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!

The Biggest Loser RunWalk 5K-Fort Lauderdale

Just a quick recap from today’s event.  Back sometime last fall I had seen an email for The Biggest Loser RunWalk 5K that was coming to Fort Lauderdale on January 6th.  I originally looked it over and then though, nah-not interested.  The second time I saw an email, I thought about it and then decided, why not?  They actually give you a whole hour and a half to complete the 5K...I could walk the whole thing R E A L L Y slow like a turtle and still be just fine (not like there would be a sag wagon for a 5K, but still).  Plus you would get a tech shirt, a finisher’s medal and (drumroll please...........) free downloads of your race pics!  Yeah, bet most of you haven’t seen that one before.  And so I went ahead and signed up.

Here we are on January 6th and it’s time for the 5K.  Packet pickup was yesterday at a local running store.  On the website they had said that Dan Evans (season 5 Biggest Loser contestant, orange team) would be performing race morning...he was actually at the store helping with setup when I got there.  We got a bib, drawstring backpack and our tech shirts.  One thing I was a bit puzzled about was the women’s shirts (they had both women’s and men’s sizes)--being that this is a Biggest Loser event, you would expect to see many larger-sized people, right?  The women’s shirts only went to XL, but these were your average women’s tech shirts-that “slim” type cut-where an XL is not what a real XL is in regular clothes...and so I got a men’s XL instead.

This morning I headed down early since it was being held in Downtown Fort Lauderdale and I almost never go there and didn’t want to lose my way.  It had been raining before I left the house so it was really humid--like 93% humid--and 70 degrees.  Thankfully the rain cleared out and a light breeze was going on by the time the 5K started...unfortunately the humidity didn’t really go away though.  We’re having a warm winter this year with highs in the 80s, I was hoping for today that we could have had cooler and drier weather but that just wasn’t happening.  I met up with a friend from ROTE (Hi Tracy!) and was re-introduced to someone from my high school class (over 24 year ago, wow!) and we hung out until the start.  Dan Evans would be performing but before that he was again helping with setup, then he and his mom (Jackie) got up on stage at the start line and got us all started.  Dan even sang the national anthem before we started ( a little off-key for the first line, but overall did pretty good, especially since it was 7:30 in the morning).

At the start line-Dan and Jackie (season 5, orange team) are on the stage to the right at the front

I decided to just walk the course, aiming to just be under an hour since I really haven’t done much training the past couple of months.  I started going too fast (as always) and my shins and calves immediately let me know.  So I slowed down a bit...to find a little drawbridge after our first turn.  The incline wasn’t too bad, but have you ever walked over a drawbridge down here?  The top of the bridge is a metal grate.  Which wouldn’t have been an issue...if it hadn’t been raining.  I saw a few people slip so told myself to be careful...and still slipped a little myself (yeah, my back loved that).  After that I settle into a steady walk.  We walked thru downtown a little, then through an long-established neighborhood with beautiful, fancy homes...and cars-like the gorgeous red Ferrari and cream-colored Bentley I passed about halfway through the course.  Back into downtown and around another corner to----another drawbridge.  This time I got up on the sidewalk since the streets were still wet.  I sped up a little bit, headed for the finish line and squeaked in at 59:16.  I did walk the entire way, just trying to enjoy being out there and not trying for any kind of time...except to just be under an hour which I did do.  Got my medal (yes an actual metal medal!) but didn’t feel like hanging around-there were a couple of booths set up with some vendors, but nothing that really caught my eye-and so said my goodbyes and headed home.

Overall the event was good, it was just too bad that the weather was so humid.  Topped the day off by watching The Biggest Loser season premiere tonight.  Not sure if I’ll watch all season since I’m not a fan of the scheming and head games that start up as the season goes on, but it was a good end to the day.  I’m using today’s 5K as my re-start for my own weight-loss program since I majorly fell off the wagon this past year.  I’ll post more on that in another blog entry, for now it’s time to finally head to bed.

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!