I'm back!

I know it has been awhile since I posted anything but a lot has happened. First I pulled a rib muscle which believe it or not really hurts. I tried running it hurt, working out was out of of the question, so I had to rest for a few days. I was able to run the Fleet Feet 15 k, 9.3 miles which were soooo hard. The temperature rose quickly and so did the humidity- just so you know I HATE the humidity! This race was a masters race which means very good runners and I mean running 9.3 miles in 45 minutes good. I was the last runner, yep the one with the police car following her for probably 6 out if the 9 miles. I didn't really care,,I paid my entrance fee and the roads were closed til 10:30am so I just kept running and running like Forest Gump. At one point with about 2.5 to 3 miles left the cop, a big black dude, rolls down the window and says, "get in the back seat and I will drive you , no one will know." and I said I will know and that is the worst person to know, so no thanks, and by the way I am the mother of three girls and I don't quit!. My awesome son in law Doug came back to run with me around mile 2.5 he kept telling me, "we are almost there," which I replied, "don't lie to me I know where we are and we are not close." Long story short it took me 2 hours and 5 minutes, not bad and not last I blew right by that 80 year old man at the finish and beat the two people who decided to walk, not proud, just saying.

Tomorrow it is 10 miles at the Ridge, Chestnut Ridge, which is just one 2 mile hill after the other. I ran 7.65 there so whats another 2.35? ALOT! That's what. I am freaking out. My son in law told me weeks ago that if you can run 10 at the ridge you can run 13.1, we will see. I am pretty proud of myself that I can run 9 miles with walking through water stops, who would have thought.

Well wish me luck I will post my adventure tomorrow, oh yeah forgot to tell you it is supposed to rain and be 65 degrees, yeah. Sorry for any typos this ipad refuses to let me fix anything.
Hey I just found the spell check!

Worst day ever to run!

I was so excited to run my 8 miles, it was going to be my longest run so far, instead it turned into a nightmare! The route was tough, rough sidewalks and not much shade. Then I lost sight of the group and got lost and pretty mad. I ended up running 6 miles and walking the other two on street with no shade , to say I was not in a good mood after is an understatement. Then because I am an idiot I tried to run a 5k last night, again failure. Ran about 1 miles and walked the rest. 11 miles of hell yesterday. But it has rained and hopefully the humidity will end- yeah right it is still hot and humid. But tomorrow starts another running week, starting off by running the gorge at Niagara Falls, it has lots of stairs-oh yea! I will keep you posted. Oh yeah signed up for the Syracuse half today so it is official.

Sorry it took so long to get back

Well I joined the distance training group, AGAIN, but this time I am going every week. I have run 4 miles, 6 miles, 6 miles and 7.65 of wicked hills. This week it is 8 miles. I have been running without stopping and walking! Woo hoo! I stop for water and keep running. I am doing the Empire half in Syracuse in October and plan on RUNNING the whole thing, we will see. My friend signed up for the Princess and she has not been running so we will probably run walk it, doesn't matter I love that half! Hopefully I will be better at keeping you all (2) informed, thanks for following me!

Running is always better the second time around!

Well I did it again, signed up for the Disney Princess Half Marathon 2013! Hopefully my daughter Meghan will be joining me, it is expensive to do and with small children at home it could be tough, but hopefully she will be with me. My friend Allison is supposed to be running it too along with my friend Debbi, this could be one great adventure! I am also planning on doing the Disneyland Half in September of 2013, I want the Coast to Coast medal. I am actually training for a "regulAr" half for this October, I would like to try and run the whole thing, we will see. Just the thought of it makes my stomache hurt. I ran 4 miles last Saturday and have to run 6 this Saturday, of course my knee is starting to bother me along with my heel and lower back but I don't care, I AM RUNNING. Along with the running Inwould like to drop about 10 more pounds by September, so many things I WANT!, wish me luck!

The final chapter

Ok first off I DID IT!! What a great time, worth every penny (which is quite a few).
First off I went to bed at 6:30 and my awesome husband did the same so the room would be dark and quiet. I got up at 1:30am and was on the bus to the start line at 2:30.  For those of you who know me my bus was the first one there! I paid extra to be in the retreat tent and it was worth it, it was warm, had it's own bathrooms and had breakfast for us.  When we returned they gave us flip flops and a brunch.  Doug also was able to use this tent and he was very happy with that.

Back to the race, it took about 20 minutes or so to get to the start corrals.  Of course I made a friend but she was in corral F and I was in E. Made 2 other friends once I got to my corral. The best part was that the Fairy Godmother started every corral with a count down and there were fireworks every time- AWESOME!!!

I decided to follow the Jeff Galloway way of running and it worked out well, I ran for 1:30 minutes and walked for 30 seconds. The first mile just flew by- Doug did see me at the start but I didn't see him.  Disney had a marching band, characters and different things along the way. When we finally got to mile 5 you could see the Magic Kingdom arches- talk about emotional.  We came in down an underpass and to see that many women (and a few men) was incredible. We went through the back of Space Mountain and then cam onto Main Street- I think I had a permagrin on the whole time.  I saw Doug on Main Stree and gave him the thumbs up cuz I was feeling great. We went through Fantasy Land and tomorrow land- THEN it was castle time.  It was amazing to go through the castle yelling- BEST DAY EVER!! from there we went through Frontier land, past Splash Mountain and back out of the Magic Kingdom.  At the half way point there was a sign that said we were half way there and the song Stronger by Kelly Clarkson was BLASTING! nice touch. Mile 8 was a milestone for me- I had never run that far before. And then I just kept cranking them out- 9,10,11,12 and finally 13.  At mile 9 I became pretty emotional- I started thinking of my daughters- and how I could tell them that if I could do this they could do ANYTHING they put their minds to.

Miles 10 and 11 I thought of everyone that was watching my progress on line and I was thankful for the good thoughts. I thought about my parents when the song on my ipod was "for good" from Wicked- I wished that they could have known of this accomplishment in my life.

From 12 on I tried to zone in on my songs. It was hard I am not going to lie, but as 12 approached I knew I could do this.

Mile 12 is right outside of EPCOT.  We came in and there were guests in the park who cheered us on.
I took a picture of every mile marker- it was important to me to mark them down.

Crossing the finish line was unbelievable.  They called out my name and I gave them a big woo hoo. I couldn't wait to find Doug- it was then that I cried.

Will I do this again- NO not right now.  But maybe someday.

Thanks again to all of you have followed this time with me.  I appreciate all your love and prayers and they did not go unnoticed.
One last time
TTFN

PS I am exhausted need to go to bed.

Hello again

Ok first off yesterday was Friday not Saturday as my blog stated- sorry but when on vacation days run into each other.

So it is now really Saturday. I just got done sitting on the grass waiting for Doug to finish his 8 miles- I was the water girl, only fair since tomorrow he will have to wait at least 3 and a half hours for me. We are going back to the expo to find a long sleeved shirt or something that is waterproof in case of rain which the forcast is calling for. I am bummed. I want the whole Disney experience here and if it rains I don't know if all the characters can come out.  So please PRAY that it does not rain until AFTER everyone finishes. I don't care if it rains while I am at the parks.

I woke up this morning at 6:15 and though oh wow tomorrow at this time I will be running, I have been thinking that way all morning.

It is so nice to know that so many people are going to be monitoring my race and then again it scares me cuz now EVERYONE is watching my race.  THANK YOU all in advance, your love and support is overwhelming.  I know I will finish because I know that you are behind me.

Well we are leaving soon- I will blog again later today- hopefully the butterflies will start to go away but I doubt it- actually I think they are supposed to be there.

TTFN

Two more days

Today is Saturday and it was the Princess Expo- it was AWESOME!!! first while waiting outside Cinderella's coach and footmen were there for pictures which of course I got mine taken.  We then went into the  first room to pickup our bib numbers. There was a clock there that said 44 hours and I don't remember how many minutes- it was scary! After standing in the longest line(please tell me why I had the longest line everyone in it signed up on ;the first day!) I picked up my bib, necklace and pins.  THEN there was a red carpet that took us to the EXPO. Inside were three fairy godmothers in training who glittered us up! yep glitter in the hair AWESOME again.  The Disney merchandise was outstanding picked up quite a few items including four sticker for my car- no matter what I drive for the next few years it will have a 13.1 Princess Half marathon sticker on it!! There were so many booths and so many cool things.  I decided not to wear the tutu I made- instead I have a FABULOUS pink sequined skirt to wear instead. I AM STYLIN!!!!

It was so much fun talking to all the other princesses on the bus ridesd- everyone is so friendly and everyone has a smile on their face.  Don't know if it will still be there at 3am on Sunday morning but I am guessing that was what the fairy dust was for. I cannot wait for Sunday, I know it will be very hard to sleep-kinda like when you were a kid the night before Christmas.

Tomorrow is a relaxing day- no Downtown Disney tomorrow- just resting probably taking a nap and after dinner at 4:30 probably in bed by 9pm.

See you all tomorrow-gotta get my beauty sleep.
TTFN

T-minus 3 days

Inreally don't know what T-minus means but there are onlynthree days before the race! I am goingmto the Disney hotel today, after spending two great days with my brother. I have been trying the carb loading thing where you eat hardly anyncarbs Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and then CARB up Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Today starts carb days, actually looking forward to that. Karl has been great with meat and veggie meals, he is a great cook who remonds me so much of my Dad when he cooks(sigh and slight tear, miss my parents at times like these) sorry back on track. Tomorrow is the Expo where you get to spend even more money on running stuff with Disney all over it-i am psyched! It just took me three times to spell that correctly. I will fill you in tomorrow about the goodie bag you get and will tak endlessly about the Expo. My tiaramis ready and I want that medal so bad. TTFN

In Orlando!

Reality is sinking in, I only have 5 days til the big day! I have the tiara, the sneakers, the outfit, and the ability to finish! I really can't waitnto run, I want to prove to myself that I can do this. It has been a journey to , I know an over used phrase, but it has. I started out not being able to run for more than a minute and now I have run for two hours! Who would have guessed. i will keep you informed on the weeks doings. TTFN

9 days, oh my!

Boy time has gone by fast, it seems like just yesterday I had my finger poised over the submit button to register for this race.I am really getting nervous, I know that I did the 6 miles last week in an hour and 40 minutes but I am just getting nervous that I won't finish. I have spent lots of money to get ready for this I reaaly pray that I don't waste it. I will be running 6 miles again this Saturday, it is supposed to be ok, no snow, no rain and a decent temperature.I know that I will feel better knowing how it goes this weekend. Maybe I should have run more, been more serious, I don't know, so many doubts.

Let it snow!

Yesterday was the day to run 6 miles, I really wanted to see what would happen, since it is half of what I will be doing in two weeks. Well let me tell you it was around 22 degrees and snowing, which in itself was not great but the footing was horrible. Today my quads are crying. It was so hard to push off to run. I decided to try thr run walk thing. I ran for three songs and walked for one, it worked. It took me one hour 40 minutes. I figure I should be able to do the half in about 3 and half hours, I will be happy with that. Yesterday I burned 1300 calories, that was the up side. I am getting a little nervous for the race, but excited too. I wish I could share the day with my daighters but they will be with me in spirit and I think they can keep track online, not sure. Well I will keep you up to date this week.

New York City callenge. Today I am going try and run 3 miles of hills in Queens. I haven't run since I was in Jamaica so I am a little worried. The half marathon is in a month and I am starting to freak out a little. I am not really prepared for this. What if I can't do this? I have spent alot of money to do this and I feel like it might be for nothing. Oh well, wish me luck today, we walked over 5 miles yesterday all over New York so my legs are rather tired. The onky good thing is that I will have Brianne by side who never is bothered by how slow I am. She is such a great kid, wish I had back home with me for this last month of training, dhe is the best.

triumphs and disappointments

On Monday it was a very stressful day so when I got home I laced up my sneakers and went for a run. Three miles later I felt much better. Not one of my fastest runs but not bad. My strength and conditioning coach is in Disney right now so no boot camp for another whole week- I will die on the first day back I can guarantee it, but I feel like I am losing momentum.
Today it is around 45 degrees outside - in January are you kidding so I decided to do my 3 miles again.Well I did one. :( my legs felt like lead and I just was not feeling it. So I stopped.  I am mad at myself that I quit. On a day when I should be so excited cuz it is warm out I gave up. I will probably continue to beat myself up for the rest of the night- but tomorrow is another day. I will be running 6 miles on Sunday, I should be able to do it if I rest up the rest of the week.  How do people run everyday? My legs were like are you nuts? thanks for checking in!! TTFN

Distance training

Today was distance training group.  We had to run 4 miles. It was really not too bad. The last mile seemed like FOREVER but I did it. Next Saturday it goes to 6- are you kidding me. I do not consider that a gradual increase, maybe 4 and a half 5 at best but to up it to 6 is insane. Luckily I will be in Jamaica so at least I will be warm. I can't wait til the day when I think 3 miles is just another day. Well gotta go I will keep you posted on my successes!

Well 8 weeks and counting. Today starts the intense training (intense to me anyway!). Just ran my three miles, it was really not bad out at all. I really do like to run, it helps clear my mind and I feel like I am breathing again. The problem I had today was that I did my workout with Joel yesterday and my hamstrings are sooo tight that it made my lower back hurt which made me run a little different, which made my knee hurt, etc,,etc.  Oh well I didn't stop or walk so I figure that is good.  Saturday starts the distance group- we have to run 4 miles, which is the farthest I have ever run, I am a little intimidated but I don't care if I am last, I AM RUNNING 4 MILES! I will keep you posted on that. The following weeks it is 6 miles- luckily I will be in Jamaica so at least I won't be cold. Talk to you all soon.