I left my phone on the monorail hours before my Princess Half Marathon start — and it very nearly ruined my race morning. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s back up a little bit.
After crossing the 10K finish line Saturday morning — medals collected, princesses photographed, shower taken — I did what any sensible person who has to be up at 1:30am the next morning would do: I took a nap.
Saturday is always a struggle for me during race weekends. I normally love spending a lot of time in the parks, but I also have a tendency to walk a LOT when I visit — and I really wanted to save my legs for Sunday’s half marathon. But I couldn’t be at Walt Disney World and NOT go to a theme park. So I decided to take the monorail to EPCOT for a few hours, promising myself I would take things easily and NOT go all over the place.
In 2025, EPCOT had an EXTRA advantage. The Festival of the Arts, which is normally over BEFORE the Princess Half Marathon weekend, was actually ending a couple of days AFTER the races. I hadn’t been able to enjoy the Festival of the Arts in years, and I was really excited. If you follow my blog, you likely already know that I LOVE the EPCOT Festivals. Flower and Garden is my favorite and I enjoy Food and Wine a lot as well. But as a theatre kid, the Festival of the Arts holds a very special place in my heart!
The Festival of the Arts usually wraps up before Princess Half Marathon weekend — 2025 was my lucky year.
So I headed to EPCOT, proudly wearing my 10K medal. I spent about 4 hours people watching and checking out various art installations around EPCOT. I took lots of pictures and checked out lots of merchandise. I didn’t wait in any long lines for attractions — if the line was too long, I could come back Sunday or Monday. I just did NOT want to wear out my legs.
Gorgeous!EPCOT Festival of the Arts 2025 Chalk Artists at Work
I planned to make it an early night since I knew I needed to be out of bed by 1:30 am Sunday morning. I’d love to say I was asleep as planned by 7:30 pm. But honestly, I struggled to fall asleep. I am normally a bit of a night owl, so going to sleep that early — even though I’d gotten up so early on Saturday — it just wasn’t going to happen. But I was back in my room and I’ll say, “resting,” by around 8 pm. I didn’t actually sleep until pretty late, so when my alarm went off, I might have said some choice words. But that’s all part of the runDisney magic.
The Longest 30 Minutes: I Left My Phone on the Monorail
I was up and ready to go right on time. (It’s funny — I really struggle to get up and get moving on any day in my “regular” life, but at Disney? It doesn’t matter how early, I’m always able to get up and get going! I wonder why.) I was through security and ready when the first monorail arrived around 2:40 am. I was so excited. I had planned to arrive even earlier on Sunday than Saturday because I wanted to be even closer to the front of my corral.
I loved not having to take the bus this morning — no stopping at two other resorts to pick up racers. I just boarded the monorail at my resort, changed to the EPCOT monorail at the Ticket and Transportation Center, and was on my way. I got off at EPCOT and headed down the ramps, making my way toward the starting corrals. I was feeling so JAZZED and ready to go. And Spaceship Earth was all lit up and glowy and I thought, I want to take a picture of that —
WHAM.
I realized I’d left my phone on the monorail.
I had it in my hand to take a photo on the monorail and I think I must have set it down for a moment to peel my banana and just forgot to pick it back up. One of those colossal STUPID moments. My stomach dropped and I very nearly panicked.
There was no way I could do the race without my phone. I mean, of course I could have done the race without my phone. However — I’d had my phone on every training walk. I walk with music. I wanted to take pictures on the course. I wanted to be able to scroll on my phone in the 2.5 hours before the race started. SO MUCH ANXIETY.
The photo I wanted to take when I realized I didn’t have my phone….PANIC!
One of the AMAZING Disney monorail cast members that came to my rescue!
Fortunately, the Disney cast members working the monorail station that morning were so AWESOME. They immediately called the Ticket and Transportation Center so the cast members there could check “my” monorail (red) as soon as it came back to the station. I was able to tell them approximately where I’d been sitting and they found my phone VERY quickly. They then gave it to the monorail pilot of the next monorail headed back to EPCOT. The whole thing only took about 30 minutes — but it was a VERY LONG 30 minutes. I sat down on a bench, ate my breakfast, and tried to stay calm and think about the upcoming race.
The longest 30 minutes of my Disney racing life, spent right here on the EPCOT monorail platform!
When my phone was finally back in my hand, I could breathe again.
And can we take a moment to talk about Disney cast members? The ones who get up so incredibly early to work on these race weekends? There are hundreds of cast members who sacrifice their sleep to make sure all the logistics of moving roughly 20,000 people around Walt Disney World between 2 am and 10 am go off without a hitch. It’s amazing, it really is. Those monorail cast members that morning were so incredibly kind to me, and I will not forget that.
Monorail RED Pilot that brought my phone back to me…She saved my life that morning. Or at least my race.
Next up: The half marathon — Magic Kingdom, Cinderella Castle, the choir, and the finish line. Coming soon!
Are you ready to plan your next Magical vacation? I’d love to help! email Brooke@disneycastledreaming.com for a free, no obligation quote today!
This is my Disney Princess 10K recap from the 2025 Princess Half Marathon Weekend — and spoiler: I cried at the finish line.
After 2024’s Princess Half Marathon, I couldn’t WAIT to get registered for 2025’s race weekend. Of course, registration didn’t open until June 2024, so I had a few months to worry about it, but I got really lucky on registration day. I was able to register about 30 minutes after registration opened. I really wanted to sign up for the Fairy Tale Challenge — walking in the 10K on Saturday and the half marathon on Sunday. Fortunately, the challenge was still available when I got to register. Honestly, just getting registered for the challenge was a big win for me!
(For a deep dive into how runDisney registration works — and why it can be more stressful than the race itself — check out runDisney Registration 101.)
Going Solo
I decided that I would go solo to Disney for the Princess Half Marathon Weekend in 2025. As great as it had been to have my mom with me for my first Princess adventure, logistically, it kind of screwed with our typical mom/daughter Disney vacation experience. We usually go in May for the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival and to celebrate Mother’s Day and her birthday.
Moving our trip up to February meant that she had to fly to Orlando from Phoenix instead of flying with me from Chicago, and she couldn’t fly direct. And the first three days of our trip really revolved around my race. While this was a really great experience for me, and I know she enjoyed being there for me, it wasn’t as good a “vacation” for her. So I decided that in 2025, we’d go back to our regular May trip for the two of us, and I would go down for Princess on my own.
This was my first ever solo Disney vacation, and I was originally really nervous about it — but honestly, especially for a race weekend, I think solo was a great way to go for me personally. I’m not inconveniencing anyone else, and if I end up too tired to do much park hopping? That’s ok.
I’m an annual passholder, which also takes some pressure off. If I want to go to the park for an hour or two and then go back to my resort and rest, I don’t feel as much pressure to “maximize” my park days. Knowing I’d be back in May for a week with my mom helped take the “I have to ride everything this trip” pressure off as well.
My first race was on Saturday, so I planned to fly down on Friday, attend the Expo, and make it an early night. I knew I wouldn’t want to spend much time in the parks until after Sunday’s half marathon, so that seemed like a solid plan. Note: The race expo usually opens on Thursday for the Princess Half Marathon weekend, with the 5K on Friday morning. A lot of runDisney merchandise sells out on the first day of the expo, but as much as I LOVE to shop, I don’t really worry too much about that. Arriving on Thursday wasn’t important to me.
The Corral Surprise
The most exciting thing about Friday was that when I picked up my race bib, I learned I was in Corral E — which was NOT the last corral that year. In 2025, there were 6 corrals, so Corral F was the last corral. This meant I was starting one corral ahead of the balloon ladies.
I’m not sure how or why this happened, but it was honestly such a wonderful surprise! This meant I would have a cushion in both races and immediately took a LOT of the pressure off. My training had gone pretty well. I hadn’t gotten as fast as I would have liked, but I knew I could maintain the required 16 minutes per mile for the entirety of both races, assuming nothing went wrong. Starting one corral earlier lifted a lot of worry.
Brooke, her bib and the fabulous Princess Daisy Photo: Disney PhotoPass
Note: for Wine & Dine 2025 and Princess 2026, I was in the last corral for all my races, and while I made sure I was close to the front of the corral each time, I have an even BIGGER appreciation now for the miracle that this 2025 corral placement was.
I was SO happy to be in Corral E! It may never happen again, but it was a BEAUTIFUL thing.
My room for 2025 Princess Half Marathon Weekend at Disney’s Bay Lake Tower
In 2025, I stayed at Bay Lake Tower, the DVC resort next to Disney’s Contemporary Resort. It’s a monorail resort, so you can take the monorail to EPCOT — for the half marathon. For the 10K, the monorail did not run early enough. I didn’t actually realize that until a few days before the race. runDisney contracts dozens of buses to take racers from the various Disney resorts to EPCOT for race days, but as someone who usually rents a car or uses the monorail, I wasn’t super experienced with the bus situation.
Race Morning
It’s a pretty well oiled machine, honestly. The first buses departed at around 2:45 am. At the Contemporary, the buses pick up behind the convention center — a pretty long walk. Our bus started at the Contemporary and then stopped at Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness to pick up MORE racers before heading to EPCOT.
Once you arrive, you almost immediately enter a fairly long security line, but it moves quickly. One of my favorite things about race mornings is the energy in the air. There’s just so much excitement. It doesn’t matter that it’s 3am and you didn’t get enough sleep, it doesn’t matter that it will be hours before you cross the start line — there’s just this dynamic energy in the air.
Heading towards the corrals
The Disney Princess 10K Race Recap— Saturday, February 22, 2025
I approached both race mornings a little differently in 2025 than I did in 2024. I got up earlier and headed to EPCOT earlier both mornings. I saw the long line at the “last” EPCOT bathrooms before heading to the start line and skipped it, heading to the porta potties instead.
I hate porta potties, but super short lines won. There is usually a lot going on in the staging area before you head to the starting corrals — food trucks, character photo opportunities, medic tents, bag check. I skipped all of this as I wanted to get to my corral and get as far forward as possible. I’m a big believer in putting as many people and as much cushion as possible between myself and the balloon ladies!
In 2025, both Corral E and F were very large. In fact, both E and F had two corral spaces allocated to them. As the first E corral filled up, they started putting people into the second E corral. I was in my corral by about 3:15 am, fairly far forward — which was my plan.
I had brought a throwaway blanket to sit on, so I sat down and had my breakfast. I usually have a protein shake and a banana before a race, sometimes peanut butter on toast as well. I carry my own water too. runDisney has water stations every mile or so, but on a hot day I usually need more. I may skip bringing my own water for the 10K in the future. The race is over well before the day heats up and I really didn’t need it.
I thought I’d go for an early morning walk with about 15,000 of my friends ! Almost time to go….
On the Course
The 10K course is one of my favorite courses. There’s not very much highway. You head out to the highway right after you start, but it isn’t long before you’re back inside EPCOT. Then you go out through the International Gateway to the Boardwalk area, and eventually come back through EPCOT before heading to the finish line.
Early character photo op with Princess Tiana for those faster runners and walkers….
I really like the 10K distance — long enough to be challenging but not long enough to really wear you out. I always feel like I’ve done something after a 10K, but I’m still raring to go. Even as a walker, my race is over before 8am! For me, the first 5K is in the dark and the second 5K is in the early morning light. I love EPCOT all lit up at night, but I also love the way the Boardwalk looks in the early morning light. This is just a fun course.
Photo: runDisney
Generally, the PhotoPass course photographers are staged inside the parks and on the Boardwalk — which means the 10K has more “photo op” miles than the half marathon, since you visit EPCOT twice and get the bonus of the Boardwalk. I love water, so walking around both the World Showcase Lagoon and Crescent Lake is a real highlight for me.
For those of you that are faster, all of my pace worries may seem silly. I’ve never had to question whether I could go the distance — I’ve always trained to 14 or 15 miles when training for a half marathon. But maintaining that 16 minutes per mile pace for 6, 10 or 13 miles? That is really challenging for me. One bathroom stop can easily cost you 4-6 minutes. Allow yourself to get distracted by a character stop or some race course drama and you can easily lose a minute here, another minute there. It doesn’t take much to fall a little behind your pace.
I did lose about 4 minutes on an EPCOT bathroom break in mile 2, but I made up the time fairly quickly. And since I had a cushion from starting one corral ahead of the balloon ladies, I wasn’t stressed AT ALL. The beauty of the 10K distance is that my legs felt pretty fresh the whole race. I never got tired or felt like I had to push. The whole race felt comfortable.
I was texting my mom at each mile marker to check in. (My poor mom — she was three hours behind me in Arizona, so she was getting texts starting at like 3am her time!! She was a trooper though, awake and sending me encouraging messages the whole time.)
EPCOT at Dawn
Sunrise in Japan
I took my picture with the mile marker near the end of the race, and I think it was in that moment I realized the race was almost over. I was definitely going to cross the finish line. Even though I thought I wasn’t worried at all the whole 10K, maybe somewhere deep down I was still hanging on to that 2024 “didn’t quite make it to the finish line” thing. Because when I saw the finish line and realized I was going to cross it, I got really emotional. I couldn’t help it. I cried tears of celebration and pride.
Prior to this race, I hadn’t really much considered the 10K. I was much more focused on the half marathon distance. But I really enjoyed this race. I was more relaxed and enjoying myself. I’m not sure how different the race would have felt if I’d been in the last corral. Based on my pace, I still would have finished ahead of the balloon ladies. However, I had a 10-12 minute cushion that I would not have had. I REALLY enjoyed that cushion. It gave me a lot of peace of mind.
The Finish Line
That finish line moment though. I can’t even tell you how that felt. A whole year had passed since my 2024 Princess Half, but that moment of being swept at mile 12.5 — after I’d worked so hard — that moment is STILL with me, even today. So crossing that finish line that beautiful Saturday morning felt like SO MUCH VICTORY. I was so proud, and it actually gave me some extra confidence going into the next day’s half marathon. Finishing that race, having everything go according to plan and feeling so good at the end? It was AMAZING.
Crossing that Finish Line was AMAZING!
After the 10K and a few pictures with some of my favorite princesses, I headed back to my resort. I took a shower and napped for a couple of hours.
Next up: Princess Half Marathon: The Night Before and Race Day. The phone incident, the Festival of the Arts, and the longest 30 minutes of my Disney racing life. Coming soon!
Ready to Plan Your Next Disney Vacation? I’m ready to help! Email brooke@disneycastledreaming.com
