Princess Recap!!
Friday we went to MK. It was my dads first vacation ever and his first time with a mobility
scooter. The man was so excited he was just zipping around from thing to thing as fast as his scooter would go. My husband and I were running to keep up with him! We did 28,000 steps on Friday and none of those steps would be considered an easy stroll!! I did wear an old pair of my running shoes but they didn't have the custom insoles in them (It can be hard to get the insoles back in the proper spot and I didn't want to have to deal with that on race day.) By the middle of the day my feet were hurting.. I tried telling my dad to slow down; however, it was very cold at this point so we were kind of running from show to show to stay warm. I started doing my PT stretches when ever we were in line but since we were watching shows there wasn't that many lines. At the end of the day I did my yoga for feet video but I think the damage was already done. On Saturday we went to Animal Kingdom. I told my dad that he wasn't allowed to put his scooter past the middle speed and I wore my running shoes with the insoles in them. Animal Kingdom was insanely packed so that helped a lot. We took it super easy too. We watched tough to be a bug and lion king. We had lunch at saluti canteen and then we went back to the resort for a couple hours. I did yoga and PT stretches, then took a nap. We went back to AK and ate dinner at Tuskar house and then rode Flight of Passage. I was in bed by 9:30. Probably a little late for the 2am wake up but .... Disney.
I woke up at 2am, got dressed did my stretches and was on the 3am bus. I ate my usual bagel and cream cheese and had time to meet minnie mouse before the corals opened. I timed it perfectly because after meeting Minnie I went to the runners only area used the restroom and as I was coming out of the porta potty, the large group of people had started moving. So I hopped in line and walked the 15 miles to the coral. Okay it wasn't 15 miles; however, it was not insignificant. When we got to the coral at 4:20am I felt good. The walk actually helped my feet and I was towards the front of the coral. I wanted to do more stretches but there was no room so I stood there for a while but my feet started hurting so I sat down. Then my feet were falling asleep so I stood up. I repeated this sit stand sit cycle until the first wave went off at 5:30am. Once the first waive went off, everyone stood and walked closer together. There was no longer room to sit so I had to stand there. My feet were killing me. An hour later we were finally walking to the start line. I was in the second waive of coral H and got started at 6:32am. I kept it easy the first mile. My feet were hurting but it was manageable. Even though I used the bathroom before I joined the line and I didn't drink anything at all I had to pee. We passed the first group of Porta potties on the course and there was a line. I was tracking the balloon ladies and I knew they hadn't started yet; however, I didn't want to wait in line and thought that maybe the need to pee was just in my head. So I kept going. Just before the 1 mile mark there were more porta potties with a much shorter line. The balloon ladies still hadn't started yet and it was not in my head so I stopped. Here's where I started making mistakes.
My first mile was done in 18:52 but I knew that before the stop I was on track for a 16 min mile. I got the text that I had crossed the one mile mark at the same time that I got the text about the balloon ladies crossing the start. That upset me. So I tried to make up the pace in mile 2 and I did. my pace for mile 2 was 15:37. I slowed down in mile 3 back to the 16 min pace that was my target and I felt okay. My feet were hurting more, but everything else felt good. I could tell that I'd still be running easy if it weren't for the food pain. So I tried my best to just stick to the plan of running when it beeps and walking when it beeps and just not dwelling on the foot pain. Not yet anyway. it was too early for that. I was doing okay in mile 4 too and was on target for a 16 min mile until we hit a huge bottle neck getting ready to go into the bus area for MK. I couldn't run so I just walked at the pace of the crowd and mile 4 was 19:20. As I passed the 4 mile marker I got a text that the balloon ladies had crossed mile 3.. I was disappointed that I hadn't made any headway so I picked up the pace to make up that slow mile again. I managed a 16 min pace for mile 5 which in hindsight was probably a good thing but in the moment I was just so upset that it wasn't in the 15s. Mile 6 was running through MK and the wheels fell off any more. I kept coming up the photo pass tents while I was walking and I did't want to look like I was walking in all my pictures so I would run past them and start walking again. There were also alot of people around me during MK, it wan't a bottle neck but it was a little hard to stick to the intervals, so I ran when I could and walked most of it. Mile 6 was 17:02. Miles 7 and 8 were pretty uneventful. I was able to stick to the intervals as planned but my feet were hurting more and more making it impossible to keep a 16 min pace. During mile 8 I kept telling myself. "Make it to mile 10 before you start walking. Just make it to mile 10 before you give up." Mile 7 was 16:15 and Mile 8 was 16:28.
Mile 9 was the worst mile I've ever walked in my entire life. Everything hurt, There were all kinds of characters that I wanted to stop for but couldn't because the balloon ladies were still only a mile behind me and the sun. The sun was beating down directly on us. I was miserable and throwing myself the biggest pity party you ever did see. I cried the entire mile and not the happy Disney tears either. I finished in 18:23. Most of mile 10 was just as bad. I passed the med tent and almost quit... but I thought I drug my dad all the way down to FL to see me run this race so I had to finish. After that I looked around and saw that more people looked as miserable as me than looked okay. I took comfort in that. Maybe it's not me.. Maybe it's the course. And around towards the end of mile 10 I shuffled along when it beeped to run. I don't know if you could consider it running but I was making an effort and I was officially done with my pity party. Mile 10 was 18:13. The beginning of mile 11 we were on the overpass going to Epcot. Once we got to the bridge I looked over and could see people being swept from the course. I looked over to the girl beside me and asked if she had done this before, she said no. I explained that I read if the balloon ladies pass you in world show case they won't sweep you. She said "I hope that's true" and I agreed. It was obvious at this point that we would be passed, it was just a matter of when it would happen. I kept talking to that girl.. Her name was Becca and guess where she's from? Richmond!!! I told her I had done the Richmond half twice and this was nothing like that. She agreed. She told me that she was training to do the Richmond full in 2019 but broke her ankle and this was her first race back. We were both struggling because alot of the coarse was banked. This was hurting her ankles and causing my feet to grip weird. She was also staying at all star music (which is where we were).. It was a crazy small world moment and I'm so glad I met her when I did. Mile 11 was 18:25. Mile 12 was brutal. We were just trying to make it to world showcase and we were back stage. It felt like every turn was going to take us into the park but it was just more winding and winding.. back stage. Also, we kept passing cast members telling us we were 8 mins ahead of pace, then 4 mins ahead, then 1 min ahead... We made it to world showcase but didn't have much time to celebrate because right as we crossed the entrance, the balloon ladies passed us. I asked them if it's true that we are safe and one of them turned around and said "You have to keep moving at a good pace!" so we tried to pick up the pace, but it felt like the harder we tried the more we were keeping the same pace. Mile 12 was 18:19. I told Becca "We can run a mile right?! We just did it 12 times!" She said "I can't run at all right now!" I clarified that I meant we can make it one more mile and she was not doing well at all Billy. So I started asking her rapid fire questions "What's your fave park?, who's your fave character? Fave ride? Fave movie?" I remember her fave movie was Lilo and stitch because it's mine too! We talked about how underrated that movie is. And I admitted that I was out of questions to distract her with and we laughed about that. People around us were starting to get angry. One girl was complaining about all the bottle necks and said the balloon ladies didn't have to deal with that because thee were last. It wasn't like a little grumble either they were out right angry and yelling. I told Becca "don't listen to them. If they have energy to yell like that, they can pass us, but they are choosing not too." She agreed and I think us distracting each other and trying to get away from those people really did the trick because mile 13 was 17:45. Also, Lilo and Stitch were on the 13th mile marker!! So we got a kick out of that! I told her we were going to finish and she didn't think we would but I said no, look! It was the finish line! We were almost there!!! I said, do you think we can run once we pass Daisy (probably 30 feet from the finish) She said I think so. So I grabbed her hand and we ran across the finish line like we were best friends!
My finish time was 3:53:05... But I will tell you where I saw the most improvement. After the race, I took a 12 min ice bath and took a nap. Once I woke up, I was sore, but I was ready to go to the parks and that we did! I was chaffed a little but other than that I was perfectly fine to walk around the parks and have a pretty active evening afterwards. Le Cellier was worth the hype and wearing that medal around the park was one of the coolest experiences..