Fly Tink Fly!!!!

"Fly Tink Fly!" Definitely one of the best cheers I heard at the Disney Princess Half Marathon this weekend! How was it? Magical! So magical, in fact, I did it twice! Ok, not exactly twice but I did an extra 11 miles so I could get my ultra training in for the day. I did 3 before the race, then double backed 4 miles, found my friends- Dave, Juli, and Robyn and ran the last 4 in with them... of course taking the time for pictures along the way!

I won't be doing a full race report seeing that this is "only" (don't hate me for saying it) a half marathon. But let me tell ya all about it...

Expo Maddness!!!!

The expo at Disney Princess is nothing short of maddness. It is PACKED (maybe a little too packed) with everything from Running Skirts to Bondi Band, to official merchandise and (my favorite and yours)... The Arctic Ease Booth! They even wrap you up if you stop by the tent. They also had a "bippity boppity boutique" where they would put a classic princess look in your hair (crowns and all). My favorite part of the expo? There was sparkling wine for sale that you could carry around with you!

Race Morning!

All 4 of the maniacs at our hotel got glammed up for the race! With beauty queen Juli's guidance I left the hotel for a race with more makeup than I wear on a Saturday night out! But at the Disney princess that's just fine. Snow-ho-white and naughty tink (what we decided we looked more like than the normal fairy tales) did some pre-race icing with Arctic Ease wraps then headed out to meet up with the thousands of Disney Princesses that took over the House of Mouse for the day. The bag drop/bathroom/dance party area was a ton of fun with a DJ playing great music and providing various castle backdrops for photo ops. We met a ton of maniacs in cognito as Disney Princesses!

 

"dropping beats!"



Princesses?.... No, Maniacs and Half Fanatics!

  From the bag drop to the front of corral A it was just about a mile walk! Since I had to get 10 extra miles in I ran it, then ran back and forth through the corrals to get an extra 2 (3 total pre-race miles). I jumped in corral A and as I pushed myself to the front I heard "Stephanie??" And I found fellow bloggies, Racing with Babes and Run Faster Mommy! (I'm sure you've heard of them!) standing right there! BLOGGY FUN and one of my ongoing goals-- "meet more bloggy buddies!"

Speaking of goals, cross one more off my list for 2011! One of the last goals I threw in was "hug a race director!" Well an unsuspecting "John the race director" went by and when Robyn pointed out who he was I'm sure he was more than a little surprised to have a half naked tinker bell running up to him saying "CAN I GIVE YOU A HUG?!?!?... and can I take a picture??" haha well one goal checked off and it was a great pick because John was a very very nice director who even came up to us post-race to ask how everything went.

And They're OFF!!!!

With fireworks in the air and a countdown from the fairy god mother we were off! At first I got caught up in the speed of corral A-- and as per usual, forgetting that I'm supposed to be slowing down on my long runs-- and took off at a 7:20 pace. Woops.

As SOON as we hit the Magic Kingdom it was hard to keep that up-- all I wanted to do was have fun and take picture of all my favorite characters. I've you've been following since the beginning the SAME thing happened to me at the Disney Marathon. Racing is great and speed is awesome, but sometimes slowing down and having a lot of fun is even better!

So I made it fun AND speedy! I would stop for picture ups with my favs and then take off in between for speed work! Hellooooo CRAMPS! The stopping and starting doesn't feel good, but it sure was fun!

Finish... #1 and Steph gets Kicked out of Disney World!!

The last couple miles (of my first time around) were kind of boring. It was a lot of backlot/highway running with only a few entertaining spots along the way (the pirates and the princes). I say my "first time around" because my second time through they had added more characters and photo spots. What is the lesson here? If you run fast you GET a good time, if you run slow you HAVE a good time!

I finished with something like a 1:50-- not bad considering the number of stops I made- Cinderella, Peter Pan, (creepy) Pirates, Castle, Alice & the Gang (pic left)-- just to name a few!

I ran through the finish line, got my medal and some water, chucked my DTag (so I didn't set off the sensors again) then jumped back onto the course! And then ... security got me!!!! I got stopped by a big bully who said I couldn't go back in. His concern? The part I was going through was about a tenth of a mile back IN the park and they didn't want people sneaking in. I tried to make up excuses as to why I NEEDED to go back (a sick friend who only I could help) but he was having none of it. So I promptly called him an @$$hole (admittedly, not very Disney-like!), went back out and down the road to a spot before we reenter the park and jumped back in. HAHA! Take that jerk. Yes, I was now a wanted Tinker Bell on the run, darting around water stops and port-a-john areas to avoid security with walkie talkies that may have been warned! My life is serioiusly a citcom. And you know what? I never got caught... Eat my fairy dust!!!

Running back about 4 miles, I hungout at the "Prince" section and waited on my friends to join. Then I ran the last 4 miles of my run with them, taking lots of pictures along the way. It took us nearly 4 hours to finish! Why? Well here, this may explain things....

And then finally....

I finished with a BIG hug from MICKEY!!! The first time through Goofy was the only character there. I gave him a hug, but like the Disney commercial, without a hug from the ONE character I wanted, it just wasn't the same!

The Magic Never Ends....
Stephanie, you've just finished the Disney Princess Half Marathon (twice), what will you do next? I'M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD-- oh wait, crap, already there. Oh well-- after about 3 hours of sleep, and 24 miles, we showered quickly then headed to spend 5 hours at the Magic Kingdom. Surprisingly there were short lines and somehow we managed to go on nearly every ride in the Kingdom. We also managed to sneak in a little dress up time.

*Nearly ALL photos courtesy of The Dave Mari of Dave Mari Marathon Photagaphy**!
**Don't look up this company as it doesn't exist... yet

Happy Racing,
Stephanie