Well, I’m back and it was an amazing and memorable weekend!! There’s so much to tell and I’m truly going to try and fit it all in this one post (warning – IT’S LONG!). I also have a review and giveaway to do from Tough Girl Tutus but I’m saving that for later in the week (see what I did there??). So you might want to go ahead and subscribe or like the FB page or follow me on Twitter so you don’t miss it;). Also, throughout this post, I’ve linked my friend’s blogs to their names so you should check them out!

I’m not going to say a lot about Friday and Saturday since I’m assuming most of you want to hear about the torrential rain and sogginess of the race itself, but we really did have a great time. I got there with no problems, met my amazing husband, and we headed out to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party!

The party was sold out so it was more crowded than I would have thought, but we still managed to ride Space Mountain with a 10 minute wait and the Seven Dwarves Mine Train was only about 20 minutes, so add to that the amazing parade (which is my FAVORITE), the fireworks and the hot chocolate and cookies, and it was definitely worth it for us as your ticket to the party includes admission to the park as early as 4pm and we didn’t have park tickets this trip. ALSO, we got to meet up with our great friends Stephen and Laura who we love dearly and never get to spend enough time with!!

Saturday, I did a great meet up with some online friends, one of whom, Carla, I had met on the plane and then saw again so that was such a happy surprise!! I absolutely adore the online running community because you can feel like you’ve known each other forever even though you’ve never met in real life. Great job on putting that together, Krissy!! I also loved meeting another great blogger and twitter friend, Amelia and her wife as well as Lauren (who I quote below) and her BRF, Hilary who, it turns out, is from Dallas. You girls are amazing!

We hit the Expo and it was very uncrowded – walked right up and got my bib and then headed into the Josten’s center where, sadly, the one thing I had my eye on (a Wine and Dine half cap) was sold out. Oh well. With my current job status being “unemployed” most likely for the best that I didn’t feel tempted to spend money!

Scott and I had a great early dinner at the Captain’s Grill in the lobby of the Yacht club and this place continues to be a hit for me on race weekends. They were able to alter the ravioli dish so there wasn’t any rich sauce (which can really bother me in a race) and it was the perfect portion size. All day Saturday I focused on eating frequent, small meals instead of a couple large ones and it worked great. No stomach issues at all during the race. (I also took my Immodium about 4pm and then another one right before so I’m sure that helped).

I got ready in the room and went through my typical OCD process of checking, double checking, and triple checking that I had everything. The forecast was making itself very clear – it would rain – so there was more gear than usual to triple check on! Scott just sat on the bed and laughed at me because I must have criss-crossed that hotel room 30X. I’m a crazy person before a race!!

This is my bad a$% face. Trying to gear myself up for the weather.

Got on the bus with no problem and was happy to catch up with my friends, Kathy and Karen Sue. When we got to Wide World of Sports, we quickly dropped off our bags and found all of our running friends. I love my running friends! I want to give a quick shout out to the insane Lynn and Tonja who ran the Savannah RnR Marathon Saturday morning and then drove to Orlando to join us just in time for this race. You girls are crazy and I love you! 

Crazy and awesome running friends!

Traditional shoe pic. Maybe my favorite one!

And then guess what?? Yup. It started to rain. My friend, Kimberly, found me and we kept each other company while we waited and then we were off! And it was raining.

I don’t have a lot of things to tell you about during the race. I can say that there were very few characters out and as the rain started coming down harder, it became evident that this was not going to be a “normal” Run Disney experience. But I have to say that I enjoyed it – I wasn’t cold during the race and even though I was completely soaked to the bone, I just kept “swimming” and putting one foot in front of the other.

My goal was to truly only walk through the water stops and not walk up any hills and that’s exactly what happened! I was also very focused on reigning myself in and taking it as a training run. I’m smack dab in the middle of marathon training, and the last thing I wanted was to hurt myself. I definitely took smaller strides and ran “cautiously” once the road got completely soaked. I saw several people twist their ankles in unseen potholes and it made for a rather treacherous run that required a lot of focus! But actually, I think that made the time go even faster.

Yup, even in the pouring rain, the Osbourne Lights were spectacular!

I felt great toward the end and maintained my negative splits. I had some left in the tank and that was exactly how I wanted it for this “training run with bling”;).

My time was 2:39 and I’m very happy with that. I grabbed my medal, passed on the finishers pics and the food boxes (I never eat what’s in there anyway), and headed straight back into Epcot and to the bathrooms by Spaceship Earth to change. The line was VERY long but I’m not sure the Changing Tents would have been any better. We were ALL so anxious to get into our dry clothes!! When we passed through Innoventions I did see a bunch of folks changing in there (with a friend holding up a towel) and I may do that next time. Because it was dry and warm in there!

At this point, I was FREEZING (even after I’d changed – did I mention it was still pouring?), but Scott and Jeremy and Dave (2 husbands of running friends, Tonja and Elisa) found me and were appropriately impressed with me:). There were just the greeting committee I needed and were filled with great comments like “I can’t believe you did that in this weather!! So impressive!!” Great job, Guys. Scott preciously handed me a glass of wine he’d been carefully carrying all the way from Italy to give to me at the finish (BEST HUSBAND EVER) and it was SO GREAT. The 4 of us then road Spaceship Earth (which was toasty warm!) and Jeremy and Dave headed our to meet their wives. Scott and I rode Soarin’ with a great girl named Sara from Michigan (yes, we tend to pick people up:) and then I finally got some food!!

Yes, even in the pouring rain all the Food and Wine carts were out and I was able to get a Cronut (it’s a croissant donut and it’s the best thing EVER when it’s warm and you just ran 13.1 miles in the pouring rain!) at the stand near Canada (YUM YUM YUM) and a cheese plate in Ireland and then, although I wanted to stay, I was just too cold. When you’re running in the rain it’s fine, but just walking around Epcot getting colder by the minute, I just needed a hot shower and a bed!!

I know this was a miserable race for many people. I honestly didn’t feel that way. I enjoyed every mile and spent a great deal of time just being grateful for a body that can do this. At a couple of places I just looked at the rain falling and thought how beautiful it was. Yes, rain was dripping off my hat and yes, I was soaked all the way through (you could wring out my clothes!), but it was a unique Run Disney experience and not one any of us are soon to forget.

And, as my friend, Lauren, said, the best blog posts are about races when they’re horrible. Nobody wants to read “weather and race were perfect”. BORING! Yup, this race was anything but boring.

Thank you to all the amazing volunteers who, in my mind, were 10X more courageous than the runners. You amazing men and women that stood out there for hours in the pouring rain to support us were nothing short of heroic. If you’re reading this and you were a volunteer, please just go look in the mirror and tell yourself how amazing you are. Truly. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I hope to do this race again next year (because seriously, what are the odds we’ll have weather like that again?) and it’s still my favorite Run Disney course!!

Sorry for the length!! Be looking for my review of Tough Girl Tutus and a giveaway later in the week. Trust me, you’ll want to win one. Spoiler alert: it lived up to it’s name!! I’ll also show you my one, very soggy photo. This was not the “picture perfect” race that last year was but I’m still glad I did it!

Jen