2014 Enchanted 10k: Race Recap

The first race for the Glass Slipper Challenge was the Enchanted 10k on Saturday morning. As with all Disney races it started extremely early (5:30 am) and as with all races you are supposed to be their no later than 4:30 am.  Our hotel was not a Disney resort so there was no transportation to the 10k and we had to drive. We planned on leaving around 3:30 am in hopes of missing most of the traffic and wanting to be early enough to walk to the start line.  It only took us 5 minutes to drive and park for the 10k.  As we were walking towards the finish area we were beyond stoked to see that we didn’t have to do the 20 minute walk to the start corrals like you do have to for the Princess half marathon and the start line was right there!

The only catch of course now was that we had nearly 2 hours to kill before the start of the race.  There were some food trucks set up along with a DJ who was playing different songs and teaching everyone how to do the dances. We decided we had time to kill so we had fun and did some of the dances with the DJ. It was a fun way to kill time and even get the muscles moving. As we were dancing I think I saw Emily from another running blog but in my half awake state I didn’t realize it until she had disappeared in the crowds. 😦

We finally decided to head to the corrals and grab a seat in our corral.  We were in C which was right in the middle.  As we were sitting we both looked at our numbers and wondered why it was yellow and that so many other people had different colors.  And as we did in 2012 we were a little slow to realize that the yellow was for Belle our favorite princess. 😛 The race started right at 5:30 with corral A heading off and then it was all about waiting and waiting some more. Each corral was being sent off in 10 minute intervals.  When we took off I was able to grab a picture when the fireworks went off which somehow was only 2 and the other corrals had a lot more.

The first start of the race was through the parking lot but there were soo many people that we decided to run the first 5 to 6 minutes because it was practically a fast walk.  Then we were off running through the back roads of Disney for the next 4 miles.  It’s pretty boring running those roads as there isn’t really anything to look at.  Then finally we came into Epcot.

Now, I’ve never run through this part of Epcot and was looking forward to this as it was going to be something new to see when running.  I had fun stopping to take lots of photos in the park.

Then we decided to stop and take a picture of the Epcot ball. It was sort of far away.

We tried to get a picture of the two of us in front of it but our heads blocked the ball. 🙂 Oh well.

Shortly after we left this area we saw a better spot to take a picture of the ball, but we didn’t feel like stopping again.

Then we were out of the park and onto the Boardwalk. It was a little weird running on the wooden boards and also very crowded in this portion as well.

After the boardwalk it was onto running around the ball and finishing up the last part that is the same as both the Princess half and WDW half with the finish line being in the same spot as usual.  Once we were done we got our medals and then a wrist band to show we finished the 10k for the Glass Slipper Challenge.

Here’s the goods on the race.

• Location: Walt Disney World, Florida
• Distance: 6.39 per Garmin (10k)
• Running Surfaces: concrete roads, wooden boards in boardwalk
• Weather: ~ 70s at start and a ton of humidity
• Course: back roads, Epcot and Boardwalk

• Elevation: It didn’t feel this up and down so not sure if this is right.

• Run/Walk: 1:00/1:00
• Time: 1:22:21 (~12:54 pace)
• Splits: (negative split)

And the medal! 😀

Did anyone else run the Enchanted 10k? If so, what did you think of it?