After each half marathon I've done, I always swore I'd never do another one. However, two out of the four were in the pouring rain, so I have a reason to not enjoy them very much. Thankfully, the third one I ran last spring was on a gorgeous day and my attitude shifted just a bit. So, when my wonderful running partner said she really wanted to run the annual Disney race, I decided to just do it!
The training was tougher than usual because we headed into our longest runs just in time for temps to drop and winter to settle in. With spring races, our last training weeks are usually accompanied by great weather! This time around, we were forced to skip a whole week of running just before the race because Chicagoland was experiencing frigid weather (we run in anything above zero degrees, so you know it must have been bad)!
That cold weather followed us to Florida and we were both quite sad to be in Florida with our winter coats! We made the most of it, though, and enjoyed the short trip to Orlando. My sister tagged along for the trip, so we made a special visit to Universal Studios to (mostly) see the Harry Potter worlds (she is a huge Harry Potter fan). It was a fun day, but we eventually got so tired of the crowds that we left. Race day meant a 3:00am wakeup because we needed to be at our corral by 5:00. Standing in a giant herd of people in 30 degree weather for almost an hour was definitely the worst part of the race. Once we got running, however, we were all smiles and had a blast! It was absolutely amazing to run through Magic Kingdom as the sun was coming up. I found myself especially emotional because our family had just had such a magical experience there the year before and all the memories came flooding back! We didn't worry about time and stopped to take plenty of pics along the race route. By the end, we felt pretty good and managed to still be smiling. It was definitely an unforgettable experience and I'm so thankful to have had the chance to do it!
We made it!!!
Packet pick-up.
Leah showing her Disney support from back home.
What an amazing way to see Magic Kingdom.
Of course we couldn't run past Woody without a pic!
Run? I thought you said Rum?
Stitch!
All done!
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