Race Report Part 1

Okay, I've decided I have to break this down in parts or it will never get done. I'm to the point where I'm excited to blog about other things, so I want to be sure I get all of my excitement for Disney in before I get too far off course.

But first, my brother B has also started a blog here. He has already signed up for the Oklahoma City half marathon at the end of April (which I will be running with him. My SIL will be doing the 5k that day too.) I'll talk more about him and why he's going to do the half in the second part of the report.

Okay, first of all, when I left my home to go to Florida on Thursday things were just not good with the hubby but I knew God is always with me and most of my family would be waiting for me in Florida to give me strength. I was pretty tired when I got to the hotel, but when I saw all the happiness of my family - my Mom, my Dad, my little sister, my older siblings, my nephew - I cheered up. I decided that I had all the support I needed right there with me.

We took it fairly easy on Thursday because Friday was the day to hit the park. We got up very early and got to the park for breakfast with characters from Whinnie the Pooh. Who doesn't want to eat breakfast with Eeyore? We went immediately to Space Mountain after breakfast. Probably not the best idea, but I seem to be the only one who didn't like it. In the end we went on it three times (though my sister M's grand total was 5 I think.) We walked around a lot that day, but the legs felt good. I made sure I packed three pairs of sneakers so my feet wouldn't get too tired.

On Saturday everyone went to breakfast together and then we went our separate ways. I was off to the Expo by myself so I could pick up my packet. As I was waiting for the bus I kept seeing runners coming back red and sweaty and with some pretty cool medals around their necks. They were the half marathoners. It was so great to be there. When we arrived at the Wide World of Sports complex, it was so cool just to be walking around with all these other runners who were excited about the same thing I was excited about. I got pretty overwhelmed. I found my line for packet pickup (which happened to be the shortest line) and waited. I just looked around and tried not to ball.

I got my packet and looked at the chip and that for some reason made me start crying. The chip is what made it really official for me. That's what would keep track of me as I ran this thing I had been working so hard for. I went into the stadium seats and called my sister because I was just balling. It took so long to get to the actual point of running a marathon and so much has happened that I couldn't believe I was this close.

After I calmed down, I went and walked around the Expo. I had two things that I needed to get - Body Glide and some Gel. I know, two things I really should have brought with me, but well, there's no place in my town that sells body glide and the only gel I could find in my town was strawberry banana flavor -GROSS! I found the Body Glide, but everyone was out of the gel and they weren't going to get any in. I did get some Cliff Shot Blocks, which I had never had before, so it made me nervous, but not much I could have done at that point.

As I walked around, I found a booth that had Bondi Bands! My BRF Nancy swears by these things, so I got one. Since it was Disney I got one with a pirate skull and cross-bones on it (and as a shout out to my SIL who wanted to be there with us but couldn't - we love pirates). Arrrr Matey!!! Plus, I thought it would make me think of all the encouragement that my BRF's have given me over the past months. In all honesty, I can see why Nancy loves these things. They are awesome! They didn't get sweaty and I never felt annoyed with it like I can get with hats or bandanas.

After my purchases I walked around some more and saw a ton of cool running gear. I pretty much wanted to buy it all, but I resisted the urge. I got my bondi band and that was enough for now.

I went back to the hotel and took it easy for the rest of the day. I pretty much hung out with my mom laughing and joking and drinking a ton of water. I think my mom was nervous that I had an infection because I peed about 375 times that day because I knew I wanted to be plenty hydrated the next day.

I did go through some mental meltdown trying to get the outfit together. I had pretty much brought two of everything and then had to decide which sports bra, t-shirt, shorts and shoes to wear. The only thing I was sure of were my socks.

The two pairs of shoes I had were very different. See, I had purchased a new pair about a week before the race. I know. Naughty me. But my old shoes were pretty worn out and so I bought the new pair to do my final training runs in. I really only ran in them two times before going to Florida. So my question was, which is better? Running 26.2 miles in shoes that are totally worn out, but that have served me well, or run in an almost brand new pair that may not be broken in enough, but that will probably hold up better over the miles? I ran in the new ones, but I went back and forth over it for a long time.

Then I stressed out trying to figure out in which order I put my non-clothing items on in. Does Body Glide go over or under sunscreen and deodorant? I mean, now these questions seem pretty ridiculous, but I pondered them for a long time that day.

Happily my family was there to calm me down. One thing that probably drove them crazy was that I just randomly shouted out, "oh crap, 26.2 miles!" during the whole weekend. It's just a wierd thing to psych yourself up for. Fortunately they always had great comebacks for me to calm me down when they saw I was freaking out.

We all got back together in the afternoon after my brother (who had just returned from his belated honeymoon in New Zealand on Thursday night) arrived at the hotel. We all got together to go eat an early supper. After that, some of us went back to the hotel for early bed because we knew we were going to need the rest for an early start the next day!

Part 2 coming soon.