Race Recap: Corporate 5k

My youngest brother had a ton of questions after spectating at the Disney Princess Half Marathon. And he was super impressed by my race medal. So much so that he tried out for and won a spot on his schools track team! When I found out that my mom's job would pay the registration fee for employees and/or their family members I signed up so that my brother and I could run his first race together.

We got downtown a little before 5 so I parked in a metered space and only had to pay $1.25, instead of the $5 that the garages were charging *Score* After checking in, LB and I walked around Lake Eola a couple of times to warm up and then headed towards the corrals. Just before the race started I looked back and could not believe how many people there were. The announcer said there were 12,600 people registered!

I went into this race figuring I wouldn't set a PR. Both because I wanted to go at LB's pace and because I figured there would be a lot of people there who didn't know proper race etiquette. For instance, there were three different corrals, one for CEOS, one for runners, and a final one for walkers but there were walkers near the front of the runner corral. So we ended up doing a lot of dodging and weaving right off the bat.

LB fell a few minutes into the race. I tried to take a picture of it, but my camera didn't power up fast enough. What? I am his big sister lol. Apparently the poor kid was having a hard time staying on his feet because he slipped, but didn't fall, a few minutes later. After that he managed to stay upright for the rest of the race. He'd told me previously that he could run around the track at his school twice before having to stop so I made fun of him for wanting to take walk breaks before we got to mile two. That led to an argument about how long the track at his school was (I ended that one by telling him to ask his coach).

As we continued along the course which wound through a downtown neighborhood, I spent the rest of the race encouraging him and pointing out other partcipants. There were firefighters running in full gear and an amputee, all of whom we both thought were really cool and awe-inspiring. When we got to the last quarter mile I encouraged him to kick it up so that we could finish strong. While it wasn't a 5k PR for me, the huge grin on LBs face after the race was priceless!
Final time, 32:54.
After the race several runners high-fived him and told him how great he did. Then he asked where his medal was lmbo. I had to explain that they don't normally give them out at 5ks but that he could have my shirt. I found a medal on ebay that I bid on, hopefully I'll win so that I can have it engraved to commemorate his first race.

On the way home he kept saying "I did it, I did it!" :)

Race Recap: AFLAC Iron Girl 15k

Last Saturday, I set out to tackle my first 15k race. I was kind of worried because I've done very little running since my half marathon so I felt very unprepared. Nevertheless, on race day morning I tightened my laces and headed off to Pier 60!

After FINALLY finding a parking space, I got out of the car and decided to run with my camera so that I could take pics along the course. Once I got all the way downstairs, I turned my camera on only to discover that it kept giving me some weird error message and wouldn't take pictures! FML. Then I turned Gabby the Garmin on, only to have her flash a "low battery" warning at me. Seriously? You couldn't tell me that last night? *Sigh*

Post race but we'll pretend it's a view of everyone lining up lol
After warming up I got as close as I could to the starting line and a short time later we were off! The course runs up and over the causeway and I really enjoyed the views across the bay and of the sunrise. Then we ran down a street before turning into a neighborhood. Somewhere around mile 4 I spotted my friend M, who was in mile 7 and getting ready to head back towards the finish line. M is amazing, she ran her first marathon earlier this year and ran it with a BQ time. Who does that???

Anyhoo... it was around this time that I realized that I had to pee but there were no porta-potties in sight. I figured I had just missed them but since the course looped through the neighborhood twice I didn't freak out because I figured I'd be able to stop on my second time around. Ummm... no. Can you believe there were NO portapotties on the frigging course?!? Well, correction... there was one set at mile 1.5, which was also mile 8 #FAIL.

One the way back across the causeway I was feeling so good that I was actually singing along with Beyonce and Rhianna, which I'm sure annoyed the heck out of the other runners since I can't sing lol.

Finishing time 1:51:25.

The lack of training showed because my finishing time was more than 5 minutes off from my 15k split during the half marathon. Still, I'm glad for this experience because it taught me that you can't brush off any distance race if you want to have constant improvement (like I do).

I had some issues with the logistics of this race and I made sure to submit feedback to the race directors via email. But I still plan on running this race next year because it's one of the last distance races of more than 5k in my area until the fall.

Race Day Recap: Disney Princess Half Marathon

Warning: This post is super long!!!

Race Eve: On Saturday I met Robin, along with some other DailyMile members who were running the Disney Princess Half for dinner. I still tend to draw back into my shell when I'm in a group of people that I don't know well, but they were all very friendly and encouraging... just like they are online.

Then I headed home and began getting ready for bed. After triple checking both the alarm clock and the alarm on my cell phone later that night, I finally went to bed around 8:45, only to wake up at 11pm. I stayed in bed desperately praying for sleep and then I began having random thoughts of going to Waffle House. It's been so long that I couldn't even tell you when I last ate there so really?

It was around that time that I concluded that getting a good nights sleep was a big fat #FAIL. So I got up, made breakfast, got dressed, and put on my tiara. It was still really early so I had to wait around a bit. I sat on the couch with my furbabies and watched Mean Girls and part of Legally Blonde. Then 3am hit and it was finally time to head out to Disney!

Pre-Race: For some reason, whenever I get off at 192 I always fail to take the ramp onto Disney property. Per usual, I realized I was headed out to Kissimmee before making a u-turn and getting back on track.

After waiting around in the athlete holding area the gate was opened, and we headed towards our corrals. I was the fifth person to go into Corral C so I got right up front.

Did I mention that it was cold? Well it was, but it wasn't cold enough to damper my excitement! I actually participated in the Cha Cha Slide, and even worse, the Macarena during the 45 minute wait. What seemed like a short time later, the fairy godmother announced that it was time for the race to begin and after counting down the runners in Corral A were off! The corrals were released 7 minutes apart so 14 minutes later it was my turn!!!

Start - Mile 3: I normally struggle with the first three miles of my run, but not today! My first three miles flew by... but not before I passed a bunch of walkers who I'm assuming started out to fast, a high school band, Flik from A Bugs Life, and Captain Jack Sparrow and his ship. A lot of people stopped for pictures but I was on a mission!

Mile 1: 10:10
Mile 2: 10:31
Mile 3: 10:41
Official 5k pace: 10:31

Miles 4-6: This was without a doubt, the best part of the race for me! My cheer squad was somewhere around mile 4.5. I should mention that my cousin was so excited that she had some random (but fun) lady screaming my name too lol. After taking a few pics and giving my camera to my sister, I ran on feeling like a rockstar.

Before I knew it we were entering Magic Kingdom. When we turned the corner onto Main Street USA I could feel the biggest grin come across my face. It was awesome because spectators were lined up along the street! Then I saw the castle. Now, I don't normally get excited about stuff like that but it was seriously amazing to run through the castle (still wearing a huge grin, of course). I stopped long enough to take a picture, which I'm pretty sure is going to look really dorky because I vaguely remember throwing my hands up into something that probably resembled peace signs. Then I headed on.

Mile 4: 11:14
Mile 5: 10:31
Mile 6: 10:55
Official 10k pace: 10:55

Miles 7-9: I don't remember anything exciting about Mile 7. But Mile 8 is another story *sigh* About halfway through Mile 8 I realized that my hamstrings had been tight for a while and it wasn't going away, so I stopped to do a couple of stretches. When I started running again Oh Em Gee!!! My hip was hurting! But I kept running, albeit it slower. After all, this was my first half marathon and I didn't go there to walk. But by mile 9 I was doing just that, which did not make me happy Ugh!

Side note: I wish there were more spectators between Miles 9 and 10 of the course because that part runs along another service road and is very boring. My cheer squad clearly isn't any good at following directions because they'd all gone back to the finish line at Epcot instead of spreading out along the course as instructed.

Mile 7: 11:20
Mile 8: 11:26
Mile 9: 14:21
Official 15k pace: 11:30

Miles 10-12: By mile 10 I decided that I was going to run the last 5k come hell or high water. Unfortunately the version of hell that I envisioned didn't have the effing onramp that I came to around 10.44 miles. I would have been okay with the incline because it wasn't that steep, but the stupid thing also had a wicked slope to the right. The slope increased the pain in my hip and it was just too much!

I still didn't feel physically fatigued and I had been strong mentally up until that point. But having to walk that ramp was sooo frustrating that I began tearing up. And it was a slow walk at that. I looked down at Gabbie (my Garmin) and realized that there was no way that I was going to hit my 11:00 min/mile pace goal and started getting even more bummed about the whole situation. I'm sure I looked like a princess who'd kissed one too many frogs at that point.

Once I got to the top of the ramp I looked over the overpass at the sea of people who were behind me and in such good spirits. That actually cheered me up a bit. I ran on and realized that I was coming up on Jack Sparrow again, then Flik, and the highschool band! That must mean that I was almost finished!

Once we got back into Epcot there were spectators and volunteers cheering us on and telling us that we only had one mile to go. I really did not want to walk any of that last mile so I prayed that there would be no more sloped ramps and kept going. When I rounded the corner and could spot the finish line I started grinning like an idiot. I didn't have it in me to sprint to the finish line but I did finish it running!

Mile 10: 13:18
Mile 11: 14:32
Mile 12: 12:55
Mile 13: 11:43
Last .25 before I stopped the timer: 2:37

Official time: 2:37:37
Garmin time: 2:36:24 for 13.25 miles (Not sure why, but most DailyMilers said their Garmin also charted the course at 13.25 miles instead of 13.1)

Post-Race: I picked up my finisher's medal and walked towards the food before realizing that my hip felt like it was gonna fall off lol. My only thought beyond getting a banana and something to drink was to get to my car so that I could stretch and sit down. After finding my family, we took a couple of pictures...

then I headed off in the direction of my car. Only I couldn't find it! I seriously wandered around the parking lot for at least 10 minutes before realizing that it was on the row that I had initially started on, but farther down the row FML. I dragged my left leg into my SUV and headed back home. Somewhere on the trip back, I realized that I was rubbing my medal, grinning, and planning my next half marathon!