So on Sunday I ran the Disney Princess Half Marathon!

I started training for it on Jan 19. And when I say started training, I mean I had not been exercising AT ALL for the previous two months.

I'm not gonna get into all that, but just the actual race day.

We woke up at 3 am (!!) We actually woke up without alarms. It was one of those things where the alarm was set but then I just kept waking up all night so I got up at 2:50. The day before Disney had posted a race warning that temperatures would be "warmer than expected" so don't push too hard. -_-
It wasn't warmer, it was more humid ... and by more humid I mean it was 100 % humidy.

ARE
YOU
KIDDING
ME

I may or may not have mentioned that I am SEVERELY affected by humidity. As in, I could run 10 miles no prob with less than 30% humidity, but the same temperature at 70% or more I can run 2 miles.

But, I wasn't gonna think about that. I just wanted to make sure I ate before the race and ate during the race so that I wouldn't feel like I overexerted myself.

I ate a bowl of soup (because I was worried about losing salt and I didn't want to eat salt tablets) and a banana and drank a sports drink before the race. I took 2 gus and a clif shot (better than gu!) during the race and drank powerade + water at every station.

The Pros:
The amount of fluid stations
The amount of porto-potties on the course
The corral situation -- I heard they did it a different way this year; There were 17 corrals and they let them out 2 minutes each. We were in the 7th corral. I never felt like it was too crowded at any point.
Running through Magic Kingdom!

The amount of characters on the race - even though I never stopped.
Everyone's costumes!

The Cons:
Lines so long for character stops

You run through MK like mile 4-7 ... the rest is really just running on the highway...BO-RING
You don't get free entrance into a park after you run (really really lame of disney

Overall, it was a fun race, but really expensive and I probably wouldn't do it again. I DO however, want to the wine and dine race because they DO let you into the park afterwards (because the race starts at night). I don't think I would ever do another race where I had to wake up at 3am. I ran that race, went back to the hotel and then had to drive four hours back to Tallahassee! I have been exhausted all week (also just because this is a crazy week at school).

Have you ever run the Disney Princess Half??

A post about running.

"did you take an awkward pill?"
"no, I'm always like this" 

muahaha. sorry, watching west wing and that line just happened and it made me lol. 

I just wanted to write a post about the fact that my half marathon (disney princess for those of you following along) is 3 weeks away! yikes!

i started running again 2 or 3 weeks ago (?) and this weekend I NEEDED to do 6 miles (bc I'm increasing by 2 every weekend until the race).

Last weekend I did manage to get 4 miles, and then I repeated it during the week. But yesterday I tried to go do 3-4 miles (originally I wanted to do 6 but then I had to meet my sister and I didn't have time) and I could only do TWO and then I had to walk! I was like, ffuuuuckkkkk. So what was the problem? A little thing I love to hate called HUMIDITY! Thanks, florida! You're the best!

I mean, first of all, I decided to go running at 11:30 and it was 70 degrees out and 95% humidity.

 

earth. 

 That was a rookie mistake, but its been pretty cold in Florida for the past couple weeks and I just went crazy and forgot. 

So then today I was like, "Ok, Im gonna wake up early, go running around 7am, it won't be hot, and then it'll be fine". Little problem - I didn't wake up early and I didn't go at 7. Also, little thing about me, the last time I worked out in the morning - like really hard - I went to Urgent Care because I thought I was going blind/ dying (it was a migraine). 

So, I woke up, ate an orange, at an access bar (it's a exercise bar that *supposedly* burns fat instead of carbs if you eat it 15 min before working out -- I don't know if it actually does that, but I DO feel better if I eat it before exercising), and drank 25 ounces of water. Then I went to the Causeway (my original running stomping grounds) and was like, let's do this. 

It was 10am, 75 degrees, 90% humidty, NOT ONE CLOUD IN THE SKY. AKA I'm sunburnt now. 

I started off pretty good but then around mile 3 I was like, shit. This ain't gonna happen. I'm just like HYPER aware of how hot I am/the fact that I've had probably 200 calories before exercising and I'm going to burn upwards of 1000 cals. So, I decided to run AT LEAST 4 miles, then stop and get my sports drink - drink that and walk mile 4-5, and then run the last mile. My thought was even if I have to walk, at least I am still doing the mileage and to be honest, I probably WILL have to walk during the half marathon so it's better if I just get into the habit. 

My face was SO RED, you can't really tell from the pic. Man o man. I'm so happy I did it!

Also, this was like the first time in the past couple weeks that I've had a *spark* of like, "yah! I like running" ... I know I used to love running, but right now I'm just so focused on getting these runs in, I haven't been looking forward to it. Please no one let me stop running after the half marathon! There is nothing worse than having to start over again...although I will say that I've done pretty well for myself this time around (only because I HAD to! haha)

Anyways, if you read this, wow! You're awesome! I'm looking for running blogs to read so if you know any, send 'em my way!!

xox