Get Ready - The 10th Annual Princess Half Marathon Weekend is Here!

10th Annual Princess Half Marathon Weekend – Featuring 53,000 Runners – Set for This Weekend at Walt Disney World Resort

The 10th annual Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend presented by Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals will take place this weekend at Walt Disney World Resort.

The race weekend, which has grown from 10,000 runners in 2009 to more than 53,800 expected participants this year, will include 226 “perfect” Princess runners (number of runners who will have participated in every Disney Princess Half Marathon).

The Disney Princess Half Marathon is the largest women-focused running event in the U.S., where the participants trade in ball gowns and glass slippers for running shoes.

More than 45 countries will be represented this weekend with 25,000 runners expected to participate in the half marathon, 13,500 in the 10K, 13,000 in the 5K and about 2,300 taking part in the kid’s races.

Two storylines that have emerged from this weekend’s races include:

Cara Koprowski (Longwood, Fla.), who is running the 2018 Disney Princess Half Marathon to fulfill her late friend Amy’s dream of running the race together.

Cara met Amy while working as an elementary school teacher following her family’s move to Washington state in 2007.

The pair became instant friends and Amy, a fellow teacher, was also an avid runner who inspired Cara to start running again following her recovery from back surgery. In March 2017, Amy passed away. This Sunday, Cara is running the Disney Princess Half Marathon, her first runDisney race and second long-distance run, in honor of her friend, Amy.

Carol Perry (Pewaukee, Wis.), along with friends and family, is running the Disney Princess Half Marathon to celebrate her sister Teresa’s recovery from stage III colon cancer. As a member of her local triathlon team, it came as a shock when Teresa was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016. After Teresa underwent chemotherapy and radiation, as well as colon resection surgery, her sister Carol made a plan for them to participate in the Disney Princess Half Marathon with a group of 12 “princesses,” made up of friends and family – many who have never attempted a half marathon – to celebrate Teresa’s courageous fight with the disease.

The runDisney Health & Fitness Expo begins Thursday at noon. All three races – the Disney Princess 5K, the Disney Princess 10K and the Disney Princess Half Marathon — all have 5:30 a.m. start times.

All races start and finish at Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort. The runDisney Health & Fitness Expo is located at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.

For a full schedule of the weekend’s events, see below:

runDisney Health & Fitness Expo Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend

Thursday, 12:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Friday, 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Princess 5K • Epcot
Friday, 5:30 a.m. start

Princess 10K • Epcot
Saturday, 5:30 a.m. start

Disney Princess Half Marathon • Epcot
Sunday, 5:30 a.m. start

Maria H. (ndm#130)

A Disney blooded, crafty, fun-lovin’ wife/mom/organizer/planner, etc who is obsessed with all things Disney 🙂 Maria grew up with the Magic Kingdom and has loved watching WDW evolve into what it is today. A firm believer in the Power of Pixie Dust, she is the owner of The Disney Driven Life – A Community for Neurotic Disney People & a d.i.y. crafty blog, Carousel of Projects – create~inspire~share.

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