It's almost time for The Jelly Bean Virtual Race!

Yup, that's right-Spring is just around the corner (well, here in SoFla we haven't really even had a winter)...and that means it's almost time for The Jelly Bean Virtual Race!  If you haven't heard about it, head on over to the Run with Jess site and check out the post for the 3rd Annual Jelly Bean Virtual Race.

Haven't heard about virtual races before?  It's like doing an actual in-person, live race but all by yourself...or with a group of local friends if you feel like getting a group together to do your miles.  You basically do the number of miles for the race length(s) you choose, then report your results.  And don't worry about how fast or how slow you may be-it doesn't matter.  Everyone who finishes gets an entry into the prize drawings, and the more events you complete, the more entries you earn...up to 4 entries for the 4 events.  The events are Run 5K, Run 10K, Run Half Marathon and Bike 21K (13 miles).  You can enter 1, 2, 3 or all 4 events and you have from March 20th thru March 31st to complete the ones you register for.

Did you catch the part about the prizes?  Yup, Jess has some fantastic sponsors like Nuun, Racer Frames, Gone For A Run and more and you could win a prize from one of them just for participating.  Again, it doesn't matter if you have the fastest time or the slowest one-if you finish and report a time for one or more of the distances you register for, you get entries into the prize drawings.

Best of all?  It's all free!  Now, if you want some bling (AKA a medal for those unfamiliar with the term) then you can pony up the $10 for the optional race medal but if you'd prefer not to and just want to take your chances with the drawings, you can do that too.  This year there's also team options (5 or 10 person teams) where you can purchase the team pack and not only get the bling for each person but some other goodies as well.

I did the Jelly Bean last year and had a good time (even if my neighbors thought I was a bit nuts out there in my bunny ears)...you can read my blog post from it here and see some of the pics I took.  I've already signed up for this year for the 5K and 10K.  I still don't own a bike (*sniff*sniff*) so no bike event for me...and while I was thinking about adding the half marathon, I've scaled back my Spring calendar to prepare for this year's Expedition Everest 5K adventure race at Walt Disney World and don't have any training miles over 7 planned so it'll probably just be the 5K and 10K for me again this year.

Anyway, go check out the race info and sign up...and don't forget to buy some jelly beans before your race(s) to celebrate with after...or even along the way-jelly beans are actually pretty good fuel when doing miles!

Have you ever done a virtual race before?  Did you like it, and will you be signing up for the Jelly Bean?

2012 Princess Half Marathon Weekend Recap

Yes, I’m aware it is almost 11 months later, but hey-I figure if a year hasn’t passed yet, I’m okay posting my recap.

This was my first time doing the Disney Princess Half Marathon.  I’d actually been to the Princess Half Marathon Weekend before...you may or may not remember that the Royal Family 5K in 2009 during the inaugural Princess Weekend was not only my first Disney race, it was my first race of any kind-ever.  I remember when I was getting ready to check out of my hotel that Sunday (the day after the 5K), runners had already started coming back to the hotel with the shiny Princess Half bling hanging around their necks and that was the first time I thought, “I want one of those!”.  And thus this whole crazy ride started.

I was originally going to be heading up to WDW by myself, but then turned it into a mother-daughter weekend instead, bringing my mom along with me.  If you think I’m a huge Disney fan, I’ve got nothing on my mom.  Plus this would be the first time she’d be there for one of my races...so I was looking forward to a fun weekend.

The expo on Friday was just like most other Disney race expos, though not quite as large and crazy as the Marathon Weekend expo can be.  Packet pickup went smoothly as always, and I wound up in corral G.  Since the corrals went to H that meant I’d be in the next to last corral...so at least a little cushion there.  Erica from ROTE was working at the SparkleSkirts booth and after introducing mom, Erica continued calling her “Carra’s Mom” for the weekend.  After, mom and I spent time at Magic Kingdom getting lots of Photopass pictures taken and enjoying our favorites-the Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes.

Saturday we checked out Animal Kingdom, taking more Photopass pics until a little after lunchtime, then headed back to the hotel for relaxing and an early bedtime since those 3am buses on Sunday would be coming up pretty quickly!

I brought my mom along to the family area where I met up with the other Running of the Ears peeps at the H tent.  I introduced her to some of my friends and asked if she could follow some of them who would be cheering over to the Magic Kingdom until it got light outside (thank you so much Steve!).  Once it came time to head to the corrals, I made my way over while mom hung with the cheering ROTErs until they went to catch the monorail to the Magic Kingdom.  It was a bit cool out...I also did have a cheap poncho in my pocket just in case since the forecast was looking like it could rain.

Once in my corral I got as far forward as possible.  My speed was not really where I wanted it to be and I wanted to make sure I got as much cushion as I could to avoid those pesky sweepers.  Once we were on our way, the race was pretty uneventful...I didn’t stop for any characters and I was already familiar with the course from the Disney Half Marathons I’ve done.  The cool temperatures made it easier to keep up my pace.  I did start seeing the bicycle people with their little orange flags around mile 7.5 or so.  Around the time I got to mile 9 the weather had gotten a bit misty out but I didn’t bother breaking out the poncho.  There’s one lady from the bike people who would ride by letting us know how far ahead of pace we were.  I’ve seen her at previous WDW races and she’s pretty good at keeping the runners informed.  

Once I hit about mile 9.5, I was just so tired of trying to keep my pace up-I’d stopped doing any intervals a couple miles before.  I think after doing the back-to-back halfs during Marathon Weekend, then the ING Half three weeks later, then Princess was just taking its toll.  But I kept going and pushing because what was foremost in my brain was the fact that my mom was going to be at the finish and I didn’t want to get swept at a race she came to see.  Between mile markers 10 and 11 was the hardest...because just after 10, the pace girls with those blasted balloons passed me at that point.  During mile 10 my pace had dropped to around 17:30/mile.  

As I and my fellow runners/walkers were pushing through mile 11 towards a looping turn that would take us toward the final approach to Epcot, a couple of us asked one of the male bike guys if there were any more sweep points.  He said ,”Nah, no more” and looked very relaxed just hanging out on the side of the course as he was watching us go by.  We made a looping turn toward our last overpass when the lady bike person came around again.  She wasn’t saying anything about how far behind pace we were, so we asked again about sweep points.  She kind of fumbled her response with a ,”Um, well, you just need to keep on going, keep on moving forward”.  We looked at each other (us runner/walkers that is) and we knew we were safe--you could tell she was trying to say something to keep it vague so we wouldn’t just slow to a crawl without actually saying there were no more sweep points.

And so yes, I did slow a little, maybe by 15 seconds/mile until I passed the 12 mile point-knowing by then I was definitely not getting swept.  At that point it was kind of drizzly out and I was not going to rush it anymore.  I wound up finishing in 3:45 and some change...and finally got that Princess bling around my neck!

Once I stopped moving I got chilly and the line for the bus back to the resort was waaaaaaaaay long so mom and I hung out in the empty bag check tent to stay warm (mom was freezing from mostly standing in the wet and cold) until the line went down, then hopped the bus back to the hotel.  We both wound up taking a nap for a couple of hours to rest and warm up before heading out to a celebratory meal at Outback.

Sunday night was Epcot, then Monday was Hollywood Studios and a little more Epcot (taking lots more Photopass pics of course!) before finally heading home.  It really was a great weekend, especially being able to spend it with my mom, so we had a fun girls’ weekend-appropriate for Princess, don’tcha think?  As we were driving home, mom asked if I could let her know when we could see the Photopass pictures online after we got home since she would probably want to get some of us.  That’s when I sprung a little surprise on her...that we’d be getting ALL of them since I’d be getting the Photopass CD (thanks to a bunch of ROTE friends sharing discs!).  While it took me a while to get around to copying the pictures over onto a disc for her, I did finally get it to her along with a framed 5” x 7” of one of my favorite pics from the weekend (no, not the one pictured here).

So, have you ever had a race weekend away with your mom ladies (or dad for the guys)?  Did you have as much fun as I did with mine?  :-)  Cherish those memories!

Race recap-2012 ING Miami Half Marathon 1/29/2012

Yes, I know this is very late--hey, I'm almost caught up though!

I was really lucky with the registration for this one.  They were running a promotion for the first however-many to sign up once registration opened that registration would only be $25 (I think it was the first 50 people).  Registration opened February 1, 2011 at 6am...I was registered by 6:04am...total was $33.50 with Active fees (lordy how I hate those Active fees!).  Couldn’t pass that up for a race as big as this one, especially since the 2012 race was the 10th anniversary promising special bling!  The race would be held January 29, 2012

I already knew I’d be running an event during Marathon Weekend at Disney earlier that month...I didn’t realize at the time that I would actually be running both the half and the marathon relay--3 weeks before ING.  Ah, well...it would be an experiment to see just how far I could push myself, right?  Sure.

The expo was held at the Miami Beach Convention Center and SIL and I went down to it together.  We met up with our friend Tracy and a couple more ROTErs we ran into there (hi Paul and Bill and Todd!) and got a free pic together at one of the booths.  After, some of us wandered down to Lincoln Road for some lunch before we headed home to rest up for the race.

The morning of the race my SIL and I drove down and got caught in a bit of a traffic crush trying to get to the parking garage by Bayside across the street from the American Airlines Arena (in front of which the start line was located).  Thankfully we made it with plenty of time.  We met up with some ROTErs who were in town for the race and hung out until it was time to get to our corrals.  It was great to see people down here that I normally have to travel up to Disney World to see.

The only problem?  I had this nagging feeling that I really didn’t want to do the race.  I mean, I had no issue with doing the miles (that never bothers me)...I just didn’t want to RACE.  I don’t know if my body was just telling me it was tired out after my back-to-backs during Marathon Weekend, or if it was a mental thing or what.  I just did NOT want to be there racing.

Unfortunately, we were both in the very last corral so it was quite a long wait until it was our turn to cross that start line.  One of the neat things about our corral though was that we were actually on a side street right next to the start line (we’d feed into the main road to cross the start), so we were able to see everyone start before us really close up.  And finally it was our turn and we were off.  

Now, normally when I start a race I’ll run for the first 30 seconds to one minute-excitement of the start and all that-and then settle into a walk for a bit to ease up on my shins before starting my intervals.  And that’s what I did for this race...though I probably ran a bit longer than I should have as my shins felt like what they feel like when I need a new pair of running shoes (and no, I did not have old shoes on).  This usually would be no big deal-I would just walk slower for longer before starting my intervals.  Except this course threw in a bit of a curveball.

After a small straight start, we turned right headed toward Watson Island...and the first bridge, only a quarter mile into the race.  Now, the bridge would normally be no problem-if it wasn’t so soon in the course.  My shins hadn’t had a chance to break themselves in and already I had to go up...up..up.  Those of you from other places in the world probably think I’m one heck of a softie, I mean it’s just a bridge right?  But I’m the very definition of a flatlander (South Florida native, and while I did live up in the NC mountains for five years, I was not active while there)-and I so very, very rarely ever have any kind of inclines in the races I do that I haven’t bothered with hill training so far.  Hitting that bridge right after the start and with my shins not really worked out yet HURT.  And so I slowed down...a lot.  Like almost 18 minute miles.  At least I had the cruise ships to look at along the MacArthur Causeway as I went along.  There was a second bridge along the causeway, but thankfully my shins had loosened up by then.  Too bad I was never able to get my speed back to normal.  Here's some pics from the first part of the race:

or this...

I'd rather be on this...

Approaching the 2nd bridge

 I do have to say, I’ve done a few races down in Miami Beach and I do like going along the Causeway.  Too bad most of the rest of the course did absolutely nothing for me.  We had maybe a little more than a mile (I’d guess around mile 4.5 through about 5.75) that was along Ocean Drive and the beach...other than that it was just going through the city streets, then along the Venetian Causeway-which had a whole bunch of construction along it.  It wouldn’t have been a big deal, but at the pace I was at, somewhere between mile 9 and mile 10 I (and everyone else still out on the course-which was a pretty good number of people) had to move up to the sidewalk as they were trying to open the roads back up.  Again, usually not a big deal when that happens, and I know that’s something I might encounter during a race if my pace is or falls below race pace (I’m just glad when they still let you finish and just move you to the sidewalks).  However, the sidewalks along the Venetian Causeway were mostly pretty narrow so there were many of us single-file and it was very difficult to pass anyone (which I was still able to do at some points, yay for me!).  

I tried to stay positive though-at least the skies were overcast so the sun wasn’t beating down.  We had only had a few sprinkles (for me back around mile 5 or so and only for a couple minutes) so it was not hot at all. Here’s my “keep your chin up” pic:

Once back on the mainland, it was a couple more miles through the city streets of Miami...but most in areas that didn’t look so hot (I wouldn’t walk there by myself if I wasn’t on a race course, especially around mile 12).  Our spectators for that part were mostly several homeless men sitting with their bags of stuff along the sidewalks.  By miles 11 and 12 I was dipping back into the 18 minute mile range.  Then finally during mile 13 I just totally eased off, knowing I was going to finish and not really caring at that point how long it took.  Remember that feeling I had like I really didn’t want to be there?  Miles 11-13 that feeling was roaring back full force.  I made the final hairpin curve to the finish...you can see how totally blah I was by then:

And then I was done.  Final chip time-3:55:37.  While I was not last-there were over 140 more people who came in after me-and not the slowest I’ve ever done 13.1 miles-I’ve never felt more tired, sore and just so totally wretched after a race as I did after this one.    I made my way through the finishers area (here, I smiled with my medal, I dug deep for that one)...

...and through the post-race food tents where there was plenty to eat since those people running the full marathon still had a couple more hours to go.  I was starving.  I looked around trying to find SIL (I knew she had finished almost an hour before me) and made my way over to some benches in a little mini-amphitheater area where a lot of runners had decided to crash.  I did not want to get up.  I would have been happy just laying down on the bench and staying there for the rest of the day.  But she found me and after we both just sat for a bit, we finally, very slowly, made our way back to her car for the ride back home.  Where I crashed on the couch with food and a blanket (after a shower of course) for the rest of the day.

Personally, I don’t know that I’d ever do this race again.  Not because my experience just sucked from a physical/mental standpoint, but because I really didn’t care for the course.  The other two half marathons I’ve done in the Miami Beach area were much more scenic and just felt more comfortable to me.  I’m not really a metro-urban city kind of girl and would rather be where there’s a lot more trees, water and so on than city streets with businesses and such.  I’m glad I did it, especially since it was the 10-year anniversary (yay for spinning bling!) and I got in for such a cheap entry fee...but for me it’s certainly not a priority for a future race.  I’ll gladly ride down to cheer for friends though come next year!

Sorry for such a long report and a mostly down-in-the-dumps one at that...but it does accurately capture my whole mood that day.  No really great pics with the exception of our group pics.  

Have you ever had one of those “I just don’t feel like doing this today” feelings before a race?  

Have you ever done the ING Miami Half Marathon?  What did you think of the course?

Disney Marathon Weekend 2012 Part 3-the Marathon Relay

When I signed up for Marathon Weekend 2012, I was initially only going to run the Marathon Relay (Chip & Dale) on Sunday, but wound up also signing up for the Half Marathon for Saturday.  I rationalized that a couple of ways-it was my SIL’s first Half Marathon, so I would run too...it was a progression towards eventually going Goofy (2010 Half, 2011 Full, 2012 Half/Half, 2013 Half/Full)...it was an opportunity to do back-to-back half marathons on consecutive days which I’d never done before.  Whatever my reasoning at the time, this would be a very new experience for me since the closest I’d ever had two half marathons together was 2 weeks back in 2010.

After a take-it-easy first half on Saturday, I was up again in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday to make my way to the start area for the Marathon Relay AKA Chip & Dale.  I had partnered up with a fantastic ROTEr named Carol from Georgia after we found each other on the Running of the Ears forums looking for relay partners.  Since I was running the half on Saturday and the first part of the full marathon course for Sunday was pretty much the same course as the half, plus I had never run back-to-backs before and didn’t know what kind of shape my body would be in, I wanted to do the 2nd leg of the relay so I could see the 2nd half of the course; I was also concerned about being too slow if I was runner #1 due to the prior day’s race that I might get swept (I learned later that even I that were to happen, the runner #2’s would still get to start).  Thankfully Carol was just fine with being runner #1.

It was pretty chilly at 4am, all the way down to 44 degrees at the lowest!  I hadn’t worn my throwaway pants as my legs aren’t normally chilly-I had a throwaway fleece blanket instead ($2.50 at Walgreens, great deal!).  I did have on a long-sleeved t-shirt over my short-sleeved tech top so even with my fleece blanket I was still chilly.  After meeting up with the other ROTErs in the start area, those of us who were relayers running leg #2 went to the shuttles as a group to be transported to the exchange area over at the Magic Kingdom parking lot.  Once there, not much was going on.  There was a DJ and a big-screen that they showed clips of the race start, then later as the first of the runner #1’s started arriving, they would put them up on the screen.  Until then, though, there was not much to do except sit around and chat and try to keep warm.  Since it was so cold, the volunteers were actually handing out the mylar blankets to us to keep warm with the caveat that we give them to our partners as they came in.

Those mylars really helped!  We waited and watched as the sun came up-it was a beautiful morning with clear skies.  I had signed up to get text messages from the runner tracking so I knew where Carol was and when to expect her at the exchange area.  She was unbelievably consistent so once I went over to the chute where we’d exchange, I only waited a couple of minutes since I knew when she’d be there.  She was originally slated to start in corral F (out of H), but I believe was moved up to D based on proof of time from another race.  Between that and her AMAZING 2:43:43 time (you ROCK Carol!), she made it to the exchange around 8:30 am-ish where I got to take over.  I was glad I had done a Disney relay before (Wine & Dine 2011) so I knew what to expect in the exchange area.

It was a pretty interesting time for me to start.  Considering I’m usually in either the last or next to last corral where you have a lot of walkers and walk/runners, starting while there are tons of people just running (and running at a nice pace too!) was really weird...but cool at the same time since I’m never around people going that fast!  I made sure to get all the way over to the right as quick as I could.  I was a bit stiff at first but as I kept on everything started loosening up.  I didn’t need to wear my long-sleeved t-shirt for too long and tossed my throwaway gloves (those 50-cent kid ones you can get at Target) a little before arriving at Animal Kingdom.  The gloves I didn’t mind tossing but the top I kinda liked, it was really comfy so I tied it around my waist instead.  

One of the great things about being able to start the 2nd half of the full marathon course so much earlier than when I had reached that point the year before when I ran the full was how much more I was able to see since I wasn’t anywhere near in any danger of being swept.  Heck, I could have taken an hour longer than I did and not been swept (*bowing down to Carol for both her speed and agreeing to be my partner*).  As I entered the back of Animal Kingdom, they had actual animals out that you could pet and take pictures of:

And of course, the characters (yay for getting Minnie!):

As I passed by Expedition Everest, I was really tempted to take a ride since the line was super short (plus from what I heard, if you were a runner the cast members were letting you go to the front of the line), but I felt like that would be taking extra advantage of my huge head start from my partner so I kept on going.  From Animal Kingdom it was back to Hollywood Studios.  As we came across one of the overpasses, I snapped this shot of the backup of traffic due to the road closures from the race (you think the drivers were mad?):

But one of the killer spots of the full is this hill heading toward the Studios:

My legs, after doing the half the day before, were screaming at me saying “What the &%$#! do you think you’re doing?!?!?!”  Yeah, I walked up that baby...as you can probably tell, most people were walking.  I give a standing ovation to those that were running (or attempting to run) up that.  Remember, I’m a SoFla Flatlander to the max.  Our idea of a hill is a bridge over a highway.  And I personally live out near the Everglades in some of the flattest land down here, so just looking up that incline made my legs want to go run and hide LOL.

One of the best parts of reaching Hollywood Studios when I did the full last year was the candy stop--yummy chocolate!  Um, yeah-at 20+ miles that tastes heavenly.  At around 9 or 10-not so much...I thought I was going to gag and had to wash it away at the next water stop.  But that’s okay-I was in the Studios and could actually watch everything around me!  

Once I got out of the front of the Studios and started heading down the walkway toward the Boardwalk resort, I knew I was home free.  Not that I was anywhere near being herded on to a bus.  Just passing by the buses that were already there for those coming later knowing I didn’t have to worry about that was such a relief!  And once across to the Boardwalk side, past all the resorts there came my favorite part-entering Epcot for the final lap around the World Showcase before heading to the finish line!  Here’s some tiny pics from that:

I wound up finishing my half in 4:01:04, much slower than any other half I’ve done but I was thrilled to still be in the upright position after completing the half the day before.  Yes, I was sore.  Yes, I was tired.  Would I do it again?  In a heartbeat!  I thoroughly enjoyed the relay-it was wonderful being able to actually take in my surroundings during the 2nd half of the full marathon course instead of worrying that I would be taken away for not making the pace.  Our combined time was 6:59:45.  Yes, I made us a slower team, but still within the 7 hour pace time...not that we were anywhere near being swept away ;-).

The relay is not being held for 2013, but I’m hoping that’s just because of the 20th anniversary year for the full marathon with the course change and other “surprises” they have planned.  I would love to do the relay again, especially as runner #2.  Here’s some parting pics:

Have you ever done half marathons (or longer) on back-to-back days?  Would you do it again?  I sure would, especially Disney!

Marathon Weekend 2012 recap part 2-the Half Marathon

Marathon Weekend 2012-part 2

Yes, I know it is 10.5 months late.  Sometimes you just don’t get around to things when you want to, then when you do have time you just don’t feel like writing a race report.  I hate leaving things like this unfinished so I’m finally finishing my report from Disney’s Marathon Weekend 2012 events.

First up-Saturday and the Half Marathon.  The Disney Half is a fun race and always has a lot of first-timers...this time my SIL was the first-timer which was a big reason behind why I went ahead and registered, setting myself up for a double half marathon weekend.  We went to bed really early Friday night-around 7am-and I got up at 2am to have my breakfast and get ready.  We headed over to the buses and once at the pre-race area I made my way over to the “H” tent to find the ROTErs while SIL hunted down some friends that came up to run with her.

Once it was time to head to the start corrals, we made our way over together to get lined up.  We were in the next-to-last corral, so it was nice to know I had a bit of a cushion since I wanted to take it easy with the relay coming the next day-plus we started as close to the front as we could get.  I knew SIL was going to be faster than me (isn’t just about everyone?) so after our corral took off, I ran for the first minute or so, then backed off to walk for a while before starting my intervals, watching her head off ahead of me.  It was pretty comfortable out weather-wise-certainly better than the crazy frozen weekend of 2010!

I did my walk/run intervals for a while, then around mile 7 or 8 started backing off to mostly walk. I didn’t even see the bike people (the ones who carry those orange flags to warn that the pace girls AKA the balloon girls are nearby...meaning you’re falling behind pace) until after mile 9, but I never saw the orange flags this race and those balloon girls never passed me.  The cushion of my corral placement and the fact that we were up at the front of the corral handled that for me.  I wound up finishing in 3:45...yes, slower than the 16mm pace but again, this was mostly on purpose since I didn’t know how my body was going to react with two half marathons in one weekend.  I was just happy to have another half marathon complete and very proud of SIL for finishing her first one!

I didn’t take any pictures along the course this time, but here’s a pic of us afterward...not my best, but we both have Donald Duck bling around our necks so that’s all that matters!  

2012 WDW Marathon Weekend Recap Part 1-Pre-race and Expo

So this year I was originally just going to do the Chip & Dale Marathon Relay (the “C&D”), but was drawn toward the Half Marathon (the “Donald”) for two reasons-number one, 2012 is the 15th anniversary of the race so of course you know the medal will be an anniversary medal and will be unique. Number two, my sister-in-law who recently started running was making Donald her first half marathon. And so that is how I came to register for both. Yes, that’s right-both. I’d be doing my first back-to-back days of half marathons...not back-to-back weekends---DAYS. As in a half marathon on Saturday AND Sunday. Really. Me. Nutso, right?

Well, I figured hey-2010 I did the half, 2011 the full, now 2012 I’d do half and half (sounds like I need a cup of coffee with that, right?)...so 2013 I should just do half and full for the Goofy next. Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves quite yet.

Anyway, when I posted looking for a partner for the relay I stated I was looking to run the 2nd leg...for two reasons-first, I’m normally slow, coming in near the 16mm mark. Since I’d be doing the Donald the day before and didn’t know how that would affect my pace and how my body would feel doing half marathons two days in a row, I wouldn’t want to go first and get swept (although now I know the 2nd leg runners would have been allowed to run anyway, at the time I was concerned I’d screw them up if something happened). Second, the half marathon on Saturday follows just about the same course as the first part of the full on Sunday and I didn’t want to run virtually the same thing two days in a row. By doing the 2nd leg I’d basically get to do the whole full marathon course, just splitting it up over two days. I was lucky to hook up with Carol (U.S.) from Running of the Ears who was just fine with being runner #1 and we got together on the phone the day registration opened to sign up. Yay!

I wound up registering for Donald while at the Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend Expo (yay for no Active.com fees!) along with Princess. Once back from W&D I started my training for my double half marathon weekend. Didn’t do too much different, just threw in a few double long run weekends which weren’t bad at all.

Marathon Weekend is now a yearly trip for me; this year I left really early Thursday morning (January 5th) before the sun came up to pick up my SIL and start the 3+ hour drive to the Mouse House. I wanted to be at the Expo when it opened; we arrived a little after and headed on in. It was pretty neat that I got to go to two different places to pick up two sets of stuff, makes you feel kinda special. Once we had our bibs we went over to the next building for our shirts and the Expo. Again pretty cool getting two different shirts, a nice navy blue for C&D and a brighter blue for Donald. I was kind of bummed that I didn’t see any C&D merchandise for the race-no shirts, glasses, knick-knacks, keychains...I did find out the next day that they actually DID have “We Did It” shirts so since we went back the next day anyway to meet some of SIL’s friends who had just arrived, I was able to buy one of those. Yay for a C&D shirt! When I spoke with the rep there about the lack of C&D merchandise, he said with the small number of teams it wasn’t really cost effective for them to have all the different merchandise made. BOO!!!

Anyway, after picking up a velcro wrist strap for my Garmin 305 (since the holes on my regular strap are just about to rip), we headed out of the Expo with our goodies and to the hotel to drop off our stuff...then headed out for some park time. Did Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom Thursday/Friday before eating an early dinner at the hotel before our very early bedtime Friday night (can you believe it, we went to bed around 7pm!). Alarms set for 2am!

Virtual racing: The Jelly Bean Virtual Race

Typically when I'm doing a race, it's in-person, meaning I'm there alongside hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of other runners and walkers. Every now and then, I see a post somewhere for some virtual race that's going on...what's a virtual race you ask? Well, that's when people from all over (the city/state/country/world) run a race together, but separately. Meaning we all don't travel to the same place to run the same course, instead we run whatever the virtual race distance is but in our own town or on our own treadmill and then report back how we did. Most of these are just for fun, like the Running of the Ears Munchkin Run (we did a half of a half-meaning half of a half marathon so 6.5 miles where we treated ourselves to munchkin donuts at the end)

We did that one so those of us left at home during the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend last year wouldn't feel left out. I even went so far as to map out my miles so I ran/walked to Dunkin Donuts, got my munchkins, then ran/walked back home...I think the people at the shop thought the sweaty smelly girl buying munchkins was a little nuts.

Anyway, I've been reading some recommended running blogs and came across Run With Jess. Excellent blog, lots of great product reviews and an overall good read. I saw something there about The Jelly Bean Virtual Race and was intrigued. At first I thought, how cute...then later I thought, hmmm I think I'd like to try that! Then I realized there's also some neat raffle prizes from sponsors like SparkleSkirts, Nuun, Gu and several other cool places-and I decided to go ahead and sign up. I've initially signed up to do the 5K and 10K, but I'm thinking since we can do them any time over a whole week (April 1-8) that I may also add the half marathon...I would do the 10K this Sunday, the 5K during the week and the half the following weekend. I just wish I actually owned a bike so I could do the bike 21K also (I really miss having a bike, but that's a post for another day). I may wind up only doing the 5 & 10K's like originally planned, but I'm going to shoot for all three (anyone have a bike they want to give me to make it all four? LOL).

So if you have a chance, I'd recommend checking out the blog and signing up for the virtual race...hey, you might even win something! I'll report back next week on how things went.

2011 WDW Wine & Dine Half Marathon Relay Weekend Recap

Sorry if some of this is not very detailed...my fault for waiting 5 months to write a recap *doh!*

This was my first time doing a relay so I wasn’t sure what to expect; it was also only my 2nd time doing a race at night (my first was only a 5K-Expedition Everest Challenge-and was broken up by obstacles; the “run” portion was only 45 minutes or so). I was runner #2; my runner #1 would be starting the race over at Wide World of Sports and would run from there to and through Animal Kingdom for 4.8 miles, then I would take over for an additional 8.3 miles from the Animal Kingdom parking lot to and through Hollywood Studios, then over to Epcot for the finish.

I left home early Friday morning so I could check in to my hotel (All Star Sports) and get to the expo when it opened. Love the color of the shirt, a nice deep maroon.

For us relay participants, we also received a commemorative baton which was a miniature rolling pin, so cute!

Everyone also got a $10 Disney gift card, supposedly to use at the race After Party at Epcot at the food & wine booths, though you could actually use it whenever you wanted to. Wish they would do that for every race!

Friday night was Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom (which I absolutely love and highly recommend, I’d go every year if I could!)...normally when I go to the party I am done by 10:30-11pm but since I knew Saturday night would be a late night, I stayed until the park closed at midnight and then a bit longer at the park entrance where I met up with Rebecca from ROTE...we took a picture at the front so we could say we were in the park for its 30th anniversary since it was past midnight (I wasn’t about to battle the crowds there in the morning, plus I wanted to sleep in a bit since I’d be up late the next night with the race).

I had a late breakfast reservation for myself for Saturday morning at Kona Cafe (no, not Tonga Toast-not a fan of things stuffed in my french toast-but still very yummy), then back to my hotel for some pool-lounging and relaxation time since I didn’t want to tire my legs out wandering in the parks.

Had a late lunch/early dinner before hopping the bus to head to WWoS to meet up with the other Running of the Ears folks before the race.

My partner Tracy and I took a before-race pic before it was time for me to head over to the busses that would take us runner #2’s to the exchange point at Animal Kingdom.

Two other ROTErs were also running the relay so we rode over together and hung out until it was time to start watching out for our partners to come in. The weather was nice, was in the upper 60s with a little breeze by the time I’d get out on the course. They had it set up so when runner 1 got to our area in the parking lot, they branched off to the right of the course into the relay exchange where the runner 2’s were waiting. We had mini-chutes to wait in to watch for our partners with different colored flags...only problem was the flag color on the chart at the expo was different than what they were at the exchange. But next to the flags were signs with bib numbers so that helped out.

Since Tracy was texting me to let me know where she was on the course, I pretty much knew when she’d be coming so I was watching out for her. I still almost missed her, then heard her calling my name and waving. After a quick hug, I headed out running. And running...and running. And then I saw the start timing mat for the runner 2’s...after I was already past my time to change back to walking *sigh*. Wish I would’ve known that our timing mat was so far out, I would have worked a walk up to a run before reaching it...lesson learned for next time I guess.

The course headed out of the parking lot and onto Osceola Parkway. While I knew it would be darker than what I’m used to since I’m a daylight run/walker (well duh, the race started at 10pm and I didn’t start until almost 11:15pm), it was a bit out of my comfort zone even with the available lighting from streetlights and course lighting since I was pretty unfamiliar with the course from a race standpoint. That slowed me down a little bit since I was being more careful and watching my surroundings more closely. I was in between 16-17mm the whole time though...would have liked to go faster but the dark was making me concentrate more on watching around me and so my pace would keep dropping off, then I’d try and speed up again when I could be more sure of footing and not running into others.

Headed to Hollywood Studios and wound quite a bit through it before heading toward Epcot for the finish. I did take pictures along the way, but coupled with the dark and my walking/running, almost every single one came out very blurry.

The finish line seemed kind of closed-in to me; it didn’t seem like there was anywhere for lots of spectators to watch and cheer. I’m so used to having a huge, long finishing chute with tons of people cheering all over that this one seemed kind of anti-climactic. But, Mickey was there and of course I high-fived him as I crossed the finish! Got my cool medal and headed over to get my free drink and regular post-race refreshments.

I’m not one for alcoholic beverages (used to when I was younger but now I don’t like how they make my head feel at all) so I grabbed a can of Coke instead. I should have saved it for later--soda after a race was just not satisfying or enjoyable at all and I threw it out after only drinking half. Met up with Tracy afterward and joined a few ROTErs, but I was just tired out and decided to just change into a different shirt since it had cooled down some more and head back to the hotel to crash. Tracy was ready by then as well so back on the busses we went.

Overall it was a great experience for my first relay. Of course you have the great on-course entertainment with Disney characters which helps the miles go by quickly. It was a bit quieter than the other WDW races I’ve done since the number of spectators was drastically reduced; guess they didn’t want to stay up until the wee hours of the morning just to watch us crazies out there LOL. I did miss the cheering though.

Met up with some ROTErs for another breakfast at Kona Sunday morning then headed to Epcot for a bit before making the three hour drive back home. I wouldn’t mind doing the “full” half marathon for Wine & Dine one year, I’ll be keeping it in mind for some time in the future.

12/12/2010-Weston Rotary Run for Tomorrow Half Marathon Race Report

When I first saw the signups for this race, they were running a special-the cost was normally $45 but the special was only $20. I figured, for $20, why not? Besides, the race is right here in my city (and it’s not like this is a huge city, only 26.28 square miles, almost 10% of which is water) so no 3am wake up. The organizers actually decided to keep the $20 special all the way up until the race sold out. For the $20, we not only got a t-shirt and nice spinning medal, as part of their whole “Get Fit Weston” campaign, they also gave us free fitness classes (24 every week), 10 free day passes to the local fitness club and a fitness festival after the finish line with lots of vendors, our local sports teams, the local hospital and the Walgreens-mobile on-site for wellness tests and so on. A great deal, right?

Now, the race is advertised as 3 hours, but they said the timing mats at the finish would actually be down for 3.5 hours-they just had to open up the closed roads after 3 hours. When I first signed up at the beginning of the year, I figured-no problem, I’m already at 3:15 doing a 3/2 walk/run...by the end of the year when I should be transitioned to at least a 3/1 run/walk 3 hours should be a snap, right? Yeah, right. After basically burning myself out the first 3 months of the year and skipping most of the summer training, when the end of August rolled around I was back to worse than square one. But I was able to do the Halloween Half in 3:40 so I was pretty positive about being able to get back to 3:30 for mid-December.

Anyway, here is race day. The start was originally scheduled for 7am, but was pushed to 6:30 (or 6:40 depending on whether you were looking at the race website or the timing company website). The start line was just down the street from my house, so I woke up a little before 5am, had breakfast, then geared up and left at 6:05 to walk down the street. Temperature was a fabulous 55 degrees with 93% humidity. Did some warm-up walking back and forth while waiting for the start. When they finally got us started it was 6:49am...so much for the time changing. Now for the *doh* part-10 feet past the start line my fuel belt fell off. Seriously. The people behind me were jumping over it and trying to avoid stepping on it while I had to turn around and retrieve it, then maneuver it back on (making sure it was more secure of course), losing me a little time and letting almost everyone pass me by. Oh well, just one of those things, right?

Since I had been warm-up walking already, I started my intervals right up, 30 second running/90 second walking. Mistake-I should have kept walking for a little longer before starting that...after a half mile my shins were positively screaming at me. And so I slowed down, stopped the running intervals and stayed like that for a little over a mile until my shins stopped hurting...then started up the intervals again. A little sore at first, but it eventually went away and I finally got into some kind of rhythm. I was almost the slowest one out there...but around mile 5 I saw another girl about a half mile back from me and realized I wasn’t last, just next-to-last LOL. Just after mile 6 the water stop clean up crew and I started leapfrogging, they’d pass me to get to the next stop, I’d pass them while they started cleaning up.

I did my intervals through about mile 7, then just went to all walking-and amazingly, while I was doing between 15:27-16:58 for intervals, my walking miles were 16:06-17:58 (that long one being mile 13, to be explained) so not too bad. Once I hit mile 11, I realized that last girl must have dropped out as she was nowhere to be found. By mile 11.5, the truck that picks up the cones had caught up to me and the driver recommended I move to the sidewalk as the roads were getting ready to open up. At just over 12, the motorcycle cop that had been going back and forth along the last 1.5 miles asked if I wanted to move to the street or if the sidewalk was okay. I told him as long as I could make it through the final intersection, they could clear the street if they needed to. Mistake-they also cleared the last intersection so when I got there I had almost 2 minutes lost trying to get to the corner diagonally from me. Otherwise that last mile would’ve been pretty good. I finally arrived at Town Center where my best friend was with her DH and my godson (they were looking at the fitness fair booths that lined Main Street which was our last little sprint to the finish) so I slapped her hand, yelled hi to my godson and ran to the end where a volunteer with only 2 medals and a bottle of water was waiting for me. It had warmed up to almost 70 by then and we had a nice little breeze going. Almost all the post-race food was gone, just some bagel halves and orange sections so we walked over to the Jamba Juice and got smoothies.

Overall a nice, quiet (for me anyway, can’t be crazy-noisy when the closest person to you is at the least a 1/2 mile ahead of you) race along tree-lined suburb streets. The fitness festival at the end was pretty good too. According to the brochure in my race packet, if I register for next year’s Rotary Run by then end of this year, it will only cost $15. ***$15.00!!!*** Yes, you read that right. I’m thinking that I’ll be signing up, can’t beat it, basically right outside my door, shirt, medal, food, etc. And next year, the cone truck will NOT be passing me by.

Oh, forgot to stop my Garmin at the finish so had to wait for the official results to be posted---3:34:41. Yes, I’m slow. Yes, I finished dead last. YES, I HAVE ANOTHER MEDAL TO ADD TO MY COLLECTION. Hmm...think I’ll celebrate by going to Benihana tomorrow night (DH’s birthday dinner a day early) and Disney World Wednesday after work...oh, right I was doing that anyway LOL.

On to the Disney Full Marathon in January...I must be nuts.

Race Report-Miami Beach Halloween Half Marathon 10.31.2010

Since the race was only 40 miles south of me I didn’t get a hotel. DH drove me down on Saturday to pick up my race packet, South Beach was pretty crowded but he dropped me at the curb and drove around while I was able to get in and out pretty quickly. They must have assigned numbers based on when you registered as I got #59...and we all know I’m not Mrs. Speedy LOL. Bright orange goody bag, samples included sample packs of KT tape, Fiber Gummies and cinnamon brown sugar almonds...and some Halloween candy of course. Made a last minute run to pick up more Gu gels, then in bed by 8pm.

Race day woke up at 3:30am and left the house by 5am...only to turn around right away as I forgot my iPod *duh*. Only took about 45 minutes to get there, then walked about a half mile to the shuttle (so I could park at the finish line...and I was about 500 feet from it so VERY worth it!). Arrived at the start line at Jungle Island (where Parrot Jungle is), then went in search of the restrooms-long line for the girls but it moved pretty fast. During my search and wait in line the rain came pouring down...thankfully it stopped after about 10 minutes, although that made for a very muggy start since it was 76 degrees out. We started on time (7am) and about 5 minutes in it started to sprinkle again but it didn’t last too long. We were dodging puddles for a while and after walking for about 20 minutes to start I began doing 4/1 walk/run intervals. I would have done 3/1 but I had no way to change the track on my iPod shuffle as my headphones broke and I was using DH’s which don’t have controls on the cord...so my shuffle was stuck on my 3/2 mix from my last training run-I just watched my Garmin to see when I hit 1 minute then started my walk portion. First part started along MacArthur Causeway right next to the Port of Miami so we were going past all of the cruise ships...tried to take pictures but they didn’t come out. Passed Star Island (no stars in sight) and the ferry to Fisher Island before going over our one bridge and then onto Miami Beach. It was really nice walking along the Miami Beach Marina and then through South Pointe Park

Once out of the park we were right next to the beach on an out and back all the way up to 47th Street where the boardwalk ended (South Pointe Park is below 1st Street). We started along the Esplanade, through Lummus park and the Serpentine Walkway, then onto the wooden boardwalk at around mile 6.5. Note to self-a wet, wooden boardwalk does not make for solid footing...my feet kept slipping on the wet wood. Once we were on the boardwalk, I went to just walking. At least once we hit the turnaround at the end of the boardwalk and started coming back most of the wood had dried. By the time we hit mile 10 I was feeling drained. I was taking water at every stop after 6 miles (plus each time I had a Gu and one or two early stops) in addition to my G2 in my fuel belt-which I was wearing since I train with G2 and they had some sports drink called “Title” I had never tried before. At about 12.5 miles after re-entering South Pointe Park, we climbed a hill (a little taller than climbing up to a 2nd story), then down again and around toward the finish line. Miles 1-8 I was doing 16 and change minute miles...9-12 were 17 and change; mile 13 was 18 and change, by that point I was just so glad to see the finish line! I have always run across every finish line and did the same here, giving me a 14 and change minute mile pace for my last 0.1 mile. I was just so happy to be done!

My official finish time was 3:40:12, my slowest half marathon. I finished last in my age group and 1081/1092 finishers...slow but not last! The temperature at the end was 79 degrees with 72% humidity, but being as we were along the beach the whole time it was more moisture than where Weatherbug was reading (at the police station). My Garmin 305 was amazingly accurate, reading 13.10 miles and 3:40:13.

Lots of fun costumes along the way...plenty of superheroes and people sporting wings and headbands with ears and such. The most interesting costume I saw was a couple...she had a hospital gown with a pregnant belly underneath (lordy, I hope it didn’t weigh as much as a pregnant belly!); coming out from under the gown was a cord-painted red-which was attached the the man running with her. He was in a nude-colored body stocking with red paint splashed on the area where the cord connected-his belly button...so mom running with attached baby. All in all a good race, FABULOUS bling (a coffin that opens revealing the vamp inside and Finisher-R.I.P. on a black lanyard splashed with red blood) and a nifty Brooks technical shirt with vampire fangs dripping blood.

A last funny thought-I forgot to turn the power off to my Garmin after stopping it at the finish line and happened to look down at it while I was driving home on I-95. It said I was running at a 0:50 pace...which cracked me up. Yeah, I’m fast all right LOL.

3/7/2010-13.1 Miami Beach Half Marathon race report

What a fantastic day for a race! Sunny with some scattered clouds and a real nice breeze. 52 degrees at the start, 60 at the finish. Gotta love South Florida in the winter!

Got up at 2:30am to have breakfast and get ready. Didn’t wind up leaving the house until just after 4am for my hour drive down to Miami Beach. The race started and ended in South Beach; when I arrived down there just after 5am, there were people still out from the night before (a few in some rather provocative partying clothes). Ah, South Beach LOL. Got parked and made my way over the the starting area. Walked around for over a half an hour trying to stay warm before making my way over to the corrals. This was set up like A1A was with poles marking the different pace times. We started on time and I headed out at a slow jog for the first block before starting my walk/run intervals. I was again doing my 3 minute walk/2 minute run intervals, adjusting to the water stops and bridges as needed.

The first 3 miles wound through the streets of Miami Beach and brought us over the I-195, AKA the Julia Tuttle Causeway. I did make one port-a-potty stop about 2.5 miles in (didn’t want to take a chance and there were no lines, only wasted about 40 seconds). We did the JTC over and back (about 6 miles total) which included 2 bridges, the 2nd (western) one steeper than the other. The bridges wound up being not too bad, I was still able to keep up a 16 min/mile pace going up...and of course ran down both of them! So actually four bridges with the out and back. We could see the cruise ships docked at the Port of Miami from the JTC...too bad that wasn’t the reward for finishing!

I kept a pretty steady pace for the first 10 miles between 14:30-14:51 min/mile. The last 5K though, I was getting tired (hey, I did just do another half marathon 2 weeks ago) and slowed to between 15:03-15:34 min/mile. The last mile or so was along a boardwalk-type area (but not wooden, was a brick-type walkway) and there were a lot of people just walking along it that weren’t part of the race...they didn’t get in the way though, plenty of room for all of us.

When I hit the 13 mile mark I picked up my pace again and ran the last bit to the finish line. My chip time wound up being 3:16:51, a new PR for me (3 half marathons, 3 PRs). Considering I made the one potty stop I’m very happy with my time on a course with 4 bridges to do. At the finish they were giving free salsa lessons and there was Latin music (all along the course too as well as many drum lines), free arroz con pollo, cafe con leche and free Samuel Adams beer (again no thanks but that booth sure was popular). They were also giving out free bags of “Corn Thins” at the end, they are like rice cake but made out of popcorn instead...got two of those (Flax & Soy and Lemon & Cracked Pepper)...really yummy and actually good for you.

I had a great time and would definitely do this race again, although next year I’m going to try to make Disney’s Princess Half first!