The best weekend ever. The Disney 1/2 Marathon.

Sarah and I went down Thursday night to Orlando. Hung out had fun, went shopping, ate. and Ate some more. We stayed in a SUPER nice condo that we found on groupon and thought we were getting a one bedroom, only to walk in the door and find out there was not just one bedroom, not just 2, but 3!! So that started out the trip pretty nicely. Friday was great. We went to the temple in the morning, and then literally did whatever we wanted. Shopped, ate, ate, Shopped, You get the idea. And then our sweet Courtney joined us. We had a great night at the expo, and an awesome dinner at outback with some long lost friends. Kara and Theo.  Kara {Mommy of 5!!!} Ran the 1/2 and Theo is doing something called the Goofy Challenge. You run the 1/2 marathon on Saturday, and the full marathon on Sunday. Our friend Arthur from the gym also did the Goofy. Those crazy boys.

The morning of...
We got home around I'd say 10:30 or 11 Friday night. The alarms went off at 2:45 AM on Race day. Yeah, all together we got maybe 3-4 hours of sleep that night. We got dressed, Ate some oatmeal and bananas, Threw our hair in some ponies, Laced up on running shoes and out the door we went. At this hour of the morning it's hard to be excited. I don't think the excitement set in until we got to the starting gates. The countdown began, the gun sounded and the fireworks popped!! We were off... Well, kind of. This race is SO big and there are SO many people {26,500 runners participating} That you cannot get around anyone. You are crammed on that course like sardines. You are only as fast as the grandma in front of you.
The race was fun, It went by fast, It was awesomely entertaining, and is really a race to be enjoyed and not one to try and get your best time on. There are so many people on the course, its basically impossible to pass anyone. I made the choice to stop and have pictures taken along the way with the characters that were along the course. And that was time consuming. The lines to get pictures taken with them are pretty long. And take about 3-5 minutes per character. However that's way shorter than waiting 2 hours during normal park hours. And I knew I was in no danger of running my best race anyway, so I just slowed down and really enjoyed the race.

I'm not paying $35.00 per photo so heres the link that has the photos.

 Kyrstens overpriced race photos.

The 3 pictures where I look like I'm in pain... That about sums up miles 8-13. I hadn't been able to train for the 6 weeks leading up to it due to sinus infections, ear infections, flus, colds, blah blah blah, And I had sinus surgery the week before. Due to the lack of mileage the weeks prior, I got runners knee around mile 9. I was feeling FANTASTIC until then, Lungs felt great, muscles, feet, everything but the knee. So, Total time = HORRENDOUS. {for me} Like 11 minute mile. Normally I run about an 8 1/2 to 9 minute mile. However, It was a blast. It was a great run, And an awesome weekend with some super great friends. I'm thinking it needs to be an annual girls trip! Note to self though, Next time remember gloves. It was freezing!