Princess Half Marathon

The big day finally arrived!  Sunday, February 24th I dragged my family out of bed at 2:45am to get ready to head out to the gathering area of the Princess Half Marathon.  Thank you to my sister Erin for getting up even earlier to come and pick us all up for the race!  Matt and I were in our lovely costumes for the day and Gabe and Maggie were ready to go and join the Chear Squad with Aunt Erin!  This is us just before Matt and I headed off to the Bag Check and then to find our spot in the corrals.

I was fortunate to be in Corral A thanks to my 2:12 finish of the Kalamazoo Half Marathon in May 2012, and thank goodness!  I was able to head right out at 5:35am when the first set of fireworks went off and the Fairy Godmother told us to go!  I didn't have to deal with long lines at the characters, or thousands of people that aren't aware of proper race etiquette (like not to do the Galloway run/walk think in lines of 4-6 across).  Matt was in Corral E and not quite so lucky.

Took a quick break over by the Speedway to get my picture taken with Lightning McQueen.  Do my bangs tell the story of how humid it was or what!  Definitely should have grabbed a sweaty band that day!

Need to see if my sister has pictures from when I ran through the Magic Kingdom - she and the kids were right in front of the castle when I stopped there to have my picture professionally taken.  Haven't seen that one yet.  I'm sure it is just LOVELY (not)!  The humidity was crazy on race day - I think it caused my poor wings to droop!

Caught up with Lilo and Stitch somewhere around mile 8 or 9...

I finally finished at 2:39:28.  Not a PR by any means, but I did stop several times for pictures and to deal with the fact that I was drinking WAY more water than I normally do in a race like this.

I absolutely LOVE the medal - and the kids  got Matt and I these lovely finishers roses.

Matt finished maybe 30-45 minutes behind me.  Very impressed that he kept his tutu on the whole way.  He kept saying it would make it just a couple of miles before he tossed it. 

Also participating in the race were my Kappa Delta sisters Melissa (on the right) and Sandy (in the middle).  So proud of both of them for completing their first half marathons!  We took this picture at the end, but Sandy had us a little backward with the KD sign!

 

Already thinking ahead to my next Disney race - maybe I can convince some more KD's that we should meet up for the Tinkerbell at Disneyland in January 2014!  And then maybe Wine and Dine in October 2014 so that I can get my Coast to Coast medal from Disney!