Monday, February 28, 2011

Disney Princess Half Marathon–Part 1.

 

Oh wow, where do I begin?!  This half marathon was the awesome reward of a loooooong few months of training and a gift from my favorite 20 year old in the world.  Thank you, Mary!!!!! 

First of all, if you’ve known me for more than a few years, you may realize that this is something that I would have never even tried to do at one point in my life.  Hold on….I must find a picture to share…..

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Holy crap, I look like I ate poor Kali!  (Oh man, isn’t she freakin’ cute?!?!?!  Gosh I love this girl.)  I was content to sit on my ass and eat.  I didn’t move, I didn’t do anything.  Hell, I didn’t have to eat much to look like this since I sat all the damn time.

Then I woke up.

I’ve run two 5k’s with Mary, both of them at Disney.  As my birthday/Christmas gift, she signed us up for the Princess Half.  My long runs used to be 4 or 5 miles, now this would end up being my short runs.  How on earth was I going to run 13 miles?!?!

I listen to Podcasts on my iPod when I work out.  One of my favorites is The Extra Mile podcast, and I started following The Extra Mile Podcast Experiment.  It was about training for a full or half marathon using Jeff Galloway’s method of a run/walk.  I figured, hey, I can do that!  I then read all I could about it.  Meanwhile, Jeff became the trainer for all of Run Disney and had put out a training schedule for the Princess Half.  I was hooked.

My long runs went from 4 miles, to 6, then 8, then 10, and then I did 13.  Thirteen!!  I was floored.  Okay, so I couldn’t walk much for a few days after that first 13, but I did it.  I did some cross-training on the ellipticals here, and also ran on the treadmill. 

Meanwhile, I had been talking to Alex about giving up meat and dairy.  Actually, we had talked about this on and off for a few year, but never did anything about it until now.  So, at the end of October, we stopped eating all meat and dairy.  I was amazed at how good I felt and noticed tons of changes in Kali, too.  By the end of January, we gave up eggs, too.  I’ve lost somewhere around 12-14 pounds since we gave up all of that, too.  Food has never been so good, and there is so much more variety!  We haven’t lost anything, but instead have gained lots of new and awesome things to eat. 

On Friday I went over to the running expo with Hannah and Kali…….

Hannah was my official photographer that day, too. 

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And I got to meet Jeff Galloway!!!!  Do I look completely overly excited here or what?!?!  I was really happy to get to talk to him for a few minutes and thank him.  My running times have improved so much since I started using his method.

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I picked up our packets, and then started shopping.  Smile  Oh yeah!  Mama had some mad money with her and I went completely insane. 

Maybe this is Kali’s impersonation of how insane I went! lol

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My friend Sarah had come over to hang out with us, too. 

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My photographer ever got pictures of herself!  Good job, Hannah.

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Do you think I could run in these shoes?!  I’d look good in them, at least. 

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I want one.

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I finished shopping (completed my outfit for the race) and then we went home.  On Saturday we went back there with Mary.  I am soooo glad we got our race packets on Friday since the line on Saturday was past insane.  It was sooooo crowded in there; there was just no room to walk anywhere!

The whole race report is next.  I will try to get that done tonight after I finally get rid of Mr. Migraine.  He won’t go away!

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