This was my 2nd time running this race (and my bffs first) and this year was SUPER excited when RunDisney announced that everything was Beauty and the Beast themed as I had already chosen Belle as my costume! This time I stayed off-site and got to experience travel to and from property for all the events.

Expo - parking at the ESPN sports complex is free and the bib pickup and expo is very easy to navigate. They even had beer/champagne/cupcakes for purchase (but holy cow, $13 for a BudLight?!?! no thank you!). I like wandering around at expos but don't usually buy much. This year I did buy a Handful sports bra and a tube of Nuun electrolyte replacement. I like that they had a ton of different shoe brands to try on too.

Race day - we stayed approximately 7-8 miles north of WDW and left right at 4am for the race. I've heard traffic can be a nightmare but either we arrived just in time or it was nonexistent this year. Parking before 7am is free too on race day. We had PLENTY of time to make it back to our corral. There were tons of portapotties at the start/finish area that included access for non-race participants, and even more after you got back to runners only areas. There are tons of volunteers directing runners to their assigned corrals and they actually checked my bib to ensure I was in the right one (which I don't see a lot of races doing). There were fireworks at the start of every other corral. It was very well organized.

One thing I wish all races would do is have a giant speaker repeating when the course narrows ahead. That was awesome!

This race was so much fun, taking pictures with the characters and running through the magic kingdom and epcot. One thing I noticed was as soon as I crossed over one of the time mats starting to the chute to the finish line, the announcer called my name out overhead that I was coming in. I don't remember this from last year so I'm not sure if it was something new they were doing. I had a spectator hoping to get pictures of me crossing, and he stated it made it SO much easier to know when I was coming in. Also, how cool and personal it felt to hear my name right then! Disney gives you bags right away to put your finisher goodies in which makes it much easier to carry.

From a spectators point of view, he said it was so easy and fun to follow us around the magic kingdom taking pictures wherever spectator points were. And, albeit expensive to purchase, but I actually have some decent official race photos from this race. RunDisney races do NOT give you a lot of swag for your dollar, so if that's a thing then don't do em. You do these for the experience and I already can't wait to do it again.