Disney World 1/2 Marathon Recap: Part 1

Corral A!!!!!!!!!

The 2012 Walt Disney World Half Marathon is still the most magical race ever!

The day before the race started with me getting up at 2:45am to be properly lash curled, lipsticked and hair straightened for our 5:55am flight. I figured it would be good practice for getting up at 2:30 the next day for the race!

After meeting up with my friends and fellow runners from home for our Cleveland connection, we were off to the races (ha ha).

The 2012 Disney Cleveland Team!

Once again, the Race Expo was complete chaos and disorganized. For how great Disney is, they need some serious Race Expo 101 classes. Maybe give a print out of a check list of all things needed to be accomplished at the Expo. Lucky us got to the Expo just as the Volunteers working it were having a shift change. Needless to say, a lot of information was NOT given, resulting in a lot of back and forthing between the 2 different buildings. When you're running on 3 hours of sleep and 1 Kashi bar, this did not bode well with my already limited patience.

BUT, I can't fault the Volunteers too much, because if it weren't for them holding us up, I wouldn't have met one of the men of my dreams at the Goodie Bag pickup. Yes, it was meant to be. Ryan Sutter, winner of the 1st Season of the Bachelorette, married with 2 kids to Trista Sutter for 7 years....touched me. SQUEAAAAAL!

It was like a dream, I was shuffling down the arena's steps with the herd, just about to turn to the Turtle to bitch about how people don't know how to walk, when I saw him (and Trista), making their way to the staircase. Ryan and I locked eyes. He clearly could tell he had been spotted, like a gazelle by a lion. I frantically tried to think of something to say to him that would make me seem cool, casual and unstalker-like.

"I had your picture hanging on my bedroom wall until I got married!" didn't seem quite appropriate, so I settled for "OMG! GOOD LUCK!" Real smooth Tink, real smooth. I then asked him what corral he would be in and told him I knew he was fast from running in some Iron Man races (Really Ryan, I'm not a stalker). He told me he wasn't sure, which I knew was a complete lie because in order for him to pick up his goodie bag, he'd have had to gotten his corral assignment first. ("Sure Tink, I'll tell you what corral I'm in so you can stalk my all 13.1. Riiiight)

Since I had already completely blown any chance of not looking like a crazed Tiger Beat fan, I asked for a pic with him. The Turtle was completely amused by the trainwreck enfolding in front of him.

I've got the crazy eyes

After the Expo, we got situated in our room and had a quick bite to eat. I went completely into 'I'm in Disney World' mode and was fully prepared to stay at the parks until close. The Turtle however, had other ideas. He made some stink about needing sleep for the race, and said we had to go to bed after only riding the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Carribean. Naturally, I pouted the whole way back to the hotel.

After prepping my bib number and shoes for the race (I sleep in my running clothes when I run in the morning), we went to bed around 9pm...only to be woken up minutes later by the fireworks from Illumintations at Epcot....only to be woken up minutes later from a text from my dear, sweet brother telling me it was 'sleepy time'. How thoughtful.

Stay tuned for the recap of the actual race!