Before I begin talking about the race, I wanted to just take a minute to reflect on the past year.  One year ago, I ran my first race ever, the Disney princess weekend royal family 5K.  I was so excited and nervous, and running a 5K was a huge accomplishment.  I began writing my blog in November of 2010 with small goals of running 5Ks, eating healthy, and losing weight.  I have pushed myself harder than I thought possible (even though I know I can be pushed even harder).  If you asked me over a year ago if I would be running a half marathon, I would have never thought that I could achieve that, let alone 3 half marathons in 4 months.  I want to give a big thank you everyone, most notably my parents, brother, and boyfriend, who has come to watch my races and gotten up at the crack of dawn just to watch me run by for 10 seconds.  You are the best and your support means everything to me.

Flashback to my first 5K.

Last night before hitting the hay at around 11pm, I laid out all my race gear and finished up all the princess prepping.  My mom had gotten me the tutu as a Christmas gift, and I love it.  Disney actually sells it, she got it at the Disney Marketplace, and it has shorts underneath the skirt.  The underneath is also soft and the sequins didn’t bother me so it was perfect.  There was so many itchy and chaffy looking tutus today that I was glad that I had a good one!  Funny thing is, that even though Disney sells this, I saw no one else wearing the same skirt or outfit. 

The shirt was also a gift and the Mickey is silver sequins. I was like a sporty disco ball.  Yesterday, I picked up a sweaty band from the expo to complete the look.  I wanted something sparkly so went with black sparkles (silver was sold out) and it pulled the outfit together nicely. 

This morning we all were up by 3-3:30 and out the door by 3:45.  I had a standard peanut butter on bagel for fuel, and I ate as we made our way to Epcot.  We hung out in the car a bit before parting ways.  I went to make my way to the start, and my family went to mile 4 where I would see them next. 

The walk to the start seemed less chaotic and cattle-like than it did 6 weeks ago for the Walt Disney World Half Marathon.  Disney is great at organizing their races, and I was especially happy to see that they are improving even more. 

My bib had me placed in corral B, but the 2:30 pacing group was in corral C so I dropped back.  The pacer’s name was Darris and he was great to talk to.  Definitely very motivating.  He told me his strategy would be to walk through the water stops and for a bit at each miler marker and then keep it steady the rest of the time.  Unfortunately, he did not walk at all the first 5 miles and I lost him shortly after seeing my family at mile 4.2. 

Blurry pictures from mile 4…

After seeing my family and losing the pacer, I was on my own for a while.  I decided not to stress over it and enjoy the race.  Magic Kingdom came up in a mile, and I felt as if I was able to enjoy it so much more without the pacer.  When I’m following the pacer, I keep looking at the balloons he’s holding to make sure they don’t get further away or slip out of my site.  Since he was already long gone, I just took in the sites and enjoyed myself.

Miles 6-8 weren’t bad, and I saw my family again just before mile 8.

Miles 8-9 were ok, and I started implementing a plan where I would walk for 0.10-0,20 miles after hitting every mile marker.  Usually water or powerade was in this area as well so I just relaxed for a bit then started running and didn’t stop until the next mile marker.  This was working pretty well until I realized that I was running so slow that I might as well be walking.  I knew this wasn’t a PR race, but it’s still hard to take that you were able to run so much faster only 6 weeks ago!  I kept pushing thoughts like those out of my mind, and instead focused on putting one foot in front of the other and making it to the finish line. 

Miles 10-12 were the hardest.  There was a lot of highway running, some uphill on-ramp running, and my legs were dragging.  I didn’t feel winded at all, just like my legs were weak.  I was ready to be done, but kept putting one foot in front of the other to finish the race strong and with a smile on my face.

I crossed the finish line at 2:52 after running through Epcot.  I was happy that I even ran this race at all, so I didn’t let being a little slow bring me down.  I hardly trained for this race, and I’m just so happy that my body allowed me to complete it.  I’m proud of myself for not taking the easy way out and making excuses to not participate in today’s race. 

Thankfully, I was in good enough shape afterwards to go to breakfast with the family at IHOP.  It was a delicious way to refuel!  Now I am sitting with my feet up in my compression socks icing my legs and knees.  I’m not in a terrible amount of pain, just a little stiff.  I’m in much less pain than 6 weeks ago, but then again I came in 20 minutes faster then so I was really pushing my limit. 

Half Marathon…CHECK!  Time to kick butt the rest of this week too!

Who else ran today?  HOW DID YOU DO?!?!

Hello!  Sorry I’ve been an absentee blogger lately.  I promise to not let it happen again.  Things have been crazy because this week is that crazy-busy week that I’ve been dreading and preparing for all month.  Just as a reminder, I have a big exam on cancer drugs Monday, a pharmacoeconomics exam Wednesday, and my big seminar presentation on Thursday which I have been preparing for since October.  I also have been scheduled to race in tomorrow’s Disney Princess Half Marathon.  This past month I have been struggling to go with my heart or my head on whether or not I should run tomorrow.  Should logic or passion win out?

My head says:

• Don’t spread yourself too thin.
• You don’t want to be too tired and sore to study.
• You have been so busy that you didn’t train enough.
• Well, you did just run a half marathon (the same course) 6 weeks ago so you will be fine.
• You’re young, you can get through it.
• Well, it does start at 5:45 am, so you’ll probably be done before you would have woken up anyways.

My heart says:

• You will feel like a quitter if you don’t run.
• That sense of accomplishment at the end will be a great start to a challenging week.
• The confidence of gaining that medal will be worth it.
• I am super-women.  I can do it all.

Obviously these conflicting thoughts and ideas rolling around in my head had been distracting.  I finally decided earlier this week that living in a limbo did not do me any good whatsoever.  I had to decide and commit…yes or no.  Run or don’t run.

Well, I decided to run.  In the end, I didn’t want to wait an entire year to run this race, and I knew I would just be kicking myself if I didn’t run.  I felt like not running would have been an excuse, and I would have felt like a quitter.  I did decide to run, but I do know that I have not trained as well as I wanted.  I just want to finish tomorrow, and I will be happy.  I am not looking to beat my time from 6 weeks ago or PR, all I want to do is burn off some stress, complete the 13.1, and have fun doing it. 

Last night after our flight got delayed, my Mom and I finally landed in Orlando.  This morning my Dad and brother flew in to spend the weekend and watch me at the race.  We picked them up from the airport then went over to the Run Disney expo together as a family.

The expo was the same as usual, and we were just there to get in and out.  Unfortunately, there was a huge line to get into the packet pick up tent.  It luckily moved fast and we were able to get my packet, my tshirt, and a glittery sweaty band before heading out and going to lunch. 

During the day I was studious and worked on studying for my cancer test and practicing my presentation in front of my family as an audience.  Even though it’s early, it’s time for me to head to bed because I am already sleep deprived and I’m going to get NO sleep tomorrow night before my exam.  Nothing like a 3am wake up call to make you get to bed bright and early!

I was surprised to find out that they placed me in corral B.  Last time I was in corral C.  I hope no one tramples me tomorrow.  I also really like the bibs because they are cute, have my name “Princess Shannon” and put your Disney princess on it (I chose Rapunzel…because we both love our long blonde locks). 

Resemblance?  I think so…

Time to get out my sneakers and fluff out my tutu!  Race starts at 5:51 am for me!  No turning back! 

Wish me luck tomorrow!  I will post a recap after I’m done and you can follow my times on twitter.  If you see this when I’m still running please tweet me something motivational!  I may need it!  Especially 10 miles in…

See you after 13.1!

Is this week going by quickly for anyone else except me?  Time always flies fastest for me when I’m really busy which has been the general tempo all week now. 

Yesterday I had a yummy lunch of turkey burger with goat cheese and tomato on an Arnold’s multi-grain sandwich thin paired with an orange.  Definitely a winner and a nice switch up from the eggs I usually eat for brunch pretty much daily.

After lunch I was running around (literally).  I went for a 4 mile treadmill run in the gym, had class 3-5, then tutoring until about 8.  After then, Joe and I had a bit of a dilemma when it came to dinner.  After not cooking fish for weeks, we got salmon and tilapia this week when food shopping (salmon was eaten on Monday).  We had planned on having the tilapia last night, until it hit me that the week also had two mandatory non-meat days due to lent starting.  I wasn’t really excited at the idea of four non-meat dinners, so we switched a few things around and went out to dinner last night at The Dandelion.  We were planning on having a date night Wednesday at the dandelion but I wanted to have the option to try a meat dish if one looked good.  Of course you know what happened…we both got fish.  Go figure.  How was I supposed to know the fish and chips was their specialty???

The Dandelion is a Stephen Starr restaurant/gastro-pub that was awesome!  Joe had recently received a good recommendation so it was on our list of places to try.  When we walked in, the restaurant looked small, but there were two additional stories of tables so in actuality the restaurant was HUGE.  It was decorated like the inside of an old English home, with fire places, lots of large tables for groups, and a dark atmosphere. 

We split an appetizer which was AMAZING.  Super creamy and definitely a worth-while splurge.

House-made Ricotta with extra virgin olive oil, dried herbs, and toasted sourdough

Both of us got the same entrée which Joe had hear was their specialty.  The fish and chips.

Beer Battered Fish and Chips: line-caught Chatham cod, tartar sauce, triple cooked chips

Please excuse the bad, dark iPhone pictures.  Pictures of the restaurant are linked to the original sources.  Despite my bad photography, this place was amazing.  The only negative was the price.  Stephen Starr restaurants are known for their hefty price tag, and this wasn’t cheap although it was too terrible.  I would also definitely consider coming with a group because of the great (and different) atmosphere.  Overall, I highly recommend it.

After dinner it was back to school work for me.  Today’s breakfast was a quick bagel before my early morning lab and lunch was a non-meat one due to Ash Wednesday.  I had an egg salad sandwich, half of a grapefruit, granny smith apple, and some guacamole flavored tortilla chips which were so good.  Crystal light pink lemonade to drink. 

In between classes I managed to squeeze in a quick workout.  I did 2 miles of treadmill interval walking in 30 minutes starting at 0,5 incline and adding an additional level until 15 minutes then took off a level until 30.  It was a good mid-day burn to break up the day. 

I really need a good night’s sleep tonight.  Lately, I‘ve actually been feeling pretty refreshed when I wake up in the morning, but I’m always so beat by the end of the day!  Trying to get any work done post-dinner is brutal.  Such an old lady…