Trying to keep up with the weight loss wagon......yet again (new title, same journal)

[Rose&Mike]

I had an interesting conversation--actually it kind of bothered me--with someone who sits near us at the milb ballpark we go to. Anyhow, the lady told me her daughter has c-d and has had it for years but only recently (within the last year) stopped eating gluten and that's because she ended up in the hospital and was very sick.

She then went on to tell me that recently the daughter "cheated" at her own daughter's wedding. At the rehearsal dinner they had some spaghetti dish and she went ahead and just had it for dinner. And then was sick for the entire wedding. I think the lady who was telling me this story was really worried about her daughter and how she wasn't taking care of herself.

This really bothered me on so many levels. First of all, if you have actual c-d or knew that gluten was going to make you really sick, why would you go years without taking it seriously until it finally put you in the hospital? I think in general we are just all grossly undereducated about food intolerances.

The other thing that really bothered me, if you knew your mother (or insert a close relative here) had a health problem where she really shouldn't eat something, wouldn't you make an effort to have something for her to eat at your rehearsal dinner? Normally, I would never expect anyone to do something special for me, but really, at my own child's wedding I would either make arrangements or ask them how I could make arrangements.

But maybe she thought her Mom doesn't take it seriously so why should I, which I guess brings us back to the grossly undereducated.

I'm not passing judgment, just found the whole scenario interesting. I know that I often feel like the odd one out at work and social events, but I am really ok with not eating or making sure I bring stuff along. And I know that I often say to Mike--maybe I really don't have a gluten problem. Wishful thinking on my part.

But I do not cheat. It is so not worth it. It is only food, and there is no way I want to go back to how I felt or looked before. I just have to remind myself sometimes of all the symptoms that I no longer have.

Anyhow, just been thinking about this and thought I'd share.

 

[Rose&Mike]

I got glutened again, and honestly it was my own fault this time. And I'm frustrated. I thought I'd share in case anyone is reading along, or interested.

I don't eat a ton of processed food anymore, but I do eat ice cream. I love ice cream. I don't eat it out--unless it's soft serve, just too much chance for cross contamination, but I do eat it at home.

So we have our favorite brand. And they do a really good job on their website of indicating which flavors are gluten free. On the containers they list allergens--but don't indicated if the flavors are gluten free or not. (Like whether there could be cross contamination or not, etc.) And I know this. I know to check the website.

I was at Kroger a week or so ago and saw a new flavor and it looked so yummy. No gluten ingredients, so I thought, ok it will be fine. I even came home and checked the website and while it didn't say gluten free, I thought, that's ok, it's a special edition flavor, maybe they just didn't mark it. No gluten ingredients--it should be fine. Right???

I ate the ice cream every night last week. And over the course of the week started feeling yucky. And dealt with the brain fog and the stomach issues, etc. Last night googled again and there are special edition flavors that are marked as gluten free...but not this one. Oh well. It was really tasty. Normally I wouldn't be too stressed with this, I would just deal with this and would know that in a couple days my stomach would be working the way it's supposed to again. It was pretty swollen and uncomfortable, but I have lived with it before and I knew I could deal with it again.

But I have a 1/2 marathon on Saturday and I really want to be feeling my best so I have been pounding the juice and water and I'm starting to feel a little better. Hopefully by Saturday things will be good to go.

And hopefully this time I have learned my lesson.

 

[pjlla]

Hey stranger! Haven't seen you around at all and just wanted to send a to you. I fully intended to send you a real note by snail mail, but my best intentions didn't get it done. So I figured this was better than nothing.

Praying all is well with you and your men. Miss you...........P

 

[Rose&Mike]

Hi Pamela! How are you???

We were on a trip for about 9 days and tried really hard to limit our computer time. We took a 9 day car trip for our 25th wedding anniversary. It was awesome and we did lots of fun things and if I get motivated I am going to do mini trip report.

Still here. Still gluten free. Still running pain free--which is awesome! This is the longest period of time I have gone without an injury in about 16 months!

My weight is up a few pounds, so the goal is to increase the exercise, work on my speed, and drop a few pounds this summer.

This fall will be my last parent's weekend 5k at DS's university and I would love to be ~24 minutes. It's a really hilly course, so I am going to need to get working this summer.

Still debating between the full and the half in January, though I am leaning towards the full. Being injury free is very motivating.

 

[Rose&Mike]

Mini TR--May 18-26. 25th Anniversary. Six States. 2750 miles.

Day 1--Friday May 18.

I woke up way too early--3:30am. We had decided to board our dogs the night before, which worked out great because we were on the road by 4:45am. We had a great trip planned:

1 night in SC
1 night at WDW
3 nights in the Keys
2 nights at WDW
1 night in SC

It was kind of challenging to pack for this trip. I just couldn't decide what to take along. We knew once we got to WDW we would have our Owner's Locker, but I knew it would be hard to do laundry and that we would be really active (another word for sweaty) and that I would want to change a bunch, so our Jeep was pretty full. We had a cooler with some easy g-f food (hummus, fruit, cheese, snacks) and a case of water. Along with way too many pair of shoes--I just couldn't decide!

We got some coffee and hit the road. The first part of the drive was easy. We got stuck in the detour in TN due to the road collapse near Jellico. That wasn't fun, but we hit Asheville NC before lunch and spent a couple of hours there. They had a list of g-f restaurants. The first one we tried said they didn't have anything that was g-f (not sure why they were on the list). The second one was a deli and I had this fabulous veggie sandwich. The bread was great and the sandwich was yummy. The deli was called Roman's and I highly recommend it if you are ever in Asheville.

After a couple of hours walking around Asheville (we also stopped at a chocolate shop for a treat) we headed on to Columbia SC. We checked into our hotel and then met our son and 3 of his friends for dinner at Mellow Mushroom. I love Mellow Mushroom. They have g-f pizza AND g-f beer. We had a great time visiting with DS and his friends.

Next it was off to the USC Baseball Stadium to watch Carolina play LSU. Mike had purchased tickets online earlier. We went to will call to pick our tickets up, but they were not there.....

Because he had purchased tickets for the day before......Uggh.

We have this little issue in our house where I tend to double check everything and it drives DH and DS nuts. But now they know why. I didn't double check the tickets (to make sure everything was good to go) and we ended up with the wrong tickets and the game was sold out!

Lucky for us there were some incredibly generous Carolina fans behind us with two extra tickets! They felt so bad and wouldn't even take any money for the tickets. So we were able to meet DS inside--he had a student ticket.

Carolina eventually beat LSU but it was a really long game. We left DS and his friend around 10pm and headed back to the hotel. We were really glad we did--it avoided the game traffic and we were in bed about the time the game ended. I was tired from getting up so early, but had a feeling it was going to be an early morning wakeup the next day as well.

We set the alarm for 6am and hit the sack. We were headed for WDW the next night for a quick stop on our way to the Keys.

 

[mikamah]

Great start to your trip report, Rose!! Haven't those men figured out that anything we do that drives them crazy is for their own good. So glad it worked out you could go to the game.

Can't wait to read more!

 

[mommyof2Pirates]

great start Rose!!! I cant believe the tickets were for the wrong day...us women would never let that happen. Point proven right?

Sounds like you had some good eats and really were able to enjoy your first day...well excluding finding out the tickets were for the wrong day....but look at the magic that had already started for you...you got replacement tickets for free.

 

[Rose&Mike]

So seriously on the tickets. You all would have been so proud of me. I remained mostly calm. And Mike fully admitted it was totally his fault. And from now on when I double check stuff all I have to do is say--tickets.

Day1--approx. 550 miles
Day 2--Saturday May 19th (Disney Bound!) approx. 500 miles

We were up and on the road by 5:45am. Insomnia does come in handy sometimes. It took us a minute to find some place near our hotel that was open to get gas, but once we did we were good to go with coffee from the hotel and a full tank of gas. We had stayed the night before on Marriott reward points, so that night was free!

It's a great drive from Columbia to Orlando. We had to actually watch our speed in Georgia cause there were speed traps all over the place. The drive is beautiful on I95 through Georgia--lovely scenery. We hit FL fairly early and stopped at the rest area for a pic of the welcome to FL sign and had a quick breakfast of hard boiled eggs and apples. Yum! There were lots of people sleeping in the rest areas in FL--I don't know if I would be brave enough to do that, but it would be cheaper than a hotel.

The rest of the drive was uneventful. I4 from 95 to Orlando was a little crazy and chaotic, but we hit Orlando around noon and headed off to find a Publix. We needed to buy a SunPass for our car. The GPS took us a round about way, but we finally ran in and got the SunPass.

Next we headed over to BW and checked in. Our room was ready. Bellservices was crazy when we checked in. We unloaded our stuff and they brought it up to our room along with our Owner's Locker.

Mike then dealt with loading the SunPass. We thought we could do it by phone, but that is only M-F. So we had to set up an online account. It took a little while, and was a little aggravating, but by 1:30 or so we were done and on our way to Epcot.

First stop--Rose&Crown for fries with tartar sauce. I was starving, so we didn't share. We shared a Welsh Dragon, too.

We then walked around for a bit and looked at some of the Flower and Garden stuff. It was the last weekend. The plants were amazing, but we did the Event Center and it wasn't that exciting. We also toured the Butterfly Garden--again ok, but not that exciting.

Next we were off to Mexico to share a margarita while walking back to the International Gateway. When we got back to BWV we changed into swim suits and headed for the pool. The water was cool, so we read books--and shared another drink. It sounds like a lot of drinks--but we were sharing.

Our dinner reservations were at Rose&Crown at 7:30. We checked in a bit early and were seated out on the patio. It was a beautiful evening, but very windy. The chef came out and talked to me and I ended up ordering the Vegetable Pie N Mash. It was really great! They brought g-f rolls which were ok. I was hungry so I ate one of them. I had an English Rose with dinner, and I can't remember what Mike had. Mike had a double pork entree--can't remember what it was called--but it had pork two ways--pulled pork and brisket. He said it was really good.

They had just added gluten free cheesecake to the menu so we had that for dessert! Yum!

By the time dinner was over we were tired. We thought about parking it for the fireworks--maybe ordering another drink--but we had a "unique" family sitting near us and we decided to call it a day. We walked around for a bit and then strolled back to BW. We were in our rooms by the time the fireworks at Epcot started. It had been a long (but fun) two days and we had another long day coming up, so we went to bed pretty early.

Coming up--headed for the Keys.

 

[mommyof2Pirates]

Sounds like a great day. I was thinking if I only had french fries and all those drinks I would have needed a wheelchair. Then I remembered you were sharing.

Cant wait to read more

 

[Rose&Mike]

Lindsay--haha. I told Mike when I was typing it up last night that everyone would think we were big boozers.

Day 3 Sunday May 20th--~300 miles
We were up bright and early again. We loaded up the Jeep and then headed over to Fresh Market (which I believe is at the Dolphin--we always confuse them). We had a 6:45 reservation and we were there before our time. As you can imagine, it wasn't too crowded at that time of the morning.

We've eaten there in the past, and before I went g-f I loved it. And now I like it, but for what I eat it is kind of expensive. They have a menu and a sort of buffet. The buffet has a ton of stuff I can't eat as well as an egg station, pancakes, a juicing station, etc. I don't do the juicing station anymore cause of the wheat grass. Wheat grass is safe, but if any seeds get in they are not.

I don't do the pancakes or any of the pastries. Basically I do eggs and fruit. Our server told us it would still be cheaper to get the buffet than to order off the menu if that's what I wanted....ok. So I had an omelet (which was amazing) and fruit and coffee. Even with the DVC discount it cost more than Kouzzina's would later in the week. Not sure if we will go back there again unless it's just for the convenience of getting a last minute reservation.

We hit the road around 7:45. It took us about 10 minutes of weird directions to figure out our GPS had us going to Tampa instead of the Keys! At least we got that straightened out quick and by 8:00 we were on our way.

We needed to be at John Pennekamp State Park by 2:00pm in order to keep our glass bottom boat reservation.

Today was the first time we would be using our new SunPass. I made Mike drive slow through the first one to make sure the green light (meaning it worked) showed up. I felt like a real "part-time" FL resident with our Sunpass permanently affixed to our car. Some of the tolls in Miami you either have to have a Sunpass for or they mail you a bill (at extra cost). We were able to sail through the toll booths and save some money.

We got through Miami with no problems but hit some yucky rain around Homestead right when we were headed out towards the Keys. I was disappointed cause I of course wanted blue sky and blue waters.

We made it to the State Park in Key Largo in time for lunch. And it had stopped raining! It cost $9.00 to get into the Park, but it was well worth. There was tons of stuff to look at and you could rent snorkeling gear, hike a little through the mangroves, kayak, swim. It was really nice. We had a picnic lunch of hummus and cheese and grapes and pretzels. With an iguana. No, we didn't eat iguana. But one hung out right beside us all through lunch.

Iguanas are a nuisance in the Keys and I guess other parts of southern Florida. They are not native to FL but supposedly were dropped out in the country by people who had them as pets and didn't want them once they got big. They are all over the place. They weren't really scary, once you knew what was going on with them.

Coming up next: Glass Bottom boat and dinner in Marathon.

 

[Rose&Mike]

Haven't forgotten about the trip report. I got glutened this weekend. It was my own fault, but it is still not fun. We went to buffalo wild wings to watch the college world series. We ordered nachos (which have no gluten ingredients) but there is the potential for cross contamination. Oh well. I was hoping that maybe I could tolerate stuff like that occasionally, but I guess not. This was Saturday night. Saturday night had a stomach ache. Yesterday didn't eat much, but didn't feel great--with brain fog issues. Today raging stomach ache. Hopefully it will be short lived.

 

[mommyof2Pirates]

whew 6:45am for breakfast that was definitely an early start. Sorry there werent more choices for you. You would think there should be some kind of discount for people with allergies who cant eat all that is offered at the buffet. I know 2 of the staff I have had gastric bypass surgeries. They have a card they carry and show it at resturaunts. Many of the places will give them 1/2 size meals at half the price. You think Disney would come up with something like that for allergen instances where there are not many choices.

Your day sounds lovely so far despite the weather. I cant wait to hear about your boat tour and dinner.

Hope you are feeling better soon.

 

[Rose&Mike]

It has been almost two years (in February) since I went gluten free. One year ago I was in physical therapy for lots of issues in my right foot. Wasn't sure if I would ever be pain free again. A lot has changed in a year. Mostly for the good.

I am still finding gluten free to be challenging for many reasons. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful to be healthy. I am injury free (except for minor aches and pains) and expect to complete the wdw marathon in January.

But I am just nagged by this lingering sadness over the limited food choices and the chore that eating out has become. I really cannot tolerate even small amounts of gluten. It's awesome to be healthy. But the cure is not always fun.

From what I have read, it is not that uncommon for people to feel this way and to be frustrated as they adjust to their new reality. I am constantly reminded when I look in the mirror and see how thin my hair is still in spots, that I was pretty sick at the end before going g-f.

So why revisit my journal at this point. I want to be done with the lingering sadness. It would be easy to say just get over it, suck it up and get on with things. But even though things are good over all, we made some major changes two years ago. And it is still taking a little while to get used to it all I think.

I am revisiting my journal to work on a positive outlook. This is not to say I think I should go around acting like everything is perfect. I am really not a fan of "it could always be worse" or things happen for a reason. Things happen cause they happen, and of course it could always be worse. But I think when you have to make a big change that makes you essentially "different" than almost everyone you know, it takes a little while to get used to it.

So for today, I am grateful for a part time job that is flexible where I feel useful and needed. That I ran for 60 minutes today with only minor aches and pains. And that plain Lay's potato chips are gluten free. Life is good and I am happy to be healthy.

 

[Rose&Mike]

Today I am grateful that mike and I both have jobs that we like, being able to take a nap today, and warm temps and no rain for my long run tomorrow. I am also very glad that my glutened stomach ache from last night did not last very long.

 

[Rose&Mike]

Today I am grateful for the ability to run 20 miles even if it was painful and hard! I am grateful for the chance to learn from my mistakes. I am grateful for the really yummy salad that I had for dinner.

 

[Rose&Mike]

I am thankful today for a heating pad for my sore legs and warm weather so that we could take a walk this evening.

Made my meal plan for the week today. Trying to get back to a schedule of healthy foods.

 

[Rose&Mike]

Hello! Happy January!

I am happy to say I finished the WDW Marathon last Sunday. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. Not the most difficult situation I have lived through, but the hardest thing I have set out to do and accomplished. Mentally it has been really pretty much sucking the life out of me over the last month and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted.

I am extremely proud to have completed the 26.2 miles, while at the same time feel very disappointed in my time. I have decided that I can be both. Those are my feelings and that's just how it is.

Here is my mini-trip report.

January 9 (Wednesday)
Mike and I both worked today. I left work at 2:30, picked him up and we headed to the airport. We both work near the airport, so we were parked, checked our bags and through security by 3:40. No time though for an airport margarita since our flight left at 4:30 and we board in zone 1. We did have a quick drink in Atlanta and arrived at MCO at 8:30. We were at our resort by 9:30 (BWV).

After we checked in we headed up to our room to get settled before we grabbed something to eat at espn zone. We hiked and hiked and hiked to our first room only to find our keys didn't work. Ugh. Back to the front desk. It turns out they wrote the wrong room number down for us, so our new room was much closer to the elevator! Hurray! We went up to the room, dropped off our bags and headed to espn.

Dinner was pretty predictable, but it was g-f so I was happy. I had a veggie sandwich with fries and Mike had fish (I think) and we both had margaritas. There is a trend here. I was so ridiculously stressed. So worried about the race. Worried about my back. And even worried about all the social stuff we had planned. I love seeing everyone, but I am an introvert at heart and while I love talking to people in small groups, meeting lots of new people and feeling like I am on all the time stresses me out. Plus did I mention I was worried about the race?

After dinner we unpacked, and had our owners locker and garden grocer brought up. They missed some of our grocery order the first time and had to go back for it. We were pretty much unpacked and settled around midnight. Which was good. We were both tired and needed to be up to run a mile in the morning and hopefully make MK in time for EMH. All in all a really good travel day!

 

[Rose&Mike]

Thursday, January 10
Mike and I were up by 6:00 and out the door to run a mile. I was determined to stick with the mile a day in 2013 commitment and the weather was so nice! A little foggy, but so warm. It was awesome. We had a great run around the BW/DHS area. Got quick showers and headed to the bus. As always the BW buses to MK were sloooooow. But we made it to MK right at open.

It was pretty quiet at MK so we did Peter Pan twice--I missed him saying "here we go" the first time. We just kind of wandered around Fantasyland and Tomorrowland and enjoyed being at MK. Around 10:15 we headed to the monorail. We were meeting Lisah for breakfast at the Polynesian.

I had a great breakfast of gf pancakes with the macadamia nut topping and Mike and I both enjoyed visiting with Lisa.

After breakfast we headed to the expo, which was a good decision. It was not very crowded and we did not have to wait long for our bibs. I got some new shoe bling and a marathon shirt.

We left the expo and took a bus back to BW and then walked to epcot. Yes, we were all over the place, which was how my brain was feeling--a little frantic! We met up with some friends and had drinks and hung out in world showcase for a bit. It was fun people watching and we were happy to see some of our friends from home and some of our Wish friends (dumbobuddy--Nancy and her family).

Our plan was to meet some of our other friends at Bay Lake for a drink at 6:00 and then head to MK for the castle show and dinner. We were late for drinks and then late heading to the MK. But we really enjoyed hanging out with our Wish friends.

By then I was starting to get hungry. I had french fries (chips) from Great Britain and some emergency food for lunch and was ready for some real food. Mike and I had dinner at Tony's. It was ok. I had a gluten free pasta dish. Not the best pasta dish, but the service was good, and I knew it was g-f, which is awesome! We had the pistachio creme brulee for dessert. We were both pooped and headed back to the room after dinner. We had to get up and run a mile again in the morning.

Have I mentioned that I was a little stressed about the race? Mike has said many times since we got home that we went down there too early. That we should have arrived Friday or even Saturday and then stayed an extra day or so afterwards. I think he is right.

 

[Rose&Mike]

Friday, January 11
The big Wish meet for marathon weekend is the Friday of marathon weekend. I thought I would be excited for it, but I woke up really stressed out. I hesitated to even type this up or type up a race report, but decided I can't be the only person who feels stress in situations like this.

We had a good morning at DHS after running the mile for the morning. We rode TSM, TofT and someone gave us fast passes for RnR. Around 11am we headed to the front of DHS and caught a bus to epcot. Normally we would have walked, but we were putting over 20000 steps a day on our feet and had a marathon to run on Sunday!

Lunch was at Coral Reef which I hadn't been to in a really long time. Before lunch we spent some time looking at the manatees and fish in the aquarium. Lunch was great. It wasn't too crowded, so it wan't too loud. The music was great and we both enjoyed the food. We even shared a Wave for dessert which was g-f.

After lunch we went back to the room for a bit and then walked to DHS where we caught a bus to Pop for the Wish meet. It was really great to meet folks we had chatted with online but as the meet went on I just got more and more stressed out. I was nervous about the race and just got more and more anxious. I ended up skipping the pictures. After the big meet Mike and I sat while some of our friends had dinner. They were all running the half marathon the next day.

Thinking we still needed dinner, we headed to DTD but only walked around for a minute before going back to BW where we had a drink before calling it a day. We had a nice talk with a couple who were on their first trip to WDW, and one of them was running the marathon as part of the team in training group. We were back in our room by 10:15 as we were both tired and a little stressed out.

Saturday, January 12
We were up bright and early to run our mile.
After a quick shower we took the race bus to epcot and walked to mile 12 where we cheered for the runners for an hour or so. I think we got there around 8:00. It was one of the highlights of the weekend and we both really enjoyed it. After cheering we headed for the W tent and talked to some of the Wishers who had completed the half and then walked through epcot and back to our room.

Our next stop was the race expo to get Mike a new shirt. I was pretty much a basket case at this point. I just wanted to be done with the race at that point. I didn't want to see anyone or talk to anyone. I was just beyond stressed and cranky. All I could think--would my back hold out, would the itbs act up, were my feet going to end up all messed up again, was I going to get sick from the heat????? There was this constant talk from everyone we saw about the temperatures which frankly was just making me even more crazy.

Here's the thing--I have run in these temperatures before. I had trained for this race. I was as ready as I wanted to be--because I did not want to do another 20+ mile run. But all the positive thinking and positive self talk was out the window and I was becoming more miserable by the minute. At that point I just wanted to go home.

We found a new shirt for Mike to run in the next day and then headed back to our room. The expo was crazy busy and Mike and I were both snappy with each other.

Around 2:00 we met some Wish friends at Beaches and Cream for an hour or so. I had a Mickey bar. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

The plan for the evening was to have dinner with some friends from home at Mama Melrose which is one of my favorite restaurants. Is the food elaborate or fancy? Not really, but it is delicious and gluten free! Our server was a little clueless, but we had a great dinner and a fun time with our friends. I had a bellini--which I know is a no-no before the race, but I calmed down a bit and was able to sleep, so I think it was a good thing. We thought about doing Fantasmic, but we were both tired.

When we got back to our room we made sure everything was ready for the next day. I dumped salt from salt packets we got at Great Britain (symbolic since I love being able to get fries there) into a baggy. And we made sure we had all of our other stuff together that we would need in the morning. We were in bed by 8:00 and surprisingly, I was able to fall asleep which I am not very good at before Disney races!

 

[Rose&Mike]

Sunday, January 13
Finally the race was here. I woke up around 2:00. Before the alarm, but that's ok. I had a piece of g-f pb toast and some hot water. We were on the first bus to the start. The only thing we forgot were wipes for the porta potties.

We walked by the W tent but no one was there yet. The anxiety was growing, so we just went ahead and checked our bag and headed for the area you wait at before they let you walk to the corrals. It was crazy crowded, but we were right at the front, which made it feel a little less crazy. The walk to the corrals was almost fun. Fairy Godmother was along the way which was awesome, since she is my favorite. Mike said--see you got this, which made me feel better. We ended up hanging out in the C corral with some folks we know from the Wish boards and some other folks that we met that morning. I kept feeling like I shouldn't be in the C corral, but there were pacers in the corral for the time I hoped to have.

I consistently run ~ a 2:20 or slightly faster half. My goal for this race was between 5:00 and 5:30. Thinking I would end up somewhere around 5:15. That is the pace we trained at, and I thought it was reasonable. While we were at the start all kinds of stuff was going through my head--was our last long run too long ago, did I do enough miles during the week, I'm not going to be able to finish, I can't do this, etc. And my back was very tight and sore. I was glad to have the distraction of having people we know to chat with.

We started at the back of the corral so that we could take our walk breaks from the start and it was still crowded. After the first mile we were at ~12:20 pace which was slower than I wanted, but that was ok. The first couple of miles went well and I was actually enjoying myself and thinking--hey I can do this, maybe even next year! I was taking pics of all of the mile markers. We stopped at MK for a bathroom break which slowed us down a bit, but it was worth it.

Running through the speedway where they had a car show set up was fun! The stretch from the speedway to AK was long and boring. But I was doing good with my salt/fuel and water intake and I felt pretty good. My back was starting to get sore, though. They had animals out at AK. We didn't stop but it was cool to see them as we ran past. We were obviously getting enough water, because we both needed another pottie break at AK. After we left AK the sun was out in full force. I was warm and my back was very unhappy.

My lower back was so tight that I am sure I was hunching when I ran which made my upper back tight too. One of our Wish friends caught up with us for a few miles as we ran through WWoS. There was a turtle on the track at WWoS which was cool.

Somewhere around WWoS we saw keenercam--who I hugged and just started crying. She is so awesome and it was the push I needed to keep going.

As we left WWoS and headed for mile 20 I was miserable. My poor back was so unhappy. My feet hurt (I think I should have gotten new shoes before the race) and I was overall just miserable. The mile 20 surprise was not that exciting--but there were some cool character puppets--like the ones in the stage shows.

Around mile 21 or so I stopped at an aid station and slathered biofreeze on my back. I am sure I was crying on and off at that point. My back was so uncomfortable. Most of the stretches I do for it involve putting your head below your heart which probably would have made me pass out. At one point a team in training coach stopped to offer help, but I told her I was good--i.e. did not want to talk to anyone cause I was really, really cranky!

We finally made it to DHS. I knew once I was through DHS I would be fine, since I have done that run between DHS and the finish so many times. At mile 24 we ran past our room at BWV--and I really wanted to stop--but we only had 2 miles to go!

The last two miles were brutal. It was so hot in epcot. I think it is always hot in epcot anyhow, but add in full sun and running and it was really hot! I got a bit dizzy, but ignored it, took some more salt and kept going. From about mile 20 on we were mostly walking (though I do walk fast) with only a little running thrown in. Our overall time just kept dropping, but I was still hoping to finish under 6 hours.

We ended up finishing with a time of ~6:07. Am I proud to have completed the race? Absolutely. My back was absolutely killing me by the end. I could not even sit, it was too uncomfortable. Am I ok with my time--not really. I know I can be faster than that. It just wasn't in the cards for that day. I finished with "gas in the tank" but a miserably uncomfortable back. After we ate and drank something I went to the massage tent and had them work on my back so that I could move and it was so helpful. I felt so much better. I probably should have just stopped at one of the med tents along the way and laid down and really stretched.

Phew, that was tiring thinking about the race. I will be back later to type up the rest of the day.