117 Days Until the Disney Princess Half Marathon

This morning I ran the Wicked 10K.  I was hoping to be able to submit my time to Disney to help my corral placement.  This was a bit of a hindrance:

 

 

Maybe you are wondering what that is.  It's Hurricane Sandy.  The storm was worrisome enough that the after party was moved inside, but not worrisome enough to cancel the race.  So, at 8:00 this morning, we were off....one corral at a time until all 8 had crossed the start line. 

 

But, let's back up.  The race started at the Virginia Beach Convention Center and ended about a mile away on the Oceanfront Boardwalk.  The after party was supposed to be at the finish line, but was moved BACK to the Convention Center because of the weather.  One of the biggest concerns for me was where to park.  My plan was to pay to park down by the finish line and then do a warm up walk to the start.  With the change, I decided to park at the start.  There are just over 2000 free parking spots at the Convention Center.  There were 7264 people who finished the race today.  To make sure that I was NOT one of the 5000 that had to find alternative parking, I got there VERY early.  I think that I pulled into the dark parking lot just after 6:30.  I went inside to use a real bathroom and then headed outside to find a local running group that I have joined on Facebook.  I met some really nice girls, most of whom are serious runners.  Most of them are WAY faster than me.  I am looking forward to joining them for some other events.

 

The weather this morning was decent.  It was cloudy and cool.  It was a little breezy at the start, but it wasn't raining.  (I did decide before I got out of the car that it would be a good idea to leave my cute little fascinator in the car so it wouldn't blow away.  This turned out to be a good idea.)  I found my way to my corral through all of the crazy costumes and waited for the start.

 

I ran for the first 1/2 mile or so because the crowd was still a little too thick to stop and walk.  Once things started to thin out, I tried to find a pocket when it was time to walk.  I can only imagine how crowded it will be at Disney if it was this crowded with 7264 runners.  There will be at least twice as many in Florida.  There was no wind really because we were running towards the east.  We had some wind when there was a break in the hotels every couple of blocks, but it wasn't terrible.  Things stayed pretty calm and easy until the Mile 2 Marker, where we made a turn that had us running north on the Boardwalk.  We proceeded to run north for 40 blocks..  Those were the hardest 40 blocks I have ever run in my life.  We were running right into the wind.  According to the Weather Channel, we had sustained winds of 15mph with gusts that were higher.  There were places that were like wind tunnels and I thought I was running into a wall.  It took my breath away a couple of times.  After the 40 blocks of headwind, we turned back onto the Boardwalk to the finish at 19th Street (so, 21 more blocks).  By the time we made the turn, I was tired.  It was hard to get motivated to run again when the watch beeped.  But, eventually I saw the finish line.  I made it!  I got my medal, my finisher Tervis Tumbler, a  bottle of  water, and a banana and made my way through the crowds to head back to the starting line again. 

 

 

Here's the thing about being new to this whole running thing.....it doesn't matter how slow you go because EVERY run is a PR!  I wasn't fast enough to submit this time to Disney.  I needed to finish in 1:14 to submit to Disney.  I didn't do that.  But, I set a personal best for a 10K.   Now I have something to try and beat when I run my next 10K on Thanksgiving Day.  I'm going to do it.....as long as I don't have to compete with a hurricane!!

 

 

Today's Stats:

6.2 miles in 1:22:06 (clock time)
13.15 minute miles
Finished in 5758th place (that means I finished faster than 1516 people)
Finished 611th in my age group
Finished 3443 of all of the women

From my watch:
1:21:50
Mile 1:  11.49
Mile 2:  12.11
Mile 3:  13.03
Mile 4:  13.34
Mile 5:  14.05
Mile 6:  14.32