2012 princess half marathon.

i did it! my 2nd princess half marathon is done, and i am halfway to the coast to coast medal!

2012 princess half marathon official finish time: 2 hours. 25 minutes. 14 seconds. a new disney race pr. :)

we were up at 2:40 a.m., to prepare for the race! i ate my banana and half a bagel with peanutbutter, got dressed and we were out the door to the bus at 3:45 a.m.!

taken at 3:45 a.m., the only time in my life i look alert at that hour!

i wore my team sparkle skirt, just like last year.

ready to go!

i love the princess half marathon. it is the same route as the half during the january marathon weekend, which that race is just as fun, but something about the princess i just love. i think it is the girl theme to the race. there are men who run it, but it is majority female! everyone seems to really get into the princess theme, by wearing a princess costume or even just a tiny bit of princess fun by a tiara or sparkle. it's just a fun atmosphere. who doesn't like to be called princess either?!

aunt linda and i boarded a bus to the race area at 4 a.m. we got there with no trouble at all, even though the traffic was very long, we sped right through! we arrived at the staging area around 4:30, and then i headed off toward my corral.

the walk to the corral was insanely crowded. the so called 20 minute walk took a good 45 minutes, as well as a potty stop. due to some confusion, i went toward the wrong area of corrals and had to sprint to make it to my corral on time. i think that sprint was my fastest running of the day! i made it with about 3 minutes to spare. i was in corral a, with all the speedsters, which was the first group to go after the wheel chair/elite group.

i kept up with my goal of not stopping until the magic kingdom! i kept a decent pace up until the park. my pace throughout the race was a bit slower than i had wanted, but not too bad, and i'll take it! (especially the last 3 miles!)

around mile 2.5, i came upon jeff galloway, who works with run disney. he was running with a few people. i was about 5 feet away from him, so now i can say i ran alongside jeff galloway, olympian and marathoner who is known for his run/walk program, even though it was just a couple of minutes. i passed them as they went to their walking break, and i kept going. i bet they passed me in the magic kingdom though!

i met up real quick with aunt linda where she snapped this photo of me at the transportation center, just past mile 4! and yes, i was sweating! then i headed toward the magic kingdom!

heading up main street!

i stopped at characters i had not seen or stopped at in previous disney races. during my time in the park, i had two 15 minute paced (each) miles.

after the magic kingdom, were miles 7 to the finish. i enjoyed mile 7, along the grand floridian resort, where they played the song "stronger" by kelly clarkson. this song was voted to be played during this mile. and it was! it was a good motivator!

i was ok until about mile 9, and major fatique and tiredness settled in my legs. i really had to push to keep going. mile 10 was tough, it had the clover leaf on ramp. this was a slow incline on "slanted" roadway. i made it my bitch though, and i didn't walk. then came 2 more "hills", mile 11 and 12 each had a slow freeway incline. at least they were pretty much flat hills, where you weren't running at an angle to the side. at that point, i was ready to be done. i could not stop, or i would never finish. i saw aunt linda at mile 12, and told her i'd see her at the end, no way could i stop. even in epcot, a park, where i said i would stop for photos, i couldn't. i just needed to hit that finish line, so no pictures in epcot this year.

i was so happy to see the finish line! i completed the race in 2:25:14.... a new disney race personal record. aunt linda snapped this photo of the finish line!

i had set some goals for this race. one was to finish ahead of my last 2 disney race times, and i did by 25 minutes!! another goal was to stop only in the parks for photos and keep going along the roadways, which i did, only stopping in the magic kingdom. another goal was to try to not walk up any of the "hills". i definitely got that one done, and i was surprised actually, i thought i would at least walk part of that clover leaf on ramp, but i ran up all the "bigger" hills of disney, which were at miles 5, 10, 11, 12. so i was pretty happy with my race! i wish i could have stopped in epcot for a photo opportunity, but my legs and feet just weren't having it. maybe next time!

all i wanted by the end of the race was water, a banana, and a can of diet coke. i demolished all 3 of those things!! thank you, aunt linda, for getting that can of diet coke. it was like gold!!!!

phew! i took a short rest when we got back, and a nice, long hot shower, it was a chillier day that day for florida!

and then, we headed to the magic kingdom, where i hobbled around, amid many other princesses sporting their medals and/or race t-shirts, got many congratulations from strangers (which is so fun!), and gorged myself on food!

what a great day!