I did it!

"It" was Disney's Princess Half Marathon. It was amazing and emotional to fulfill this dream for which I had been preparing for so long. I burst into tears a few minutes after crossing the finish line!

This princess is still in training, though. I have a couple of 5Ks coming up (one here on the island in April, and my second Expedition Everest at Disney World (Animal Kingdom) with my sister in May. And I'm already signed up to run the Epcot Wine & Dine Half Marathon in November as well! Plus I'm considering running the Tower of Terror 10 Miler, too. (I think it's in late September.)

Yep, running is addictive. (And I'm already addicted to Disney World, so combining the two is even more addictive!) Seriously, I love it, although I definitely didn't expect to even like it! I also love the results, and not just the physical (weight loss, stronger heart, etc.) type things. It keeps me mentally and emotionally balanced to get some form of exercise most days. (I typically run 3 or 4 days a week, and do Turbo Kick and other things on the other days.)

Anyway, here are a few photos from the Half Marathon weekend.

Connor and I posed with Cinderella's coach at the Packet Pickup/Expo event.



Waiting in line to pick up my packet.



Signing for my bib.



Holy cow, it's official, I'm really going to run a half marathon!



Making a wish and being sprinkled with fairy dust. (Aka glitter.)



Posing with Miss Chiquita!



And with the sign!



My shirt! It's a bit small but luckily I hadn't planned to wear it for the race anyway.



There were family events on Saturday - a 5K (which my father ran).





And kids races - Connor came in third in his heat!





The resort had a "runner's special" dinner the night before the race - carbs and protein, good stuff.



I laid all my stuff out the night before, because I had to get up at - get this - 2:15 AM to get dressed and get over to the staging area. Buses started running at 3 AM.



Walking to the corral line up area.



Runners in corrals, waiting. There was a good bit of waiting!



This picture was taken just a few seconds before I burst into tears!



This is the official end of race photo.



We celebrated that night with dinner at Cape May Cafe. My sweet sister wrote a cute note on the paper tablecloth. In case it's hard to read, it says "Princess Kati ran 13.1 miles and is our hero!" (with an arrow pointing at me)



For dessert, we had a "kitchen sink" sundae at Beaches & Cream.



I got a caricature done as a remembrance.

I quit....

...blogging. But I didn't quit training. The secret/surprise thing for which I have been training for a year now is coming up soon. And I plan to post pictures once it's done. But for now, I found several OLD blogs in draft from when I quit blogging last year, so I'll post them now.

Finally!

I finally got in a run today. My muscles were a bit tight from the time off, so I definitely need to get back to my routine and not skip that many days in a row again! It seems to be true of so many things in life that if you do them regularly, you get better at them, and those things that you continue to do consistently will have the greatest effect on your life (for good or ill, depending on what the things are that you are doing!)

Jumping up and down

I still haven't managed to get back to my running routine, but I did do a lot of jumping up and down and cheering tonight when I saw a friend, Charles Temple, win $100,000 in the Jeopardy Teachers Tournament!

Another one of those days...

Well, I've done it again. Spent all day in the car, that is. This time, I arrived at my destination at midnight! Dang, it takes a long time to get back to North Carolina from Florida.

More walking...this time the Kingdom

Today, I walked around the Kingdom. I figure, the other day was the World, so the Kingdom seems like a good choice for another day! Yes, it was the Magic Kingdom. And yes, I'm still having a blast being at Disney World all by myself. I had a wonderful lunch today at Tony's Town Square restaurant, and then watched the afternoon parade from my table on the patio. It was a great viewing spot!

My first 5K event!

Tonight, I ran the Expedition Everest Challenge at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park with my sister. It was a blast!

My sister is an awesome coach. Even though I run as slow as Christmas, she encouraged me the whole way and was just generally wonderful and proud of me.

I finished the 5K distance in a new record personal best time. Not a particularly impressive time, but the fastest I'd ever run 3.1 miles, and we didn't come in completely last!

A walk around the world

Today, I took a walk around the world. Whew, am I tired! Of course I didn't literally walk around the world...that would take way longer than a day, and would result in something far more overwhelming than just tiredness...like maybe total exhaustion, serious debt. Possibly moderate insanity.

Anyway, today I walked around EPCOT, "visiting" and learning about several nations of the world. I love Disney World and have often wondered what it would be like to come here alone. The answer: wonderful. It's probably not for everyone, but I sometimes enjoy doing things by myself. Solitude in the midst of a crowd is an interesting place to be.

I think that's one of the reasons I like running (although that's typically total solitude, not solitude int he midst of a crowd). It's good alone time.

One of those days

Today was another one of those days that I spent in the car. And I do mean ALL day in the car. I drove to Florida. Yep, that'll take all day when you live in North Carolina. More later...

Plateau

I'm frustrated by the fact that I seem to have hit a weight loss plateau. (And no, it's not just related to the lack of exercise for the last few days; I have been at close to the same weight for about 2 weeks now). I know with my mind that part of the reason is that I'm building muscle, which weighs more than fat, and I'm okay with that, because it also burns more calories than fat! But it's still frustrating to feel like you're doing the right things and not seeing results as quickly as before. Ah, well...like all things in life, this too shall pass.

Gardening

I know that gardening burns some calories, and it certainly works my upper body muscles. But I wish it could really be counted as exercise, because for the last couple of days that activity has eaten my exercise time! Now that all 106 aster plants (yes, you read that right - we planted over 100 asters today...now they had better grow, dangit!) are in the ground, I'm hoping to get back to running!

Full weekend

I did so much this weekend, I feel like it was three days long. But it wasn't, which means I packed a bit too much into each day. Which explains why I'm tired. Which is NOT a good excuse for the fact that I didn't exercise at all today.

Going the distance

Today I ran my new route for the second time. It's 3.1 miles long, which is a 5K. I still find it somewhat hard to believe that I can run 5K, since I started out struggling to run for more than 30 seconds!

Beach turbo

Turbo kick class tonight was on the beach. On the one hand, I loved it because the view was of course beautiful and the weather was very cooperative (it was warm but not hot, and the constant light breeze kept me from sweating profusely which was a bonus!) On the other hand (well, actually the other LEG), I am here to tell you that doing Turbo Kick on the beach will work out calf muscles intensely. That's a good thing in general, but I suspect those muscles will be tight and achy tomorrow!

Mapping and measuring

I spent about half an hour the other night driving around to measure the length of potential new routes. I needed to create a route which was 3.1 miles long. I did that, and was a bit overwhelmed by how long it seemed. But then today I ran the whole thing! It was nice to not run in circles around the same block a couple of times (that's what I had been doing as I extended the length of my route by a bit each week), and also not to run by my house multiple times, but rather to just end up there when I'm done.

Form

When I ran with Tyler, he gave me a few tips on running form, one of which was a bit unexpected. He said to not swing my arms. No, I wasn't swinging them wildly, but just moving them back and forth - pumping them, essentially - the way many people do while running. Tyler's point was that, when running any distance, you need to conserve energy as much as possible, and using some to swing your arms is essentially wasting it. I'm working on not swinging my arms, but it's harder than you might think to be conscious about not doing something that you do without conscious thought. I have found that it does help when I remember to not swing them, though, so that keeps me focused. Well, relatively focused. I do catch myself swinging several times during a run, and have to remind myself to stop again.

Not as flat as it looks...

Ocracoke is a sandbar, and therefore it is pretty darn flat. But I (along with my calf muscles) am here to tell you that it's not completely flat. I run a handful of hills intentionally, by going into the Oyster Creek area, over all three bridges, and back out again for six hills in total. But then, for the rest of my route, I'm on roads that I bet seem basically flat to most people who drive, bike and even walk on them. And they are mostly flat, but not completely. There's a gradual rise to some of them, which I actually find more difficult in terms of the effect on my muscles than the obvious hills, mostly because it goes on for a longer distance.

No bread?

I went with a couple of friends to the Back Porch restaurant for dinner tonight. We had met to stick labels and stamps on over 260 invitations to a bridal shower, so by the time we finished that, we arrived at Back Porch somewhat late (about 25 minutes before closing time). We therefore decided to eat at the bar. Our friend Cheri was tending bar that night, and took really great care of us. My favorite part was when she asked "Do you want me to bring a basket of bread?" and went on to say "I know Jamie is preparing to wear a wedding dress, and I see Kati running by my house all the time, so that's why I thought maybe you would rather not have the bread." This is one of the things I love about living in a small town - people know what is going on with each other, and often choose to use that knowledge in a way that is supportive. Thanks, Cheri!

Shoelaces...

...are apparently too long. At least the ones on my shoes are. For the first several months of the year, when the weather was cold, I was running in pants. Now that things have warmed up and I'm running in shorts, the plastic tips of my shoelaces have been hitting my ankles. It doesn't hurt, but is annoying! So I've started tucking the ends of my shoelaces under the part of the laces which is flat against the shoe (the criss cross section), which helps. I continue to be surprised by the odd little things that I discover while running.

Boston

No, my goal is not to run the Boston Marathon. I have a friend from high school who just ran it, though. On his 39th birthday. And set a new personal record. All of which I thought was really awesome.

Anyway, my friend stayed in a hotel in Boston from where he could see the finish line. Since he is a long distance athlete, and an Iron Man, he was back in his hotel room before all the runners finished, so he was able to watch some of them complete the race. He commented on Facebook that he saw people finish at around 6 hours. I did the math and figured out that running a marathon in 6 hours comes out to a 13 - 14 minute per mile pace, a fact I found quite encouraging. There are people who run as slowly as I do who run marathons!