Hi Ladies, I just wanted to share my amazing experience at the Disney Princess Half Marathon with you. I am def probably a much slower runner than most of you but I had a great time, and accomplished all my goals which is what matters!
I spent the past weekend in Disney for their 2 running events for the princess half marathon weekend.
Saturday was the Royal Family 5k though Epcot. My mom, dad, husband and I all ran it. The goal was to take it easy and just enjoy it since my dad and I were running the HM the next day. My husband had also injured his foot a while back and this was his first race since then, so he ran slower (at my speed, hah!) to ease back into it. It was a great time. I think our time was around 40 minutes since we stopped to take photos along the way. It was super humid too, I was just crossing my fingers that it wouldn't be as humid for the HM the next day.
Running into the sunrise...

Photo op!

After we finished

Sunday was the main event - the disney princess half marathon! My dad and I were running it. I had 3 goals, in order of most important to least important -
1. Have fun and feel like I pushed myself as much as I could. My first half was in September and was a mess. I wasn't prepared, didn't eat enough before, etc etc.
2. Beat my time from the last HM (3:17:xx)
3. Come in under 3 hours
The alarm went off at 2:45am. I had bread with peanut butter and ate a banana. This worked for me during long runs and I made sure to eat enough to avoid the issues I had during the last HM. My dad and I got to Epcot around 4am-ish. Then the waiting began. We took multiple potty breaks, sat, walked around, stretched, talked, watched the video they showed, etc.
A little before 5 the first corral went off. We were in corral C so we had to wait for the previous corrals to start. Disney really makes each corral feel special which is awesome. They countdown for each one and shoot off fireworks. I loved this. Before I knew it, we were off. The plan was to walk all of the water breaks and any "good" characters to get photos, and run the rest.
Miles 1-3 flew by - they were mostly on highway, but we saw tons of characters and bands and were really entertained.
Miles 4-7 were running through the gates of Magic Kingdom, through the castle, and around MK and back onto the highway to return to epcot. These went quickly as well, but were slow because we stopped to get a few pictures along the way and run to the bathroom. This was my favorite part of the race.
In every training run, I hit a mental wall around mile 7.5/8/8.5ish, so I full expected it to happen this time. and it did. But I kept on pushing through. These miles were tough - the sun was up, it was getting hot, the course was kind of boring, and the adrenaline was starting to wear off.
Mile 10 came at the perfect time, I have never been so glad to see a mile marker!
Miles 11-13 were SO HARD for me. They were over a few highway ramps, and the banked curves SUCKED. Then we turned into epcot, which I swear is the hottest, sunniest park, and it was just so hard to finish those last 2 miles. I walked more than I would have liked, however I was so happy to see my husband and mom cheering for us right before the finish that I completely missed Mickey & Minnie giving out high fives.
Final time was 3:09:xx, however it would have been easily under 3 hours if we took out the bathroom breaks & waiting in line for photos so I'll call that goal completed. Definitly had much more fun and felt much more prepared this time around too!
I can't wait to do another disney race - my dad and I are already talking about signing up for the WDW half marathon in january 2012. The plan now is to run 8 mile long runs weekly and hopefully get past the stupid mental block I have there. And then when training for the next one, run more than 13 miles so I don't feel so exhausted by miles 11 & 12.
With the Princes

The final stretch before turning into epcot. Look at all the runners!

We finished!
Re: Disney princess half - PIPs too!
est. 10/10/10
congratulations on reaching your goals! there is no way I could run a half marathon!!
Congrats! Feels good eh? I ran two half marathons before I fell in love and got all out of shape. My first was 2:36 and then I think I got cocky and didn't train as hard for the 2nd, which seemed to be on the hottest day in the world, and came in at 3:00.
I always found that about 2/3 of the way through was the hardest.
Way to go!
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TTC Since January 2011 - We have bad spermYay Becca, congrats!
I ran my first 1/2 last August, and definitely had the same block happen around mile 8. It's so hard to push though, but congrats!! Way to go!
Also- Do you eat/use any of the Gu stuff or any of those gel-products during the race?
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I don't know what it is about the 8 mile mark! must be the fact that you know that you're more than 1/2 way through but still have a siginificant amount of ground to cover.
During my first half I ate Clif Shot Blocks, margarita flavor because I sweat A LOT and need to replace the salt I loose. However they gave me awful cramps during the race (but not in training, go figure) so this time I ate them the day before to pre-load my salt. It worked out well.
During the race I drank a cup of water and a cup of powerade at every water station which helped a ton. They were giving out gu or something around mile 8 and I was really tempted to try it to see if it would give me the boost I needed to get through that mile but I didn't want to try something new.
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I totally know what you mean about the Gu/trying new. I tried them for the first time during the race and it was a terrible idea. I was so dead that I thought it'd be a good kick of energy but it was SO sweet since I wasn't used to it that I threw up! Gross! Definitely need to train w/it in future.
Did you use a fanny-pack type thing to carry any pick-me ups? I've been researching trying to figure out what to get.
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I have the Amphipod RunLite 4 - http://www.amphipod.com/products/hydration/hydration-belts/runlite-hydration-belts/runlite-4
I really like it because it has 4 bottles, and you can put however many you want on (I rarely run with more than 2), you can move them whereever you want, put them horizontal or vertical, whichever is more comfortable. It also has a pouch on it which I use to store gels and my keys, etc. The pouch is removable as well.
I only really use it for training though. For the half I just put my camera in the pocket of my running skirt and didnt carry liquid because we planned to stop at every water station.
My dad has a spibelt, which have gotten great reviews, but it doesn't hold water, its just a pouch to hold stuff.
I also have a hand held water bottle (forget what brand) that has a pouch on it that can hold gels and stuff. I switch between using the hand held and the fuel belt depending on my mood.
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