Disney Princess Half Marathon Part 2

Check out Part 1 if you missed it!

I don’t know how people give mile by mile recaps. All of the miles blur together. I’ll do a beginning, middle & end recap.

Beginning

It was hard to get into a groove because my feet were so cold. I immediately felt like I had to go to the bathroom so I made bathroom break #1 around mile 1.5. As I crossed the 5K mat I thought of all the people that were tracking me. I was finally warm at mile 4. I was in such awe. There were so many people! I loved all of the floats and characters on the sidelines. So many people were stopping to take pictures. I think that if I ran the race with a friend I would have definitely stopped at all the floats.

• Mile 1 – 10:21
• Mile 2 – 9:47
• Mile 3 – 9:54
• Mile 4 – 9:54
• Mile 5 – 9:58

At mile 4 I was wondering where the hell Magic Kingdom was. When we crossed the sign for the Magic Kingdom parking lot I choked up. I didn’t think I would get that emotional!

Middle

We finally reached magic kingdom and I was like a little kid. I tried to take in everything. My head was turning from left to right and I couldn’t stop smiling. There were workers setting up for the day and they cheered us on. There were characters throughout the park. It seriously was MAGICAL. When I saw Cinderella’s castle I almost lost it again. Running through the castle was so much fun. As I was running down the ramp I saw the professional photographer and a line of about 10 women. I didn’t have to think twice – I stopped to take a picture. There was no way I was going to run Disney and not get a picture in front of the castle!

• Mile 6 – 10:01
• Mile 7 – 10:24
• Mile 8 – 9:44
• Mile 9 – 9:55

End

We left magic kingdom and we were back running on the roads. The ramps were slanted and killed my legs. When I saw mile 10 I kept reminding myself that all I had left was a 5k. I won’t lie I was dragging by this point in the race. I stopped for some water and took a gu in hopes it would give me some energy to finish strong. I stopped at the bathroom AGAIN at mile 11 (stop #4). At this point I was ready for the race to be over. I kept telling myself one foot in front of the other and I pushed. Whenever I felt like I wanted to quit – someone would come up from behind me and congratulate me on my weight loss! I saw the Epcot globe and got so excited. I tried to pick up the pace the best that I could but by mile 12.5 I didn’t have much left. I continued on and took in the sights of Epcot. As we were approaching the finish line my eyes filled with tears. I realized my time was 10 minutes faster then my first half and I was so proud of myself! I crossed the finish line with my hands in the air and a huge smile on my face!

• Mile 10 – 10:21
• Mile 11 – 10:29
• Mile 12 – 10:00
• Mile 13 – 10:01
• Mile .26 – 8:53

My garmin clocked me in at 13.26 mi in 2:13!! (10:02 pace!!!!!!!!) So if I didn’t stop to take pictures & use the bathroom so much, can you imagine what my time would have been?!

I immediately ran to the medals – the main motivator to run this race was the awesome medal!

A lovely woman came up to me and she told me she was following me for awhile and wanted to congratulate me on my weight loss. It was her first half marathon and she did awesome! I hung around the parking lot for awhile and stretched. Surprisingly I felt pretty damn good!!

I have 2 complaints about the race:

1. I didn’t enjoy standing around in the cold for 2 hours. Granted I should have been better prepared
2. I wish that more of the race was run in the actual parks!! The majority was done on the service roads. Yes Disney provided entertainment but it wasn’t the same as actually running through the park.

Tomorrow I will share the professional pictures!