Here it is... the LONG over due race report from the Disney Princess Half Marathon.
Welcome to the most ridiculous race expo EVER! To be honest, there wasn't much different about this expo than any other expo I've been too, except the crowds. I'm still baffled because the races I'm normally in have three times as many runners, yet this race was more crowded than any of those. Still, we went through the normal expo stops. I bought a 13.1 sticker for my new car... in pink which I quickly replaced with a better version (thank you ebay).
Since we had a 2 am wake up call, immediately after dinner at Mama Melrose's in Hollywood Studios, we headed back to our hotel room to get some sleep.
The night before a race is always a critical one. I HAVE to neatly set out all of my race day essentials, attach the d-tag to my shoe, pin my bib to my shirt, fill my water bottles, etc, etc. I also learned this race that I need to set out my post-race essentials, such as shower needs, ice packs, towels, change of cloths, etc.
Around 7 pm we were tucked into bed... 2 am came much quicker than I anticipated. Before we could realize exactly what we were doing, we were on the bus headed to the starting line.
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| This is my traditional "oh shit! I'm running 13.1 miles" picture... I have one from every race! |
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Then came the walking and waiting! We were dropped off probably 3 miles from the starting chutes and had to be in the chutes nearly a hour and a half before our corral would start. From an event's person's perspective, I have no clue how they could have avoided this, but man was it annoying and exhausting. I'm a stanch believer in running the bare minimum... I don't want to take one extra step on race day than the necessary 13.1. We probably did closer to 17 miles this day.
Soon enough we were ready to start and boy do they know how to start a race!!
The race officially started at 5:45 am; my corral didn't start till 6:25. That just meant more fireworks. As they started each corral, we had fireworks and the fairy godmother to pump us up and get us going!
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| Look what princess I found!! |
Finally we were off! I started the race with my friends Lara and Jamie. We ran the first mile together then Jamie went on to be her bad self and run the entire thing. I stayed back with Lara as we agreed we'd do this thing together. We'd never run together before so we had no clue of each others pace. Come to find out, I run a few minutes faster than her. I kept running ahead then stopping and walking till she caught up. Luckily, there was TONS to see and keep my occupied!
The course took us from Epcot to Magic Kingdom, through Cinderella's Castle, and back to Epcot. Everything was new and exciting. There was entertainment and we entered through the back lots of Disney so it was like a backstage pass. We entered Magic Kingdom and turned a corner and...
I was feeling GREAT!! The excitement was overwhelming! Through out the whole course there were opportunities to wait in line and have your picture taken with characters... I never stopped for that cause let's face it, I'm slow and need every second to be moving forward. But I couldn't resist here and HAD to stop. Lara moved forward and I'd quickly catch up with her.
The excitment was over and we were turning back for Epcot. We'd seen all this before, except...
Dancing firemen make everything better!
At this point the road narrowed and we were so crowded there was no way to run if you wanted to. I got angry! We started hearing people talking about pace and something about balloons and if you fall behind them they will pick you up and take you to the finish line. I wanted NOTHING to do with that. I came to run a half marathon and that's what I was going to do. At one point I turned around and saw the end of the race. Maybe a freaked out a little bit and told my friend that we needed to hurry up. You know, the friend who we promised we were going to do this thing together... yea that friend. She told me to go on... I asked a second time and she confirmed again for me to leave. Even though I felt like a huge jerk, I did. I quickly made up about 5 minutes and got safely ahead of pace.
We were on a long 3-4 mile stretch of road we'd seen before, the 85 degree sun was pelting us, and I was exhausted from working hard to pull myself ahead. I cracked at mile 9 and slowed down tremendously. By mile 11, I felt safe that I'd made the cut and was going to get to finish, so I slowed down even more and resumed picture taking!
We came in some side, employee only entrance into Epcot and circled around till our finish just outside the park (where we started).
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| Praising Jesus!!! |
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| SERIOUSLY.... PRAISE JESUS!!! |
I could barely move at this point and would force myself to run for short periods. But, I turned a corner and THE FINISH LINE!!!
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| PAIN! |
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FINISHED!
It's important to always be aware of cameras on the course. They take your picture and magically upload them and tag you for you to purchase crazy expensive pictures of yourself in horrible, horrible pain. I love me a great finish photo so I raised my hands, put a smile on my face and celebrated! However, I distinctly remember raising my hands higher... as in straight over my head. Whoops!
After crossing the finish line a medical person nearly blocked my exit and demanded I looked her in the eyes to check me out. I knew I was extremely dehydrated and was probably in need of medical attention; however, I pushed her aside and went to get a banana and powerade....well after one more picture!
