And now back to the regularly scheduled program, already in progress...

To say that I was shocked was an understatement. That warm, July night in 2009 that Alicia came to me saying: "I think that I'm going to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon in March!" Skeptical, I responded with a weary "What, really? Are you serious?" She was so excited, it was hard to find any reason for as to why she couldn't do it. After all she had been a runner in high school who had once run a 6 minute mile, that speed and endurance was still there - just needed to bring it back out. In order to help her, I devised a rough training plan to ramp her up to the necessary mileage to run a half marathon. She endured setback after setback relating to her sciatica, but she stayed tough and stuck with her training.

It actually wasn't until the end of November 2009 that I decided that I was going to run the Princess Half Marathon as well. Since college I have been strictly a 5K runner mainly because I severely lacked motivation to run consistently and that was the longest distance that I could run well with a minimum amount of training. To say the least, I needed a challenge. I, at first, noticed that there was a 5K the same weekend of the half and decided that I would run that, especially since I didn't want to be "that guy" who ran a race geared towards women. Upon further investigation, I found that the 5K was merely a fun run for $45 and they didn't even time the race! Not too thrilled about that discovery, I started throwing around the idea that maybe I could do the half too. Alicia did some research of the 2008 race and found that there actually were men that ran the half; all 190 of them. Oddly enough that was all of the convincing that I needed to get me to run and went full steam ahead with my training, even though I'm not a Princess.

January and February went by and both of our training regiments were progressing quite nicely. Alicia and I reached the peak of our training about 2 weeks before the race as we ran 10 and 11 miles, respectively. We did the customary taper thereafter with a few runs here and there and before we knew it we were it was 3AM, Sunday March 7th and the alarm was yelling at me to get up. Alicia and I rolled out of bed, Jess too (who had driven down from Tallahassee to join us), and rubbed away the fog that comes with only getting 5 or 6 hours of sleep. I ate a banana and a chocolate chip ClifBar and soon after we all made our way to the hotel bus stop to grab our ride to the start.

Cold. If there was was one word to describe how I felt when we got to Epcot, that would be it. And I'm embarrassed to admit that. Having lived in the Northeast my entire life, I had always laughed when I would see Floridians with winter gear on when it was 40 degrees, which to us was nearly spring temperatures. But, at 4AM a warm coat, gloves, and cup of hot chocolate was all that I wanted. After checking our clothes, we shivered our way over to Corral B and did our best for the hour and a half we had to wait for the start of the race to stay warm. As the minutes slowly ticked by, I thought about the race and what I wanted to accomplish. I usually am a very nervous person, especially before races, but oddly I was calm, confident, and anxious for the race to start. Maybe the cold froze my brain cells just enough so that I wasn't able to conjure up any negative thoughts, but I just couldn't wait to start. At 5:52AM I downed a GU shot and then 15 minutes later, I kissed Alicia goodbye and wished her good luck, and Jess and I took off.

The first 3 miles of the race just flew by, literally. It felt like I blinked when the fireworks at the start went off and all of sudden I was passing the 3 mile marker. Which, don't get me wrong is a great feeling, but I was a little worried that I was going a bit too fast, especially since Jess kept telling me to slow down. Begrudgingly, I obliged knowing that it was more than likely for my own good as Jess had run three halves before this one to my none. From there we maintained a nice, consistent pace towards the Magic Kingdom and enjoyed all of the characters that we passed by, especially the pirates just before the toll booth, and even saw a friend from home who was running the race too. We turned down Main Street USA waved "Hi!" to Alicia's Nan and Grandpa John and continued through Tomorrowland into Fantasyland and then out through the front of Cinderella's Castle. We then made our way through Liberty Square and Frontierland, before eventually exiting the park out the back entrance. This is when the race really started to slow down for me and the time between each mile got longer and longer. This is not to say that the course entertainment was lacking, but it just wasn't entertaining me as much as it was during the first half of the race. Maybe I was getting tired or maybe just the caffeine in my GU was wearing off. Whatever it was I was beginning to long for the finish.

Jess and I kept on going and miles continued to tick down. Six to go, five to go, four to go - sensing that the end was looming my adrenaline took over. Around the 5K to go mark, Jess let me go ahead of her knowing that I wanted to go under 1:50. I gradually picked up the pace around the never-ending entrance ramp and once on the top of the overpass I could see Spaceship Earth - almost done! My right hip was hurting a little and the intermittent spasms made the last few miles a challenge, but there was nothing that was stopping me at this point. Down the last straight stretch and up and over the last overpass and into Epcot, I continued to push my pace into the sub 7:30 minute mile range. Under Spaceship Earth, past the water fountains, and past the garden with Mickey and Minnie, I made the final turn around before the finish. From there I brought my pace up even more and once I heard the Baptist Choir and saw "Finish" ahead I broke out into an all out sprint for a strong finish.

And then it was over. At first it was hard to comprehend, even when they put the finisher medal around my neck. Did I really just do that? And maybe more importantly, how did I do that? It seemed much easier that I had initially anticipated and as I waited for Jess to finish, watching all of the people who had also finished walk by, I began to realize the immensity of what I had accomplished. For the first time in long time I was proud of what my athletic self was able to do; I had set a goal and I achieved it - plain and simple. My final time was 1:49:58, 2 whole seconds under my goal. Jess wasn't too far behind at 1:53 and together we made our way over to the family regroup area to wait for Alicia while sharing our race experiences.

About an hour later, Sean (Jess' fiancée) got notification that Alicia had finished. So I made my way closer to where all of the finishers were filtering into the family area and it made it difficult to find her at first. Eventually I spotted her, with tears streaming down her face. I immediately ran to her and gave her a big hug and a kiss and told her how proud I was of her. She had endured a great deal during the race (as I'm sure you all have read below) and just the fact that she finished was a testimony of her toughness and dedication.

All in all, the Disney Princess Half Marathon was a fantastic race and it is sure to be one that I will not forget! I would like to thank all of the characters, volunteers, cast members, and fans who lined the course for making this such a great race for Alicia and I. Although it will be awhile before we return to Disney for a race, my guess is the Wine and Dine Half in 2011 could be next.

Well this was much longer that I expected it be and if you are still reading I congratulate you. Until next time, run happy!

j