Pretty Princess?

I love almost all things Disney.....alas the Princess Race was not one of them.....

  The craziness began when I went to the expo to pick up my bib and shirt.  Now this may not look as bad as it was, but it was AWFUL!  I take that back it took about 2 seconds to pick up my bib, the rest was crazy.  There were So Many People.  I couldn't even walk up and down the aisles :(  But the worst was getting the t-shirt 45 min for them to hand me a bag with a shirt, really??

 

This craziness came about when I (stupidly) decided I needed to go back to the expo because I wanted to do the early sign up for Wine and Dine.  I waited for 15 min for the bus and said screw it.

Before they "released the hounds."

 This was the best part of the race!  I got there about 4:15am (they wanted you in corrals by 5am).  Since I walked from the Key West Resort I was the ONLY one out there besides the volunteers, it was amazing!  In just a few short minutes that whole road would become wall to wall people.

My corral start!

Finally! The start of my corral, I had a decent time from Tink so I got moved up from Corral H to D :)  They sent up fireworks with every corral that started and the fairy god mother said some happy little chant that probably translated to "Even though this race is horribly overcrowded and humid as hell you will spend more money when you get to the end and buy a t-shirt."

So I really don't have many pics from the race, to be honest after mile 3 of running around people, running in the grass, and thinking I was going to die I was so hot, stopping seemed like a bad idea.  Sure, sure, there were characters out and one very entertaining man on an overpass dancing, but the lines were so long I wouldn't have stopped even if they had free booze!  The race imo was just badly planned.  Fine you want a million people in the race on the 5th anniversary, and of course the Mouse makes more the more people in the race.  I understand this I do, it's all about $$ so fine, keep the numbers high but instead of having many places were we were running on the road in only one lane keep both of them open!  I felt there were a lot of small things that could have been done to make this way better. 

 So I managed to finish, which in my book is where things went way south!  My friends from New Mexico surprised me by coming down to watch and meet me at the finish, which is where I "turned into a Gremlin."  This would probably be accurate.  I had told them it should only take them about 45-1hr to get to the finish line from the hotel...boy was I wrong!  It took them about 2 hours to my dismay (and theirs) to get to the finish line.  This would haven't been so bad except I had NO Diet Coke and no money with which to buy said Diet Coke.  This is where I turned into a Gremlin.  For those of you who know me, know I don't function well without Diet Coke.  Did I mention I had just run 13.1 miles and was hot as well?  So long story short I finally got to them by jumping a fence because Disney's lack of planning also included funnelling all the runners and some of the friends and family (the ones that made it back that far) through a little narrow lane...Awesome....

So this picture is about 2 1/2 hrs after the race, after I had traipsed over to the Polynesian to get a yummy breakfast that they said there was "no wait for" and when I got there there was 1 1/2 hr wait.  At which point I let out a nice for letter word and went to the fast food area. 

To be honest if this had been the first Disney race I would have done I would NEVER do another one.  It was crazy crowded, badly organized, oh and did I mention humid?  Ok well I will give Disney that one it's not their fault it was humid.

At any rate I finished, and in a better time than I did at Tink, thanks I think to my new Brooks!  Plus I got my coast to coast medal as well :)

That's It, I'm Old

So this is why I'm old....these are the songs that Run Disney has chosen for some sort of "theme" song for the Princess Run.  I don't know ANY of these songs, well thats not entirely true I have a vague recollection of the Kelly Clarkson "Stronger" song, not so much that I could actually sing it, just that I think I have heard it.

I think this just really means I am old, a continuing theme I'm not liking.  Songs that frequently appear on my running playlist are Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, and Barenaked Ladies.  I can only guess as the years go on that I won't be getting younger, so I hope that come Wine and Dine Run time    Run Disney has better song options than these!

Somewhere between 13.1

So here I am somewhere between two 13.1 runs.  First off let me say I have had no idea how to train between running two 13.1's ...None!  Secondly,  I haven't had much time to train, John ended up having back surgery (cyst on spine) so I haven't had a chance to do anything!

Now for my other problem......shoes.  After my 13.1 fun run from last month I could hardly walk in my Saucony Hurricanes (shown left) though I ran fine in them.  So I think maybe it's time to switch shoes and end up with Brooks Adrenaline (middle).  I did manage to sneak in 10 miles and they seemed ok, at least I could walk the next day which was better than the Saucony.  The shoes on the right are my tried and true Nike Vomero 5.  I cannot tell you how much I love these shoes for walking, they are fantastic!  However when I run in them (besides being 1/2 size to small to really run in) they feel like marshmallows and it seems I have to work twice as hard to pick up my feet.  The cushioning that I so love on them when I walk is a hindrance when I run.

I am optimistic that when I run my next 13.1 in a week that the Brooks will allow me to be comfortable after the run, without the use of beer!

B Student

Pretty much all through my life (ask my mother) I've been a B student.  I wanted to do enough work to get me through with a better than average grade, but not enough that I would actually HAVE to work.  This also drove my mother crazy.

When I decided to start training to run a half marathon, everyone thought I was crazy, including me!  Looking back on it the idea really came from the idea that I felt I needed a goal, any goal.  When I came across a half marathon on my Disney facebook page, I thought, that's a good goal.  I love all things Disney, and I hate running but there is a 16min mil requirement and I figured I could walk it if it came down to it.

So to start training I went to the RunDisney site where they have a training program designed by Jeff Galloway and ex-Olympian.  I downloaded it and it seemed to make a lot of sense to me.  His goal is to have you finish (in the allotted time) but not have you be dead at the end so you can still enjoy the day.

In true B student fashion I started training, I did try to follow the training plan but I ended up changing a little (a lot).  I am healthish in general and I walk a lot so I figured that should carry me for a little ways right?  Plus do you have any idea how much time is involved in training?? For Disney a 16min/mile comes to 3 hours and 30min.  That's a long time, and it's a really long time when you're running 3 days a week (true you don't run that far every week!).

Being the B student that I am I hit the start line only having run a total of 11 miles at once before the race.  I figure how bad could the last 2 miles be right?  My biggest fear was being swept (not keeping the 16min/mile time and getting driven to the finish line).  I started in the WAY back having never run anything before, well that's not true we occasionally do run at Disney world but it's usually running over people to get to a line or a monorail.

I have to admit the race itself was actually a blast!  I didn't stop as much as I wanted (or at all) except to go to the bathroom, I was terrified of being swept!  So imagine my surprise (because I forgot to start my watch) when I finished in under 3 hours!!!  Not bad for a B student :)

SNOW!!!

So it's been FOREVER since I posted on here BUT hopefully in the next week or two I'll get back in the swing of things!  For now my observation of the day is

"The driveway gets longer the more snow we have"