ESPN 5K at Hollywood Studios

I have been looking forward to this weekend ever since Mary gave me the race for Christmas.  I love running, I love Disney, and I love hanging out with Mary.  What more could I ask for?!

I left Friday morning after Alex picked up the rental car for me.  We are still without a vehicle.  I may go nuts soon.  Of course, Enterprise never has what we reserve (do they ever?!) and I ended up with a Volvo.  No complaints though, it was a really cool car, though smaller than I was hoping for.  It’s not like I’m some little petite thing, you know.

So off I went and headed out to Orlando with the radio cranked up.  I was a happy camper.  I made it to the hotel around 1:30, checked in, and hung out a bit.  Y’all know my first stop was Downtown Disney, right?  ;)  Good.

It turned out that Mary had to work on Friday and no amount of trying, pleading, and begging could get her shift covered.  That was okay.  A day filled with no bitching, whining, or moaning of any sort was nice.  I really enjoyed just hanging out without having to be anywhere at a certain time. 

I stopped at Ghiradelli’s, got some free chocolate, and a yummy cup of coffee.  Mmmm….chocolate makes everything better, doesn’t it?!

 

 

This cute little bird decided that it was going to sit next to me.  Maybe it thought it was going to get some chocolate.

 

Then I headed over to the Wide World of Sports to pick up our packets.  I was really enjoying zipping around in that little car! 

 

I got our stuff, walked around a bit, and then headed back to the hotel room for a while.  I had to charge up my phone.  Mary kept checking in with me and was feeling horrible that she still couldn’t get off of work.  Finally we decided to scrub our dinner plans since it looked like she’d be there ‘til 8:30.  I headed back to Downtown Disney and stopped at Earl’s for a sandwich.  It was nice to sit outside and people watch.  Of course, all the screaming kids weren’t mine and I was really happy about that!  Let someone else deal with them, I’m here on a much-needed break!  Okay, not that my kids would have been screaming, but you know what I mean. 

Here’s the shirts we got with our race registration.  The bib number was just laying on it for the picture.  :) 

 

After dinner I walked around for a bit, talked to Hannah for a while, and bought this coffee cup that was calling my name all afternoon.  It sure is pretty out there at night. 

I got back to the room, put my jammies on, and watched the Olympics for a while.  Finally, Mary got there!  Yay!!!!  We attempted to go to sleep at 11:00, but kept laughing soo much that I don’t think we fell asleep until after midnight.  Not good when we had to get up about 4:15!! 

Someone was not happy when the alarms went off the next morning.  She really does love me even though she looks like she wants to kill me.  She may kill me now for posting this picture.  I love you Mary!!!!! 

We got up, got dressed, and headed over to Hollywood Studios.  We stayed in the car as long as possible (though I was ready to get out before she was) since it was cooooooold outside.  We left our jackets on, went into the big tent, and then decided we should put our jackets back in the car.  :)  Thank goodness there were porta-potties there! 

We went into the tent and look who we saw……

We went outside and tried to get a good picture of the two of us.  Let me just say I am normally not very photogenic.  I’m especially not photogenic at 6:30 am.  I was, however, excited as hell to be there.  Yes, my hat says ‘09.  I know it’s 2010, but this is the same hat I wore when we did our 5K last year.  It’s now my good luck hat.

 

We counted down, the firework (yes, only 1) went off, and away we went.

 

 

I started my Garmin just as we crossed the start line.  I am a slow runner and I’m okay with that.  I’m not at the very back of the pack, but I’m damn near close.  I’m really okay with that.  My normal miles are somewhere around 14:30 – 13:45.  Slower in the beginning and faster after I finally warm up.  Every once in a while I will do some really fast (for me) bursts for as long as I think I can keep it up.  We were running for a bit when I looked down and realized we were somewhere between 13:15 and 12:30.  Yikes!  I slowed down a bit so no one would have to pick me up off the ground. 

 

We ran under the entrance to Hollywood Studios; that was really cool.

Obviously I couldn’t take a bunch of pictures while we were running, but I did my best.  I actually called my dad at mile 1.2.  He thought that was pretty funny.  We ran through this tunnel and on either side was the costuming department.  OMG!  Sewing and running!  Be still my heart.  It was awesome to see all the costumes, the fabric, and the sewing machines.  When we got to Star Tours, we stopped to take a quick picture….

Don’t we look happy?!?!  :)  After that, we took off again and eventually ran towards Tower of Terror.

The weather had been holding up fairly well all morning.  It rained a bit before we started, and then stopped until just after we finished.  I was really happy about that.  Not that I mind running in a little rain, but it’s better without it.

After we went around Tower of Terror, the route led us back out of Hollywood Studios to the parking lot where we started.  After running at faster-than-normal speeds, I was quite happy to see the finish line!

 

The map is from SportsTracks where I keep all my Garmin info.  According to my Garmin, we ran 3.2 miles in 42:22.  I’m happy with that time, happy with my run, and thrilled with sharing it with Mary.

Here’s my happy UCF girl back at the car.

You don’t want to see me at this point.  Talk about being totally not photogenic!  I may have broken the camera at this point.

We went back to the room where we promptly sat down and then slowly fell over on the bed.  Good thing we had a late 1pm checkout! 

Mary said she bought me something when she was in Disney last weekend, and then she said she got me something else because she felt so bad that she left me alone all day Friday.  She bought me these really adorable Mickey cutting mats.  They’re in the shape of his foot, hand, head, and body.  So dang cute.  Then she said she bought me a one-day ticket to the park!  OMG!  We were going to go that day, but it was raining and who wants to go when it’s raining?!  Then we got to talking and she said she wanted to run another race.  After more talking, we decided to possibly return my ticket and she’d sign us up for another race.  (Who already knows where this is going?!?!)

As soon as registration opens next week, (at least I think that’s when it opens) look what she’s signing us up for……..

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OMG!  The Princess Half!!!!!!!  I’m still nearly in disbelief and I may believe it more when I see our registration.  :)  I am thrilled, thankful, and…….well, totally speechless. 

I love to run, but I know that I don’t push myself enough.  This will do it for me.  I have a year.  A year to drop about 20 pounds and get to the point where I am able to run a half marathon without wanting to fall over.  This I know I can do. 

I am stressed.  I am worried.  Running brings me peace and clarity.  Having this to train for will be wonderful (though I’m sure I will be bitching about all the miles I’m trying to accomplish.) 

To my Mary………thank you.  Thank you for running with me again this weekend.  The sweeper didn’t get us!!!  Thank you for wanting to run with me again.  Thank you for gifting it to me.  I means more to me than you know.  I will train hard and be ready!  Just know that when we run through Cinderella’s Castle, I will cry like a baby.  But you already know that. 

Here’s a picture of the wall in my office……

I think it’s pretty damn cool.