Race Recap: Disney Princess Half Marathon + Florida Getaway!

I think it should be mandatory for every teacher to take a couple of days off and get away for a long weekend in Florida just before state testing.  Seriously, this weekend was a godsend.  It did get off to a bit of a rocky start though...remember how I accidentally bought plane tickets for the wrong weekend and had to buy new tickets last minute?  Well I WISH that were the end of my travel woes!  I had a delay getting out of the airport in Chicago thanks to a snow storm, and when I finally made it to Dallas where I had a layover, I found out that my connecting flight was delayed SIX HOURS.  My god.  Six hours in the Dallas airport (where I got to listen to a soundtrack that went between easy listening music and god awful country--this Chicago girl is NOT a country music fan) = my personal hell on earth.  All I could find that was vegetarian was some greasy Chinese noodles and veggies.  Luckily I just bought a Kindle so I at least had plenty tor read!

Needless to say, I was more than relieved when I *finally* made it to Florida!  Saturday morning my sister in law and I headed over to the race expo.  I was so happy to be there with her this year instead of with my brother and dad like last time--I actually had someone who wanted to visit every single vendor and debate which tshirt had the best slogan at the One More Mile booth!

Princess Belle & Princess Merida!

I swore I wouldn't spend any more money on this trip after buying my second plane ticket, but I threw that plan out the window within 5 minutes of entering the expo :)  I snagged this tshirt:

I also met the lovely Shannon!  She is just as sweet in person as she is on her blog and has the cutest Southern accent.  The princess race was Shannon's first half--way to go, girl!!

After the expo we spent some fun time hanging out at the hotel with my sweet niece (and playing with clementines for longer than one would have ever thought they would be entertaining!!).

Sunday morning our wakeup call came at 2:30am.  Ouch.  My sister in law and I were running with a few of her friends, so we all met up together at the hotel and headed over.  The race started at 5:30 for corral A, but the shuttles bused us to the starting area at 3am, so we had a bit of a wait.  It was so nice to be with a group--I ran this race by myself last time and was pretty bored waiting around for so long!  Too much time = crazy nerves!!

When the fireworks and fairy godmother finally set us off at the start line, we were pretty pumped up.  I promised my sister in law I would stay with her and her girlfriends for the entire race, even though they run a slower pace than I normally do, and even though she urged me to run my own race.  I wanted this race to be a fun group adventure and to support my sister in law in her first half, so I stuck with them the whole time.  To be honest though, I don't know if I could have gone any faster!  It was CRAZY humid out, and I'm not sure my training in sub 30 weather prepared me for that!  We were all soaked within the first 2 miles and pretty much immediately dehydrated.

It was a tough race even with the slow pace, but we all made it and crossed the finish line holding hands.  Woohoo!

The toughest part may have been walking around Disney all afternoon on tired legs and no sleep!  But hey, I'll power through anything if it means I get to ride Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion. :)  We spent the morning at Disney again yesterday before I headed home to Chicago last night.  Here's what Chicago welcomed me home with today:

Oh Florida, I miss you already. 

Race 1 of 2013: DONE!  On to the next!