Saturday morning my aunt and I headed out from our hotel, Disney's All Star Movies, and hit ESPN Wide World of Sports where the Disney's Fit For A Princess Expo was taking place. I had to go pick up my bib and race packet, plus even though I wasn't feeling great, I wanted to look at what the vendors had to offer since this was the largest race I had ever registered for. The expo was insane. The line to get in was super long and we waited in it for at least 15 minutes. Then I waited in line for about 35 minutes to get my bib and D-tag. Finally, it was time to shop! The only thing I knew I wanted to look for at the expo were Sweaty Bands. I have some Bondi Bands headbands, but I find they get very hot on my head, so I wanted to give the Sweaty Bands a try and see if the thinner headband helps alleviate some of my heat issues. I found my Sweaty Bands, purchased a few and was on my way. I also ended up with an awesome new pair of super lightweight anti-fog running sunglasses. I've been running with my bug-eye Kate Spade usual sunglasses and they are heavy and tend to slip off when I get really sweaty, so the new sunglasses are much needed. Other than that I didn't find much else worth purchasing at the expo and we left. It was just too crowded. I did have some fun playing with some pink princess Mickey ears though! I also wasn't impressed by the "goody bag" given out. It was a green mesh bag, and inside was a nice Champion tech tee and a mini Luna bar, and a bunch of advertisements. Seriously? That's it for $130?
Sunday morning my alarm went off at 3 a.m. I had laid out all my gear the night before and got to getting dressed. I ate 3/4 of a multi grain english muffin with some natural pb on it that I had brought with me. Aunt Tara and I then set off for the shuttle bus. We were supposed to be on the bus by 4 a.m. but the lines were ridiculous. We ended up not getting on the bus until about 4:15 a.m. The bus got us Epcot, we walked a little ways into the finish line/family reunion area where I used a port-a-potty and said my goodbyes to my aunt. I then set off on the 20 minute trek to the starting line. There was a wall of people. It was so incredibly crowded, I could not get around anyone. I wanted to walk a little faster, but no one was moving out of the way, so I just went along with the crowd. Finally I made it to my corral, Corral B, by about 5:20 a.m. Finally at 5:45 a.m. it was time to begin with the wheelchair start. The Fairy Godmother wished the racer luck, the fireworks went off, and the race began! Two minutes later, they did it again for Corral A, and seven minutes later at 5:53 a.m. it was our turn!! It took me a couple minutes to cross the starting line even though I wasn't that far back in the corral, but it was so crowded. I tried to run that first mile, but I could not get to a good pace and it was so dark. It continued like this for the first 4 miles or so.
I wasn't feeling so great, especially around mile 3-4, my stomach started hurting and I thought maybe I was going to be sick. As you can see, I carried my handheld bottle filled with water, so I just sipped on it and tried to relax. I saw my aunt at mile 4.5 and it lifted my spirits a lot! Mile 5.5 brought with it entry into the Magic Kingdom! Before that the race was being run along connector roads, in parking lots, and on back lots, with plenty of Disney entertainment along the way, characters out that you could stop and take your picture with (I didn't want to waste time, the lines were super long), and music blaring. Mile 5.5 opened up and we began running onto Main Street U.S.A. finally! Crowds were in full force cheering, it was awesome! We ran towards the castle and then veered off into Tomorrowland towards Space Mountain. Kept going, through Fantasyland, and finally right through Cinderella's Castle! It was so magical, but went by so very fast. After the castle, we headed right into Frontierland and did a small portion towards Splash Mountain before ducking out a side entrance onto a back lot not far from Pirates of the Caribbean and it was back on to the connector roads for the rest of the race. I decided to take a Chocolate Outrage GU now since we were officially at the halfway mark.
Miles 7-11 were really pretty boring. There wasn't a whole lot of crowd support, only near the Polynesian Resort when we finally ran passed it. There were characters set out to do photo ops, but the entertainment wasn't as good. Between miles 8-9 my stomach really started to hurt, and I knew I needed to find a bathroom stat! I knew there would be port-a-potties at every mile/aid station, and I knew there had to be one coming up at mile 9, but that mile took what seemed like an eternity to get there. I slowed way down because of the stomach pain and the blaring sun and heat didn't help much. Finally, the aid station and the port-a-potties came into sight and I couldn't have been happier to run to the grimy things. I ducked into one quickly and tried not to lose a whole bunch of time. I stopped at the aid station to refill my bottle and was off again. Mile 10 was hard. It was the first time that I finally gave up and began walking. I just couldn't do it anymore. I was tired, the sun was getting too hot, I was overheating, I couldn't breathe, and I was mentally exhausted. Plus, there was a huge hill in the form of an on ramp and it was steep and hard to climb. I knew I wasn't going to PR, so I decided I would just walk as needed from there on out. At mile 11 I tried to reinvigorate myself and give myself a pep talk, "you've done this before, think about your training runs, 2 more miles, that's it, you can run 2 more miles, the last 2 miles are always the easiest for you." It didn't work. I couldn't breathe. I had to stop and use my inhaler finally.
We hit mile 12 just as we reentered the Epcot parking lot area. I told myself I could do it, "come on, you always finish strong and gun it the last mile" so I started trying to give it all I had. I ran, ran, and there was about half a mile left, and I just couldn't do it anymore. My legs hurt, my thighs hurt, everything hurt. I had to walk. I told myself I couldn't do it, then I told myself "why are you being a baby? Yes you can do this!" I ran a little more, then walked a little more, then I rounded the corner and I could see the finish line and the crowds, can't walk then, so I started running again. Finally, sweet relief as I crossed the finish line! I went up to a fairy godmother who sprinkled me with pixie dust, and then received my tiara medal!
I quickly made my way to the post race refreshments and grabbed a water and a banana, and found my aunt. The only time I want a raw banana is after a race, I think my body seriously craves the potassium. In the end, I crossed the finish line in 2:25:50 according to the official results, including the bathroom break. I'm still proud of my time, even if it wasn't a PR like I had wanted, I realize now that even if I had been in good health, it would have been very difficult with the crowding to get the time I wanted. I ran a pretty strong race, I just need to work on the mental aspect at the end where I fell apart. I feel as though I can mentally get through most long runs though, as I've been getting through them just fine during training and maintaining a steady pace, I have to think that this was an isolated incident due to the conditions and my sickness. We'll see in 2.5 weeks when I run my next half, and hope I can finally get that PR!
