2018 Princess Half Marathon

Question about half marathon start/end time:

This will be my first half marathon and first runDisney race. I am going to try to complete a 10K before the November deadline. But, I really just started training for a 10K and have not been consistently running for the past 4-5 months. So, I am planning to be in one of the last (if not the last) corrals. What time (or how long after Corral A) does the last corral start at the Princess Half? Really, what time do the infamous "balloon ladies" start the race? I am not only trying to determine how long I really have to complete the race, but also what time I can realistically plan for my family to come see me finish (hopefully) and what time we can plan to start our park day.
 
Question about half marathon start/end time:

This will be my first half marathon and first runDisney race. I am going to try to complete a 10K before the November deadline. But, I really just started training for a 10K and have not been consistently running for the past 4-5 months. So, I am planning to be in one of the last (if not the last) corrals. What time (or how long after Corral A) does the last corral start at the Princess Half? Really, what time do the infamous "balloon ladies" start the race? I am not only trying to determine how long I really have to complete the race, but also what time I can realistically plan for my family to come see me finish (hopefully) and what time we can plan to start our park day.

For basic planning purposes, you can assume the last corral and the balloon ladies start at 630. At a 16 min/mile pace, they should finish at 10am.
 


Thank you. I assumed it was about that time, but saw some people mentioning a "wave" form of starting so I didn't know if that meant that the balloon ladies would start closer to 6:00. How much time do you spend doing "race stuff" getting medals, taking pictures, etc, after you finish the race?
 
Thank you. I assumed it was about that time, but saw some people mentioning a "wave" form of starting so I didn't know if that meant that the balloon ladies would start closer to 6:00. How much time do you spend doing "race stuff" getting medals, taking pictures, etc, after you finish the race?
In my experience with the wave starts (as in, one corral is released in a series of waves a minute or so apart), it still takes roughly an hour after the first release to get through the back of the last corral. And that's where the sweep clock (and Balloon Ladies) start: in the very back of the last corral.

Post-race activities can take as long as you care to spend! I prefer to head out right after, and I'd say it takes maybe 5-10 minutes to get medals, snacks, water, finish photos. If you choose to grab a beer, and/or wait in lines for character pics, you could easily tack on another hour or more. They do close the character pic lines, though, so there's not an indefinite amount of time to get that done.
 
In my experience with the wave starts (as in, one corral is released in a series of waves a minute or so apart), it still takes roughly an hour after the first release to get through the back of the last corral. And that's where the sweep clock (and Balloon Ladies) start: in the very back of the last corral.

Post-race activities can take as long as you care to spend! I prefer to head out right after, and I'd say it takes maybe 5-10 minutes to get medals, snacks, water, finish photos. If you choose to grab a beer, and/or wait in lines for character pics, you could easily tack on another hour or more. They do close the character pic lines, though, so there's not an indefinite amount of time to get that done.


Thanks for explaining the wave start. I'm sorry it is so obvious that I am such a newbie to running.

I am glad to hear that the time at the post-race activities is pretty self directed. I am pretty sure that I will also try to leave pretty quickly - unless there are some amazing characters.
 


The one time I did retreat I only used the tent beforehand to drop my bag off.

But I got it for the real food afterwards and the chairs to sit on. It was worth it for that reason.

You'd be surprised how much you would pay for a roof over your head, a chair to sit in, and food you didn't have to bring in with you.

So here's my 2 cents on the theme. I think it will be a classic princess since it is a race anniversary year. Coincidently, it's the 80th anniversary of snow white on Feb. 4th, so that's my vote...Snow white.

It's a good theory! Some people were 100% certain that 2017 was going to be Snow White.
 
You'd be surprised how much you would pay for a roof over your head, a chair to sit in, and food you didn't have to bring in with you.

Yep.

And making it more worth it that time was that my aunt was watching my son and she was vehemently against my running habit. I was newer to running and it was my first half and I felt strongly that I needed to seem human by the time I got back to the room. Eating (even questionable powdered) eggs and chocolate muffins and having coffee shortly after the half helped me achieve that. :)
 
Yep.

And making it more worth it that time was that my aunt was watching my son and she was vehemently against my running habit. I was newer to running and it was my first half and I felt strongly that I needed to seem human by the time I got back to the room. Eating (even questionable powdered) eggs and chocolate muffins and having coffee shortly after the half helped me achieve that. :)

They're definitely not real eggs, but they're not bad!
 
I'm sorry it is so obvious that I am such a newbie to running.

We all were new once! I wrote up a trip report about my first half marathon, which happened to be the 2010 Princess. Things have changed a little bit, but the link is in my signature if you want to read about it. I had a friend who had done the 2009 Princess and was able to (pun alert!) walk me through it, so I wanted to pay it forward in a small way and share information.
 
We all were new once! I wrote up a trip report about my first half marathon, which happened to be the 2010 Princess. Things have changed a little bit, but the link is in my signature if you want to read about it. I had a friend who had done the 2009 Princess and was able to (pun alert!) walk me through it, so I wanted to pay it forward in a small way and share information.
Thank you! I will definitely read your report. I will take any information I can get. :)
 
Thanks so much! I just didn't really know what to expect and have only heard the worse! Figured asking here would be the best way to have a better understanding. So much information on these threads! I do have a fairly decent pace (2.07) so really hope to run most, if not all of the entire race at least with the half. Plan on doing pictures the 5k or 10.

I have ran 3 princess races, the first two were crowded but not horrible, last year was a little insane BUT I account some of it to so many people also being late due to traffic and construction. They warned us drivers ahead of time that due to the traffic get there early, I planned to get there 2 hours before race start and I was one that got stuck in traffic... people had abandoned their cars at gas station and started hitchhiking! Point is that I think some of the chaos and crowds were due to so many people having missed their corral and had to start in a random one. I was supposed to be in corral E and ended up starting in H. Disney has worked at helped to prevent the crowding issues with doing a stagger start within corrals. Based on your time, I am sure you will not see the issues that back corrals experience either as the earlier corrals also have less people (if you look at last year some of the front corrals has 200-500 where the back corrals has 1500-2000)
 
In 2014 it took an hour for my bus to get from POR to the bus drop-off at Epcot for the half. I was in a later corral, but by the time I used a port-a-potty and did the walk to the corrals, Corral A had already started. It was stressful!
 
No sorries - we were all newbies once! We "oldies" are happy to help where we can :)

And don't leave out that rD does have a tendency to 'update' the way they do things ... so even though I've run several rD races, no change or new info will ever surprise me!
 
No sorries - we were all newbies once! We "oldies" are happy to help where we can :)

Exactly! Plus, the wave start isn't that old, so we're all kind of new to that.

I substituted mini chocolate muffins for that. :) veggie here. :)

Whatever works for you!

In 2014 it took an hour for my bus to get from POR to the bus drop-off at Epcot for the half. I was in a later corral, but by the time I used a port-a-potty and did the walk to the corrals, Corral A had already started. It was stressful!

You have to allow WAY more time than you think to get to the corral. I'd rather stand around with time to spare than stay in my room longer and then have to rush.
 

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