Springtime Tallahassee 10K Recap

I registered for Springtime Tallahassee before my accident.  Even though I had only run once between the accident and the race, I decided I was going to go ahead and do it.  I would walk the entire thing if I had to.

Woke up to 40 degree weather and headed to the Leon County Courthouse to meet up with some friends.  I realized at this point that I forgot my Garmin.  :-/

Springtime starts the 5k and the 10k at the same time, so with the sound of a horn, we were off.  Somewhere between miles 1 and 2, the 5k runners split off from the 10k runners, so the runners thinned out some.

Now remember, I live in Florida and we don't really have hills, so I rarely run them.  Well, I think this course found every hill in all of Tallahassee.  It was brutal!  During the first hill, my knee started aching.  I was very pleased to see a real bathroom around mile 2 so I could sit down for a minute.  Sadly the bathroom stop so early on killed our 5k time, which came out to be around 50 minutes.  At this point, I hit a wall.  I started getting a stitch in my side and my knee was just aching.  I did very little running at this point.

About mile 5, the cops came up to us and told us to get on the sidewalk because they were opening the roads.  I thought this was a little ridiculous seeing as there were still a good bit of people on the course.  We were about an hour and twenty minutes in at this point.  Thankfully the rest of the course was downhill so I ran a good bit and finished around an hour and forty five minutes.  Not a good time at all, but I was just happy that I finished.

After crossed the finish line, I met back up with one of my friends who finished about 10 minutes before me.  She directed me to the medal stand and they only had last year's medals left.  I was pretty upset by this because last year's was not near as cool as this year.  Thankfully one of my friends who works for the running club who puts on the race found me one of this years.  There was also no beer and barely any bananas left.  The definitely needed to organize the race a little better.

Overall I was happy that I completed the race, but it was brutal.  Not sure if I would do this course again.  Those hills were killer.

I did get a pretty medal though.  :-)

Post Race Disney Fun

After the Enchanted 10k was over, we went back to the room for a while and napped.  Once we woke up, it was time to hit the parks!  We decided to spend the night at Magic Kingdom.

First stop once we walked in the gate, Tinkerbell.  Tinkerbell absolutely loved my medal and told me next time I should fly instead of run.  :-)

Of course I had to get a picture in front of castle.

We rode a few rides and then went to dinner at Columbia Harbor House.  I had a couple friends who raved about the seafood macaroni and cheese, so I decided to try it.  It was yummy, but I would have preferred it to be a smaller portion with a side of fries or broccoli.  The mac n cheese was just so heavy and hard to finish.

After dinner, we rode some more rides and then hung out with Goofy for a little while.  We were the only person in line, so we interacted for about 10 minutes.

Goofy and I went running together.

We visited a couple princesses and got my bib signed before calling it a night.

The next morning we got up early and headed to Hollywood Studios.  First stop, coffee!

Went to the Animation Studio and I got to draw Eeyore!

After we were done at Hollywood Studios, we got a boat over to the Boardwalk to get lunch at Boardwalk Bakery.  It was on my bucket list to try the lobster roll and I'm so glad I did.  It was amazing!  I highly recommend it on your next trip.

Sadly it was time for us to come home.  Even though we were both sick the entire weekend, we still had fun.  Looking forward to the next trip!

First Half Marathon?

Well, I've officially registered for my first half marathon!  I'm going to be running the Wine & Dine Half with 10,000 of my closest friends.  :-)

I'm extremely excited, but really nervous at the same time.  I'm already having nightmares of not finishing.  Blech.

What was your first half marathon?  How was it?

Enchanted 10k Recap

The Enchanted 10k was my first Disney race and now I'm hooked.  Sadly I was sick throughout the race and didn't perform to my best standards, but I finished and can't wait to do it again!

For a costume, I decided I was going to dress up as Snow White.

On the morning of the race, I got up at 3am (ugh!) and struggled to get ready in the dark hotel room while Jason slept.

We were staying at Pop Century and they had their own dedicated buses for the race.  I got to the bus stop around 3:45am and the line was huge!  Thankfully the buses moved extremely quick though and I was only in line for about 10-15 minutes.

The bus dropped us off in an Epcot parking lot and I met up with my friend Heather who was getting off the monorail.  Then we started the long walk to the corrals.

Heather had to check a bag, so we headed over to the bag check area and then to potty before heading to the corrals.  We were lucky to find portolets that hadn't even been used yet.

We got into the corral area and stood around until about 30 minutes before the race start.  One more stop in the portolets and then we parted ways and headed to our individual corrals.

Quick picture before heading off.

I was thrilled to be in Corral C for the race.  Since I was hurt, it gave me the extra time to stay in front of the balloon ladies.

One thing that shocked me about Disney was how many people were in each corral.  That was a huge group of people all starting at one time.  Once they released our corral, I'd say it took at least 5 more minutes for me to cross the start line.

They released each corral with fireworks and we were off!

I started off running until we came across Anna and Elsa on the overpass outside Epcot.  They were also dumping fake snow on us, which was pretty cool.

Mile Marker 1

Around the time when we were making the sharp curve onto the overpass, we heard the fireworks go off releasing the next corral.

Soon we came up to Tinkerbell and Periwinkle.  I would have loved a picture, but the line was too long to stop.

I finally hit the 5k mark right outside of Epcot and I was right around a 16 minute pace, so I was happy.  They did have the buses ready to sweep right around this spot.

As we were running into Epcot, there were some tall guys on stilts.

Running into Epcot was such a magical experience.

While were in Epcot, I decided to make a stop for a bathroom break.

There were a few more characters throughout the World Showcase that I didn't bother to stop for.

Grabbed a gorgeous picture of the sunrise over Epcot.

I saw Donald over by the ESPN Club and knew I was way ahead of the balloon ladies so I stopped and got a quick picture.

As we were running back into Epcot, there was Minnie dressed up as a princess.  The line was ridiculously long though, so I just snapped a quick picture as I ran by.

I saw Mile 6 and then it was a sprint to the finish!

After you crossed the finish line, there were a ton of volunteers handing out medals, Powerade, and snack boxes.  Finally I got to the end of the chute and found my husband.  We waited for Heather to finish the race and then hopped on a bus back to Pop Century.

After we got on the bus is when it went downhill.  We were sharing the bus with Art of Animation at this point and we stopped there first.  I started feeling kind of queasy.  As soon as we pulled into Pop, I rushed off the bus and proceeded to throw up in the bushes.  Throughout the day I still felt a little off.  Finally I realized my salt was low and downed a Powerade and some chips, which made me feel a ton better.  Not the way I wanted to end my first race, but thankfully was able to correct the issue easy enough.

Overall the race was a ton of fun and I would absolutely do it again.

I was really happy with my splits for the first half of the race.  Then mile 4 sucked because of the bathroom break and picture stop.  After that I did a ton of walking, so my time wasn't as fast as it should be.  Not the best time, but I was happy I finished.

Finish Time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

What was your first 10k ever?  How was your finish time?

Quick Update on Me

Well, I won't be running for a while.  :-(

Tuesday night Jason and I were on our way to dinner and were rear ended coming off the interstate.  The force of her hitting us propelled us into the car in front of us.  My knee hit the dash during the crash.  Thankfully after a few x-rays they determined it's not broken, but to not do any running until the swelling and pain are completely gone.  

I'm still waiting to hear if my car is totaled.  It's got a good amount of damage though, so I'm pretty sure it is.

Thankfully I've got myself a snazzy rental car in the mean time.

I'm itching to get back to running, but I know it's better if I wait.  Hopefully the pain doesn't last too long.

I'll be back early next week to give a recap on the Enchanted 10K.

Princess Half Weekend Expo Recap

I can't believe the weekend of my first Disney race is already over.  :-(  I'm going to do the expo recap today and then I'll do the Enchanted 10K recap separately. 

The whole weekend was fabulous, even though both Jason and I were miserably sick.  The Disney magic makes everything good even when you're icky. 

Jason and I left Tallahassee around 7am on Friday to head down to Disney World.  We checked into Pop Century when we arrived and I caught a bus over to the expo.  The trip over on the bus was quick and there were only a couple other people. 

Fair warning, the walk to the expo from the bus drop-off is long!  Every time you make a turn, you think you're about to be there, but you still have more to walk.

I may have squealed when I saw the Enchanted 10K sign.

Signage in the expo area could have been a little more clear, but I finally found my way to the HP Field House to pick up my bib.  They had a merchandise area in the middle with the packet pick-up around the edges.  Pack pick-up was very quick and organized.  The merchandise area was pretty picked over by this point.

After I picked up my packet, I headed over to the main expo to pick up my t-shirt.  On my way in, they had this killer photo op!

You walk in on the second floor of the expo.  They had some concessions up there in case you were hungry.

For it being the second day of the expo, it was packed!  Shirt pick-up was all the way in the back of the expo, so I went there first and grabbed my shirt.  The sizing ran a tad small, but it fit so I didn't bother exchanging.

After grabbing all the necessary items, I walked around the expo hoping to find some running goodies.  I was disappointed that most of the official merchandise and even a lot of the vendor booths were already picked over from the first day.  I ended up walking out with nothing. 

The expo was well organized and had a ton of vendors.  I do wish that Disney would limit the expo to runners only the first couple of days.  I missed out on a lot of the items I wanted, but of course they're now selling on eBay for 5 times the amount they originally sold for. 

Lesson learned for next time, get to the expo on day one if you want the best selection1

Do you like race expos or do you get in and get out?  What's been your favorite race expo?