Princess 1/2 Marathon Race Re-Cap….finally!

It has been a long time coming on this race recap! I just simply haven't had the time!! My life has been pretty crazy, traveling all over for work, and blogging has had to take a back seat.

It was over a month ago now that I was in the midst of running the Glass Slipper Challenge, and the 5k which has been affectionately called "Dopey Lite" and having a blast with my BRFF Meg!!


After finishing the 5k and the 10k, it was now time for the main event: the 1/2 marathon!!


Yet another early wake-up call, this one wasn't as bad, I think I got used to it. If that is possible. I quickly got dressed -- Anna from Frozen, and made my way to the busses.

POP Century and RunDisney really had their stuff together as far as the transportation to the races were concerned, we didn't have to wait even a minute and we were on our way.

After a few pictures, Anne and I made our way to the Race Retreat tent to eat some breakfast and check our bags. We had packed all of our California medals, since we would be receiving our Coast-to-Coast medal and wanted some pictures of all the BLING!!

Inside the tent I helped myself to a bagel, peanut butter, a banana and some coffee. Anne and I sat quietly for about 30 minutes, just taking it all in. It was bittersweet. This was our last RunDisney race (or so we thought!!), and while I was excited to get running, I was also trying to savor every minute of the ride that brought my sister and I closer together.

Too soon it was time to head to the corrals. Having run the race before, I knew what to expect. It is a long, crowded walk. Anne couldn't believe how far we had to walk, I thought it seemed shorter than the past time, maybe because I knew it would be long!

Anne and I wished each other luck as we separated at corral F (Anne was in D), and then I was alone in a crowd. It was right then that my corral panic set in, and the idea of waiting really scared me. I was tired, I was sore, I was hot……it was really, really, really humid and I was already sweating!! Yuck!

During my panic, in which I tried multiple times to talk myself both out of and into running this race, was when the Princess issues started. Princess 1/2 Marathon is well known for having some drama, and some drama queens, and corral F was brimming with them. I was standing near the front of the corral, and was just about knocked over by a whole group of women who were dressed as Snow White (yes, they all were!). They literally pushed me to the side, and I tripped on a woman who was sitting on the ground. I was beyond annoyed.

It only got worse with these ladies. They were completely annoying. One woman -- who was wearing her hair down-- spent about 15 minutes scrunching her hair and making duck faces in her cell phone. It was so humid, and she was wearing full on make-up, and worrying about her hair?!?

Anyway, I tried to ignore the craziness around me, and just focus on staying calm. It worked for awhile. Not soon enough, corral F was sent off with fireworks and I got away from the Snow Whites!

From the very minute I started running, I knew I would struggle with the humidity. It was at 99%!! Something this northern girl just cannot handle.

My initial race plan was to have fun, stop at all the characters and enjoy the race. At mile 1, I completely changed my plan, I would just run, and try to finish. I would only stop at photos that I really needed, and that had short lines.

At mile 2 I was soaking, I could wring my shirt out, and my braids were heavy with sweat (note to self: never run with braids). I was running, but I was miserable!!

I think it was around mile 3, that I met up with irundisney's Jindy!! I was struggling, and stuck with her for a couple of miles. It felt really good to talk and have someone to run with. It took my mind off of the humidity, for awhile. Jindy was running intervals, something I have very little experience with, so it was hard for me, but I enjoyed the company so much, I stuck it out.

In the Magic Kingdom, Jindy planned on using the restroom, and we parted ways.

I always have fun running through the Magic Kingdom and this particular run was no different! I actually got to RUN through the castle! It was great!!

The time spent inside of the Magic Kingdom is just too short in my opinion, and much before I would have liked, we were running out of the park!

It was around this time that I met up with a #Runnerslove friend Caroline!!! It was so much fun to chat with her for awhile!! We took a few pictures together, and then she took off to claim her PR!! Woo!!

At around mile 10, I completely fell apart! The entire race, I had been taking 2 waters at each water stop: one to drink and one to pour over myself. The humidity was insane, and I was really struggling. While the water I poured on myself helped for about a minute, it left me soaking wet and miserable!

I was just completely done with this race by this point, so I stopped for a few pics, and started texting Meg. She is always so encouraging, and pretty much told me to "suck it up and run"!! I needed a that, and kept plugging along.

It really took me all I had to power up the highway on-ramps, and finish the last 3 miles! My Marathonphoto pictures show all the pain I was in!! Seriously, the humidity killed me!!!

At mile 12, I knewI was close, and caught a small second wind, enough to get me to the finish line!!!

I had already received pictures from my sister, as she had finished, and the thought of claiming 3 medals was also a BIG motivator for me.

As I crossed the finish line, I cried, tears streaked down my cheeks, and for a moment, I broke into a complete sob. I had finished, not that I thought I wouldn't, nor was I even close to being swept, but I finished!! What I had started over a year before was now complete. I had done it! I was so proud!

Walking through the finisher's chute, I was bombarded with water, Powerade, a cool towel (THE BEST!) and a mesh backpack to stick it all in.

I was shaking so hard I couldn't get my water open, luckily a volunteer saw my struggles and helped! I wanted to hug her!!! I was pretty emotional!

After what seemed like a LONG walk, I finally got my medal! The tears and sobbing started again when I received my coast-to-coast medal for completing both the Tinkerbell 1/2 Marathon in Disneyland and the PHM, and then to top it all off the Glass Slipper Challenge medal was placed around my neck. I just couldn't keep it together!! I was so proud of myself, and so emotional about the entire journey and how much I had gained through it.

I made my way quickly into the Race Retreat tent, and got some hot food! It tasted so good!! My cousins and Anne were waiting there for me. Anne presented me with a beautiful necklace and my cousins had bought us Mickey roses!!  It was a great celebration!!

Almost instantly my suffering on the course was forgotten, and I was sad that it was all over. Anne and I took a few picture with all of our RunDisney medals, and then we made our way to the bus line.

OMG!!! It was a disaster!! I think we waited in line to get on the bus for over an hour. It was truly awful!

The rest of the afternoon was pretty nondescript. We had early dinner reservations at the Hoop-Dee-Doo Review, and I was so excited to eat!! The show was so much fun, and the food was delicious!!

Afterwards, my cousins went to Downtown Disney and Anne and I went to the Magic Kingdom to take a few more medal pics with the castle!

We had an amazing time, and hardly felt tired from our day! We pretty much walked onto all of the rides, saw the fireworks (FINALLY!!) and the castle show. I broke down again and cried during the castle show, it was amazing to watch, but what was even more amazing is that I was there with Anne, and we were glowing in our accomplishment.

This entire race weekend was special, from meeting Meg, to the 3 races, to the coast-to-coast medal, it was magical. I cannot express the love I felt.

What is more important to me than any medal, or any finish line is the friendship and closeness I have build with Anne through this process. It warms my heart.

I cannot wait for our next Disney Adventure!! :)

Welcome to Team #runDisney Blog Hop, where we have the grand opportunity to meet and connect with new bloggers, such as myself! This is a great opportunity to meet some new friends and share our training journeys before running our RunDisney races!

 Enjoy!

Rules (Not really rules but a guide):

1. Please Follow your host's blog 

I am your host,  Kristy @ KristyRunsKato and I am the first linky. 

Please leave a comment and introduce yourself!

2. Link it!

Link up your blog . Share your race recaps, your RunDisney plans, or anything that you love this week. Please, please, please, share the love and include a link back to this blog hop.

3. Spread it!

This is a blog hop after all, so hop around! Visit other blogs and say Hi!

4. Tweet it!

Tweet

Please help me to promote this blog hop by sharing it to others. 

So tweet it to show everyone where you link up on Thursdays!

6. The most important rule of them all, HAVE FUN BLOG HOPPING!

NOW IT IS YOUR TURN! ENTER YOUR BLOG HERE! LET'S START THE FUN!

I have created a button you can use for your blog to direct readers to our Blog Hop! 

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Race Schedule

Here are my up-coming races:


August: Team Ortho Women Rock 1/2 Marathon:

October: Mankato 1/2 Marathon (2014)

 October: Team Ortho Monster Dash 1/2 Marathon

October: TC Looney Challenge (5k, 10k & 10 Miler)

November: Disney's Wine & Dine --> Disney World

November: Disney's Avenger's 1/2 Marathon --> Disneyland

April: Big Sur

May: Pixi Dust Challenge

Do you have any races coming up? What is on your calendar? Are you running any of these races?

Race Recap: The Color Run

This weekend was a 2 race weekend for me! And although they were both only 5ks, the whole experience left me feeling pretty badass! :)

On Saturday, I ran the Go Commando Adventure Run. You can check out the race recap here.  On Sunday I ran the Color Run at the Minnesota State Fair grounds in Minneapolis.

My before Picture

It seems like just about everyone is familiar with the different versions of the Color Run. It is essentially a 5k that has 4-5 different areas where volunteers throw a colored powder on you. Runners are encouraged to wear white clothing for a maximum effect!

When I signed up for this run, I was pretty excited. I had heard about many others who have had a blast at this type of run. I signed up right away when registration opened, but could not convince any of my running buddies to join me. No one else really thought having stuff thrown on you while you run sounded fun!

Starting Corral! Packed!

As "race" day approached, I also started feeling like this may not be as fun as I thought. I tried to keep a positive attitude, but just wasn't feeling it. I mean, I had a really cute outfit picked out, and everything, but I just couldn't get into the mood!


The morning of the run came, again my sister and boyfriend came along for support. My wave time was supposed to be 9:15am, but we got there early, and there were thousands of people!! The starting line was over 2 blocks long!! I just jumped in where I could and got started. I don't know what time I actually started running, but it was before 9:15.

In the starting corral, it first became apparent to me that this was not going to be so much of a run, but more of dodging walkers and strollers type of run. Most of the people I talked to in the corral, had never run a 5k before, or had actually never even run before and were just there to walk.

Strollers...

After quite a wait, we were let through the starting line, and to my surprise, we were actually moving at a pretty good pace! I think it was when I caught up with the wave that went before us that the traffic jam began! It was packed!! White shirts as far as the eye could see! It was a pretty cool sight!

Lots of people carried
their children & ran!!

I tried to keep a good pace, while dodging little kids, strollers and walkers. It was rough. At one point I even looked around to see that I was the only one of about 200 people who was actually running! People were actually looking at me like "what are you running for?"


It was a weird vibe.

About a 1/2 a mile in we hit the first color, blue! I ran through while the volunteers (who were covered head to toe in blue!) sprayed  me with the colored powder. I was disappointed that not much of it actually stuck to me! It wasn't really sticking to my clothes, but more to my arms and face and teeth
(I was smiling!)

Just about every 1/2 a mile there was another color. People were so excited to get this powder thrown on them. It was actually pretty funny! As much as I tried to get a lot of powder sprayed on me, it just wasn't sticking!

By mile 3, I was sick of dodging people, and really happy to see the finish line. I just wanted to be clean again!

My "after" picture! Not a ton of color...

According to my "fans" I finished in just under 38 minutes. Not a PR by any means, but pretty good considering the amount of people and the back and forth path I had to run!

The finish line was a huge back up that lead into the post party. This part was pretty cool, as they have color explosions every 10 minutes. But it was so crowded! They said there were more than 20, 000 people in the post party when I crossed the finish line, and more were coming in!! CRAZY!!

My sister took these pictures, I am in there somewhere!

We didn't stay very long at the party, just long enough for me to get in on one of the color explosions. I was tired of the crowd. The clean up of this type of race wasn't so bad. There is no clean up at the race its self, so I just stripped down to my compression shorts and sports bra, wrapped a beach towel around myself and got in the car. At home it was much harder than I thought to scrub the color off of my skin, it took forever! And even though I bleached my clothes, the color did not come out. :(

While this is not a  race  run I will probably do in the future, I am glad I experienced it once. I always think it is amazing to see so many people getting excited about exercise! Even if they were not running, they were out there! I can see that this type of run is a springboard for some to try other 5ks and get into running.

Color Explosion!

I also think it is cool to see so many people having a great time together. There were no issues, everyone was happy! That is such a great thing to witness!

Here are some tips if you are planning on doing this type of run:

1. Wear a cotton shirt. While is it not comfortable to sweat in, I think it holds more color. I wore a tech top and it did not catch much color.

2. Wear old shoes! I wore some shoes I really didn't care too much about, but at times I was plodding through ankle-high colored powder! So, your shoes really take a beating!

3. Run with a group! I think this race would have been a lot more fun with a group of people, running alone was pretty boring.

4. Don't expect to PR or even run the whole way! These runs are money makers and they are crowded! Do not expect people to respect or even know about race etiquette!! Walkers are everywhere!

5. Make sure anyone coming to watch is wearing clothing that can get dirty! My sister never dresses down and was not happy when she got some color on her "good" shirt!!

Have you ever done a Color Run? What did you think?

Go Commando! My First Mud Run!

Today was my very first mud/obstacle run experience. I ran the Team Ortho Go Commando 5k in Minneapolis.

To say I was a little nervous about this run, would be a huge understatement! I was more nervous about this race than I have been about any other race I have run. I guess the reason being, is in a traditional road race, you know what you are getting into, but a mud run has a bunch of surprises waiting around each corner! And, anyone who knows me, knows that getting dirty and muddy is not really my thing! 

We had a huge storm last night, and this morning when I woke up it was still pouring, which made me even more nervous-- more mud!! By the time we made it to the parking area, the rain had stopped, and it was quite chilly. 

On the bus. Very unsure!

My boyfriend and my sister both accompanied me to this race, and I was really excited to have the support! They both took the pictures you are seeing here, and did a great job cheering me on and making me smile!

Once we parked, we got on a school bus and were bussed to the race area. The bus ride seemed to take forever, and it was making me even more nervous. Once we finally arrived, we got a good view of the course and I was about ready to turn around and just head home. It was pretty intimidating!

When trying to decide to what I should wear to this race, I decided to just go with what I am comfortable with, and I rocked my favorite Team Sparkle skirt and Blood, Sweat and Sparkle tank. I was unsure of what type of shoes to wear, and ended up going with my Five Fingers, which I was really happy with during the entire race! I was feeling pretty badass about my outfit, and it gave me some courage to get in the start corral! 

The beginning of the race was pretty easy, just nice rolling hills, until I hit the first obstacle. This was by far the scariest of them all! It was an up-and-over cargo net. The whole thing was pretty shaky and the hight of it was pretty scary too. It took me longer to get across this obstacle than I thought, and then I was off running to a very similar obstacle. sans cargo net. This one was much easier and I was able to climb over it pretty quickly!

Up the this point I was still clean and dry! Just a few more feet and I was running through thigh-high water and mud!! It was actually more fun than I thought it was going to be, and after crossing the first water, I felt much more comfortable with the whole race. 

Log crossing! 

A few more hills, and I came to the 2nd water crossing, it was a long series of logs that runners were expected to run across. With my Five Fingers on, I felt really stable on the log, but there were a lot of people on the log and one woman started spinning the log (yup, it was like a fricking Lumberjack competition!), and everyone fell off (including me!) into the chest-high water!!! 

Just a short run and I came across another obstacle in which I had to shimmy across some skinny boards, it was pretty harmless and allowed me to get back to running pretty quickly! Then came another water crossing, where I pretty much had to just run through some ankle/shin high water. 

Next came a longer run, and another obstacle where runners had to jump over some large hurdles. Up another hill and I came to an obstacle called "Over & Under". This one was hard for me, as I had to climb a wall, and then go under a second wall, there were 3 sets of these, and I was very tired afterwards! 

We finally hit mile 1!! I think that was the longest mile I have ever run!! 

Back to more water crossing, running across hay bales and a very steep and muddy hill! By this point I was really getting into the whole idea of a mud run, and having fun with it. This is the point I also met a couple who run mud runs just about every weekend! I had a great time chatting with them as we climb some more hills. 

I don't really remember the order of the next few obstacles, but there was a series of pretty easy obstacles, and a snow machine spraying us with water. This part of the race went really fast, thanks to the people I met on the course!

We ran down a really large hill and were back to the start, only to run up the HUGE hill that I was eying when I arrived at the race. This hill was a killer!

I'm 1/2 way there!!

At the top of the hill we came across a dumpster full of foam rubber, which we had to dive into and cross. The foam was very dirty and it was the only obstacle that felt really gross! 

After climbing out of the dumpster, we ran pretty much through a corn field, it was super muddy and slippery. I took it very easy, not wanting to twist my ankle! Half way around the field was a traditional tire run, and then the dreaded monkey bars! I really sucked it up on the monkey bars, but was happy that the course volunteers make each runner try the obstacle! I got 1/2 way across the monkey bars before falling.

We were now at mile 2.5! We ran down another hill, went through sniper alley (where snipers spray you with red water out of water guns!), and then down the water slide!! The water slide was so much fun! It dropped you back to the starting area, and dumped you into a pit of cold and muddy water! 

Ouch!

Bottom of the water slide

After getting out of the water, I ran up a sand hill, did a tire toss (think crossfit), crawled under a bunch of wooden objects, jumped over fire and made one more water crossing before coming to the finish line and the mud pit. The mud pit was deep, and sticky. Runners were supposed to crawl through the mud to the finish line. I was a little hesitant, but dove in and crawled towards my finisher's medal. This was the most painful part of the race as the mud was mixed with gravel, and just tore up my knees!!

Out of the mud pit, I was awarded with my finisher's medal, and headed over to the fire hoses and bubble pit to clean off!

It was really hard to get all of the mud off, so I did my best and then changed into some clean, dry clothes! 

Overall, it was a really good experience, and I was surprised at how tough I actually was able to be! I did not hesitate getting muddy and dirty, and had a lot of fun! 

While this is not a type of race that I will do a lot of, I will probably do this same race next year. I think my boyfriend and sister want to run it too! 

I really enjoyed the set up of the race (Team Ortho races are so well done!), and the venue of the race was really nice! It was fun not to worry about my time, and to just have fun with the run! 

If you are in Minnesota, and want to try a mud run, I highly recommend this one to you! If you are thinking about trying a mud run and are nervous about it, my advice is to find a 5k, and just go for it!! 

Tomorrow I am running my 2nd race of the weekend: the Color Run! Re-Cap to come!! :)

Have you done a mud run before or do you want to do one? What did you think of it?