Half marathon

Back in March or so, Mark decided he wanted to do the Disney Half Marathon in September.  He asked if I wanted to join him.  In a moment of weakness, I said yes, and starting about 10 weeks ago, we began training in earnest.  Mark had been running all along and had done some 10Ks and we both had done plenty of cycling, but I hate running.  I AM a fast walker, however, so I thought I could at least do that.

We increased our mileage each week, and each week I hurt.  Not my muscles, but my joints.  All that pounding was making me ache.  I had settled into a system of running three songs and walking one song which was working pretty well.  I had initially tried the "run 4 min., walk 2 min." thing, but checking my Garmin that often, especially on the long runs was annoying, so I switched to the song thing. Two different weeks I did a long run of 10 miles and then began tapering prior to the big day.

Rebecca decided to join us for the half marathon, having done 2 other halfs, so she was a seasoned vet and then Mark's sister signed up as well.  It would be a regular party.  Except this party was 15,000 people and we probably wouldn't be together as we each had differing abilities.  In the end, Rebecca's IT bands acted up, so she couldn't run with Mark but she could run/walk with me which was great for me!

Sarah designed and ordered some race day shirts for Mark & I.  On the back of mine all of the kids, in-laws and grandkids had written encouraging words.

We got lots of compliments on our shirts.

The race started at 6:00 am and we were encouraged to be at the start at 4:30 am.  We didn't arrive until about 5:00 am and were astounded at the crowd.

We were assigned corrals and humanity stretched in back of us and in front of us.  Our group didn't actually start until 6:30 (we were the 6th of 7 groups to start).

 The crowd stretched back to that parking structure (above) and forward to the blue signs.

We ran through California Adventure, Disneyland, the streets of Anaheim, past the Honda Center arena (home of the ice hockey team), Angels Stadium and then back to Disney.  Disney characters were throughout the parks and people would stop and wait in lines to get their pictures taken with them!  These people were not serious about their times.

 Lots of people wore costumes to run in.

 Becca was trying to outdo Sarah's photo, but in my hurry, I didn't hold the camera still.

Running through the castle

When we left the parks, every 1/2 mile or so there would be a school cheer team, a band, or some dancing group... there was a mariachi band & dancers, Hawaiian dancers, and others.  It was quite entertaining and made the time pass faster.  There were also a lot of people cheering along the way.

 Theoretically, you would see yourself on the big screen if one knew when to look....

After the race, we received fabulous medals and had our pictures taken.

I finished in 2:43 (although my Garmin said 2:37 because it pauses when I stop for a potty break!)  That is my personal best since this was my first (and probably last) half marathon.  Mark did a blistering 2:10! He tells me my time was in the top 25% of women in my age group. What a guy to make me feel accomplished.  I felt better than I thought I would when it was done because I thought I'd feel awful and I didn't! Biggest surprises for me?  How many people there were in the race and how many people were doing it that didn't look like they'd be able to finish but did.  Which kind of lessened my sense of achievement.  Is that bad?

This was fun to do, but I still like cycling better.