Half Marathon Finished!

Its been a month since I have finished my half marathon. I jumped on a treadmill this week for the first time since, and when I was done, I got off and thought to myself I CANT BELIEVE I RAN 13.1 miles. Im so glad I had help from my hubby supporting me so I could even do all that training! So here are some pictures and thoughts of a small portion of it.

First of all the Disney Princess Half Marathon in Florida was such a wonderful race to be a part of for my first time. It was fabulous to run with 17,000 women, some of which were actually men dressed up as Cinderella or Ariel. Which add much needed humor on a self destructive run through untraveled territory for me. I was surprised to see SO many costumes. I had really no idea of what a part of that it would be. There were many hard core runners but there were many who were there just to have fun and have a chance to wear some pretty outrageous costumes. My running buddy, Dennese and I kept saying I can't believe people are going to run all the way in that. Many costumes did not make it, as there were several Tu Tu's along the course.

The corrals were just a big party scene, we had gotten up at 3:00 I think to board buses by 3:30. I'm not sure now the details are blurry. But we got up super early to catch buses to get there in time. We had to be in corrals by 5 for a 6:00 start time. It took 20 minutes to walk from the drop off zone to the corrals not because it was a long walk, there were just so many people you couldn't go any faster than a slug. Words cannot describe how many people there were. Endless people in front and behind just to walk to the starting line corrals. I was worried about the lack of sleep and the time change but that morning I felt really good.



Us trying to get a "good" picture before the race- hard to do that early.


Start time was exciting, there were fireworks with the start of every corral. We were in "D" Dennese was in a faster corral than me but she was kind and started in my slower corral. They started every 8 minutes i think, so by the time we went, the first runners had already been going for a long time.


We really started out strong. It was a comfortable pace, but faster that what I had been training. It was all adrenaline. I was okay with that. There were so many things to keep us entertained, we saw bands playing, drummers, characters, there was different music, like Elvis when we passed Lilo and Stitch, and pirates of the Caribbean guy I don't remember his name right now. That was a huge hit. We were surprised at the lines forming for runners to get pictures with the characters. We were a little more down to business, but it was really fun to see all these women so excited about it. It was very fun.


About halfway into the course we ran through the Castle at Magic Kingdom. People were lined up from the parking lot all the way through the park. That was cool to hear cheers and encouragements.

I would say about mile 9 or 10 we caught up to our own pace group. By then the people we were passing were decreasing and it was really getting down to work. At this time it was getting warmer with the sun up and being used to running in 46 degree weather and misty, it was definitely a different climate. I was wearing running pants, and i know I was the only one, but it was what I was comfortable in, and I didn't want to change it up last minute. I pulled off layers though and that helped.

Okay so we got through most of the course and I was getting into the uncharted territory. I hadn't gone on a run longer than 12 miles and we were nearing the end. I was hit by how difficult the last mile was. I had to start walking for a couple times just to catch my breath and change it up a bit. It really took a lot to get through the last mile. My legs were a little tired, but my side started to cramp, I think from water intake from the beginning. I was so worried about being dehydrated that I may have had too much water in the beginning. Anyhow It was SO hard mentally and the only thing that got me to keep going was that I had a friend to keep me going and the buses were there to take me back to take a shower. I literally remember thinking, there is no way I can finish, even though I was so close to the end. We were meandering through EPCOT and the crowds started cheering. Saying You are almost there, You can do IT! I was so thankful for those complete strangers! At one of the last bends I heard a gospel choir singing on risers. Complete with the choir gowns and the swaying back and forth. It was the most wonderful ending! Then you could see tons of people and the finish line. At this point I was thinking I better not trip.

My two favorite things I saw was a older man wearing a tshirt saying "pacing my princess" running side by side with his wife. Another was as we were approaching Magic Kingdom and there was a crowd gathering and we saw a husband there with his small children, they spotted their mom and said Mommy Mommy! she was on the opposite side of the course and crossed the thick traffic in front of us and was waving her arms so ecstatic to see them as the odds are pretty slim with such a large crowd. They were so excited to see each other gave big hugs and she went on her way.

Out of 13,000 finishers, I finished something in the 2500s I cant remember, but I'm not taking in consideration the men. I think i finished in the 2700s if you add them in. Anyways our finish time was 2 hours and 15 minutes, which is way below my 3 hour goal! I finished and a ran 99.8 percent of it. I could not have done it with out my friend Dennese and I definitely would have not done it in such good time.

It was such a great experience I'm so glad I did it. I don't know if I will do another one. Not any time soon though It is so much time to train when my kids are small maybe later in life with my hubby. Definatley will not do a winter run. Training here in the winter is brutal. I feel like I can do anything now, I learned a lot and it is an amazing feeling of accomplishment to set a goal work hard at it and do well. I will miss my Saturday quiet time even if it was in the form of hard labor in the cold weather.
The medal was pretty cool too!!