Race Review: Walt Disney World Half Marathon 2022 ✨ Goofy Challenge Day 1!

If you follow me on any platform, you'll know that I participated in the 2022 Goofy Challenge at the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend back in January! I apparently can't shut up about it 😂 I'm going to break up my reviews into two posts as I have a LOT to talk about, but I'm here today to give you a review of my experience running the Walt Disney World Half Marathon - Day 1 of the Goofy Challenge! GAWRSH!

I traveled to Disney with my pal Shannon which was so much fun! A few months back she mentioned that she wanted to travel more, so I made the suggestion that she could always come on my race adventure whenever she wanted! She's currently in grad school, but it just so happened that she would be in between terms when I traveled to Disney for the Goofy Challenge, so when I offered for her to come with she was more than excited to join me!

We flew in a day earlier than originally intended because we were supposed to receive some pretty nasty weather up in New England on our original departure date so we had a bit of waiting time before getting to property. We made the most of it, though, and relaxed at our hotel pool, and even got to watch the Magic Kingdom Fireworks from our hotel room which was absolutely incredible!

On Friday we finally made it onto property as originally scheduled! Our room wasn't ready at our resort quite yet so we left our bags at bell services and headed on over to the Expo at ESPN Wide World of Sports. The runDisney Expo is always such a fantastic time, because not only do you get the chance to pick up your bib and shirts and check out vendors, there's tons of food, beverage, merchandise, and photo opportunities all around the ESPN grounds. I personally could spend a couple of hours walking around the expo taking in the atmosphere and getting hyped for my races!

The only complaint I have about the Expo is - surprise, surprise - the availability of race weekend merchandise. This always seems to be a major issue with runDisney, where if you're not at the expo right at opening of the very first day, it's likely you won't be getting your hands on very many options for merchandise. This was definitely the case for me, as we didn't get to the expo until the third day it was open. There were little to no options left over of the race weekend merch, and only ONE option for Goofy Challenge merch. 

Luckily the option for the Goofy Challenge merch just so happened to be a shirt that fit me (lucky!), but it was still quite disappointing to walk into the merch hall and see everything so picked over when I (and I'm sure many others!) don't have the option to go on day 1. I know there's a way for runDisney to remedy this, I just wish they would make an effort to try to make it somewhat fair for the folks that come later in the weekend! That being said I did get a couple of things from the runDisney official merchandise, and also a few other items from the expo like my race shirts and a commemorative luggage tag to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the half marathon, so I got a good little haul of items!

We didn't do too much for the rest of the day since we wanted to take it easy before the weekend really got going, but we did pop over to Disney Springs for dinner and we walked around a bit before heading to bed. I recap our entire travel day, Expo experience, and time in Disney Springs in my first vlog of the weekend, which you can find below!

I was very excited every time I saw Goofy around property 😂
This was a bus that was dropping off folks at Disney Springs when we arrived!

Found my new favorite beer at City Works - Strawberry Orange Mimosa from South Beach Brewing Co! 🍓

😍😍😍

Shakes from Ghirardelli! 😍

Before heading to bed I wanted to make sure I had all of my race essentials laid out. Brains don't work at the highest capacity at 2AM, so making sure you have everything ready to go before you go to sleep during a runDisney weekend is crucial 😂 For the Half Marathon my plan was to wear a Powerline inspired outfit! I wanted to have Goofy-themed costumes for the Goofy Challenge, and I was so excited to STAND OUT as Powerline for the first race of the weekend! ⚡

I unfortunately did not sleep to well the night before the half. The bed I slept in was in direct line of the air conditioning and I was too cold to fall asleep, but after putting on a sweatshirt and sweatpants and socks I was able to sleep a little bit. I did do the whole "wake up every 45 minutes because I'm certain I missed my alarm" dance until about 1:45am when I finally pulled myself out of bed to get ready and head over to Epcot for the race!

I was a little paranoid to get to the staging area in plenty of time. Folks who did the 5K and 10K were saying that security was taking a little bit longer than usual so I was out the door by 2:15am which was honestly aggressive now that I look back on it 😂 Needless to say I got to Epcot in plenty of time (probably around 3am), and I'm fairly certain our bus was one of the first ones to arrive to the staging area. I had a LOT of time to kill, so I took plenty of photos, took in the atmosphere, and even drank an entire iced coffee before heading to the corrals at 4:30.

I was in starting group 4 and I headed over to the corrals around 4:30am. It wasn't long before they started sending folks out, and I think I was on the road by 5:30 or so! Knowing that I had a few more starting groups behind me before the balloon ladies, I felt really comfortable taking my time with the run and stopping for photos whenever I felt like it. It was such a change of pace from 2020 Princess Weekend when I was in the last corral and constantly looking over my shoulder for the balloon ladies! 😂

I think my favorite moment of both races was entering into Magic Kingdom and running down Main Street during the Half Marathon. This was the first time runDisney has run down Main Street since Princess 2020 (which I was also there for!), and we had waited so, so long to experience that moment again. I can't lie, I definitely got emotional seeing the castle and was running down Main Street with happy tears in my eyes! 💖  

Another magical moment was being able to get to Magic Kingdom before the sun came up. I had not been able to do that during Princess weekend in 2020 and I have always heard running down Main Street when it's still dark and the castle is lit is something else, and I have to agree. It looked SO beautiful. These photos definitely do not do the castle justice, but I will never forget the feeling of turning the corner and seeing this beautiful sight:

I definitely took my time going through Magic Kingdom on Half Marathon day! For those unfamiliar, Magic Kingdom is roughly one mile of the course - between mile 5 and 6. When I checked my splits at the end of the race, my Garmin told me it took me about 31 minutes to run mile 6 😂 Very clearly I was having a blast playing in Magic Kingdom! ✨

Running back toward Epcot was also such a blast! Once the sun started to rise and I could really see all the runners around me, it really brought that sense of comradery that these events always tends to provide. I love cheering on everyone around me as we get into the later miles and making that final push toward the finish line knowing you're almost there is a feeling like no other. I'll also never forget the cast member that said to me "Welcome to Epcot, Powerline!" as I hit mile 12! ⚡

Before I knew it I was racing toward the finish line and I crossed with the biggest smile on my face! RunDisney was officially BACK and I was just so elated and grateful that I was running in Walt Disney World once again! 😊

I absolutely love the half marathon distance at Disney. This course was identical to the course I ran at Princess 2020, and I absolutely love it. Going from Epcot, through Magic Kingdom, and back to Epcot is the perfect 13.1 mile route in my opinion, and I would definitely do this race again whether it would be part of a challenge or just on it's own! Walt Disney World Half Marathon gets a 10/10 in my book! ✨
If you'd like to see my morning running the WDW Half Marathon in video form, check out my Goofy Day 1 vlog below!

Stay tuned for my next post where I'll be breaking down Day 2 of the Goofy Challenge at the Walt Disney World Marathon!