Saturday afternoon my sister and I drove down to Disneyland to get ready for our half marathon. We had to go to the health and fitness expo to get our bibs...
This shirt pretty much summed up the whole thing.
walking out... they had cute track looking carpet
We saw Goofy, and decided to go say hi... when I went up to him he started acting all shy and bashful haha but then got a little fresh..
and twirled me into this mock prom photo poseAfter this we checked into our hotel room and grabbed some dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. My other sister Jessica stayed in our hotel room, and we decided we should be in bed by 7pm, but didn't actually get to bed until 8. That doesn't mean we actually slept though. 3am comes awfully quickly!
My sisters, my sister's friend Janelle and me at 4:30 am! Aaah! So early (as my face obviously shows) My sister Melissa made us all these really cute minnie shirts.
Melissa and I were the only ones that had the same corral which meant we had a different start time then Jessica, but somewhere around mile 4 Jessica caught up with us (for a couple minutes and then speedy gonzalez was off again) way to go Jessica, running almost the entire first part!
Around the time I got out of bed that morning I started feeling that maybe I wasn't ready to do the run and started freaking myself out. Even many times during the race (mile 4...6...8..11...12 hahaha) I felt like I couldn't go any further and was going to give up but my sister kept telling me we couldn't get up until we got to Angel's Stadium. So I kept thinking I just had to get to the stadium... so THIS was a beautiful sight!
Walking into the stadium. It was actually really cool being able to run around the field at the Big A and seeing ourselves on the jumbo screen.
So we made it to the stadium! My personal goal had been met. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the stadium wasn't until mile 9... so by the time I got there I thought "I came this far I might as well try and finish"
At mile 10! yeah... ignore the time... it took us awhile to get there :)
going back into California Adventure... these weird chefs on stilts were there to greet us
the last 2 miles were the hardest for me. It was way more physically and emotionally challenging than what I thought it would be. I know there are A LOT of people that can run half marathons like nothing... but let me be clear: I am not a runner! I went into the race telling myself that I knew I wasn't going to finish it and I really wasn't in the condition to actually go through with it, but its amazing how much your body can actually handle and seeing THIS was actually the most beautiful sight of the entire thing.
My sister and I finally crossing the finish line. I know I look like I'm miserable, but I was just soo relieved to finally be done. I had no energy to do any sort of finish line dance or fist pump haha.
After we finished we went to get our medals and grabbed some water from the refreshments table. I didn't get a picture with mine because I literally walked from the refreshment table straight to my parents car because I just wanted to sit down. But here are my sisters with their medals! I'm so proud of both of them! I can't believe we all finished! I'm so proud of Jessica for running as much as she did, I know how hard she trained for it. and I'm so grateful for Melissa for doing the entire thing with me and not letting me quit (or faint during the last 2 miles, haha)
So now I can cross off "finish a half marathon" off my list, even though it wasn't even ON my list until 4 months ago! This experience made me realize just how amazing the human body is, and how much it can endure. This time last year I was on the couch, unable to walk, recovering from surgery on my leg due to melanoma.... and a year later I'm walking 13.1 miles. I may not have placed, or made a great time but I finished and I still feel like I accomplished so much. This made me realize a lot about myself... what I can take, how far I can push myself and what I need to improve on. Would I do it again? I don't know. Every part of my body is sore and I can barely walk... but maybe in a couple weeks I'll think differently. Right now I just keep telling myself that I actually did it!
