It's race time!

The Half Marathon!

It was a long walk to the corrals and by the time I was nearly there...you guessed it. I had to pee AGAIN! I didn't want to stop and pee during the race so I thought it was smart to stop one last time and the lines were enormous. By the time I got to Corral B I think it was about 10 minutes before the start of the whole shebang. As I was waiting, I noticed that I was standing next to two guys dressed in full on princess costumes! They were the hit of the corral.

I didn't realize until after I'd gotten back home that guys were not supposed to start in Corral B. I guess they start them in Corral C or later as this is a women-centric race which is fine with me! So I'm not sure how they got there and I don't see any bib numbers on them. Anyway, the wait in the corral went so quickly and soon Corral A started and was gone. That meant that Corral B could shift up towards the start. I believe there are 6 minutes between the start of each corral and it was the fastest 6 minutes of my life. At that point, while waiting for our corral to start, I thought to myself. "What on earth are you doing here??? OMG, you're going to run a 1/2 marathon you idiot! Why did you do this?". And then BOOM with a quick countdown and some fireworks, we were off!

I felt pretty good and it felt like my pace was just fine. There is a lot of weaving through and around people to find a good pace and I expected that. It was still dark at that point. This might sound strange but I don't remember so much of the course!  I remember seeing some key things here and there but the majority of it is a blur. When it came to character stops, I kind of had a plan. If there was a short line, I would stop. If there was a long line, I would not. I was really torn because this was my first half marathon and I wanted to get a decent time but I also wanted to have fun (as much fun as one can have while running 13.1 miles I guess!). I remember running through the Magic Kingdom Main Street and it was amazing. I'm not a crier. I'm just not so I knew I wouldn't cry when I entered it like most normal people do and I didn't. I was more happy than anything and I heard so many shouts of "Go Packers!!" and "Go Pack Go" that it really kept me going. That and I didn't want to stop and walk in front of all those people. I did stop and walk for a moment though when we were "back stage" right before we hit Main Street and I think that was my first walk break. I did my only three stops for photo ops in the Magic Kingdom.

There were two people in line for Gaston so I quickly jumped in there and he was hilarious!! Definitely very in character. You get to run through the castle which was a high point for me and when you're coming out, I knew there would be a photo op off to the left and there was a woman directing you to it. It looks like you're the only person in the park in front of the castle and I was glad I did that. I'd actually practiced several poses for in front of the castle but when I actually got there, I ended up with this weird pose which was nothing that I'd practiced. And then as I got going again, there was Princess Tiana with virtually no wait so I decided I should get in line there. As I was leaving I stepped on her dress and my shoe got stuck in it. Sorry Tiana!

After that it's a complete jumble in my mind. For the most part I felt pretty good during the race but because of the humidity I was sweating like nobody's business. So I made it a point to stop at every single water stop. At the first water stop I tried to keep running while I was drinking but that didn't work so well and it ended up all down my chin, neck and shirt. Lesson learned. I knew that it would slow my time down to stop and walk at every water station but I also knew that it was hot and humid and I'd rather not get dehydrated. I remember one instance where one fellow was on the ground at about mile 5 with medics around him and that stuck in my head. I don't want that to happen to me.

Around mile 8 I started to feel a twinge in my right knee (the knee that I didn't have KT taped up of course). And it proceeded to get worse for the rest of the race. I think I was very focused on the pain in my knee and that's another reason why I don't remember squat! I do remember stopping to take this photo at mile marker 10.

Only 3.1 miles to go my friends!! However it didn't feel like "only" at the time. With my knee hurting, I ended up stopping to walk more than I think I normally would have (but I can't be sure of that). Also, the humidity was causing my fingers and toes to swell up. I could feel my toes jammed into the front of my shoes and my toenails were hurting as well. I remember approaching Epcot and seeing all of the spectators. So I knew that I didn't want to represent the Packers by walking so I slowly shuffled my way through the crowd. Once I was safely inside Epcot, I walked my brains out!! Ok, I didn't walk through all of Epcot but I did walk a good portion. But luckily this photographer caught me at one point when I was actually running/shuffling.

Look at that person next to me. She's cruising! While I look like I have bricks attached to my feet.

And then I knew that the end was near and as we were nearing the exit to Epcot, I saw some poor person who was down for the count in the bushes with medics around them. How much would that suck to run 13 miles and then go down right before the finish? Poor person. I kept running and ran until the finish. As I was about to cross the finish line I heard the woman in front of me (talking to no one in particular) say that she was going to do a cartwheel and I didn't want to get kicked in the face so I took a sharp right out of the way and proceeded to do the Aaron Rodgers (the Packers Quarterback) Discount Double Check across the finish line!

My official time was 2 hours and 34 minutes. I'm very happy with that!

After I was done I was a complete zombie making my way around. I saw someone giving out medals so I took a medal. I saw someone handing out bags of ice so I took a bag of ice. I saw someone handing out food so I took some food. It was so strange! My knee was hurting so badly so I just wanted to go back to the Race Retreat to sit down so that's what I did. I wandered into the Race Retreat and there was my zip up hoodie that I'd left in there! I was very happy to see it because I get so chilled after I run. I put my knee up on a chair and iced it. And then I hobbled up to the food and got myself a nice ice cold can of Coke as well as some eggs, bacon and fruit. I needed that. I had signed up to get updates on my phone for myself as well as Amanda so I could see that I had a little time to chill until Amanda came in (she started in corral E I think). And then I took a picture of this.

BLING!!!

I love this gorgeous medal!

In the Race Retreat, there was a private changing area. In my checked bag, I'd packed some clean clothes and some baby wipes to freshen up a bit. After a change of clothes, I felt a lot better. I also remembered to pack ibuprofen, thank goodness!! I left the race retreat shortly after I saw that Amanda had crossed the finish line. We met outside and decided to go to Epcot to meet some of the other facebook ladies but no one showed up. So we took a ride on Soarin' and went back to the room. It was such an amazing day and a magical race. I can now say that I've done a 1/2 marathon! I can't see NOT doing the Disney Princess Half Marathon next year and my sister and niece have been talked into doing it with me as well.

Next up on my agenda is the Chocoholic Frolic 10K run. My friends and I have decided to dress up as characters from Candyland. I get to be Mr. Mint and my costume is part skanky and part dork. I'm sure you'll get to see pictures!