Bling love or: How I learned to stop worrying about the clock and enjoy the race

The Fair Weather Runner thought it would be fun if I wrote my race report in the style of an actual legal brief. So here's my best (likely to fail) attempt at writing a blog brief-style:

Introduction

The story really begins with the race expo, or should I say, line-a-palooza. My last experience with packet pickup at a Disney race was flawless. The packet pickup process at Disneyland was horrible. Disney people, if you're listening out there - this was not up to Disney standards!!! First we waited in line, outside, in the sun for about 15 minutes to get inside to pick up our packets. Once inside, I had to go stand in one line to get my race number, stand in a second line to get my coast-to-coast wristband, and then go into an entirely different building to stand in a third line for about 20 minutes waiting for my t-shirt, and then stand in a fourth line for my goody bag. All in all, I'd say it took me about an hour to get all of the junk I needed to even be able to do the race. At that point, I really had no desire to stay at the expo and shop but figured I should head over to the official race gear store to buy things before they sold out.

Lucky I did, because the official race "store" was more like a shark tank. I've never seen people so frantically grabbing jackets and shirts and hats in my life. At one point, as I was standing there holding the last of the "small" coast-to-coast shirts debating what size to buy, I realized that two women standing nearby who also wanted the small were about ready to tackle me so I quickly took the shirt and moved away. Once I finally decided what I wanted, I then stood in another line for about 10 minutes just waiting to check out with my stuff! By that point in time, I had absolutely zero desire to do any more shopping in the rest of the expo. I made a beeline to the Recovery Sock booth, bought a pair of black socks (which I love) and got out of the expo as fast as I possibly could. One friend of mine re-named this the "Disneyline" half marathon because the expo experience was just that bad. I really started to wonder how the rest of the race was going to go if Disney couldn't even get it together for the expo.

Argument and Authorities

I. Pre-Race Serendipity

The night before the race, I did my customary lay-out of all necessary items so that I wouldn't forget anything on race morning:

But I was running late on race morning per usual. Which ended up being a very lucky thing, because just as I was getting ready to walk out the front doors of the hotel, in walked my mom and my aunt. They were running late, too, because they had gotten slightly lost on the way to Anaheim from Palm Springs. I knew that had to be a good sign. So, after good luck hugs from both of them and a little pre-race picture taking by my mom I was off to find my start corral.

II. The Starting Line

I was more than a little worried about my legs the morning of the race. I really overdid it with walking the parks the two days before the race, my feet were very tired and I was starting to have twinges of pain behind my knees in both legs. But there wasn't much I could do about it except hope that my legs would hold up for 13 miles.

I was in corral B to start, thanks to my being overly ambitious with my expected finish time when I signed up for the race. I saw the 2:00 pace group; a few months ago I thought I'd be trying to run with them, but this morning I decided to hang around toward the back of corral B and let the faster runners get out in front of me. I didn't really think that 2:00 was going to happen for me, so I decided to let any idea of a goal time go. It was about a half hour until race time when I got into my corral, but the time passed by fairly quickly. Goofy pulled up in the Monorail, they shot off some fireworks, and we were off running.

I let a lot of the runners in the corral get out ahead of me but it was still very crowded. I was biding my time trying not to waste a lot of energy passing people, running at a very comfortable pace. Not far into the race I saw my mom and my aunt for the first time, holding up a big poster board sign with my name and picture on it. I waved. I was feeling surprisingly good for how tired my legs had been the night before.

III. Miles 2-4

The course in Anaheim starts on city roads and heads back into California Adventure and Disneyland after a couple of miles. It was hugely exciting to head into the parks the first time, the Disney volunteers that are out there do a great job of cheering on the runners. We ran through California Adventure and then out through the plaza between the two parks, where I saw my mom and aunt again - I high-fived my aunt and gave a big thumbs-up, still feeling great at that point. From there we ran into Disneyland itself, down Main Street towards Sleeping Beauty Castle and turned right to go through Tomorrowland. We passed through several groups of Disney performers along the way and before I knew it we were passing the carousel behind the castle. I think the whole crowd had slowed down a bit at this point; all the Disney Princesses along with Mary Poppins and Burt were riding around on the carousel waiving at the runners. After a trip through the castle we were off through Frontierland, past New Orleans Square, and out of the park onto city streets again. At this point I was having a great race; I was running a fairly quick pace (for me) but was feeling great so decided to see how long I could ride it out.

IV. Miles 4-9

Miles 4-9 were probably the least interesting of the whole race. Shortly after mile 4 there was a fairly steep overpass bridge that we had to climb; several runners in front of me stopped to walk up but I think my attempts to run hills over the last few months paid off as I was able to get up the ramp without losing much steam. Somewhere around mile 5, though, I started to get a cramp in my left piriformis. I hadn't had a solid long run all summer long, and wondered if the wheels were starting to come off already, when so much of the race was left. I really didn't want to stop and walk, so I coaxed myself into just running to the next water station. After a couple of sips I told myself the same thing - just run to the next water station. Amazingly the cramp started to fade and the heavy feeling in my legs went away and I started to pick up my pace again.

Although there weren't many spectators out that early in the morning in Anaheim there were several groups of cheerleaders and marching bands out to entertain the runners along with a Mexican folk-dancing group and a group of hula dancers. I'm not going to lie, though, for the most part the course between miles 4-9 wasn't very interesting and at one point we even ran a fairly long, circular route through the parking lot of the Honda Center (where the Ducks play hockey).

Close to mile 9, though, we started to get close to Angels stadium. The course takes you right through the stadium onto the field. When I first saw that I thought it woudl be interesting because my husband is a huge baseball fan. I was really unprepared for just how awesome it was to run through that stadium. The race organizers had packed the stadium full of 2,000 boy scouts and girl scouts, most lined up along the lower railing of the seats so that they could high-five passing runners. All of them were screaming at the top of their lungs, so loud that you could hear them coming up from quite a distance away from the stadium. An announcer was calling out runner names as they entered the stadium and in some instances where the runner was from, while a camera guy near home plate was getting shots of runners for the stadium big screen. At the same time, my theme song for the race, "Keep the Faith" had come on my mp3 player for me. I ran along and high-fived as many kids as I could, it was really a spectacular moment. It was incredible run into a stadium full of cheering kids who were just excited to see the runners go by. I didn't look at my garmin, but I could tell I picked up my pace going through the stadium. It wasn't much longer before we passed the 10 mile mark and I knew that I only had a 5k left to go.

V. Miles 10-13

I've only run one other half marathon before, but let me tell you - at mile 10 in my previous race, it was all I could do to keep one foot moving in front of the other. At mile 10 in this race, I wanted to jump up and down and tell all of the spectators out watching just how excited I was. I don't think I've ever felt so happy or so physically great in a race in my life. Ever. I knew I didn't have very far left to run and knew that I still felt so good, and realized that unless something disastrous happened I was going to beat my time from my previous half marathon. So after mile 10, I decided to just go for it. I was having such a fabulous time in my last three miles of the race that ran negative splits. NEGATIVE SPLITS. I have never, NEVER run negative splits in a race in my life. Not even a 5k! I still can't believe it. Coming back into the park for the last mile of the race as just the greatest feeling, I realized that I had done what I wanted, I was going to break my time from my last half marathon and I was having the time of my life doing it. It was truly incredible to see just how many spectators had lined up at the end of the race to cheer the runners on. And when I got to the finish line this time, I remembered to high five both Mickey and Pluto! It might have taken a few seconds off my time, but I didn't care.

VI. Blingity bling bling

Ah, how I love Disney bling.

Conclusion

Final stats:

Chip time: 2:09:45

Overall: 2805/11643

Gender: 1036/7262

Age division: 188/1340

A PR by a minute! Not bad after a completely terrible summer training season! Overall, this was the BEST race I've ever run. I think deciding to have a good time and not worrying so much about my time made a huge difference...and I ended up getting the PR anyways!

But I realized that I don't have any pictures of myself right now, because they're all on my mom's camera and she hasn't downloaded them yet! So, a picture post will have to wait until she gets back from vacation. That's okay, it just gives all of you a reason to come back for more!!