Disney Princess Half Marathon

I DID IT!!!! 

13 Miles!!! (well, plus .1)

Guess my Nike+ is a bit off?

My finish time according to Disney was 2:30:18! 

I'll get to that later. 

I DID IT!!!!

Ok, recap time! Hard to believe this all happened in 24 hours! 

Beware: Lots of photos! 

JJ and I left Saturday morning, dropped the dogs off at his parents, then continued on to Orlando. First stop was the expo to pick up my bib, sign my waiver, get my scoring tag, and get my bag and some free stuff! 

Then we walked around the Wide World of Sports and I found a lot of Ohio State stuff!

After the expo, we went to get lunch. I saw a Ruby Tuesday and remembered they have great salad bar options, so we decided to go there. My salad was delish! I'm going to have to go there more often! 

JJ made his especially pretty, he wanted it to be blogged.

After lunch, we went to the Braves spring training game vs. the Astros. It was fun, but really cold and windy.

After the game, we checked into our room. 

We stayed at the All Star Sports Resort. It was a value resort, but was really nice. It was one of the few resorts with transportation to the half, and with a half participant discount. 

It had a gift shop, but holy crap, Disney is so expensive. A diet coke was $2.75 in the vending machine and the gift shop! 

Since we stayed that the All Star Sports Resort, we got passes to go play putt putt golf! The place is called Winterland Summerland, so there are 2 courses, each themed. It was fun! 

Oh, and I won 44-46! 

We got golf balls, candy cakes, and sharpies... random! 

For dinner, we went to Downtown Disney. We ate at an American restaurant. We started with chips and guac, I ordered the chicken tacos. It was delish, and not too expensive (considering it was Disney)

Now, on to the good stuff... 

The half marathon!

I tried to go to sleep around 9pm, I could not fall asleep all night. I would sleep for 15 minutes here and there, but was literally up all night long. I got up at 3am, and Crissy met me at my hotel and we boarded the shuttle to the race at 3:30am. We got to the staging area, and sat in the cold parking lot for an hour. It was freezing and not fun. Then we checked Crissy's bag, and walked about a mile or two to the corrals. We were in our corral around 5am, and stood there for another hour until we started. It was so cold, maybe 35 degrees out. Crissy and I were dying! My feet were completely numb, and my lower back started to really hurt. I was getting nervous about starting because I literally felt like I was freezing for 2 hours! 

So I was assigned to corral B, which started at 6:07am. The first two miles I felt great! I had a nice pace going, and warmed up quickly. The second two miles were ok, kind of in the groove. Around mile 4, we got close to Magic Kingdom, so it was getting exciting! Then around mile 5.5, we ran through the castle in Magic Kingdom, which was so cool. Miles 6-9 were really, really hard. My stomach was in knots, and I was starting  to really lose my energy level. At 8.7, we stopped to go to the bathroom and got Cliff Shots. That gave me a great shot of energy, but I was still not feeling great. I was sweating a lot, so I grabbed powerade at the next 3 mile markers to get some electrolyes and keep going. Crissy definitely could have run much faster, but she stayed with me and we did it together, which was really great. I was so glad she was there with me, it really helped me keep my pace, and keep running! I wanted to walk, but I only ever walked when drinking the powerade! 

 

As we neared the finish line, I was starting to get really emotional, and it was getting so hard to breathe! I tried to just concentrate on that last mile (which felt like it was another 12!!!), and not get too emotional. So my official time was 2:30:18. I really didn't care what my time was, I just wanted to finish, and keep running as hard as I could! When we finished, I couldn't believe it. It was a rush of excitement, accomplishment, and then a little bit of sadness. It was really over! But then I rounded the corner, got my medal and was so happy! 

I think in addition to running 13.1 miles, I walked around 4 miles from the shuttle to the tents to the corral, from the finish to the monorail, to the parking lot... I was just exhausted....

It was sad to leave Disney without having gone to the parks. JJ and I decided that we are for sure going back to Disney for vacation in January, and we're going to stay at a resort. They make it so nice and convenient, and it was so much fun! Being Florida residents, and going in off-season will give us great discounts, too! 

So I'm literally typing this with my eyes barely open, I'm so tired, but I want to get it all out before I go to bed and forget something! 

-I am so glad I chose this as my first half marathon. It really was a fun race. Being with mostly all other women made it much less competitive, and much more fun. The women that ran the race were really there to have a great time, and everyone had this amazing comraderie. 

-I kind of wish there was more time spent running in the actual parks, it was mostly highway running, but they did have the characters dressed up and with little sets along the routes, so there was a lot to keep you entertained with. 

-They did an excellent job at running the race, the logistics were spot on. There were so many people there to direct and cheer you on. There were more water stops than I've ever seen, and there was a Cliff Shot stop as well. 

-The finish line and the recovery and celebration area was great, there was a ton of food and drinks, and it was easy to find your family afterwards

-The shuttle was really convenient, so I'd definitely stay at a resort associated with the race (I think about 7 of the resorts had shuttles)

Ok, I can't think of anything else to say right now, I'm exhausted! 

I am so proud of myself, and I have to thank my family, friends, and all of you for your support. I still can't believe I ran a half marathon. I never, ever thought I'd be able to do this. Amazing!