This experience was so much FUN! For those of you not familiar with Disney World and their events, they put on a ton of different races through their RunDisney program. This weekend I did the Princess Half Marathon Weekend Fairy Tale Challenge. It consists of running a 10k on Saturday followed by a half marathon on Sunday. This was their 10th Princess Half Weekend, their 5th Fairy Tale Challenge (formerly the Glass Slipper Challenge) and my 10th half as well!
I've been wanting to do the Disney Princess Half for a few years now, but never had anyone to do them with or the timing wasn't right. So last year I was talking to my running partner who has done 2 before and we finally made it work! We even decided to be charity runners for it to use this as an opportunity to give back. Another friend ended up being able to come and run the half with us! Being a charity runner is very hard but very rewarding. Our goal was to raise $1200 each for the challenge. I find it's hard to get people to help you out when you are doing this which is very sad. I had a couple family members help, but luckily I had some great restaurants as well as a LuLaRoe consultant who were very willing to help fundraise. I also had some students who were very eager to help me and were selling candy and snacks to raise money for it! The biggest life saver though was Gap!! I work part-time for a Gap company and they match any money donate up to $1000! They came through big time for me! In the end I ended up raising a little over $1300!! My goal for this challenge was just to complete it. I heard that the character lines can get long so it slows people down. I was there more for enjoyment than anything. So when I PR'd BOTH races, I was genuinely shocked!! I even stopped during the half to get a picture! My 10k time on my watch said 50:56, but I stopped my watch when I hit 6.2. Other runner said their watches read 6.4 when they finished. Even with Disney's official time of 51:40, it's still a PR for me!! I figured it was just the excitement carrying me through! The course was cool because I love the countries in EPCOT and you get to run through them all lit up! After the 10k we went to 2 different parks and had a blast. I ended the day with 34,971 steps! Bedtime came early though because getting up a 2:30 am for a race two days in a row is not easy! Sunday it was a little harder to wake up. I was stiff from running and then walking so much. I figured it would just be an easier run for me since I wasn't trying to prove anything. Once we started though, the excitement took over again and I took off! I was keeping a pretty nice pace, trying to stay around 8:30 most of the time. I was excited about this course because you got to run through the castle in Magic Kingdom! I started in corral C, so some of the lines were getting a little backed up when I went through. I told myself I was only stopping for one princess!! As I ran past the castle I was on the look out for Sleeping Beauty. She's my all time favorite and my costume was modeled after her. When I finally came upon her, it was her and Prince Phillip as well as Cinderella and Prince Charming. I had to wait about 2 minutes in line, but this was the only shot I wanted! It got a little rough towards the end, but when I looked at my watch and knew I could potentially PR, I kept moving! I ended up stopping my watch at 13.1 giving me a time of 1:52.38. Disney was about .1 off and their time was 1:53.41, but both of those are still faster than my last PR of 1:53.49!! Once everyone finished and we got a start to our day, I ended up with 41,767 steps! Even though it was a very busy and hectic weekend, it was a fabulous run-cation! There was a lot of friend time (old and new), lots of Disney time, and lots of indulging in deliciousness because we ran SO MUCH! I think if people are looking at a good first half marathon to do, RunDisney can provide you with that. It's magical and family friendly!
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The best holiday by far (in my opinion) is Mardi Gras. If you've never been to a real New Orleans Mardi Gras celebration, I highly suggest coming down. It's a very family friendly time (if you want it to be)! It's such an exciting time filled with non-stop activity and anticipation for the bigger and better.
Believe it or not, this holiday has roots in religion. In case you don't have time to look it up, Mardi Gras, also called Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday, refers to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany (Three Kings Day) and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday. Here in New Orleans we party until midnight on Mardi Gras and give it all up starting on Ash Wednesday. It's popular to give something up during Lent as well, so this time generally turns into New Orleans' New Year! This year for Lent I think I want to give up rest days. (I was going to give up sugar, but I know when I'm in Disney for my race, that will be a hard thing to do!! I am going to restrict my intake though.) I'm going to give up rest days because I find myself during Mardi Gras saying "I can't fit a workout in today!" "The studio is on the parade route so I'm going to get stuck!" "Traffic will be a nightmare!" etc etc. So this is going to be my chance to try a running streak. 40 days of running any mileage I can get in; visiting as many studios as I can and making more time whenever possible for just 1 mile and sticking with it. There won't be any more parades holding me back! I can literally fit in a mile in my work clothes (yay PE teacher clothes!) so I have no excuse. My biggest obstacle during Mradi Gras though is the king cake!! I will try anyone you put in front of me!! They are all so different, so it's fun to try them all! I have my favorites and the ones I won't eat again, so if you need suggestions, let me know! I have tried to scale back how many we get during the season and how much I eat, but man, I LOVE them! Dough, sugar, cinnamon, frosting; how can you resist?!? While king cake is my #1 during Mardi Gras, parade food is also hard to fight off. Usually you bring Popeye's or finger sandwiches and chips out to the route. It's hard to eat healthy when you're stuck in one spot for hours at a time with no where to go. You are stuck in this box that you can't get out of until the parade is over. On the plus side of this, it generally involves a lot of walking around to not go stir crazy, so my steps are through the roof! Running along the parade route is a fun way to get a run in too if you don't think you'll be up for the actual parades. I hope all the locals have a wonderful Mardi Gras and I hope everyone else gets to experience it at some point! It's so much fun and you can find so much to do. Happy Mardi Gras!! |
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AuthorRachael Archives
October 2018
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