Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend: Spectating the 5k

On Saturday, August 31, runDisney held a family fun run 5k that my mom and sister participated in! I was so excited for them because my mom worked really hard for this. She is not a runner and she really challenged herself by doing this race. I was so proud of her. My sister has Addison's disease which causes her to not be able to run long distances. Originally, her doctor told her to walk it, but she pushed herself and ran the whole thing! Dang girl.

Snapped this pic as I was exiting Downtown Disney the night before the race.

Anywho, while their alarms were set for 3 am, my alarm was set for 5:30ish. I was going to wake up, then wake up my brother and we would walk near the finish line and wait for them to cross. Well, plans don't always go through do they? In this case, I slept through every single one of my alarms I had set. Ahh!!! Somehow, my brain triggered the idea that I was supposed to be somewhere and it decided to wake me up at 5:50. I jumped out of bed and started brushing my teeth immediately. Next I through on jeans and a sweatshirt (bad idea) and tried to wake up Brad. I tried a couple times...and a couple more. By then I was so worried that I would miss them crossing the finish line that I ditched Brad. Sorry!

I was late for this very important date.

I was so, so scared that I was going to miss Lex and my mom and then they would be mad that no one was there to support them. So at this point I had no choice but to run. I ran down the very long street all the way to Downtown Disney. And it was hot. And I mean hot, humid, the whole deal. Keep in mind that I did this in jeans and a sweatshirt. Once I hit the stoplight that leads to the Disneyland Hotel it was time to walk through a sea of people. There were spectators every for the 10k along with all of the 10k runners moving in the opposite direction as me, trying to get to their corrals. It was a mess and a lot of "excuse me's".

I finally reached a pretty good spot of the finish line and stood my ground! I probably looked like I had just finished the 5k by how tired and sweaty I was. I ended up waiting their for about 20 minutes before Alexandra crossed the finish line. At first she didn't see me, but then she found me and we waited for Mom.

Alexandra celebrating her victory.

About 20 minutes after Lex had finished, Mom came through the finish line and saw us. She was so happy to see us! Next they both got their medals and I may or may not have sneaked into the runners area where they got food, water, and a goodie box.

Happy to get some food and water!

We headed into the family reunion area and took some photos with the medal.

So proud!

Ended the morning with a beautiful sunrise!

I was so glad that I actually got to see them cross the finish line despite my alarms not waking me up. I had so much fun supporting them! Great job Alexandra and Mom.

What Brad was doing this entire time...

Half Marathon Finisher

So guys, it's official. I finished a half marathon! It was so much fun and amazing and everything I hoped it would be. Well, except the part about being super duper sore during/afterwards. I will share a race recap later on but I thought I would share some race photos with you. Enjoy these awful looking pictures of me :)
 
My favorite is the lower left one. It was right after I ran through the castle. I tried to manage a smile as I ran by the photographer :)

QOTD: Did anyone run in the Disneyland Half Marathon?

**I do not own the rights to any of these photos. I did not purchase these. These photos came through Marathon Foto**

NIKE

So, it's official. I got into the Nike Women's half marathon! I received this amazing email as soon as I got back from Hume Lake:

I have to admit, I was completely surprised. I went into this thinking that I wasn't going to get in. I thought I wasn't going to have to keep training after Disneyland half but it looks like I am. And with hills. Ugh. The dreaded hills. I have no idea how I will even try and train for those. I know I have to and I know that somehow, some way, I will conquer those San Francisco hills!

I'm so happy to be sharing this news with you guys and I am glad I can share my journey on this blog. Happy running :)

October 20th here I come!

Train Insane or Remain the Same

Yesterday I ran a pretty hard run but only for a short amount of time. I wanted to run around 1.5 miles with around a 9:00 minute mile. I really want around a 9:00 or 10:00 minute mile for race day on September 1st (It will be here before I know it!) so I'm trying to train closer to 9:00 minutes that way I have some wiggle room.

I've kind of been getting bored in my runs, which sadly, makes me want to stop running. Then I end up not getting to my goal or not conquering what I wanted to. I haven't been really into my running playlist so I thought that maybe I should do a run without music. Didn't go too well. I lasted like a mile. Lol. So yesterday I thought I should change my course. Instead of running out on the streets, I ran around all of my connecting neighborhoods. It was kind of nice because I could set little goals to myself like "When you get to that green house, you can turn around and go back" or something like that. Whereas on the streets, I would get confused on which tree I set my goal at.

The new course actually helped me a lot! I ran at a 9:27 pace for 1.44 miles. I was done within 13:39 minutes (I didn't want a super long run yesterday).

I actually felt really good afterwards too. And lately, I have been feeling like I'm going to either pass out or throw up when I run. I felt so good but also completely exhausted afterwards that I literally laid down on my grass and stayed there for a while. People walking by probably thought something was wrong with me.

Yeah so that's me lying down on the grass. Great picture huh? But that face literally describes how I felt. Even though it was a short run, it was definitely a great run :)

QOTD: Have you ever had a great run, short or long?