I ran the Darkside half marathon two days ago! I kinda forgot to update the blog because I kinda forgot to train. Whoops! School became a top priority, and running just fell by the wayside. I started doing some rock climbing to keep fit (there's a rock climbing gym in our new apartment building... we moved apartments. More on that later, maybe?), and ran a 5k or two, but nothing longer than that.
We also most certainly did wing it for WDW. It was a pretty big learning experience. Due to it's massive size, it's so much different than Disneyland. We stayed in an offsite hotel and almost missed the start of the race as a result. We woke up at 3am, left the hotel at 3:45am, and didn't manage to get to the corrals before the 5am start time. We were stuck in traffic with our Uber driver and hundreds of of other runners for a nerve-wrecking 45 minutes! Fortunately, I was way back in corral I -- which was still FOURTH corral from last -- and had an extra 50min. before crossing the start line, so even though we heard the official start while hoofing it to the corrals, we still started on time with the rest of corral I.
The butterflies I felt stuck in traffic were only the cherry on top of the anxiety sundae. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to finish the half. I hadn't trained at all, my hip and back had been acting up the previous week, and my feet were so tired from walking 10k around the Magic Kingdom the day before (we only went for the weekend, and there was no way I was going to go to Disney World and not GO to Disney World). I made Riki tell me it was okay to not finish before we left the hotel. I made a promise to myself that I'd at least make it to 10k, if I made it to Animal Kingdom (mile 8.5) I'd be happy, and if I managed to finish without being swept -- i.e. in ~4h -- I'd be thrilled.
Mile 7 to 8 kicked my butt. I smashed into the wall and wanted to call it quits right then, but I was so close to Animal Kingdom, and to real bathrooms. I kinda had to pee, but the thought of waiting in line for a port-a-pottie that had been sitting in the Florida sun was ... less than appealing. I walked and cried my way into Animal Kingdom, picking up some Cliff gels from the nutrition station along the way, and stopped at the second for realzies bathroom I saw (the first had a fantastically long line - I guess I wasn't the only one not thrilled at the prospect of the port-a-potties). Riki also stopped to use the washroom, and before we went our separate ways, he reminded me to stretch out while standing in line. I bent over to stretch out my low back and felt every vertebrae crack. It was heavenly.
I don't know if it was the stretch, the bathroom break, the energy gel, or some magical combination of all three, but I felt fantastic. I didn't start running right away because there was quite a bit of bottle-necking inside Animal Kingdom, but it was shady and cool, and we got to see some monkeys being fed their breakfast, so I didn't mind walking. We left the theme park, hit mile marker 9, and started running again. I came shockingly close to an 8-minute mile. If I'd have realised how close mile marker 10 was, I probably could have done it, but I dropped back to a walk just before seeing the sign. But that was it - the home stretch! Now all I had to do was run a 5k. I've run 5k's before! No problem!
I was still deathly afraid of the Balloon Ladies sweeping me, but had stopped pestering Riki for our time. He told me back around the 10k mark to just run my race and not worry about the Balloon Ladies. It wasn't until just before mile marker 11 that I did the math and figured out how well I was actually doing. I checked Riki's fitbit just to be sure. We'd been running for three hours. I had to cover slightly over 2 miles in under 36 minutes to beat my previous time. What?! I eased up for mile 12 so I could try and run all of mile 13 (which I almost managed to do). Right before the finish line, we crossed a chip timing mat and over the PA I heard, "Sarah Ellis, welcome to the finish line!". I was off. I ran like crazy those last few meters and managed to cross the finish line six seconds shy of 3:30. 3:29:54 - a new PR. I think the announcers made a few more comments about me - I heard one of them mention they were also from Virginia - but I wasn't paying attention. Riki gave me a huge hug, I started crying (maybe I was already crying, who knows), and we hobbled over to the volunteers presenting medals.
It still feels unreal. I can't believe I did it again.
I can't believe I'm going to do it again. Before Sunday, I was convinced this would be my last half marathon -- 10k's from now on, please! -- but come June 14th, I'm almost positive I'll be signing up for the Star Wars - Lightside half marathon.
266 days.
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