Wow.  This is so hard to begin writing because honestly I don’t know where to start exactly.  I trained for this weekend like I have never trained for anything before in my life.  It was a whirl wind.  A good whirl wind but whirl wind none the less.  So I guess it is best to start with the half.

It was hard.  I don’t know why but I struggled through this one.  I just never really found the rhythm but I tried to enjoy the course regardless.  The day started with a 2:10AM wake up.  I got myself dressed, attempted to eat (but eating that early is not easy), got my bag together, and headed to meet up with the team.  It was chilly but NOTHING like last year’s 20 degree freezing rain.  I was still wheezing pretty good and coughing a lot so I took some Mucinex (THANK YOU ERIN!) and tried to ignore it.

halfers at 2:45AM

We headed to the start, found a spot, and did our best of chill out before it was time to head to the start.  I was able to catch up with my friend Mike from work (I kind of talked him into the race a few months back).

This was also my aunt’s first half!

Finally we checked out bags and headed over to the start where we waited again for the start.  This is when I realized how hungry I was.  At this point it was a little after 5AM, meaning I had been awake for 3 hours and had only eaten when I first woke up (and I wasn’t hungry then at all).  I made a mental note to bring a lot of extra food to spread out over the waiting time before the full.  Eventually the fire works went off (this year they did fireworks for every wave start which was very cool) and we were off.  It was hard trying to find a groove.  I just couldn’t get my head into it.  I was hungry and downed a gel at mile 4 which helped a bit.  Shortly after that I started coughing.  And coughing.  It didn’t stop.  So therefore it made me stop.  Ugh.  But I really couldn’t catch my breath.  You know those really awful deep coughs that make your whole chest hurt?  The ones where there is all this nasty gunk stuck in your chest and you just can’t get a deep breath?  Yep it was one of those.  I finally coughed to the point that I threw up.  Not because my stomach hurt but because I was coughing so hard.  But honestly I felt much better after that.  My aunt thinkg I probably got rid of the gunk in my chest (TMI I know) and I really felt much better breathing wise.  And hey…at least now I can say I thew up on Disney grounds ; )

Of course entering Magic Kingdom was amazing!

entering Magic Kingdom

Christmas tree entering MK

running toward the castle

Somewhere around mile 5 I found our staff at a cheer station and it was so good seeing Nicole and Karen! It gave me a little extra boost.  I started getting really fatigued and of course this set in panic mode.  Um if I was struggling through 13 how was I going to make it through the 26??? Although I then remember John Bingham saying that the if you have a sucky half, it would mean you were going to have a wonderful full.  So I was banking on that.  Around mile 11 I found our coach running without one of my other teammates, Megan, so I decided to run with them for a bit.  Good decision.  Eventually we made it back to Epcot.  At the end of the half you enter back into Epcot and go down and around the ball and then back toward the parking lot area where the finish line is.  Well let’s just say I swear that stupid ball was running away from me.  I knew I just needed to get down and around it but I just kept getting further away!  Eventually I made it and tried to pick it up a bit at the end.  I didn’t see her but Courtney snapped this picture of me in the last .1.  check out the pony tail.

I finally made it to the finish with little energy left to spare.  I got my medal and waited around for Mike.  I knew he was hoping for a sub 2 finish so I figured he would have beat me there.

he got his sub 2!

And I finished right behind two dude rocking skirts!

So the half was harder than I expected.  It left me nervous for the full but little did I know the full would be the better of the two! that recap is coming tomorrow…