A Splash of Life: Princess Half Marathon

The weekend I have been waiting for has finally come.

Princess Half Marathon!!!

My friend and I went up together on Saturday - our race was Sunday.

Packet pickup wasn't so bad....

But then the Expo - that was fun!

Of course they never had anything I wanted... not my shirt....not my Ariel shoes...

see?? even the display was gone!!

Then it was time for dinnnnner! We left and went to Disney Springs (the former Downtown Disney). We ate at the Boathouse. It was really good!! The night before a big run, you're supposed to eat pasta, but it goes against every grain in my body... which is odd because I used to be ADDICTED to pasta! Every meal I ate was pasta, but since I've changed my eating habits, I have just kind of stayed away from pastas and breads....BUT, I gave in.... and it was SO good. But so were their fish tacos.

My friend had her carbs in the form of truffle fries. Um. Yum!

Back to the hotel room to get everything laid out for the race the next day. We were in bed by 8:00. haha. No problems falling asleep either.

The next morning, our alarms went off at 3:50 AM...

Yes, 3:50 AM

Crazy. For real.

But, we were out of the door by 4:30 and ready to go!

Arriving at Disney, before the crack of dawn. The race started at Epcot. I have no idea where though. Once we parked, they walked us about 3 miles to the corrals...and it was dark, and everything was different since they had tents and barricades up.

Waiting in our corral....

here we go!

Just a few THOUSANDS of people crazy enough to run this race.

They had fireworks go off for every corral.

Our turn!!

I'm not sure how many miles it was before we saw the entrance to Magic Kingdom...maybe 2 or 3??

They had either performers or DJs every so often. It was so fun!

My friend, Shushana... she was so great to stay back with me. I know she has been wanting to get finished with a half marathon in under 2 hours... and with me, she was way down to 2:30, but I had a lot of fun...and motivation with her!

When we turned the corner and saw the castle, it was kind of an emotional sight... you got goose bumps...even though I've seen this castle a BAZILLION times with as much as we've been to Disney, something about it just put the spark in you.

On the other side, there was the Frozen characters. and it was "snowing!"

Mile 11 - my Ariel!!

Mile 12, we were back at Epcot.... holy crap. just 1 more mile!!!

Photo Op!

Mile 13 - HOLY CRAP !!! We're almost there!!!

We did it!!! I ran my FIRST Half Marathon THE. WHOLE. TIME!!!

Ron made it there in time to see me cross the finish line!!! I was so excited that he was there and found me...and hearing my name being cheered from the side.