Last minute details

Only 2 more sleeps!!! We are leaving very early Friday morning for our flight to WDW and the Princess half marathon! I have so much to do and it's been tough getting anything done with a sick kid around here. I need to pack (only taking a carry-on) but still, I'm going to have to be creative to get all my gear in there. Sure hope I don't forget anything!

I still haven't decided between these two shirts so I'll probably pack both and make a last minute decision.

So, we plan to get to the expo first thing on Friday after we get checked into POFQ. We might go have lunch at Downtown Disney and just mosey around for the afternoon. We are having dinner that night at California Grill!

Saturday we plan to leisurely hit Hollywood Studios and Epcot. We have a lunch ressie for Sci-fi Diner, although a cool atmosphere, I've heard the food is downright awful, but the milkshakes are really good. I'm thinking I will stick to only ordering a milkshake. ;) I don't need food poisoning the day before the race.

Dinner on Saturday is still up in the air though. I have a ressie for Via Napoli but I'm starting to rethink that since it will put us back at our resort rather late that night. I'm worried I will not get enough sleep since the alarm will be going off around 2-2:30am on race day. Like I'm going to be able to sleep anyway!!! My dinner back up plan is to eat at Les Chefs de France much earlier on Saturday. I need to make a decision soon! However, I'd much rather eat at VN.

Sunday is race day followed by lunch at Kona and then spending the day at Magic Kingdom. We will end the night at the Wishes/Dessert Party! 

We leave Monday to come back home. A short trip, but it has a purpose and not to mention a nice little getaway for just Shay and I. :)

Quick getaway to the cabin

Since Monday was a holiday we decided to go out to our cabin for a few days and just relax. We ended up with cabin fever (literally) while the weather (rainy and too muddy) did not want to cooperate. E had minor surgery last week and just wasn't feeling well overall the whole weekend.

Poor baby :(

While Shay went hunting I had Zane tend to the fire for us

My parents came to see the place and celebrate my birthday some more

Homemade card and a heart shaped chocolate cake...my favorite!

They also brought us some fresh eggs from their neighbor!

The best part of waking up...is Folger's in your cup....

I was also not feeling too well and began to have a slight bit of panic of the what ifs. What if I get sick and can't run next weekend? What if I can't travel? What if all this training was for nothing?

But I soon started feeling better and proceeded to eat nearly that entire cake above. 

My mom and I started to talk about my half marathon coming up and I announced that I had registered for the DL half a few days prior. She expressed interest in wanting to do it as well. I was so excited and told her she needed to make her decision quick since registration was going fast. She registered the next day and it sold out a few hours later! 

She has done a few half marathons in the past, but it has been several years so her training will be like starting over, but I'm just so excited to get to do this with her!

Make that #2

It's official...I'm now registered for my 2nd half marathon. Probably a little crazy since I have yet to run my first one. However, I'll be marking that off my list next weekend! :)

I'm going to run the Disneyland half marathon in September to earn my Coast to Coast medal! The Coast to Coast challenge is running a half marathon or full at WDW and then one at DL in the same calendar year. Who knew this running thing would become so addicting???

*****

And because I don't want to disappoint...

Celebrating my birthday earlier this week. Pink fleece and all.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! We are going to relax out at our cabin. ahhhhhh

What do you have planned for the weekend?

Race Recap: Hot Chocolate 15K- Dallas

This event was held in Dallas (inaugural) last weekend. After hearing so much negativity about this race in DC I went in with very low expectations. I'm happy to report that it turned out to be a really well organized event and I'm glad I decided to register at the last minute. The expo could use a little work though.

Expo

I was a bit annoyed that we were going to have to pay $10 to park to get our race packets at the expo. I would have been somewhat less annoyed had the expo not been so lame. Only a handful of booths with nothing very exciting (except for the ghirardelli samples) and this giant inflatable mug.

oh look, pink fleece again

However, everything went smoothly while picking up the race bibs and jackets. Oh, and the jackets are really CHEAP (easily torn, broken zippers, etc.) and lots of people were having to exchange for larger sizes since they ran really small. The coolest thing in the goodie bag was a $10 gift card to Run On!

Race Day

Woke up at 5am so I wouldn't feel rushed getting ready, eating, taking care of business (yep, got it get it done- no porta potties for me!) and waited for my ride (Jennifer and Shea) to get to my house. We wanted to make sure we had ample time to get down to Fair Park. It was a good thing because what normally is a 40-45 minute drive from my house turned into an hour and a half. Traffic was pretty much at a standstill as we got closer. My friends were running the 5K and made it to their corral with only a few minutes to spare.

And it was COLD! Like, winter decided to arrive the night before so the temps that morning were in the 20's with the wind chill in the teens. I ended up wearing running tights, l/s tech shirt, short sleeve over that and a zip up fleece, gloves, and headband. I never warmed up enough to take my fleece or gloves off. The coldest part of my body though for the first 2-3 miles were my toes. They basically went numb.

The race started right on time. I know there were some who were probably still stuck in traffic and I'm sure are pissed about that, but I think you have to know that when you have thousands of people trying to get to one location at the same time you're going to have to plan ahead for that. It took a little longer than I would have thought, but like I said, we did plan for it. I don't think you can really fault the race organizers for that.

Nearly the first half of the course was all uphill but not too bad. There was one really big hill around mile 5 that I ended up walking (I'm not used to hills) but other than that hill and the water stations I ran the whole thing. I wasn't planning to since I normally do run/walk intervals and really was using this race as my last long training run before my half marathon in two weeks. But, it was cold, I was feeling good, and I wanted CHOCOLATE!

And so, I ran... I ran so far away...

Shout out to SkinnyRunner for this awesome shirt! I wanted to wear it today at the race, but I knew it would stay covered up with my fleece so I opted for another shirt. :(

Anyway, the course was great! There were plenty of volunteers and it was marked well. Also plenty of police along the way to deal with traffic/closures. Plenty of water at the finish line.

Once back at the building where the post race party was set up, I met up with my friends and jumped in line to get my chocolate!

Chocolate fountain (just for show)

I went through the line and grabbed a little tray with various things to dip into the chocolate...half a banana (whole would have been better), marshmallow, apple slices, pretzel stick, and a rice crispy treat. It didn't look like much, but once I started eating it I realized it was plenty. I usually only want a little bit of food at the end of a race and I actually felt somewhat nauseous eating all that sweet stuff.

They had a pretty good band playing, but we didn't stick around too long which was fine. I felt bad that my friends had to wait around so long for me to finish so we left.

I got home to find Shay had prepared a wonderful lunch of venison (elk) spaghetti over penne pasta. Yum!

Overall, I was really happy with the whole experience. I think the race organizers did a good job and I would definitely do it again next year!