2:10:43

I really can't imagine a better weekend to have done my first half marathon than the Disney Princess Half Marathon weekend. Everything from the race expo to the course to the crowd support was just incredible, and it was that much more amazing to be able to share the whole experience with my husband and my parents.

The weekend started off for me with the race expo on Friday. Since I love to shop, the race expo was almost heaven. After I'd picked up my packet and goodie bag and other necessary items the challenge became to restrain myself from overspending. It was more difficult than you might think - because it was a women's race, the race expo was full of all sorts of cute running skirts, sparkly tops, fun jewelry, interesting bags - you name it. I settled on some of the "official" race gear which I decided I wouldn't wear until I'd actually finished the race.

Saturday my husband and I woke up early to go experience the Magic Kingdom. Much to my surprise, we were able to walk right on to every ride without a wait. I took tons of pictures of Cinderella's Castle, and even had my picture taken with the Fairy Godmother. After a few hours in the park I was ready to rest my legs, so we headed back to the hotel for a break. Saturday afternoon I headed off to Downtown Disney to meet up with the ladies from my Disney Princess Half Marathon Spark Team. What a great experience!! It was so nice to put faces with the people who I've become friends with over the last few months of training. Most of us chatted like old friends, but eventually we all had to go our separate ways so that we'd be ready for the race. I had a nice pre-race pasta dinner with my parents and my husband, and then it was back to the hotel to get things ready for the race and head to bed.

Sunday morning came really soon - I woke up at 3am, because I wanted to give myself plenty of time to eat and get ready and be on a bus for the race by shortly after 4. I ate a couple of pieces of wheat bread with peanut butter and a banana (thanks to my parents, who went grocery shopping), downed a bottle of gatorade, grabbed my gear, and headed out to catch the bus. Because it was still dark outside, when we got over to Epcot where the race started the giant Epcot ball was still lit up and looked beautiful from a distance. My nerves were really starting to get to me at that point, and I realized we still had a long time to go before the race started. Luckily, my parents bought me entry into the race retreat, and as soon as I got there I recognized some familiar faces from my Princess Spark team. The race retreat was money well spent because it gave me a place to be and something to do in the time that I was waiting for the race to start. I had my picture taken with Goofy and with Snow White and was able to stretch and relax, and gradually tame some of my nerves. Eventually, though, it was time to start heading to the start corrals.

The walk to the start corrals was painfully long, but I was glad to have friends to walk with and friends to hang out with once I made my way into Corral A. As soon as we got into the corral I was wishing I had a camera with me, because I'll probably never be that close to a start line again in a non-local race. It was cold that morning, but not painfully cold, and I had a throw-away sweatshirt with me to keep me warm. There were still 25-30 minutes left to race time at that point, and the minutes seemed to tick by really slowly. The nerves were definitely mounting when someone sang the national anthem, and then all of a sudden - the gun went off, and we were making our way toward the start line. I hit the start on my Garmin, and it was time to run.

For the first mile or so, the course was very congested. I couldn't go any faster than an 11-minute mile for quite some time, until I eventually got frustrated and started to jog off the trail in the grass to get out of the pack. Eventually the crowd thinned out and I struggled for a little while to get into a comfortable pace, finally settling somewhere around a 9:15 or 9:20 pace. I didn't want to push it too much at the start, but I was feeling good and decided to go with it. The first few miles of the course were pretty uneventful, until the dip in front of the Contemporary Resort. The "dip" is by far the steepest uphill portion of the course but not the worst hilll I've ever run up, and as soon as we got over the dip I knew we were headed into the Magic Kingdom. Running onto Main Street USA and through the crowds of specators on our way to Cinderella's Castle was awesome, and I was still feeling really good at that point. Somehow I'd managed to time my playlist just right, because right before I stepped through the Castle - about the halfway point of the race - I heard "whoa, we're halfway there, whoa-oh, livin' on a prayer!!" Incredible. I threw my hands up for the photographer on the other side of the castle, I was in such a good mood.

The mood started to fade, though, and as we headed into mile 7 my legs were starting to feel pretty heavy, and I could tell I was starting to struggle. I was still maintaining my pace but definitely feeling the effects. By mile 8 I was definitely struggling, and the course had gotten significantly less interesting. But I could tell from my Garmin and the race clock that I was still on pretty good track to come in around my goal time of 2:10. All of the overpass ramps and uphill slopes on the course seemed to be concentrated at the tail end of the course, and I was struggling with the pain in my quads and pain in my ankles where my shoes were rubbing little raw spots. The last few miles were mostly about survival less than enjoyment, up until mile 12 where we rounded a corner to run up another (!) bridge - and could finally see Epcot again. Once I passed mile 12, I knew I was going to finish, I knew I could finish without walking, and I knew that I was really close to making my goal time, so I buckled down and gave it all I was worth for the last mile. The last part of the race course winds around several times through Epcot, and according to my Garmin I'd already run over 13.1 miles and still couldn't see the finish, and was so frustrated because my legs were like dead weights and it was taking every ounce of effort I had to keep going. It was an overwhelming feeling to finally turn one last time, see the finish line, see Mickey and Minnie standing there, see the huge crowd, and realize that I was going to finish my first half marathon. So I ran as hard as I possibly could (which wasn't that hard, at that point). 2:10:43 - not too bad for my first half marathon.

I'm thrilled with my first half marathon experience. Part of me wants to sit here and second-guess myself, second-guess all the places I could have shaved off 43 seconds, wonder if the last few screwed-up weeks of training and missed tempo runs cost me some time. But most of me doesn't care - most of me is just happy that I did it, happy that I enjoyed it, happy that I can finally walk down stairs again today without grimacing in pain. Happy to be going for a run again tonight. And slightly mortified that I'm going to attempt an 18-miler this weekend.