2012 Marathon/2011 Princess Half Marathon Weekend Trip Report! 8/21 - 2013 TRAINING!

[Kimmy]

Great trip report! Running in a Disney marathon is on my bucket list. I am hoping to enter one in 2013. I am running in the Flying Pig half marathon (Cincinnati) a week from Sunday.

 

[disbeachprincess]

I'm really loving your TR! Doing a race like that at Disney is a dream for me - the running part seems impossible! Keep up the great work!

 

[ellajeansmom]

Really enjoying your report - I'm hoping to run the Princess Half next year so all the info and pictures have been great!

 

[Ariel484]

Great trip report! Running in a Disney marathon is on my bucket list. I am hoping to enter one in 2013. I am running in the Flying Pig half marathon (Cincinnati) a week from Sunday.

Thanks! Ooh...the Pig. I've been looking into doing that one some day. Good luck!!

You should totally do a Disney race at some point! Racing in general is fun, I think, but Disney takes it to a whole different level.

I'm really loving your TR! Doing a race like that at Disney is a dream for me - the running part seems impossible! Keep up the great work!

Thank you! If you really want to, you should go for it. I never thought I would be a runner, but I started in 2008 and haven't looked back. The key for me is having races to train for and sticking to training plans. And let's face it, most often I'm motivated by the promise of a nice, shiny medal at the end. I hope you do a Disney race some day!

Really enjoying your report - I'm hoping to run the Princess Half next year so all the info and pictures have been great!

Thank you! I hope you get to run the Princess Half...it was SO much fun. I'd love to do it again at some point.

 

[Ariel484]

Day 3: Sunday, February 27, 2011 continued - PRINCESS HALF MARATHON! Finish Line and Post-Race

We began to make the loop around Future World. Our first stop was for a picture with Phineas and Ferb:

You can kind of tell from the way my brother is standing that he’s hurting He was looking for any excuse to stop at this point. P&F isn’t one I’d normally stop for, but I felt bad that he felt so crappy, so why not? Plus, he’d come around earlier to all of my character photos, so it was time to repay the favor.

We got to the turn around point and stopped for a picture with Duffy (again, not one I’d normally stop for).

On our way out of Epcot, we passed a gospel choir…

…just before mile marker 13!

The finish line was in site! But first…

A picture with a Goof…

...and some ducks! By far my favorite picture of the race!

I sprinted across the finish line, and just like that, it was over. We were half marathoners!

The end of the race was bittersweet for me. I was glad and incredibly proud to be done, but sort of sad that it was over at the same time. I’ve never had so much fun, and smiled so much, during a race.

After being adorned with our hard-earned bling we made our way through the finisher’s chute.

So here’s something sort of funny…this is a photo of my Garmin after the race:

(Yes, 13.19 miles...that's what happens when you weave around people in the earlier miles!)

I have it set to Auto Pause – when I stop moving, the Garmin stops timing. I think its actual use is for being stopped at red lights, but in my case, it had stopped every time I stopped to take a picture of a mile marker or get a character photo. Both of our chip times were 3:02:52 (exactly the same!), so our actual time spent running was 2:34. By my count we added almost 30 minutes to our time by stopping for photos! Totally worth it. Even funnier - I ran a half marathon at home 3 months later with no photos, just running...my time? 2:34. Right on the money! That's my current non-Disney half PR (Personal Record), and I'm hoping to break it in a few weeks!

Anyhoo, we found ourselves back in the staging area where we'd camped out that morning before the race began. There was a pretty nice spread of post-race goodies laid out for the runners: Powerade, water, bananas, oranges, muffins and Luna bars. One thing I had learned during training is that I needed to eat almost IMMEDIATELY after long runs. Consequences (nausea, shakiness, general misery, etc.) would be dire otherwise. That seems to have changed this year though.

Banana to the rescue!

After inhaling my banana, I checked the official merchandise tent for the coffee mug I’d been eyeing at the expo (they didn’t have it ) and met up with Will pretty quickly…cell phones are a beautiful thing. My mom wasn’t with him – apparently they saw me during the race, but somehow had not seen Craig, even though he was right behind me. I guess my mom assumed I'd ditched the bro along the way and that he was far back behind me, so she was still waiting to see him on the course. In reality he was sitting here on the ground, stuffing his face.

While we waited for her to find us, I scanned the staging area in search of a med tent. My knee actually felt pretty good, (whew) but I knew I should probably get some ice on it, just to be safe. This was one of my gripes with the finisher area – where they were keeping the ice was not very well advertised, which seemed like sort of an oversight to me. Will mentioned that he saw people walking around with ice bags, so I just decided to find someone with one and ask where they got it. Turns out the ice was hiding in the tent marked INFORMATION. Hmm. Marking it as the MED TENT would have been a bit more helpful.

Knee iced, I roused Princess C. from the concrete to get a photo!

Mom found us!

Princesses were out meeting and greeting runners in front of their castle screens (the ones we’d taken photos in front of about 5 hours earlier), but the lines were HUGE. I saw Jasmine and Ariel, but not the other two. We decided to pack it in and grab a bus back to Riverside. We got one right away and headed back to the resort.

Continued in Next Post

 

[Kimmy]

Congratulations! Great time! You should enter the Pig, it is a lot of fun.

 

[Ariel484]

Congratulations! Great time! You should enter the Pig, it is a lot of fun.

Thanks! I was pleased with it, especially given the number of times we stopped for pictures!

This morning in the locker room at our rec center, I saw someone's Flying Pig backpack and thought of you! I hope you get some cool swag.

 

[debbiedana]

Great report!!!

I'm starting C25K Monday with a goal of being able to do the Tower of Terror ten miler next September. Great inspiration!

 

[Ariel484]

Day 3: Sunday, February 27, 2011 continued - Race Recovery Begins

We got back to Riverside by about 10AM ("we" being myself, my brother and Will. Mom wanted to stay at Epcot to watch Off Kilter).

When we arrived at the bus stop, I stood up from my seat and…OUCHIES. My knee has majorly tightened up during the short bus ride. I hobbled down the stairs and my brother (slowly) took off for his room for a nap. Will and I carefully made our way to Fulton’s for a bag of Chip & Dale’s Mickey-shaped pretzels…delicious!

The walk back to the room was, by far, the worst I’d felt all day. I’m sure I looked like a complete idiot – the only way my knee wasn’t hurting was to keep it completely straight, so I limped the whole way back to the room. However I also had some awesome chafing on my legs (this would mark the last time I wore Nike Tempo shorts on a longer run - they sucked), so the walk was a combination of the limping and looking like I’d just ridden a horse for 2 hours or something. I’m sure anyone who saw me walking got a good laugh.

Once we were in the room I immediately plopped down on the ground, took some Aleve, and continued to ice my knee. After icing I took a long, hot shower, which felt amazing; the heat loosened my knee up and it felt so, so much better. I stretched my quads, hamstrings and ITB (the area of my knee that had been bothering me so much) - it hurt when I was doing it but I felt better afterwards. While stretching, I frantically scribbled notes for this trip report!

Having been up for a little over 7 hours at this point, I kept thinking it was later than it really was. I’d ask Will when he wanted to go to lunch and he’d say whenever I wanted was fine, but was I sure I wanted to go at 10:15, 10:30? Oops.

At 10:45, I couldn’t take it anymore. It was time for a nap! I was out cold within minutes, and Will decided to take that time to check out the resort. I woke up at about noon and gingerly took a few steps. I had expected the knee to tighten up again during the nap, but it was feeling pretty good! Woohoo!

After making myself look presentable, I woke up the bro and let him know that Will and I were going to Downtown Disney for lunch, in case he wanted to join us. He said he’d meet us at the boat dock.

After making it to the boat dock at a more normal speed, I decided I wanted to look around a bit while waiting for my brother to catch up to us.

Modeling the bling!

Check out the pool, which we never got to use. I'm sure the hot tub would have felt amazing.

Never went here either...

...or here. Darn!

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

Great report!!!

I'm starting C25K Monday with a goal of being able to do the Tower of Terror ten miler next September. Great inspiration!

Thank you!!

I'm so excited for you to start C25K! It worked great for me when I first started running. I hope it works for you too!

I think your goal of running the ToT 10-miler is a great one! Just make sure you don't forget your camera! I'd LOVE to run that race some day (have you seen the medal?! Amazing!), but it's just not going to work out this year. I can't wait to hear all about it.

 

[CAStevens218]

Hi, I'm joining in!! I love reading about Disney running! My first Disney race was the half marathon this past January and it was so much fun! The Princess Half looks amazing....I might have to consider it for 2013!

 

[BigEeyore]

Great time! Especially for your brother, since he didn't train!
That is a cool feature on your Garmin, that it stops when you stop - perfect for a Disney race with all those photo ops. I wish the online results had an asterisk next to my name that says "She stopped for lots of pictures!"

I know what you mean about the sloping Disney roads - I didn't notice it until about mile 9 or 10, but my right ankle started to really hurt and I realized that the ground was uneven. Not much, but enough to cause some pain after that much mileage. If I do another Disney race, I might try to run more in the middle of the road where it might be better. (I ran mostly along the side of the road to get all my pictures!).

Didn't you love the gospel choir just before mile 13? They brought tears to my eyes (in a good way) - it was like, Hallelujah, I made it!

 

[Ariel484]

Hi, I'm joining in!! I love reading about Disney running! My first Disney race was the half marathon this past January and it was so much fun! The Princess Half looks amazing....I might have to consider it for 2013!

Hi! I love reading about Disney running too. There are a few trip reports that I have re-read so many times, I swear I can almost quote them word-for-word.

Congrats on running the half this year! Wasn't marathon weekend so much fun? It was almost like there was different energy on property. I loved it!

You should totally do the Princess Half some day. It was a really fun race, and who doesn't want a pretty tiara medal?!

Great time! Especially for your brother, since he didn't train!
That is a cool feature on your Garmin, that it stops when you stop - perfect for a Disney race with all those photo ops. I wish the online results had an asterisk next to my name that says "She stopped for lots of pictures!"

I was glad he finished, because I was sort of afraid he wouldn't...but ugh! It's so much easier for boys to just decide, "hey, I feel like running a half today" and just do it. If that were me, they would've carted me off on a stretcher.

I think that Garmin feature is actually designed for if you're stopped at a red light or something, but it did work well for character stops too! And yes, they should totally add in those asterisks!

I know what you mean about the sloping Disney roads - I didn't notice it until about mile 9 or 10, but my right ankle started to really hurt and I realized that the ground was uneven. Not much, but enough to cause some pain after that much mileage. If I do another Disney race, I might try to run more in the middle of the road where it might be better. (I ran mostly along the side of the road to get all my pictures!).

Didn't you love the gospel choir just before mile 13? They brought tears to my eyes (in a good way) - it was like, Hallelujah, I made it!

Well, that sounds like about the time that we noticed it, too. It definitely made me pay more attention this year during the full marathon - both of us were really careful about it - and things went much better!

And yes...the gospel choir is pretty much perfection. Such a great touch. Love them!

 

[DisneyParrothead]

It's so much seeing all these pictures. I did the Princess this year as my first half ever.

 

[Ariel484]

It's so much seeing all these pictures. I did the Princess this year as my first half ever.

Congrats on completing the Princess Half! It's a great first half marathon. Wasn't it so much fun?!

 

[Ariel484]

Non-Disney Running
Mini-Goofy Challenge (sort of but not really): A Record-Breaking Weekend!

So this past weekend I ran 2 races on back-to-back days: the Hermes 10-miler on Saturday and the Love-a-Stray 5K on Sunday. As my ticker suggests, I'm signed up for the 2013 Goofy's Race-and-a-Half Challenge , so I looked at this weekend as a practice run of sorts for going Goofy, even though running a 10-miler followed by a 5K is nowhere close to running a half followed by a full. But it did mark the first time I've ever raced on back-to-back days, so we'll just go with it. Here are my mini race recaps!

Hermes 10-Miler: April 28, 2012

I've run this race 3 years in a row now...

2010 finishing time: 2:00:42 --> SO mad that I didn't go under 2 hours!! . Weather was rainy and chilly.
2011 finishing time: 1:54:11 --> This is the time that I submitted to Disney for corral placement for the 2012 full marathon and the 2013 Goofy Challenge. Weather was OMG SO HUMID!

And here we are at 2012. Race morning started stupidly for me...I left home way too late, so late that I couldn't make a bathroom stop before the race began. Same thing happened last year...when will I learn??

Things went well after that. I had planned to try to hold a 10:30 pace for the first 5 miles, then kick it up for the last 5 to try to finish in 1:45 or better. I had trouble getting my bag of Gu Chomps open at mile 2 (I was STARVING for whatever reason) and it actually began to snow a bit around mile 8 (??!?) but besides that and not getting the bathroom break before the race, this was probably my best race to date. I held a 10:10 pace for the first 5 miles and 9:39 for the second 5. Official time: 1:39:07!! Not only is this a new PR (Personal Record) for me, it's also a faster time I can send to Disney to update my corral placement. Woohoo!

And please note that the guy who won the race had a time of 56 minutes...crazy!

After the race, the husband took me to a nice breakfast (First Watch...yum!) and I took about an hour-long nap later that day. Legs felt okay, a bit sore in the hamstrings. Then it was to bed for race #2...

Love-a-Stray 5K: April 30, 2012

I signed up for this race a couple of weeks ago because it benefits a local no-kill shelter. This is a cause near and dear to my heart as our little monster-pup is a rescue.

One day older and one day wiser, I arrived at the race about 30 minutes before the start. My husband was with me - yay! - and the organizers had booths set up with various pet-related items, so we looked at all of that while we waited for the start.

My previous 5K PR is an old one (30:23 from 2009) and I was hoping for a new one, but wasn't sure how I would hold up after the 10-miler. The race began a bit late, but the course was beautiful - very flat and went in and out of 2 parks. Dogs were welcome in the 5K - I think I saw maybe 5-10 running? Anyway, this was another great race for me. My legs felt good and I was able to sprint to the finish in 28:03.5!

After the race we rushed home so that I could shower and we could grab the monster-pup to return to the race site for the 2-mile dog walk! Really fun.

My legs felt good for the rest of the day, but I fell asleep twice and slept in REALLY late on Monday (I had the day off of work). Something to be prepared for when Goofy 2013 rolls around.

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

Day 3: Sunday, February 27, 2011 continued - Post-Race Lunch

At this point, my brother texted to say that he was waiting for us at the boat dock, so we made our way to the other side of the river.

We found my brother sitting on the ground...without his medal! He'd forgotten to wear it and said there was no way he was walking back to the room to get it...he was hurting too much. Oops!

Our ride arrived soon after.

The boat ride was so nice...very relaxing, and it was fun to see the Treehouse Villas and Port Orleans - French Quarter.

The best part of the ride was (with the encouragement of our boat captain) heckling a few golfers that were out on the course! The one guy was setting up to tee off, and we all started yelling "FORE!" He looked right at us and yelled "FIVE!" Then our captain slowed the boat down so we could all watch him take his shot...I think he majorly sliced it, but we all applauded him anyway. It was fun!

If we do end up staying at Riverside again, the boat will definitely be my preferred method of travel to Downtown Disney. The travel time was, I thought, comparable to taking the bus, but the ride was so much nicer.

Lunch today was at Wolfgang Puck Express!

I can't quite remember when we arrived - maybe 1PM or so? - but the place was pretty empty. Quite a change from our experience at the Earl the previous day.

This was our first time eating at Wolfgang Puck, and our lunch was delicious! My brother chose the chicken alfredo and creme brulee:

All that food for one counter service credit! Can you believe it?? It was really, really good too.

Will and I split a Greek salad and pepperoni pizza:

Everything was incredibly good. I'm so glad we tried this place! We'll definitely be back in the future.

After lunch, we headed to Disney's Days of Christmas to pick up our ornaments. One problem - we were supposed to bring our receipt, and I'd forgotten it in the room! D'oh! Luckily the Cast Members were able to look me up using my driver's license, so we were okay! I'd actually come really close to forgetting to pick up the ornament, which I mentioned to the Cast Member, and she said that sometimes people will buy ornaments and forget them, and they'll sit in the store for 3-4 years before being thrown out! Yikes!

Anyway, here's the loot (I took these at home, not in the World):

WALL*E and Eve (Will and I love that movie!)

And my half marathon ornament! I was curious to see if they had any sort of official ornament in the merchandise area at the expo (they didn't...not that I saw anyway, and even if they did, I wouldn't have waited in the line). I then decided that since Ariel was on my bib, I'd find an ornament with her on it and get it personalized. I think it turned out pretty well! The people who do the personalization at Disney's Days of Christmas really do some nice work.

Close-up of the personalization:

Continued in Next Post

 

[BurleyGirl]

I hang my first (and currently only) 5K medal as an ornament on my tree!! Someday, the Princess 1/2 tiara will hang with it!!!!
I didn't chime in and give you a congrats on your finish, but I sure did enjoy reading about it and taking the journey with you!! So, CONGRATS!!

 

[Ariel484]

I hang my first (and currently only) 5K medal as an ornament on my tree!! Someday, the Princess 1/2 tiara will hang with it!!!!
I didn't chime in and give you a congrats on your finish, but I sure did enjoy reading about it and taking the journey with you!! So, CONGRATS!!

What a great idea to hang your medal on your tree! Is it from a Disney 5K? I find that it's pretty rare to get a medal from a 5K race. I hope that you get your tiara soon!!

And thanks for the congrats!

 

[BurleyGirl]

No, not a Disney race, just a local race. But, I'm especially proud of it because I really had no idea what I was doing, and was blown away when they called my name This was a November race, and my husband was the one who suggested hanging my medal as an ornament when we were putting up our tree that year, and so created a new tradition. That Princess tiara is going to look really good on my tree (hmmm, maybe as the tree-topper...). I'm taking lots of notes from your report, and got my eye on that Garmin you sport!!