Sunday, March 13, 2011

My first Disney's Princess Half Marathon Weekend Recap

In August, 2010, I made the decision that I was going to run a half marathon... And I chose to do it with Team in Training.  This afforded me the opportunity to make my first half marathon a day to remember for a lifetime.  Team in Training made it possible for me to run my first half marathon, go to Walt Disney World for the very first time, and to meet Melanie and Crystal, my two very best friends, neither of whom I had ever met, except online.


Training for the Disney Princess Half Marathon was supposed to start October 23, 2010, but I had already committed to running a 10 mile fundraiser run for a family friend with a rare disease and very high medical expenses (on November 7), so my training started late.  At first, Coach Joe set me up with a training program that would help me reach a time goal for the Quad Cities Distance Classic scheduled for May. It was a bit too fast for me though, so I decided I wasn't going to do the pace work he was suggesting. I was having a really hard time taking my overall pace from an 11-12 minute mile to a 10:30 minute mile. It didn't matter anyway because on November 23, I would discover a terrible pain in the inside area of my right ankle. Ugh, it was bad.  I thought it might be a stress fracture and was very fearful that it could be, but it turns out it was just a tendinitis, that I'm still fighting now on March 13.  Dr. Lake at the Kaminski Pain and Performance Care Clinic is doing a great job of opening things up and breaking apart the adhesions that cause runners' injuries. 


So, December and January come and go. In January, I was finally able to run a whole 3 miles without any major pain, so Coach Joe created a new plan for me that would quickly move me up in mileage so I could complete the half.  


February 25th comes and marks the first time I've ever been away from my daughter overnight. I flew out of Moline to Chicago, spent 3 hours in Chicago and then finally took off for Orlando. I met Crystal first at the hotel. What a great experience.  Then shortly after that, Melanie arrived. We stayed up until 2 am that night walking around the Boardwalk, eating dinner, doing some window shopping, and just talking in our room. It was an awesome night meeting two girls I have known and loved for 7 years but had never seen face to face. It was hard for people to believe because we were so natural with each other like we'd been hanging out for years! 


Saturday morning, we got up and went to the TNT team breakfast.  The food was really good and the fun was plentiful. Bonni, the Virtual Team in Training coordinator for our team, gave a little speech and then we all just chatted and got to know each other. Bonni came around with prizes for everyone who showed up, and then we decorated our jerseys. 


We spent the rest of the day at the Expo (which was awesome but packed!), meeting the Spark Girls at Earl of Sandwich, and going to Magic Kingdom.  Saturday ended at midnight when we finally tried to go to sleep because Sunday morning at 2 am was going to come very very quickly!


And it did... Crystal says she didn't sleep at all that night, and I know I didn't sleep real well.  We got up at 2:30 am and got dressed and ready to go and met the rest of the team in the lobby of the Boardwalk Inn to board the buses and head to the race start. 


The race was super cool. We saw so many neat things along the way and I took a lot of cool pictures. (I'll have to add them later because it's getting too late to do it now). Crystal and I started out really strongly and almost wished we'd either started in a higher corral or started closer to the front of our corral because we were stuck behind so many people who were going slower than us that we couldn't get around because the course was so congested. 


We started at Epcot and headed out to the freeway toward Magic Kingdom.  We ran the first 3 miles without stopping, and then stopped to walk. That was a mistake. At that point, my legs decided they were tired and didn't want to do the whole distance anymore. We saw Melanie at Mile Marker 4 and she was cheering louder than anyone else!  Crystal had to pee at mile 5, and believe it or not, it took her 5 minutes to accomplish that mission... it turns out compression capris and sweaty hot legs do NOT get along very well!  lol 


At mile 6-7, we moved through Cinderella's Palace on our way through Magic Kingdom.  It was at about this time that our feet started to complain about the running after walking 15 miles the day before (according to Crystal's pedometer).  So during the last half of the race, we did a lot of walking.  The rest of the race, up until mile 12, was pretty much uneventful except seeing Melanie at mile marker 8 where she was able to keep up with us and take tons of pics because we were walking again.  


At mile 12, we found our second wind and started running again. We ran into Epcot and around this corner and that corner and around this bend and then another corner, hoping and praying the finish line was near. We finally saw the finish line, grabbed each other's hands and finished the race hand in hand.  We were so happy and excited for finishing our first half marathons together!!! Melanie was just as excited for us and kept snapping pictures as we headed to the water tables.  


After a little cooldown, we headed back to the hotel. Crystal showered and I slept! lol Melanie headed out to find us something to eat/drink. She came back with a Mt. Dew and chocolate milk for me, and I don't remember what for Crystal. lol I couldn't believe WDW didn't carry Mt. Dew! What a gyp! lol


At 1 pm we headed over to the TNT post party and had some lunch. Unfortunately, shortly after that our vacation ended because both Crystal and I had flights back home scheduled for Sunday evening. We were happy to be going home to our families, but sad to be leaving Melanie. 


Melanie and I will be doing TNT next year (me as a team mentor), but we're not sure about Crystal. Crystal will probably decide to just run the race with us and avoid the fundraising. She didn't have as good of luck as I did raising the funds requested of us. 


All in all, it was an amazing weekend and an overall amazing experience to train and raise money with/for Team in Training and I look forward to doing it again in the future. And I'm so excited about running another half that I've scheduled 7 more for the rest of the year as well as 3 marathons and two 25ks.  This will get me up and over the 1,000 mile mark for 2011.  If I can make 1102 miles in 2011, I'll be stoked, but my goal is to definitely get more than 1,000 miles.  


So, this is long and it's time for bed, so until next time... Good night.     



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