Princess Half Marathon

Where do I start?  I guess by saying that 1) we survived and 2)we finished.  It was probably the hardest thing I have ever done, but I am so proud of myself for getting through it.

There were definitely tears in that moment….

The day started at 2:30… yes, that would be 2:30 a.m.  I laid my clothes out the night before, so the hardest thing I had to do that morning was choke down some oatmeal.  Who the hell is hungry that early in the morning?

We had strict instructions to be in our corral no later than 5:00 a.m.  We hustled to leave the hotel by 3:30, because the buses completely stopped running at 4:00.  The bus ride only took about 10 minutes, and the walk to the family reunion area took about another 10 minutes.  There really wasn’t much there, other than concessions available for purchase.  We found absolutely no free water during our walk around.  Good thing we came packing our own!  We hung out for awhile, took a potty break and I taped up my arch.  We then decided to head over to the start line at about 4:30.  The brochure and all other race information said that the walk from the family reunion area to the start line was 20 minutes.  They lied.  We walked for AN HOUR.  ONE hour.  I felt like I might have a panic attack because there were so many people all going in the same direction.  We did not make it to our corral until after 5:30 and by then, there was less than 30 minutes to wait!  We were in Corral C that left the start line at 6:01.  We watched the wheelchair, the elite runners, and then corrals a and b start, and before we knew it, the fairy godmother was counting us down!

It took a few minutes for us to cross the start line, but once we did, it was pretty smooth sailing.  We decided not to bob and weave, because that would only make us tired.  And considering there were 17,000 people in the race, we would be bobbing and weaving the entire race.  I did keep waiting for the crowd to thin out, but it never did.  It definitely wasn’t like any race I’m used to!  The first 5 miles were pretty uneventful, we were so excited to be there and to be making our way to the castle, we had to remember to keep our pace, so we didn’t burn out.  Disney definitely knows how to put on a race.  There were drummers and marching bands and djs at almost every turn.  Not to mention the crazy amount of characters.  Which, I have to say, I was a little disappointed in.  There was only one princess, Belle, and the rest weren’t very exciting.  And the lines to take a picture with them were a tad ridiculous.  But I digress.  We were itching to get to the castle, and I have to say entering the Magic Kingdom and turning up Main Street with the castle in sight brought goosebumps to my arms.  All the training and injuries seemed almost worth it! MIL was waiting in front of the castle to get “the” picture.

She should be one of the ASI professional photogs, because her picture was a million times better than theirs.

After the castle, it got really boring.  And really hard to stay motivated.  Sarah’s knee started acting up about mile 8, so we stopped at every medical tent so she could load up on the Biofreeze.  Disney decided they wanted to torture us and threw three onramps hills at the end of the course.  I hit a wall shortly after mile 11…at the beginning of the last hill.  It also could have had something to do with the ESPN sports lady saying we had 2.5 miles left.  WTF was up with her math?!  I got a major side stitch at mile 12 and half limped/half ran the next mile.  I swear, the last 1/2 mile felt like it took an eternity.  I started to get that “I’m going to puke” feeling and tried to hold it off…you know, at least until AFTER I crossed the finish line.  But no dice.  Yes, the minute we got to the home stretch, with the crowd, the announcers, the confetti and the finish line in sight, I puked.  In front of god, Mickey, Minnie and everyone.  How mortifying.  But you know what?  I wasn’t sick for the rest of the day.  I felt like a million bucks.  So after the fact, I was really pumped that I threw up at the finish line.  haha.

Overall, I feel like we rocked that half. We finished in 2:53.  Given our laundry list of injuries, our lack of training and someone’s tendency to puke at the drop of a hat, I think we did pretty dang good.  And I’m already planning my next race.  Maybe not another half, but I’ve got my eye on a 4 mile mud run.  Could be fun!