Marathon

Hello Friends

Long time no read.

Well

it has been about a month now

time to finally write a re-cap

 for the marathon that I worked so hard for

Abbie and I drove to Orlando two days before the race

 and stayed at a beautiful timeshare

we did the Disney Expo thing

as well as lots of resting and mentally preparation for the big day

Abbie was great enough to wake up at 3:00am 

and together we made our way to EPCOT

where we hung out about 2 hours before the start of the race.  

The good and bad thing about Disney races is that there are soooooo many people that attend.  And a good portion of these people dress up and really get into the costume-y side of the event

It's entertaining to say the least

For about the first 8 miles of the race, the path was really narrow and there were many walkers and may people stopping short to take pictures of the theme parks and/or the Disney characters that are along the path.  I had the same problem at the Princess 1/2 marathon 2 years ago.  I should have learned by putting myself in a higher coral.  It really hurt my time as I was running 12 minute miles for the whole first portion of the race.  It was extremely frustrating

On the plus side, I felt like I had loads of energy

hence my pose for Abbie's camera

(it's all about the form)

Around mile 18 

the sun came out

and it got

hot, hot, hot!

I hit a wall around mile 21 and really just wanted to be done

without making too many excuses

the heat, the crowd and a bathroom break really hindered my running

I honestly felt like I could have made my goal of 4:30 if those conditions were better

but I ended up with a 5:02 finish.

(side note- my Garmin read that I ran 26.68  miles)

Overall, I am SO very happy that I ran the marathon

I'm taking a hiatus from running for a bit,

but I am definitely doing this again

but next time I am hitting my goal!

(In the meantime...I think I need to work on my tan)