My friend Cassie & I left Mobile Friday mid day for the 8 hour drive (and a time change) to Orlando, FL. We got to our hotel around 10:30 pm (bedtime - haha). Then Sunday we went to ESPN Wide World of Sports for the Expo. I had registered for this race several months ago (while the registration fees were still "cheap") (quotation marks are my best effort at writing in sarcasm) so I had forgotten that they ask you what your favorite Disney Princess is. I chose Aurora so they gave me a pink race bib. Yay!!!! Also, I love when they put your name on the race bib. It automatically goes to the top of my Favorite Race Bib list. Double Yay!!! Therefore, imagine my excitement to get a race number with "Princess Joy" printed on it. Triple Yay!!! Jackpot of race bibs!
The rest of the expo was pretty standard. I think it was smaller than the Marine Corps Marathon expo but it was also less crowded which is a good thing. I didn't spend too much money - bought some mouse ears to wear during the race, a new pair of Nike running shorts (I don't have a problem, I can quit any time I want) and a super cute new 26.2 magnet for my car.
Because we had only a half a day left, we decided not to go to one of the amusement parks. Instead, we decided to go to the giant outlet mall we saw as we were driving in the night before. For these two girls, an outlet mall of that size is our Disney World. Probably not the best way to rest your legs for race the next day, but it was fun. :)
Thanks to having read Skinny Runner's recap of the Tinkerbell Half Marathon, I kinda knew what to expect. Especially the part about the pre-dawn start time. Race instructions advised us to be parked by 4 am (Eastern Time) so we set our alarms for 2:30 am. Which means I went to bed on Saturday night early even by my standards. haha I wasn't crazy about the timetable for the race start. We also spent a lot of time standing around (waiting in the potty line, walking to the corrals...) and it was a little chilly out. When I had looked at the weather I thought it would be warm enough that I didn't need to bring extra clothes. But standing around before the race, I was really wishing I had brought something to wrap up in before the race.
The start of the race was pretty awesome. It was still dark out, and they shot off fireworks at the beginning of each corral start. It seemed like no time when I got to the first mile marker/water stop. There was so much excitement and so much to see along the way that the miles seemed to tick off pretty quickly. However, I also know that as far as pacing goes, I was doing a pretty crappy job. All along the course there were Disney characters and you could have your picture made with them. I wasn't inclined to stop and take too many pictures, although I did stop for a picture of Cinderella's castle.
I finished the race with a pretty good time; better than I expected actually. It was a pretty big race - approximately 20,000 people, and it's hard to navigate through the crowds at times. But the medal is so pretty!!!
After the race, we went straight back to our hotel to get cleaned up and check out. We got back to Mobile around 7:30 and I went to bed as soon as I could, after having been up for about 20 hours. It was a really fun race and weekend away.
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