Oh hey, remember me?  That’s girl that used to blog but went MIA for the past weekend.  Well I’m back and had an absolutely wonderful weekend!  And now, lucky you, you get to read all about it.  Warning this will be long.  I’m recaping pretty much the whole weekend so if you’re only interested in the actual race, stroll down =)

So I filled yall in about the fun that went down Friday HERE. Saturday we met up with the team at 7:30 for a group warmup run around Disney’s boardwalk.  This was our first time really getting together as a group and it was a blast finally meeting everyone in person!  We ran a few miles and chatted amongst ourselves getting to know each other better.  TNT had arranged for a breakfast in the hotel for us so we headed over to the conference room all sweaty and smiling to fill our plates =) We had a great time and all got to share our stories about why we chose TNT.

After that, I headed back to the Expo with another teammate, Grace (omgsh she was soooo adorable too!) who hadn’t been able to go the night before.  I needed to check back in with Rebecca at Bondi Bands so it worked out well.  Once we got back, Stephanie had headed to downtown Disney with two other teammates to check out the character store (she needed to find something special to bring home for her little girl).  I took the opportunity for a much needed shower and nap.  It was fabulous.  The girls got back from Downtown and we got ready for our Inspiration Dinner.

After dinner we headed back to our room and got stuff ready for the next day…Stephanie made it in bed before I did, I’m too neurotic and had to recheck everything 100 times.

I was just about to go to bed and realized I didn’t finish my top!  I ended up writing Go TNT! In Big letters on the back and my name on the front.  On my one sleeves I wrote “In memory or Amanda, Bunny, and Kelly” and on the other I wrote “In honor of Stephanie”.  Finally made it to bed and actually slept really well.  Well as good as you can when you know you have to wake up at 2:45 am.  Alarm went off, we got out of bed, got ourselves ready and headed down to the lobby to meet the Team at 3:30 am to board the buses over to Epcot, where the race started.  It was definitely chilly out, around the low 40′s but it was no where near as bad as sitting around in the 20 degrees and freezing ran we had in January! And guess who I found?!…

Libby was supposed to run this race but her hip flexor is really hurt and she couldn’t run but because she is so amazing she showed up just as early as the rest of us with awesome signs!  Isn’t this one great! I had made her a sash that said “Injured Princess” and she wore it all day =)  As we were talking guess who found us…

TMB saw our skirts (she made Libby’s) and headed over to us.  We only got to hang for a bit before the 20 minute trek over to the start line but it was SOOOOO great meeting these girls. They are both even more gorgeous and sweet in person!  We didn’t get to find the rest of the girls but I was so excited to finally meet them!  Thanks for finding me ladies!  You’re both awesome!

• Libby: thank you so much for getting up so early and staying out in the cold!  It was so great knowing someone out there was cheering for me!
• Tonia: CONGRATS on the PR girl I got so excited when I heard!  Your Bondis are in the mail!

So we headed to the start and yeah the cold was starting to get to us after standing around for a few hours.  Stephanie and I ended up huddling next to a generated becasue it was giving off so much heat.  Oh well if we were breathing some toxic exhaust fumes.  He had warm hands.  It started catching on and we ended up with a whole little group surrounding the light.

We finally headed to the corral.  I was assigned Corral A but I wanted to run with Stephanie so dropped back to B.  Plus, I was scared if I started in A I would feel pressured to run faster than I planned so it was a good choice.  So the fire works went off and off we went.  Mile 1 seemed to fly by but I checked Gracie and we were making good time. Right on pace.  Around mile 2 my stomach started to talk to me and I no better than to ignore and open Porta Potty when my stomach is rumbling.  I told Steph to keep going.  She was on a roll and I didn’t want to hold her back.  I got back on the course and saw someone wearing almost the same thing as Steph so I ran to catch up but yeah, wasn’t her.  Glad I didn’t hit her in the back or something.  I grabbed water at every station, even if I only took a few sips.  Disney is really great about their bathroom and water support btw.

During Mile 4 we were heading into the Magic Kingdom.  All the sudden I heard “KATYE!” and sure enough it was Libby with her sign!  It made me so happy! She snapped a picture of me and I jumped over for a quick sweaty hug (sorry Libby) and picture.

As you may recall, I wasn’t in this race for a PR.  I was in it for the shear fun of it, hence the costume.  I stopped to take a bunch of pictures this time which I’m SOOO glad I did!

I took this video heading down Main Street!

I was honestly feeling great for the majority of the race.  I was having a blast and taking in every second of it.  I ate my Clif Shots at the right times, followed them with water, paced myself, the works.  But for pretty much all of mile 7 my left hip was bugging me.  Not really pain, more of just a annoying discomfort that eventually turned into a constant popping.  Ut uh.  I was really loose ligaments in my left hip from too many years of standing in all the wrong positions in dance.  I knew my hip was out of place and headed toward dislocating itself. Its happened before but I was NOT giving up.  I headed to the next med tent and had them all cracking up.  Before I would let the guy look at it I said “Look I think somethings up with my hip but if I let you look at it are you going to pull me off the course?  Cuz if you do I’ll cry.  and I don’t want you to look at it”.  He assured me as long as it wasn’t life threatening and I could keep the pace no one would force me to do anything.  I laid on the table and he moved my leg around.  Yup.  Hip no longer in socket.  He quickly popped it back in place, made me do some silly things to prove it wouldn’t come back out, and I was on my way.  Felt fine after that!  I was starting to get tired at mile 11.5 and just as I was about to give in and walk, Coach Maureen found me! How awesome!  She told me Stephanie was about 3/10 of a mile ahead and doing great..Go STEPH and she assured me mile 12 was right around the corner (or over the overpass haha) and she ran with me for about a mile.  It was awesome and gave me the kick I needed.  Before I knew it I saw…

Ok I can definitely do this! Got my butt in gear and made it!  How awesome!  I missed her but Libby saw me at the 13 marker and snapped this…

Got my tiara medal and I was a happy girl.  The photo guy was nice enough to sneak a picture with my camera at the finish area =)

I checked out the Gracester.  Ok before I tell you my time, I have a confession to make.  Since the last half in January, the farthest continuous distance I had run before this was 7 miles.  Gasp I know.  Only a little more than half of the 13.1  I was nervous going into this so I made me goal 2:30.  And that was a stretch.  But I finished in 2:22!  I was soo happy! Factoring out my photo stops, I probably ran right around the same pace as January when my time was 2:12!  I was really proud of myself but then I realized Stephanie had finished a few minutes ahead of me and her PR before this race was 2:45!  She ran a 2:18!  That’s a PR by 30 mins people! She rocked it!  Congrats Steph!

We grabbed our water, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (seriously PB&J never tasted better than after running) and headed over to get a few more pictures with the Princesses.

We were ready for a shower and a nap.  We headed back to the hotel, showered, stretched, used The Stick (AMAZING) and got a quick nap before heading to the TNT Victory Party!

Even though we were a bit tired, we were feeling good and Stephanie and I decided to hit the parks!  First on the agenda was Hollywood Studios (Tower and Terror and Rock N Rollercoaster only had 20 min waits!)  Then it was off to Magic Kingdom. It was fun walking through the crowded park we had just run through a few hours earlier =)

We watched the parade and around 9:30 we were beat. We headed back to the hotel and slept like rocks.  The next morning the maid decided to come in our room at 8am?  Why, I don’t know.  Oy the first time to sleep in the 4 days and she woke us up.  Oh well, we couldn’t fall back asleep so we got some of our things together and headed to Downtown Disney.  One of Stephanie’s bucket list items was to ride a hot air balloon and DTD has one that goes up 400 ft for only $16!  Ok I hate heights.  Alot.  I love roller coasters and stuff but hate being suspended.  But I really wanted to do it so I went!  It was so much fun!

We walked around a bit more but had to head back for out 1:oo check out (which we missed.  Oh well).  It was then time to head to the airport for me =(. It was an amazing weekend and it was sad to say bye. I really hope I get to meet up with Stephanie again.  She is adorable and one hell of an inspiration.  The girls been through ALOT in the past 5 years and she’s strong and determined!

So half marathon #2 was a success! I am definitely planning on running this one again next year.  Any takers?

If you are still reading this, I love you.  Good night!  I’m off to watch Lost!