(copied from my blog review which you can find here: http://fiveleveninety.blogspot.com/2020/02/race-review-running-with-all-colors-of.html)

Saturday morning my alarm went off at 3AM - it was finally time to get dressed and ready for the Enchanted 10K! Luckily we had all set out our flat runners the night before so it was easy to get changed and ready to go in a short amount of time. Plus, we had to lay our flat runners out so we could post them to social media, OBVIOUSLY. 😂 For the 10K I was going as Meeko (since the race was themed after one of my favorite Disney movies, Pocahontas) and my mom was going as Ariel.

It was a FREEZING morning (in the 40's! 😭) so I added a couple of layers to my costume before heading out the door. We stayed off-property so we did not have built in transportation to the race, but luckily we had my mom to get us to the race in her car! We were on the road by 3:45 and at Epcot by 4. We stayed in the car for a little bit to stay warm, but I was anxious to get out and check out the staging area. We weren't there to just sit in the parking lot, after all! So we all grabbed space blankets and headed over to the staging area to see what it was like.

We didn't have any gear to check so after doing a quick look around to get our bearings of the area, we tried our luck at getting a pre-race character photo. I had told Brett that I would try to get a photo with Mulan since she is his favorite princess, and lo and behold Mulan was out to take photos with! We hopped in her line, but 5AM rolled around before we were able to get anywhere near the front of the line and the staff brought all the characters in to encourage folks to start heading to the corrals. One thing to remember if you're running a runDisney race and are hoping to get a pre-race character photo, GET THERE EARLY! I believe the staging area opens around 3AM (depending on the race) and people have nothing but time on their hands to wait in line for the photos so lines are super long, so if you want a character photo make sure you're there right when it opens.

Even though we were bummed we didn't get a pre-race photo with a character, we made sure to take some full-costume photos before snuggling back up in our space blankets and heading to the corrals and waiting for the start!

All three of us were placed into different corrals, but we all wanted to try to run together so we went to the lowest corral as a group. We had a loooong wait to get to the start because we were fairly far back (we even had eyes on the infamous balloon ladies! 🎈😨) but we made the most of the wait and tried to stay as warm as possible because we knew that the race was going to be totally worth it. I believe we finally got underway around 6:30am or so and we were finally running the Enchanted 10K!

(Fun fact - this was my 50th lifetime race which was so exciting and such a special race to run for #50!)

We ran as a group of 3 for the first mile or so but around 1.25 I turned around and could not find Cassie. I sent her a quick text to check in and it turns out she had gotten stuck behind some walkers and couldn't push through. I tried a couple times to run back to see if I could spot her but the course was so crowded and I didn't want to also lose my mom so I just made sure Cassie was okay (she was fine, just stuck!) and opted to run with my mom. One thing about being in one of the last corrals is that you're going to have to navigate through a lot of walkers. People are generally really nice if you say "excuse me" and will let you pass them, so my mom and I were able to weave through folks for most of the race without problem, but you should go into this race knowing it's going to be PACKED from start to finish and adjust your mindset accordingly.

Mom and I kept the pace easy because we just wanted to take in the experience and we honestly loved every minute. There were so many characters out on the course (I would say one every .5 - .75 mile or so, with much more within the park), they were bumping Disney music the whole race (mainly Pocahontas), and they even had video screens playing clips of the movies the weekend was themed around.

While we didn't stop for any character photos (every line was 1 billion years long and we knew we were at the back of the pack and at risk of being swept by the scary balloon ladies) but I opted to snag some quick selfies before continuing on the course. This is a great alternative to waiting in line for an individual photo if you're worried about time, and the characters are usually really great at waving to the crowd running by between the photos they're taking. My favorite was, of course, Meeko!

The miles seemed to absolutely fly by and my mom and I had a fantastic time together singing along to all the Disney songs and taking in all the sights. We made sure to take plenty of photos to remember our experience. Mom teared up a bit when we got into Epcot around mile 4 because it brought back so many memories of the last time we were in the park - over 20 years ago when I was 8 years old! It really was such a fantastic experience running through the park with my mom since we were together the last time either of us were there. Going back there with her was so special and I'm glad we got to have those moments together.

Around mile 5.5 Cassie was able to catch up with us which was amazing because we got the chance to all finish the race together! We all danced down the finisher's chute and held hands as we all crossed the line together. We had such an amazing time at the race and I'm glad we all got to finish with each other! We all picked up our medals and (of course) snapped the all-important finish line pics!

The medals were absolutely gorgeous and so much bigger than I was anticipating! You can tell that runDisney really put a lot of thought into what their medals would look like and they are absolutely beautiful. It made me so excited to earn my half marathon and Fairy Tale Challenge medal the next day!