Livin' on a Prayer

Race 1 for the season is in the books. Okay, so it was a little more like a long fun run for me. Going into it (Disney Marathon) I had averaged about 15 miles a week, thats probably a stretch, and my longest long run was about 10-11 miles. But i had 2 little cuties to keep me company for the 26.2 mile jaunt through Disney. Its the place where dreams come true, maybe you hadn't heard that.

Sup bitches!?!?! My running partners.....oh the fun we had

Not sure if I had joined a basketball team, or was going for a run

The trip started Thursday afternoon with what was so to be a very very common occurrence; Giggle-fest 2009. Only problem, I didn't remember buying my ticket for this event, but i am glad I was able to sneak in. "Well, go ahead a do it smart-ass" We never did figure out if this was the correct line from "A Christmas Story" 0r not, but it didn't much matter....Bratzy was laughing so hard as she was trying to say it, it didn't matter if it was right or not. As we headed out the door to airport I remember asking Kate if we left from the big terminal or the little one. Her response was something along the lines of, "we leave from the big, I always leave from the big one." Note to self, Kate doesn't always leave from the big one; noted, dually noted. We eventually made it to the Humphrey Terminal, boarded and headed to sunny Orlando

We got the rental car, another little adventure on this the first day of the trip and head to meet Mike and Bonnie for supper. This is when the real fun started. Seafood and a few drinks, off to the rental house to unpack and set plans for the next day. We needed to get out race packets, walk the expo and HK and Bonnie needed to set plans for a day at Magic Kingdom. After a fun day of travel and excitement, we were all off to bed.

Friday was filled from start to finish with pre-race day prep for Mike, he was running his first half marathon, only a few months after knee surgery. We hit the expo, put food in our bodies and was even told that "what, this car doesn't go to Walgreen's?" One of the more memorable lines form the weekend.

Saturday we were up early to make sure Mike was ready to run....little did I know he was an early riser, REALLY early riser. He was up, dressed, had eaten and ready to walk out the door before I was even out of bed. He was ready to go, had the pre-race excitement in his eyes, yet the calm that comes over some racers prior to an event. Me, I am not like that at all. I talk and ramble on like a babbling idiot. We left Mike to head to the start line as we made our way around Disney property to watch. I was shocked by the sheer number of runners on Saturday, little did I know that Sunday would be more than double the runners. We were able to see this first timer 3 or 4 times, each time looking stronger than the last. Nice job Mike, I had a blast following you around the course.

Saturday came to a close and for one of the marathoners, reality was starting to set in. Not a lot, but just the thought of 26.2 miles, its a daunting task, even if your a veteran at that distance.

We were up and out of the house a little before 5 on Sunday morning. Weather was humid and warm, but very nice compared to what I am used to dealing with this time of year. As we slowly started making our way to the start, the number of runners was unreal. The entire day of running, we were surrounded by people. As the count down from Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy began, so did the fireworks. I am struggling for words to describe this scene. But it was 6 in the morning and with the amount of fire works going off, it could have been noon. It was really cool to be a part of. We looped Epcot, head to Magic Kingdom and than to Animal Kingdom. Finally to return to Epcot and finish. Heading to Magic Kingdom was the highlight of the run for me. We turned a corner and were meet by a mass of spectators and a great view of the castle. Characters were all over the place and the guys playing the trumpets on the balcony of the castle were a great addition. We saw The Country Bears, Winnie the Pooh and his friends, Capt Jack and his pirate buddies, etc. It was a blast to run through the all of the parks. The costumes that the other runners had on were great as well. My favorite was the guy with the Yoda back pack and light saber. We must have saw him 10 times during the run. About mile 17, Kate and I had a quick chat with Kelley and told her we'd meet here at mile 21. I had fun encouraging Kate to keep running and hold a pace that she didn't seem to be happy about, but when we were able to stop at mile 21 and chat as we waited for Bratzy, I think she was okay with it. This was a "fun run" after all; and that is exactly what the 3 of us had.

Monday brought reality. We got on the plane, it was about 75 or so in Fl, we landed in Mpls and it was about 5 or 7...with blowing snow and a wind advisory. Today when we woke up; yep all 3 of my little Iowans were stuck with Marcus for an extra night, it was -20 outside. Thats about a 110 degree swing from Sunday afternoon to Tuesday morning that we had just been part of. But such is life and I am happy to be back home. Race 1 for the '09 season will be a tough one to beat, if thats even possible.

HK and I on the wrong escalator in the wrong terminal. She was a rock-star kid all weekend long!!

Boo and I doing our best squishy faces

Oh, I'm sorry I thought you were looking in a mirror!