The day started at 4 AM. Fun.... I had set out my race outfit the night before that way I wouldn't have to rush in the morning. As my alarm clock went off that morning, I went into race mode. I'm pretty sure I was half asleep while throwing my hair up in a ponytail thinking "Wait, why did I do this again? Am I really about to run 13.1 miles?" Besides the fact of my thoughts, I kept getting ready. I went out into the living room area of our hotel room and opened the fridge. I had purchased a peanut butter strawberry granola type breakfast from the Jamba Juice in Downtown Disney the night before. I tried to eat a few bites and then me and my brothers were out the door!
Our hotel was about 10-15 minutes walking distance from the start line. But that morning it truly only felt like a three minute walk. I was so nervous! They were rushing people into corrals so we followed the sign to corral E and got there smoothly.
Our corral was on the free-way part. As the time got closer and closer, our corral kept scooching forward. Soon enough, corral A was off! I think after this happened, that was the worst part. It truly meant that this was happening. But the waiting and waiting for each corral to start was killing me and my brothers! Can we just start already?
Once it was corral E's turn, we went up to the starting line. Butterflies were going crazy in my stomach right about now. We were actually near the very front of our corral so we were right next to Mickey! As quickly as we got there, we were gone! It happened so fast. It was time to run...
Mile one felt like it took forever! I wanted to get into the parks already. As we were in the backlots behind Cars Land, we hit mile marker 1. One road took you to mile 2 and another road (which was blocked off ta the time) took you to mile 12! Me and Brad started laughing and each wished that we were at that point. we had lost AJ right before this point. He went ahead, but we could still see him. We were dodging runners and then all of a sudden we turned a corner and we were in California Adventure!
After passing Tower of Terror, awful cramps came to my side. These same cramps had come only a week prior to the race every time I ran. I prayed before the race that they would not come, but sadly they did. While exiting CA Adventure, I wanted to walk so bad! It was killing me, and I could hardly breath! I told Brad to leave me because I wanted to walk but he wouldn't let me. He gave me a few encouraging words and told me to run it out. So, basically crying and wincing with pain in every breath, I continued to run. Tons of people were in the area between CA Adventure and Disneyland. If I were in a better mood, I might've high-fived some of them or given them a smile, but instead I was crying.
As you can see, I was trying to put pressure on the cramps...it didn't help. I must've prayed about a thousand times while running through Disneyland. At one point I even said a quick prayer out loud! Brad promised me that if I still had pain, we would walk at mile 3. Well, as we were going by Adventureland, my cramps vanished. This had never happened in my training. I had always had to walk it off and rest. I thanked God a thousand more times and kept praying that the cramps wouldn't come back. When we reached mile 3, Brad asked me if I wanted to stop. Uhhh no!! I was feeling awesome!
Soon after, we ran through the castle and it was so awesome! I will never forget that moment. We then went on to Tomorrowland and then into Toontown. This is where we went into another backlot to exit the park. This backlot was soooooo cool. Did you know that Disneyland has a full on farm back there? Ya. They had horses, goats, and even a mini horse on display for us to see. It was awesome.
Next, we were onto the streets of Anaheim. Brad tripped on the overpass. Ha. We walked a little bit throughout mile 7. Then we got to mile 8 which was all of the cool, old cars. After that, we headed onto a trail and then into Angel Stadium! I was kind of lagging behind Brad every once and a while, so a few steps before the trail I told him he could go ahead.
After the trail, I was in Angel Stadium! The crowd was so awesome and crazy! My mom and Lex were screaming at me, but I had my headphones in so I didn't even see them. In the video you can actually hear them yelling my name. Lol.
After Angel Stadium was the hardest part for me. Mile 10 felt like it lasted 30 minutes. It took forever. I just wanted to get back to the Disney areas and be done at this point. Miles 10-13 were rough and involved lots of water stops and pain in my legs. Finally I saw the mile 13 sign and I was ready to be done! I ran through the finish line, grabbed my medal, snack box, and water and powerade. I downed that powerade like no other. It's all I wanted in that moment.
After searching for my family for the next 45 minutes, I finally found them and we took many pictures before heading back to the hotel.
 |
| One of my favorite pictures. |
 |
| My precious |
After we got back to the hotel, we showered and took a very, very long nap. We headed into the parks that night and I wore my medal! I tried to take a good castle/medal picture but the lighting didn't work out.
 |
| Crazy eyes from the flash |
 |
| My first dole whip! |
It was really nice to go into the parks and have everyone congratulate you! Every single Disney cast member told me congrats! I felt awesome. Thank you runDisney for putting on such an amazing event. I will definitely return.... :)
