Disney's Princess Half Marathon 2013

So we left off as I turned on my alarm clock for 3:15am for a half marathon.  Ben and I both agree that this is the hardest part.  That's an asinine time to get up to run.  Running is hard enough, running 13 miles is hard enough, don't make me do it on little sleep.  How am I supposed to go to sleep early at Disney World?!?!

But we did it.  We woke up, got into our sweet costumes and headed to EPCOT.  A suggestion - bring an old sweatshirt or something you can toss because it's COLD that early in the morning.  At least it was to me. Disney donates any clothing left on the course.I brought a nice Tennessee hoodie figuring those Florida residents shopping at the Goodwill would have a better option than that nasty Gator stuff.

After what felt like FOREVER waiting in line for a bus, getting to the race, waiting for all the other corrals (with it being our first we were placed in nice corral G...out of corrals A-H) it was finally our turn.

We felt good, took a little while for everyone to find their groove, we were going strong. Then we FINALLY get to it.  The castle.  Holy crap I'm going to run through the castle!...ok it was more like very slowly walk since everyone stopped so that was frustrating.  But I ran OUT of the castle!

I'm halfway to being a Princess!

Then the worst thing happened, because we were in the second to last corral the pace changed DRASTICALLY.   After the castle everyone stopped running.  The castle was roughly mile 7, between mile 7 and 8 we had run an extra half mile weaving through people and trying to get around them. Then the course narrowed...and narrowed again...until it was one lane of traffic with cars going down the other lane.  It was IMPOSSIBLE to get around anyone.  After getting frustrated, and an even more frustrated Ben, I said "This is Disney, we shouldn't be frustrated!  Let's just enjoy the rest of the run, get some pictures and then enjoy our vacation!"  Which is what we did.  We walked from about mile 10 to 13.1.  Not at all the time we had hoped for, but we had a ton of fun.

FINISHERS!

Because it wouldn't be true to the title of my blog to only tell half the story, here's a list of our favorite eats and drinks at Walt Disney World.

Eats:

• Dole Whip Floats - Adventureland - Magic Kingdom - The only reason I go to the Magic Kingdom.  OK that's not true, but they are still delicious.  I LOVE the orange with pineapple juice and Ben prefers the vanilla with pineapple juice.
• Beef and Blue - Resorts - it's a sandwich Ben originally had last year (when I got the Princess Half bug when I realized we planned our trip the same week as the race and I didn't do it).  We had it at Pop Century last year and they had it at Port Orleans this year, Ben said it was better at PC.
• Le Cellier - Canada - EPCOT this was our celebratory meal the night after the race (and our "we need to stay awake so our internal clocks aren't jacked up for the whole trip").  Everything.  Everything is good here.
• Tangierine Cafe - Morocco in EPCOT.  If you are hungry this is the place to go.  We used a quick service meal credit (we had the dining plan) and had more food that we knew what to do with.  It was all delicious.
• Mickey Ears - Everywhere.  They are so good.  We eat so many of them when we go.
• Mickey Waffles - Resorts - I don't know if it's cause they are shaped like Mickey, or if they really are that delicious, but we highly recommend them.
• Yak and Yeti - Animal Kingdom - Both the quick service and the table service are delicious.  If you do the table service, get the burger.  I swear it'll be one of the greatest burgers you've eaten.
• School Bread - Norway - EPCOT  This is delicious!  And a BIG snack if you need something to tide you over between meals.
• O'hana - this is hands down the best restaurant on property.  Save room for dessert. Pineapple Coconut Bread Pudding with a Bananas Fosters Rum Sauce?!?! YUM!

Drinks:

• Grand Marnier Slush - France - EPCOT - I promise, beer drinkers, tequila drinkers, wine drinkers, teetotallers, EVERYONE will like this drink.  The only problem is the cup is entirely too small.
• Italian Margarita - Italy - EPCOT
• All you can drink - Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show - this was the best part of the show.  If you can drink it, they'll bring you another one.  
• Lapu-Lapu - Polynesian - drink these before eating at O'hana.  Don't go to WDW without eating at O'hana. 
• Avocado Margarita - La Cava De Tequila - Mexico - EPCOT.  Sounds weird but it's delicious.  If you can only make it to one place in EPCOT make it this bar.  There are so many margaritas to try!  
• If you dare to leave the property and head over to Islands of Adventure to head to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter the Frozen Butterbeer is the way to go.  I've had it both ways, the frozen is hands down better.
• Unfortunately Ben doesn't care for too many beers at EPCOT, but he does like the Hog's Head Brew at the 3 Broomsticks.

Disney's Royal Family 5K 2013

Holy Crap I signed up for a half marathon.  What's even worse is I signed up for one at the end of February, which means training all winter.  I hate the cold.  Ben gets mad because I refuse to do anything when it gets cold. I come home from work and hibernate until work again the next day.

Training or not the race was here.  I wasn't as prepared for it as I wished I would have been but I knew I wouldn't have an issue keeping at 16 minute mile (as required by runDisney).

The race was on Sunday, we also had a 5K we signed up for on that Saturday.  We got in town on Thursday night and went to the Expo on Friday.  It was a cluster of a mess. This was our first rD race but from word of mouth we learned the Expo is usually at the ESPN Wide World of Sports but due to the Braves being in town for some boring baseball stuff they moved it to the Coronado Springs Expo Center and Resort.  We finally got there after being bused to Downtown Disney, then to Coronado (there was no parking or drop offs allowed at the Coronado) it was a mess.  But after a few hours we made it through to get our bibs, shirts and swag bag.  Unfortunately the Expo was so crazy we didn't get a chance to look around much or go into the Official Merch Tent for rD gear.  (bummer)

From there we headed to enjoy a day of the Magic Kingdom.

Enjoying my Dole Whip Float in my shirt :)

We got up early Saturday morning to enjoy a 5K through EPCOT.  It was awesome.  They had all the fire lit up for the IllumiNations show in each country and music pumping through it.  We didn't listen to music for either race and decided to enjoy the scenery.  If you haven't run a long race without headphones you should try it.  It's amazing to hear how many beeps and technology people run with.

We finished that race up and headed all stinky still wearing medals and bibs to Be Our Guest for a post race meal.  (Which was delicious!)  We rode some rides and enjoyed the park before heading home to clean up - try our first ice bath.  I can say it wasn't too terrible.  We've read - and we are no professionals - that it can help muscles heal quickly so we figured we'd try it since we had the half marathon the next day.

That night we carbo-loaded in you guessed it, Italy.  Where else?  Although I don't think carbonara and lasagna followed by a Grand Marnier Slush in France are what the experts mean by fueling your body but it's Disney.

We headed back to the hotel - Port Orleans Riverside (I HIGHLY recommend it.  This Southern girl was excited to see the ceiling fans in the rooms!) - to try to get some rest before our 3:15am alarm for the race the next day................

2013 Goals...to run at least one race every month

A little back story to kick this blog off.  We have been married since 2007.  We met in the good old marching band at the University of Tennessee.  Band Nerds.

Ben - works in the corporate world by day and is a musician and brew master by night. He drinks beer. He has always "drank the beer".  Except for a brief time each fall when he drinks "Touchdown Juice" aka Jack Daniels.

Jenn - works during the day and drinks margaritas, fights her curly hair, and plays with the doggie by night.   Her first purchase of booze was a handle of Jose Cuervo tequila.  She drank so much of it it made her sick and swear off tequila forever.  Turns out forever was only the rest of college until she could afford "non-$1 beer or $5 pitcher" drinks.

We've both run off and on for a couple years now. The first run we did together was a 5K where Jenn had to stop to tie her shoe and said she'd catch up to Ben.  She sprinted towards him as he had stopped maybe 50 feet ahead and she expected him to catch her and swing her around in the movies.  That didn't quite happen. He lowered his shoulder like he was stopping the winning touchdown run in the Superbowl and busted my nose open.  We finished the 5K with me and my bloody nose.

This year we decided to run at least one race every month for 2013.  If we ran two one month, we still had to run another one we couldn't roll over runs.That's what me and the hubs decided this year.  We would run at least one race every month.  Now we knew we had some already planned, Disney Princess Half in February, Warrior Dash in May and Tough Mudder at some point in the year so it couldn't be that hard to fill in the rest right?

Well we decided this about 2 weeks into January, so we had to hustle to find one in January.  Fortunately we found the Zoo Run Run in at the Nashville Zoo!  Naturally, given our names, we try to choose runs where we are rewarded with booze afterwards.  This race was right up our alley.  In the past local brewery "Blackstone" had served their beers and you get one free beer.  Unfortunately for us, this year Mich Ultra was the sponsor.  Gag.  Naturally we thought it necessary to try this new restaurant in town that has two sides of their milkshake menu, regular, and spiked.  Ben had a Reese's Cup infused vodka milkshake and I had a Black Russian Milkshake.  But we were one run down with 11 months to go.

You know why flamingos stand on one leg?  If they lifted the other they'd fall down!