What A Weekend!!!

Sunday night, I returned from an amazingly wonderful weekend with 7 wonderfully amazing women. This will just be a quick summary of our excitement with another detailed blog to come later, but I had to share. Each one of us has some of the pictures and I can't wait to get them all from everyone else. Here are some of my pictures and a bit of my story.

We had been preparing for a half-marathon run for about nine months. For most of us, this would be our first half-marathon. We weren't sure exactly what to expect. However, this was not your typical 13.1 mile run. It was the Disney Princess Half-Marathon. Yes, we loaded up our cars, said good-bye to our families and headed down to Orlando for four days. What an experience it was. This was going to be my first half-marathon and I was looking forward to it.

We had a great time at the event expo, with all it's booths of goodies and fun products. I was so excited to visit one of my favorite restaurants, Bennigans, and devour the delicious Monte Cristo. YUM!! We enjoyed walking around Downtown Disney for some fun shopping. A couple of the girls even got in a trip to the Disney park. We ate at the oh-so-fun Rainforest Cafe. We shared, we bonded, we cheered each other on throughout the entire weekend. It was great!

The Expo - I got an adorable 13.1 charm and a clearance shirt for only $10

I love Bennigan's and greatly miss this meal since there are no Bennigan's anywhere nearby.

The group outside Rainforest Cafe (obviously)

Sunday morning, we awoke. Early. Very early. We had to board the buses by 4 AM to be at the race location by 4:30 and to our starting gates by 5:30. Getting up at 3 is early. Very early. Very, very early. I'm not a fan of early. However, it was worth it. We arrived at the race, checked in our bag and headed to the start line (about a 25 minute walk away). It was so cold. My whole body was shivering by the time the race began at 6. I couldn't wait for the event to start just so I could get moving to warm up a bit. Since it was a princess run, almost everyone got into the spirit of it. There were some women in full princess costumes, some women in princess tu-tu's and lots of women in crowns! While it was a race geared toward women, there were a few men in the mix. Many of them also got into the spirit by dressing up - some as princes and a couple even as princesses. We even passed a couple where her shirt read, "Princess Carolyn" and his read, "Princess Carolyn's Waterboy" (and he was running with the belt with her water bottles). It was priceless!

Our red carpet entrance into the race

Trying to stay warm awaiting the start

The race was amazing! In true Disney fashion, our fairy godmother sent us out one group at a time. There were even fireworks to begin the race! Along the run, there were great encouragers - bands, Disney film/ride scenes and so many charters! At every mile, the marker was a huge storybook with a princess and her prince on it. We left from Epcot, ran up to the Walt Disney World Park and back to Epcot. Running through the Disney park and even through the castle was quite an experience.

Time for us to go!!!

By the way, the time began with the first group started (about 20 minutes before my group)

The pirate ship filled with pirates (that's motivation to run)

Getting ready to run through Cinderella's castle

My wish for Genie was that I was at the finish line - that didn't work too well

Unfortunately, my knee completely gave out around mile six. That meant I couldn't run (except in very short periods) for the rest of the race. However, I had a great adventure through it all! At the end, I was able to cross the finish line with two of my friends, Teri and Debbie. I had done it!! At the end, we were each awarded a beautiful medal. Then I hobbled to the first aid tent and had my knee wrapped up with ice.

Ten-Hut with the army men from Toy Story

Only one-tenth of a mile to go

Whoo-hooo!!!!!

From there, we all meet back up together, congratulated everyone on their finishing and celebrated the completion of our great event! We headed back to our hotels where we showered, packed up the cars and headed home. It was a long drive home, but it was wonderful to arrive back my eagerly awaiting hubby!