Culmination

On November 20, I signed up for the Disney Princess Half Marathon and I began my training. Within 2 weeks I discovered that I am prone to Illiotibial Band Syndrome. Running with IBS requires significant time and dedication. Instead of running a few minutes each day to train, I spent hours rolling on a foam roller, stretching, and strengthening in addition to the running itself. It was way more of a commitment than I initially intended on making. But I have this thing about seeing things through, so I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. There was also a lot of icing.

On Sunday, March 7, after about 4 hours of broken sleep, I got up out of bed at 3:10 AM. I washed and dressed quietly so as not to wake the three sleeping members of my family in the same hotel room. I got on the bus to the race at 3:37 AM and arrived at 3:57 AM. The temperature was 41 degrees. Brr.

I was reluctant to leave the warmth of the bus. After a 15 minute walk, I arrived at the staging area where we were to wait before the race. I wandered aimlessly among the other runners for about 10 minutes before I spied one lone tent across the parking lot. As I approached I realized that it was a merchandise tent and there were signs in front which cautioned against entering unless you intended to actually purchase something. I thought I could at least fake it for a few minutes. Once inside, I realized that no one that was already in the tent had any intentions of purchasing anything, so I cozied up to a few of my fellow runners, and we stood shivering together in the tent for the next hour and a half.

At about 5:30, people started clearing out and it was time to make our way to the starting line. The starting line was over a mile away. Once I arrived, I headed to the back of the crowd. There were 5 corrals of women and of course, I was in the last one. So that meant more walking. By the time I reached the end, I could no longer see the starting line. (See the lights at the far end? That's the start!) I ate some breakfast (bagels and bananas) and waited some more. By this time I could no longer feel my feet but were hoping they were still there.

At 6:00 AM the first runners began the race. 13,000 runners and half an hour later, I finally crossed the starting line. It was still pretty dark, but the sun was just starting to come up as I began to run. It was a wonderful feeling finally getting to move!

All along the way there were Disney characters and music, local marching band and spectators. Each mile was marked with a huge Disney sign. Lots of girls stopped to have their pictures taken along the way, but I just kept moving forward.

At about mile 5, I got warm enough to take off my sweatshirt. I bought cheap sweats from Goodwill in anticipation of throwing them down along the race. So off came my sweatshirt.

Running into the Magic Kingdom was surreal. The park was closed of course, since it was about 7:15 AM when I arrived. We ran down Main Street, into Tomorrowland, through Fantasyland and into Cinderella's Castle. Amazing.

As we left the Magic Kingdom, we passed the 6 mile marker and I was feeling especially good, both physically and emotionally. However, the next 4 miles were really, really long. There was not much to look at and the exhaustion of the morning started to set in. At mile 10, we had to run up two exit ramps which were very steep. Finally, at mile 11, I saw a glimpse of Spaceship Earth in EPCOT... I was almost finished!

At mile 12 I called Drew to let him know I was almost done and to be looking for me at the finish, only to find out that all the buses were redirected to the Ticket and Transportation Center and that he was standing in a mob of several thousand people waiting to ride the monorail to EPCOT.

I ran as fast as I could through the last mile in EPCOT and crossed the finish line 2 hours 20 minutes and 8 seconds after I began... only 8 seconds off my goal (if only I hadn't stopped to take that last picture!!)

There were 3 times during my training that I seriously considered quitting. My knees were in constant pain and it took valuable time away from my family. At one point I didn't think there was any way I was even going to be able to finish, much less finish strong. Out of 10,924 women, I placed 3179... not too shabby!

I cried at the end. The culmination of so much hard work. It was such a magical experience. I don't know if I will ever string together another 13 miles all at one time. I may just be sticking to 5Ks from here on out. But at least I can say that I ran a half marathon. Every step. And I wouldn't trade a single one of them.