faith, trust and pixie dust

I did it! I finished a half marathon. I would never call myself a runner but I secretly thought about doing a half marathon for some time. Maybe I was influenced by all the facebook posts I see of various friends completing them or maybe it was a bit of sibling rivalry since both my sisters had completed one. Whatever the reason, I registered for the Tinkerbell half marathon on the first day that registration was open (I hear it sells out fast) NINE months ago! I kicked off my training by signing up for a month long bootcamp in October and signed up for the 49er Rush. I also signed up for another 5k in January. As the training runs got longer my sister and I would meet on Sundays at Los Gatos Creek Trail. It's a great place to do long runs because it's mostly flat and you don't have to worry about stopping for stoplights or cars on the road. Our starting point was at Campbell Park (near downtown Campbell) and the farthest I went was Los Gatos. 

I followed a beginner half marathon training program through runkeeper. I was supposed to run Tuesday, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays(long run) but I could never consistently do the Saturday run. My longest run during training was 11.38 miles.

My sister and I decided to make it a kid-free weekend despite the fact that it was also Mother's Day weekend. We didn't want to walk all day in the parks with the kids and have to run a half marathon the very next day. We flew out on Friday morning and my parents picked us up at the airport. We invited them to join us since they were already in the So Cal area visiting relatives. After lunch we met up with my cousin at the bib pickup/expo.

The next day we had a leisurely morning. Can I just say how great it is to wake up when you want to and lounge in bed??? That alone was worth the race fee. We decided to make a trip out to Porto's Bakery for  brunch and so we could take some goodies back home. By the time we got back to the hotel it was about 2pm. My sister and I decided to go back to the expo because we wanted to get the Tinker Bell half marathon hoodies. I also got some headbands and sneaker charms. My sister and I noticed a long line of people at one of the booths. We asked and it was the KT tape booth taping up people for free. My sister and I decided to wait in the 45 minute line. My sister has some lower back pain and I was experiencing soreness in my right knee. We figured it wouldn't hurt and in the end I think it totally helped.

the green carpet on the way to bib pickup area

Photo op at the expo

Since we were doing a runDisney event I decided that I would make a Tinker Bell running costume. I got a shirt off etsy and sewed the skirt myself. My sister made pom poms for our shoes. I bought a lime green headband at the expo that said 1/2 Marathon Mom. I thought it was appropriate since we were running on Mother's Day too. My sister's costume matched mine but was blue because apparently in one of the fairy movies Tinker Bell discovers she has a sister named Periwinkle. Who knew? I was happy with my costume but I knew I wouldn't be winning any originality awards. There were some creative costumes. I was impressed with some and couldn't believe some people would actually run 13.1 miles in elaborate head to toe costumes. I was also pretty impressed with men wearing Peter Pan and Hook costumes and some even had tutus on! It's that Disney magic I guess.

Second star to the right and straight on to the finish line!

The day of the race we got up early (of course!). Our hotel was a short walk to our corral and so we had time to check in a bag and eat an energy bar and banana. My older sister advised me to make sure I hydrate myself in the days leading up to the race. She had a bad experience when she ran her half marathon and had cramped up at the end. So I drank some water in the morning while waiting for the race to start. About 20 minutes before the start time I had to make a quick dash to the bathroom but luckily made it back in time. In retrospect I might have overhyrdrated because I also had to take a potty break two more times while in the park.

Early 5:30am start time

Ready set GO!

 Actual start line

With the start time at 5:30am and even though I was in the second to last corral I expected to start by 6:00am. I think things were running late because we didn't cross the start line until about 6:10am. The first mile of the race was running around the streets of Disneyland before entering the park. Even though my sister runs a faster pace than I do, she said she would stick with me while running through the parks. We also said that we didn't want to wait in long lines to take a picture with the different characters(we didn't want to run the risk of getting picked up). Instead my sister would try to take a quick picture of a character in between runners who had waited in line. For miles 2-6 or 7 we ran through California Adventure, then Disneyland, then Downtown Disney before hitting the streets of Anaheim. The first 6 miles went by really fast since we were running through the parks and going in backstage areas. We slowed and/or stopped to take various pictures throughout the park. We waited in line once to take a picture with Iridessa and Rosetta since the line was so short. The line for Tinker Bell was LOOONG! Being a mom of two boys, they don't really have an interest in watching any of the Tinker Bell movies. My sister was the one who told me the names of all the fairies and all the different songs from each of the fairy movies. HAHA! I thought there would be more characters but it would've just caused more delays for us.

CA Adventure

Disneyland entrance

Sleeping Beauty's castle

Tinker Bell!

Pic for my boys

Iridessa and Rosetta fairies - The shortest line we saw so we waited for a minute

Donald and Pluto

Almost done running in the parks

Once we hit the streets of Anaheim, I slowed down for a water break and my sister didn't. I didn't catch up to her until literally the mile 13 marker. One of the first groups of people outside of the parks cheering runners on was women of The Red Hat Society. Sooo fun! Also, along the route were a lot of high school cheer-leading squads and bands. They provided some uplifting music and certainly made me smile. My toughest miles were from about mile 7.5 - 10. When I hit mile 7 I thought, "oh geez only about halfway done". It was also getting warmer. When I hit mile 10 I thought "woohoo, only 3 more miles to go!" I ended up taking some selfies at miles 11 and 12. I got a call from my cousin and I assumed she was calling to see where I was, at so I texted her and my sister a selfie at mile 12. My sister then waited at mile 13 because I quickly spotted her at the mile marker. At that point we were both excited because we could see the finish line. I was ready to sprint and then all of a sudden I heard her calling my name and saw her pointing to my parents. It was a minor miracle that our parents spotted us given the crowd. My sister and I had earbuds on so hearing our names was miraculous too. I ran back and gave them a hug and we took some pictures. At the finish line we high-fived Daisy and ran through raising our hands up.

Mile 13!! Almost finished

My parents = our ChEAR squad

I did it!

My Personal Record ;)

I'm really happy that I got to check "run a half marathon" off my bucket list. I'm glad that I chose to do a runDisney one because running through the parks was a lot of fun and the whole atmosphere seemed to be a lot more festive. I'm also glad that I fulfilled my goal of finishing feeling strong and didn't injure myself in the process. I doubt that I'll do another one but you never know. :)

Below are photos taken by Marathonfoto

At the finish line