Tinker Bell Half Marathon – A PR Against All Odds!

So I had just an incredible race this morning…but I know I did everything possible wrong leading up to this race and broke so many rules in the “runner handbook.” So appropriate that I got back to the hotel to find Hercules on the TV. “I can beat the odds. I can go the distance” – these lyrics are particularly appropriate for today. While I will put a whole lot more detail in my race recap, here are some of the forces I have up against:

I have been fighting some upper respiratory junk since the morning we flew here (I think getting only 3 hours sleep that night did not help).
I ended up eating some fried and not so good for you food at lunch yesterday – I try to eat bland and easy to digest the day before but that’s tough at a theme park.
It has been tough getting adjusted to the time change and I have had trouble sleeping in past 3 or 4 am local time every morning here. Wouldn’t you know it – when my 3:15 am alarm went off this morning, I was in a deep, peaceful slumber that could have lasted for a good long while.
My usual pre-race breakfast, a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Luna Protein Bar, was (unbeknownst to me) super expired. I figured this out about half way through this disgusting bar. It didn’t age well – expiration March, 2012. Oh crap.
We were running late getting out of here and left the hotel after the time we were supposed to be in our corrals.
I get to the first water stop to find out that all the PowerAde is BLUE – I hate anything other than orange or yellow. Every other runDisney race I’ve done had yellow. Oh no – I knew by mile 2 I would be doing this race without any electrolytes.
This course was really hilly! I was shocked by just how challenging the course seemed to be!

Despite all of these things, this was one of the best races of my career thus far. I felt great, rocked and rolled, and ended up with negative splits and a big time PR.

i also achieved my race goal of breaking the 2 hour Half barrier. Not only did I break the barrier but BLASTED through it with a time of 1:53:30, average pace of 8:39.

I am so thrilled! Charles wanted to come back to the hotel for a bit and sneak in a workout so I am resting for a little as well (although I probably could have walked straight into the parks post-race. I really feel great with very little to no soreness as for right now. I have on compression socks just to be safe. I can’t wait to enjoy these last 2 days in the park without having to worry about “Am I walking too much? Should I be resting? Should I sacrifice enjoying Disneyland for the sake of the race?” – I beat the system and did it all! I shouldn’t get too used to it though. You can’t always tempt fate and walk away with a PR and amazing race.