I may be a little bias since I've always been a big Disney fan, but Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend is hands down my favorite race weekend every year! This was my 4th year doing the full marathon and my third year doing the half marathon as part of the Goofy or Dopey Challenge.

The half marathon course goes through 2 of the 4 parks at Walt Disney World - the Magic Kingdom and Epcot - and along the way there are plenty of Disney characters and other entertainment to stop and take pictures with. I personally never run Disney races for time and always try to take advantage of character photos along the way!

The runDisney events are always very well organized, there is bus transportation from all of the on-property Disney resorts to the start area beginning at 3am, runners need to be on a bus by 3:30am to get in their corrals for the 5:30am start (the early start is so the majority of the race is complete by the time the parks open!).

There are plenty of aid stations with water and Powerade along the course (this year there was blue Powerade for the half and yellow for the full), and the medical tents are always well staffed. One of the best things about the runDisney events are the enthusiastic volunteers - while there may not be a lot of spectators along the way, you'll get plenty of high fives from volunteers (many wearing Mickey hands!).

This isn't a hilly course, and since it's a relaxed environment with many people stopping for pictures along the way it makes a great first half marathon (it was my husband's first this year!). My one complaint is that the course does narrow in a few spots and it tends to create a bottleneck, it's never bothered me that much since I'm not usually running for time, but I can see it being frustrating if you're trying to PR!

For more pictures feel free to see my race review on my blog: http://liverungrow.com/2015/01/15/2015-walt-disney-world-half-marathon/