back..<\/p>\n

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Let’s do this! We’re stiffening up from the cold<\/p>\n

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AND WE’RE OFF!
\nIt took about three minutes for us to get through and break away from the entire corral. And about another 2 to catch the corral in front of us<\/p>\n

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Entering Epcot<\/p>\n

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Italy! We sent this to our friend Ryan (Anna from last year’s race) who was currently in Italy with his wife at that exact moment – he even texted back<\/p>\n

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…action shots<\/p>\n

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As a professional photographer it’s frustrating how bad camera phones really are in low light<\/p>\n

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Sunrise at the Boardwalk<\/p>\n

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“John, get my good side… needa send it to the wife!” – Joe<\/p>\n

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Nearing the finish. Gotta get that golfball shot! (or, you know, Spaceship Earth)<\/p>\n

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Done! A respectable 59 minutes. Not terrible and on-par for an easy run before tomorrow’s Half.<\/p>\n

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The best part of races are the sunrises. I think that’s lost on a lot of runners and athletes.
\nSeriously though, the sunrise was one of my favorite parts of the last Ironman race I did.<\/p>\n

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People watching while eating our snack boxes<\/p>\n

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Heading out to meet up with everyone and go get food. We were laughing cuz it was only like 730 or 8a still<\/p>\n

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Another Disney medal for the pile. lol!<\/p>\n

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The new Tink medal is snazzy. I’m doing this run with my friend Eryn in May again<\/p>\n

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Much later that night… Pasta again! Cuz it’s cheap, duh.<\/p>\n

The Princess Half Marathon<\/h3>\n

Another REALLY early morning… even worse for me and Beau in town from the west coast<\/p>\n

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Joe, getting ready. His Belle costume is sectional and a little more work to put on.<\/p>\n

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Beau, getting dressed and ready to walk today.<\/p>\n

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I was already dressed<\/p>\n

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JasMAN!<\/p>\n

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Beau, laughing cuz he needed me to zip him up<\/p>\n

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He’s a bit busted up from his accident, but ready to slowly walk a half marathon that day<\/p>\n

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Joe made us stickers to wear for the day! Now people would know how to tag us in photos!<\/p>\n

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Ric, getting his Elsa dress on.<\/p>\n

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You know it’s love when your fianc\u00e9 helps you get your wig on right..<\/p>\n

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Aaron\/Ariel was getting dressed in the bathroom. He just finished his closing shift at his bar and came straight over to run. ALL NIGHTER!<\/p>\n

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He started laughing and said\u00a0“So I haven’t tried this on since last year.. and I have a bit of a Dad-bod going on since we had our son… ”
\nHis fanny pack didn’t fit! hahaha<\/p>\n

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Time to really crack down and start training for the Half Iron Relay in two months, homie..<\/p>\n

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Joe was having trouble\u00a0with his wig<\/p>\n

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Erin was patiently helping him out. You might remember Erin as The Beast in last year’s group<\/p>\n

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Wig time for Ariel.
\nWe were all laughing that NONE of us tried our costumes on since last year and just assumed everything was fine and would fit. Admittedly, we all were pretty much the same size and have been for years.<\/p>\n

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Beau and I were wigged up<\/p>\n

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Really though, our friends and family would expect nothing less than something this strange from us<\/p>\n

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Kimmy, helping crippled Pocahontas with his stickers<\/p>\n

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Course when she went to put the other sticker on his back, Beau laughed and put his butt out<\/p>\n

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In the bathroom Aaron needed help with his seashells<\/p>\n

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Probably the best photo from the morning.
\nTEAMWORK<\/p>\n

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Sometimes you’re a 6’3″ princess… and your Beast needs a boost to help with your hair<\/p>\n

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Almost ready to go
\nNotice the old bib from last year still in Aaron’s bag? hahaha! Beau’s Pocahontas costume had his bib from last year still attached, too.<\/p>\n

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Cleaning up a bit before heading out the door<\/p>\n

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The line of traffic to get into Epcot<\/p>\n

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Runners for the day, and Kimmy who is a friend of a friend that was there<\/p>\n

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Had to get one with Beast, even though she was cheering this race because she couldn’t run<\/p>\n

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Made it to M corral<\/p>\n

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The long wait to get to the start line<\/p>\n

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Just about to start<\/p>\n

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Sun’s coming up<\/p>\n

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This year’s Magic Kingdom entrance photo is much sharper than last year. haha!<\/p>\n

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Entering Main Street<\/p>\n