A weekend of RunDisney fun!

6am ready for the race

Our weekend complete, looking back it was even more exciting and rewarding than I imagined.  First of all, my little dude was amazing…and I am not talking about his 5K.  For all the parents out there, I was super worried about getting him up at 5:20 a.m. after getting in at midnight the night before.  I figured I would just play it by ear.  So at 5:19, I pulled his sheets back and he sat right up saying, “Is it 5K time!” He was smiling and ready to go, and that was all I needed to see.  He had about 30,000 questions about the race on our 10 minute ride to the start and was super stoked to see Mickey and Minnie themselves sending us off.  With a bottle of water in hand and carrying us thru, Spider Schlopy busted through the finish line of his first 5K just 41 minutes after the fireworks signaled the start, beaming! 

Spider running toward Epcot

The next morning it was my turn. Someone had asked me if I was worried about the humidity.  I think I said, “No, not really.  I mean, how humid can it be at 5:30 in the morning?”  Hmmm…I learned very quickly that it can be quite humid! 90% to be exact.  Not ideal, but still workable.  I felt it from the start and by mile 4, when my face felt like it had been struck by fire, I began to try to cool myself down with every water station by drinking one and pouring the other on my neck.  One volunteer even yelled, “Smart move!” to me.  I equated the feeling of running in 80 degree weather with 90% relative humidity to running in a sauna and cooling off in a hot tub.  But in the mix of every ounce of discomfort, I took it all in.  The start was electric, and I was beyond proud and honored to be amongst such awesome women and men.  Sean Astin was there and talked about how he was running it for his 3 girls and his wife!  I loved all of the characters along the way.  Every one of them was out on the course at 5:30 in the morning, smiling and open armed ready to take pictures. (I almost wanted to ask Jack Sparrow for a lift, but didn’t.)

Fellow princesses

As the sun began to brighten our route, I noticed the other side of the course, around mile 10. The other side of the highway was packed with my fellow runners cruising through mile 4, and they were cheering for us.  I appreciated it so much and tried my best to cheer them back.  It was so great to feel such support and it came at the perfect time.  The ironic part of the whole race was that when I really felt like it was getting hard, I only had to thing about one thing -- my little dude and how brave and tough he was the day before. I said to him, “You can do it, even if we have to walk, we will cross the finish line,” so I had to cross that finish line too.  After all, one of my quotes along the course read, “Leave CAN'T in the dust!”  I couldn’t just say it, I had to do!  So after a few stops at the lovely potties and two quick pictures with Disney charaters, it was just the spirit of the race, I stepped it up trying to be just like Spider at the finish.  And then I got to say those magical words! I DID IT! 

Thank you Run Disney for the amazing experience, and thank you to all who volunteered. And a BIG Thank You to the awesome 30,000 of you who ran with me!  Congrats! Who is still wearing their medal? Magical indeed.