Gearing Up For Glass Slipper Challenge.

The time has come!  It's Glass Slipper Challenge time!  I am so excited to get down to warm, and hopefully sunny Orlando!  Woo hoo!

Of course, once again, my training has been lack luster.  I was all gung ho, full speed ahead, and then, once again, I got sick.  Twice.  This winter is killing me.  I think my job is too.  I have never felt so worn down, exhausted, and flat out sick!  My class had a nasty stomach bug fly through us all, and then another sinus infection hit.  This has been the sickiest few months of my life!  Training took a back seat, and I pretty much gave up.  It's like once I committed, I get sick.  Maybe I will stop committing.  It happened last fall with Wine and Dine training (plus other stuff earlier on that depleted me), and it happened literally days after I committed to decent training this time.  Ugh.  BUT!  I am not giving up.  I am relying on a lot of adrenaline, newer shoes, and pent up running that never happened to get me through.

I had originally made a goal to try and run the Princess Half for time, but I never got to really work on speed, just plain old running was hard enough to get in, so now it's get to the finish upright, and if I have it in me, I will try to up the speed.  I have not run double digits since Wine and Dine in November.  I have only had a few long runs, the last and longest one being 7 miles nearly 3 weeks ago.  I have not run outside since before Wine and Dine in November, and really only once in a 10k that was freezing cold in December. It's been treadmill only for months.  So hey, my work is cut out for me, but I will be in Disney World, in the happiest place on earth, doing what I have to remind myself that I really do love, running. And vacationing.  It could be worse!

Also!!!!  I get to run outside again!  With clear roads!  Yipppeeee!!

I am excited to get out there, got me some new sparkle skirts, one of which I will pair up with Ashley and be a part of team minnie!  (#teamminnie for all my twitter friends!) for the Enchanted 10k in which I will attempt interval run/walk with Ashley, and just try to let my legs go easy, so I can prepare for running the next day.  We plan to stop at the characters.  My aunt made us an epic sign.  It's gonna be a great weekend for running.  As for the half, that will be more fly by the seat of my pants based on how I feel.  I may stop along the route, I may not.  I may do both.  We will see.

I am excited though, and so ready to get away from this tundra we call Ohio at the moment.  48 hours to go!

Wine and Dine 1/2.

......and better late than never, my Wine and Dine Half recap(holy photo overload!)!  I promised myself that I would get this posted BEFORE I leave the for the Princess Half/Glass Slipper Challenge!

So back in November, I, along with my brother and my bff and her hubby, all ran the Wine and Dine Half Marathon.  I was excited for this trip, but my training (or lack thereof) was a bit of a worry for me.  I hoped to be able to get through, slow and walking breaks if I had to.  My brother (it was his first!) was totally supportive of me and agreed to stick with me through the whole thing.  Our goal was to finish upright and have all the fun!  That we did. 

It was also my bff's first half marathon.  She and her hubby planned to stick together too, and that they did!  So proud of her!

It was a bunch of firsts for me, my first night race, and my first set of 2 races in one day (I ran the Jingle Jungle 5K earlier that day).  Spoiler alert:  I made it through just fine!  It went better than I expected it to!

We spent the morning visiting Animal Kingdom, and then headed back to the resort to relax and rest up for the big night.  This was so weird for me.  It was kind of nice though, to not have to wake up at o'dark o'thirty like all my other Disney half marathons!

My mom and aunt were also along as our cheerleaders!  We were so thankful for them and their sign and support!  I may or may not have broken into tears when I saw them during the last mile at Epcot!  I was all emotional realizing during that mile, that I did it, on little training, after a bad year, and not only did this race but the 5k earlier as well.  I was a ball of emotion when I saw them!

Mike (my brother), Kyle and Eric (bff/hubby), and I made our way by bus to the Wide World of Sports Complex to hang out with all the other thousands of runners and walkers until the start.  It was nice to just get dropped off and there we were!  No long walk to corrals!  We hung out, put on our glowing accessories, took pictures, and admired costumes until we headed to our corrals.  Mike and I were in Corral C, while they were in a few corrals after us.  We had plans to meet up after the race for the after party.  

Pre race photo!  Siblings!

Group pre race!

We hit the port a potty one last time, and while waiting, we had another picture taken (it was like paparazzi they took so many pics of us!). 

Thumbs up for potty!

Selfies in the corral!

 Soon enough the fireworks went off and we were on our way!  I was a little nervous, but fell into a decent pace

Run, Mike, Run!

It was not long before we saw our first character stops!

 It was fun to have someone to run alongside me, and to talk to, a great distraction.  We made our way to Animal Kingdom and saw lots of characters there! 

 It was fun to have run into Karen, while we were at the Pluto stop.  I love her blog.  I also ended up getting to say hello to her as we ran out of the park together. It was nice to meet you Karen!  :)  After Pluto, we made our way out of Animal Kingdom!  Then we found pirates!

We then hit the road for some decent paced running!

We found some friends along the way toward Hollywood Studios!  The green army man was yelling at us.  He said something to us about finding our sleeves?!  I think he meant because we had on tank tops? Not sure, but it was funny.

  We made our way to Hollywood Studios, and I was sooo excited for the next part.....running through the Osborne Lights.  We entered the park near Tower of Terror and zig zagged our way through the park.

Then we headed to the Osborne Lights.  I got chills as we entered the area!

Pictures don't do it justice, but I loved it!

  It totally lived up to my expectations, it was my favorite part of the whole race.  It was so beautiful.  We just stopped and took it all in!  It was our slowest mile of the whole race!  Running through those lights totally pumped me up and got me energized as we headed to Epcot to the finish line!

We found some more friends as we left the Studios!

I enjoyed the sight of the Boardwalk/Beach Club/Swan and Dolphin area, where there was huge crowd support and when it got tough on the legs.  Then we entered Epcot, where we saw our mom and aunt (and when I totally lost it!) as we headed to the finish line.  

I totally lost it.  Lots of emotions over a lot of things!

After seeing our chEARleaders, it was just a short jog to the finish line!

Gunning it to finish strong! 

That is us on the left,  hand in hand ready to finish that race!
 I was sad it was our only halfway decent finish line pic! 

The lasers at the finish line were pretty cool and almost disorienting, but made the finish all the more exciting!  We crossed that finish line with smiles on our faces and our hands held high!  I made it, he made it, we both made it, and it was a blast!

So happy to have done much better than I anticipated
.  It wasn't about speed,
but it was about overcoming a lot this year! 

Half marathoner!

  I was so proud of my brother, and myself.  He kept me going when I was losing steam.  I was so thankful to have my brother alongside me the whole way, it made it that much more special.  I am glad I could be a part of his first half marathon.  Thank you, Mike, for keeping me going and staying with me at my slow pace!  I am proud of you!  

Siblings who run together, stick together!

I am proud to say that it was also the first time I ran music free during a half marathon.  It was a first for us both, we had our music with us, but never turned it on.  I was also proud that I didn't walk at all, except for the water stops that we used.  I was convinced that I would need to walk some of it, but I didn't.  

My brother and I both finished hand in hand raised up in victory, at 2:44:27.

Kyle and Eric both finished the race with big smiles too, about 20 minutes after we did.  It was a great time we all had!  Congrats to you, Kyle and Eric!  And congrats to Kyle, on her first half marathon!  You did it!

Congrats to us all!

After we all met back up and got changed, we enjoyed some drinks at the after party, and walked around World Showcase a little bit, and rode Soarin.  By 4 a.m., we had had it and headed out back to the resort for much needed sleep. 

What a great race it was, I am pretty sure it won't be my last Wine and Dine.  Next year is an anniversary year for the race.....hmmmm.....I bet the medal will be great!  Maybe I need to repeat this race!

Love this medal!

Once again, RunDisney did it again, and made this race 13.1 magical miles!  Love it!