Marathon Week!!!! I could not contain my excitement all week. I had my bags packed on Sunday night (5 days early). We started back to school after winter break, and I forced myself to be as present as I could for workdays, schooldays, cheer practice, and basketball games all the while thinking about the wonderful, scary journey that was about to come to an end!! Or was it a beginning....
Friday afternoon could not get here fast enough. I impatiently waited for my brother and sister-in-law to let us know they were ready to leave, and anxiously sat in the car for 9 hours while we drove to Florida. We arrived around 2 in the morning, and settled in for a short nap (it seemed). NewBalance had released their new runDisney shoes on Tuesday, and I knew I wanted them! My experience with these shoes in the past had been you need to be in line early, and luck had to be on your side to score the pair you wanted in the size you needed. The previous day's New Balance had an online queue where you signed up for a time at 6 am for a chance to buy the shoes. Late Friday night, they posted that Saturday, the last day of the expo, there would be no queue. You just needed to show up and buy them. My family graciously agreed to wake up and leave for the expo early than necessary so we could try for the shoes.
Friday afternoon could not get here fast enough. I impatiently waited for my brother and sister-in-law to let us know they were ready to leave, and anxiously sat in the car for 9 hours while we drove to Florida. We arrived around 2 in the morning, and settled in for a short nap (it seemed). NewBalance had released their new runDisney shoes on Tuesday, and I knew I wanted them! My experience with these shoes in the past had been you need to be in line early, and luck had to be on your side to score the pair you wanted in the size you needed. The previous day's New Balance had an online queue where you signed up for a time at 6 am for a chance to buy the shoes. Late Friday night, they posted that Saturday, the last day of the expo, there would be no queue. You just needed to show up and buy them. My family graciously agreed to wake up and leave for the expo early than necessary so we could try for the shoes.
We had no problem walking up to the New Balance booth, finding someone to help, and purchasing these babies!!! We didn't even have to wait in line!! They said they were out of 8.5's, but Whitney and I both got the sizes we needed!!!
I splurged a bit by buying both pairs of shoes!! I just couldn't pass them up! Besides, this is currently the only runDisney race on the books for 2016, so when would we be back.... #runnerlogic
Now that the shoes were purchased, it was time to pick up our packets and explore the expo!! Things got real once the bib was picked up. All the theoretical thoughts about running a marathon were about to become reality.... Eeeeeek!!!
The expo was crowded on Saturday. The kids races were going on while we were there. The Marathon Weekend is the biggest weekend, so there were new things that we saw and experienced while we were there. We saw our buddy Jeff Galloway, but there was a long line to talk to him, so we decided not to wait. I saw a Star Wars themed tank from Raw Threads that summed up our life. Thanks to my gaffe of forgetting to submit a proof of time, we would literally be in a corral far far away (third from the back).
Our last stop at the expo was visiting the booths around the stadium where we ran into @according2kelly at the #teamsparkle Sparkle Athletic booth!! I have followed the Sparkle Athletic girls on Instagram since I started searching for costume ideas for my first Princess Half Marathon! I look up to them on so many levels, so I fangirled out a bit. I had taken a picture with According2Kelly when we ran the Glass Slipper Challenge last year, but this year I talked Whitney into taking the picture with me. I appreciate how gracious she was to take a picture with the crazy girl who was like, "We follow you on Instagram, can we take a picture?!"
I can't express how thankful I am for my family and all of their love, support, and sacrifices throughout our crazy runventures!! The journey to running a marathon isn't a single day in your life. It is months of meticulous planning, obsessing, running, recovering, grouching, rejoicing, etc. The marathon day itself is a whole other beast. Our family was beyond supportive, and Justin proved to be our number one fan!! From driving out of his way to wave at me during my longest training run, to holding our stuff on the course and being where we needed him to be and more, I am overwhelmed!!! We couldn't have done it without y'all!! I feel emotional even now thinking about it!
After we gathered our expo plunder, we headed to Disney Springs to start loading up on the carbs to fuel our run. Although, honestly, I don't need an excuse to eat ice cream. They have done so much work to the site formally known as Downtown Disney. We found ourself at the new, completed parking deck, only it was the opposite side we wanted to be on. Whitney and I didn't need any extra steps, so Justin navigated us back out, around the way and back again to finally find a place to park and walk across the new pedestrian bridge. Whew, all that was worth it!
We ended the day with some more carb-loading at Macaroni Grill, a last minute powerball ticket purchase, a stop for some recovery chocolate milk, and a flat runner picture before calling it an early night for a very early morning. Disney races are so early, it's almost like a night race. With a wake up call of 2:45, I was more than ready to get some sleep.
My sweet friend Aubrey and our awesome cheerleaders had given me a care package before I left with runner goodies and good luck notes. I read all of my notes for the third time before going to bed! Running long distances is just as much (if not more) a mental game as a physical game, so I wanted to make sure I had plenty of positive to pull from when the going would inevitably get tough!