The Most Magical Run on Earth!

I wanted to take few minutes to debrief my Disney Run before all the magical details escape my memory. To start off, this whole Disney Extravaganza started last year when Mary and Amanda had started running and completed their first half marathon here in San Antonio, which gave me the umph to get off the couch and lace up my running shoes again because I spent most of that race jealous that I wasn't running with them. We decided that we should probably go ahead and go somewhere pretty awesome and that perhaps a destination run might have to become and annual tradition.
For literally years, I've been eyeing the ads in Runner's World for the Disney Princess Half or the Tinkerbell Half Marathon and Mary and Amanda are Disney aficionados so the choice was a pretty natural one for all of us.

When we were perusing our options of races we settled on doing the Glass Slipper Challenge which consisted of running a 10K on Saturday and a Half Marathon on Sunday. We signed up on one of the most chaotic days of my life as Cory and I  were trying to move out of our house, but it was necessary since these races sell out FAST. And then all there was left to do was wait...oh and train my ass off.

I did two races to prepare for Disney the Chosen Half Marathon in October and the Rock N Roll Half Marathon in December. Both were underwhelming performances for me time wise at about 2:15. In January I decided to join a Beachboy accountability to group to help me prepare for success at Disney because I was tired of not feeling good about the effort I had put in on Race day. So from January to Race Day I was diligent-- workouts 6 days a week, great nutrition, drank my water, Shakeology every day. I could feel myself getting stronger and faster the closer we got to race day.

The theme of the Disney trip was get up before the sun. So I got up at 4:30 the day of my flight and managed to escape any crazy polar vortex delays and made it to Orlando about 1:00 Eastern.  Friday was Expo Day. Here's some pics

New Balance Expo Fun

Costume Fashion Show for Amanda's Parents the Night Before Race 1

Saturday: Enchanted 10 K
3:30am Wake Up Call. We were out the door by 4 and freezing our butts off at the start by 4:45-5am. We decided that since we all run at different paces we would run the 10K together and stop for character pictures during this run because I was set on running the half on Sunday seriously. We dressed as the 3 Fairies from Sleeping Beauty for this one thanks to Mary and Amanda's excellent crafting skills. Other than a cold start this was a great run which mostly wound through Epcot.

We spent the rest of the day shopping for spaghetti fixins for dinner and soaking in the Hot Tub. 

Sunday: 3:15am Wake Up. I needed some SUPER strength to pull off day three of Middle of the Night Wake Ups-- hence the costume-- also I wanted real running clothes---Sorry people who are girlier than me but a skirt is not appropriate attire for kicking ass.  

We had a longer walk to the start line, but it was at least not as cold on Sunday. Since I was in an earlier corral, I had to part ways from Mary and Amanda on the way to the corrals. Here's us all dressed up and ready to go

The race went spectacularly for me. I felt strong as we started and was keeping a consistent pace around 9 min miles. I skipped most of the character stops for the first half of the race because the lines were INSANE. I did stop to get a castle picture in the Magic Kingdom and then stopped some during the second half of the race because the lines were mostly non existent. 

I have one question-- WHERE'S THE RUM?

So I finished the race in 2:04. Ten minutes faster than the same distance two months before. I felt great about my performance and enjoyed getting to spend some times with two of my best friends. 

Following the race we went to Epcot and had cocktails and pastry--and felt zero guilt. By the end of the day we figured we done a full marathon.