Okay so this post will be dedicated to race time!

If you missed yesterday’s post about day one check it out HERE.

If you’ve ever done a Disney race you know it means EARLY wake up call.  AKA I woke up at 3:15 AM and was on a bus to the start area by 4AM.  We Media Princesses were all dressed up and ready to go.

As a part of the Media Mixer we had access to a special VIP Media tent.  Oh super cool.  That meant no waiting around in the regular staging area, no bag check, and our own bathroom.  But I’ve done 4 Disney races regular human style and seriously I’ve never had an issue.  They provide entertainment, plenty of bathrooms, and a very organized bag check.

We got ourselves together and soon started the walk over to the start.  It is about a mile walk from the staging area to the corrals but honestly it has never bothered me.  I think of it as a nice little warm up for race time.  On the way over someone called my name and it was Kayla from Running: My Anti Drug!  Always fun to find someone in person!  Once we made it to the corrals we started breaking off into our designated areas.  I was assigned corral A but I knew I wasn’t racing this it all.  My training plan called for a 1:40 long run (aka running for an hour and 40 mins at long run pace) and I was just out to get the miles in.  I suck at pacing myself so if I had started in A I would have gone out fast and regretted it.  So I was wondering around and hear my name yet again and it was Lesley (Racing it Off) and Little Fruit Fly.  They were in Corral B which sounded good to me so I hopped the fence and hung out with them until race start.

I LOVE that this year Disney has started doing fire works at every wave start (last year they only did fireworks at the very beginning).  The first Corral was off and 6 mins later we headed out.  Mile one felt good!  Mile 2…not so much.  I started to feel a bit uneasiness in my stomach.  And it didn’t go away.  At 2.5 I had to run into a porta potty and well…it wasn’t pretty.  If you’ve never thrown up in a DARK porta potty before…I don’t suggest it.  As the contents of my stomach forced their way out of my body I thought I would start to feel better.  Not so much.  Mile 4 I found myself in yet another Porta Potty.  Good bye sea food pasta from last night (TRAGIC CHOICE!).  Good bye bagel from this morning.

The weather didn’t help.  It was very humid and far warmer than I had been used to running in.  It was already about 75 and humid and the sun wasn’t even up.  So you know that gross cold sweat that accompanies the stomach flu?  I had that mixed with the humidity.  I stopped at a water stop around mile 6 but the water came right back up.  Oh well…not my race.  But heck I was finishing and getting that medal!  My legs felt good!  My breathing and heart rate felt good!  It was just my stomach that wasn’t having it.  And note to self…when feeling dehydrated, chugging water is not a good idea.

Once I hit the Magic Kingdom I was feeling a bit better.  And heck running down Main Street toward the castle is SO MUCH FUN!.

 

I ran through the castle and loving every second!  And then I hit Adventure Land.  Ut uh.  Rumbling stomach.  Real bathrooms…I made a sprint toward the bathrooms.  The funny thing is there were the characters from Toy Story standing in my path toward the bathroom and the guy thought I just really wanted a picture with them.  Not so much.  I made it to the bathroom just in time to…throw up all over my pretty princess skirt!  BAHHHHH.  Oh well.  I ditched the skirt (don’t worry I still had my running skirt on) and was on my way.  So my poor skirt was left in a Magic Kingdom bathroom.  You do what you gotta do right?

The good news if I felt 100 times better the rest of the race!  Once I got that out of my system it was smooth sailing.

The last mile was actually my fastest!  My calves were a bit sore, as were my abs, but my IT felt fine! YAY!  I crossed the finish line, got my medal, and made my way back to the Media tent where they treated us like Princesses with a wonderful brunch spread (complete with Mimosas).  We had an AWESOME view of the finish line!

 

We got to hang out a bit more with my new best friends, Capt. Jack Galloway…

And Ethan and Jenna

We chatted a bit about the race and life and get this…are you ready?  Seriously…are you prepared for some super cool news???

Ethan personally invited Me and T to be a part of his GrassRoots Soccer Marathon Team for the NEW YORK MARATHON!  Ethan and I have e-mailed back and forth a few times since Sunday morning (well we are best friends and best friends do that kind of stuff) and I am so excited to run with such an awesome organization!  I told you I’m a professional Charity Runner…

A bit later I got to see one of my trainees, Deb cross her first Half Marathon Finish Line!  GO DEB!  She is such a sweet lady and I’ve had so much training her for the past few months!  She killed the race btw.

I also got to see my buddies cross the finish line in their beautiful spandex and tutus!

Once all of our bloggy buddy princesses had finished we headed back to the Polynesian Resort.  The line for the buses was about an hour long wait and Heather had the brilliant idea of using the monorail.  The line was long but they had 2 trains running and we really didn’t wait very long at all.  It was time for a long shower and rest ; )