I Ran a Half Marathon! I'm Only Half Crazy! (Part 1)
This past weekend made me realize how fast time is going by because it feels like just yesterday that I asked my best friend if she would run the Disney Princess Half Marathon with me. That was almost 6 months ago and the half marathon has been run. Since I want to tell you the full story, and it is a pretty long story, I am going to split it into two posts so that you don't feel like you are reading forever. So here goes part one... Saturday.
We drove up to Orlando on Saturday morning around noon. When we got there we took our time and had a nice leisurely lunch at Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney, then we got Ghirardelli ice cream. It was a beautiful day so we made sure to enjoy our mini-vacation before we died by running the next morning.
We then went to the other side of the room and picked up our goodie bags. They contained our T-shirts as well as a draw string bag, a button, a luna bar, and a temporary tattoo. The Expo itself was a lot of vendors; clothing venders, shoe vendors, health food vendors. Kellie and just walked around and checked it out. We tried Clif shot samples and luna bar samples. We found this one vendor that had really funny shirts with running related jokes on them. This one spoke to us especially:
We didn't spend too much time at the Expo, it was hot and we were planning on meeting my mom and aunt to go to the pool. That is exactly what we did for the rest of the day, hang out at the pool. Florida was very kind to us weather wise.
We were originally going to go to Olive Garden for dinner because we needed to carb up for the race. But, we figured that since 25,000 other people probably had the same idea, and we learned that the restaurant at the resort had a special runners pasta on the menu, we just ate there. Plus, Olivia's is our favorite restaurant so we weren't complaining. Rebecca joined us during dinner. She was coming to cheer us on too but Saturday was her birthday so she couldn't come to Orlando until later.
The pasta was very delicious and we were able to celebrate both Rebecca and my Aunt Joan's birthday! Carb loading was definitely a success. But by the time dinner was coming to a close we were ready for bed. It was only about 8:30 but our plan to tire ourselves out by walking around the Expo worked like a charm.
Kellie and I left and went to our own hotel and checked in. We must have been over tired by that point because we were having way too much fun playing at the resort.
We had to go to the cafeteria to see if we could find something for me to eat for breakfast since our room didn't have a microwave so my plan to eat oatmeal was foiled. I shouldn't have been worried since Disney knows and prepares for everything. They were selling runners boxes that has a bagel, a banana, and a water in them. So perfect!
Read about the race itself in part 2!!
We drove up to Orlando on Saturday morning around noon. When we got there we took our time and had a nice leisurely lunch at Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney, then we got Ghirardelli ice cream. It was a beautiful day so we made sure to enjoy our mini-vacation before we died by running the next morning.
We caught the bus from Downtown Disney to the Disney's Fit For a Princess Expo at Coronado Springs Resort. We had to go there to pick up our race packet. The Expo was huge, they had it set up in all of the banquet halls.
There was a lot of stuff to do and see, even in the hallways outside of the Expo itself. There were Princess to meet at one end of the hallway, there were also places for you to print out your waivers or sign up for runner tracking.
These two guys were out in the hallway for you to take pictures with, because, you know, you're supposed to be the princess. Pretty clever. The line was really long, and we didn't want to wait in it so I just grabbed this quick picture.
The first thing we did was go and grab our bibs. Kellie and I had registered as a team so we had two different bibs. I had also gotten us the commemorative pin so we picked those up there too. I had forgotten that when I had registered I had to specify our favorite princesses. So, mine was cinderella and Kellie's was Belle. Our team bibs were both Merida.
We then went to the other side of the room and picked up our goodie bags. They contained our T-shirts as well as a draw string bag, a button, a luna bar, and a temporary tattoo. The Expo itself was a lot of vendors; clothing venders, shoe vendors, health food vendors. Kellie and just walked around and checked it out. We tried Clif shot samples and luna bar samples. We found this one vendor that had really funny shirts with running related jokes on them. This one spoke to us especially:
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| "This seemed like a good idea 3 months ago" |
We were originally going to go to Olive Garden for dinner because we needed to carb up for the race. But, we figured that since 25,000 other people probably had the same idea, and we learned that the restaurant at the resort had a special runners pasta on the menu, we just ate there. Plus, Olivia's is our favorite restaurant so we weren't complaining. Rebecca joined us during dinner. She was coming to cheer us on too but Saturday was her birthday so she couldn't come to Orlando until later.
The pasta was very delicious and we were able to celebrate both Rebecca and my Aunt Joan's birthday! Carb loading was definitely a success. But by the time dinner was coming to a close we were ready for bed. It was only about 8:30 but our plan to tire ourselves out by walking around the Expo worked like a charm.
We had to go to the cafeteria to see if we could find something for me to eat for breakfast since our room didn't have a microwave so my plan to eat oatmeal was foiled. I shouldn't have been worried since Disney knows and prepares for everything. They were selling runners boxes that has a bagel, a banana, and a water in them. So perfect!
We went to bed by 10 o'clock. I did not sleep well at all, my brain did not want to shut off. It was one of those sleeps where you are just anticipating getting up so you can't relax. 3am came very quickly and very slowly.
Read about the race itself in part 2!!
