3:23:25

And the moment you've all been waiting for... I ran the half marathon today!!!

They had World of Color going while we ran!

Okay, perhaps "run " is putting it a bit strongly. I walked with Kristy for the first 11 miles - she was quite the trooper and I'm very proud - and then I ran the last 2.1. What I learned in the experience, first and foremost, is that that's the best way to feel like an awesome runner. Cuz I spent 3 hours at the back of the line and then spent 20 minutes passing like 3,000 people. And that's not much of an exaggeration - Kristy got 13125th place and I got 10367th place, which means that when I left her and started running, I did indeed pass approximately 3,000 people.

Soooo many people!

In any case, we should probably go back to the beginning and start from there. This morning, Kristy and I woke up around 3:30 am. This was lovely because we couldn't fall asleep last night until about midnight. So yes, we slept for about 3 1/2 hours the night before doing this craziness to our bodies...


We got dressed, packed up, and made sure we cleaned up and left my grandparents' house as clean as when we arrived. Grams even said we left "no fingerprint," so I call that a success. We drove down Katella and hit maybe 3 red lights in our whole 20-minute drive. If you don't like traffic, I highly recommend driving at 4 am.

Ready & waiting...

Once we finally arrived and parked and walked to the starting area (where we saw a huge contingent of ladies from that society where they wear red hats and purple clothes waiting to cheer everybody on), we waited almost 45 minutes to start. We were in the last starting corral for whatever reason so there was a lot of waiting involved.

We eventually made it to the starting line and got to the gettin'. The route took us around the outside of the parks, through California Adventure and then Disneyland, and then around some random parts of Anaheim before ending back in the parking lot near where we started. We both finished - and we weren't even last! - so we're deeming it a success.

One thing that surprised me this time was the number of bathroom breaks I ended up needing to take. I hardly drank any water before we left this morning and I only took water at the water stops, so I can't imagine I was that over-hydrated, but I went before we got to the starting corral, 3 times during the race, and probably 3 times during Frozen (we decided we would reward ourselves with a 2-hr movie break before heading home from Disney). It was craziness. I still don't quite get it, but whatevs.

So colorful and lovely =)

I also wasn't expecting there to be bands and cheerleaders along the route playing music and cheering for all of us as we went by. It was really helpful and motivating, especially at the end. The Disney employees (while we were in the parks at least) were also really great. We kept thinking it'd be fun to stop and take pictures with characters like other people were, but also we couldn't afford to sacrifice any time. My favorite, though, were the custodial workers -- when we went around the back of Disneyland, we turned a corner and there was a big sign saying "Welcome from the Custodial Staff!" and a group of 10 or 15 guys taking time out of their mornings to cheer us on. I just thought it was so awesome of them, especially since they weren't there working the race like so many of the other employees.

We did it!!!!!

The other thing that was kinda fun during the race were all the signs. The two best we saw were "Run like it's the start of the Hunger Games" and "Worst Parade Ever." It's really great that so many people come to support, especially people they don't know. All the people really help keep you motivated as you're running, as does the fact that there are just so many people running, and in our case also running slow (or walking). The first half I did, back in South Bend, I was going a lot faster than I was today - I think I ended up somewhere between 2:30 and 2:45 - but I was pretty alone most of the time. Minus the friends who ran with me, of course, but there weren't many others around to keep me pumped about finishing and make me feel like I wasn't just lame compared to everyone else. That's something I really liked about this race.

So anyway, we did it. On 3 hours of sleep. And now we have really heavy medals that have Tinkerbell on them. And neither of us has work tomorrow lol. Life is good =)

Seriously, so heavy. We we sitting down eating after and kept leaning further & further forward from the weight.