groppi girl blogs

Disney’s Princess Half Marathon is a great race. The course’s entertainment is fabulous. The energy from the almost all-women event is amazing. We gathered at the staging area for some fun and laughs before heading to the corrals.

There were tiaras and so many princess costumes all over! It’s so fun to see everyone ready to run 13.1 in princess gear.

The race starts in the cover of darkness but then it lightens up. The castle comes just before the mile 6 mark. Even though we were making great time, we stopped for photo opportunity at the castle.

I love this shot. It’s so fun! The weather wasn’t quite what is was last year. It was much cooler this year, very similar to our freezing January races but a tad milder.

The first part of the race always seems so much shorter. You have the adrenaline from the start, then the excitement at the Magic Kingdom Parking Lot, the Transportation and Ticket Center, then you have the Magic Kingdom with the castle. On your way back, it’s kinda lonely for a few miles but I guess that’s just a reason to run faster right?

This race was a really fast race for me. I shattered my old half marathon time by about 6 minutes for a new PR of….1:50:38!!!!

I knew I had shattered it coming around to the 13 mile mark. I tried not to look at the mile marker clocks as the race went on. I just wanted to run as fast and hard as I could after leaving Jill at the 7 mile mark. The strategy paid off!

The finish was awesome. They have Minnie and Mickey in their royal outfits, along with the Princesses.

Jill and I were the first two princesses to finish so we had some time for photo opportunities with the other princesses.

As the group started to trickle in for the race, we had a great time just refueling and hanging out in the sun.

It was a fabulous weekend!!! Lots of laughs and fun. I don’t know if I will be able to participate next year because Disney change the race weekend but I hope I can.

Ok, I CANNOT believe that it’s been so long since I have posted. My bad. However, one of the first reasons is this:

We sold our house!!!

The past month has been crazy!!! We accepted an offer on the house on April 16th…the Purchase and Sales was executed on April 26th. The closing was May 17th. We plan on building a new house. We have started the process and I will be posting on how it’s going. Right now, we are in a temporary rental. It’s a townhouse that my friend was trying to rent until the market comes back a bit more. It helps us and her out! However, we are still settling in.

Second:

We went on our 5th anniversary trip May 8 - May 13, which was a cruise out of Fort Lauderdale that went to Key West, Cozumel and the Bahamas. I will definitely have more pictures from the trip. The picture below was from my favorite part…we did an excursion in Cozumel. Wild Tours, an excursion company, took us for a crazy adventure through the Cozumel jungle for an incredible experience.  We drove an XRail Dune Buggy to the Jade Caverns and underground caves. I would highly recommend it to anyone going to Cozumel. We had a BLAST!!! More on this later though…here is the tease picture:

If you look back at the timeline, I had about one day to pack up our entire house. I had packed a little beforehand but there was still lots to do. We got back on May 13th, packed on May 14th, the movers came on May 15th and then passing papers on the 17th! PHEW! Before the cruise and the move, I was crafting a ton! I have so many back projects to post. The first was a card that I did for Mother’s Day.

This card just kind of came together. I wanted to use that big flower from Papertrey Ink’s Friends ‘Til the End set more. I think over the next few days you’ll get sick of seeing it so much!

You can’t really tell in the above photo, but the black strip across the top is embossed polka dots. It does look really pretty in person. I have to bust out my camera and start taking normal pictures instead of taking pictures with my phone.

Disney’s Princess Half Marathon Weekend just happens to fall on a great weekend every year. Yeap, it’s my birthday weekend. This year I signed up for both the 5K on Saturday and the half marathon on Sunday to treat myself. The Royal Family 5K was so much fun. It’s more for entertainment value than an actual race. Joan even brought me donuts to make our 4 am wake-up call a little bit more bearable!!!

My friend Grace and I scurried from character shot to character shot, laughing the whole way.

The “run disney” tech shirt that I made for Marathon weekend made the trip down to Orlando again because it wasn’t going to be that warm. It was another cold race weekend in Florida…in March. Hopefully, Wine and Dine in October will not be cold!!! However, Snow White and Dopey braved the cold for some photo ops.

In honor of my kitties back home, I had to get a shot with Marie from the Aristocats. She was just too cute standing out there with her big pink bow.

We made a few more stops but the sun wasn’t quite right so the photos didn’t come out as well as I would have hoped. But I did get a shot with Goofy, the ultimate athlete. I wish he came out in his track suit though.

Our running club had a few people come out to be our ChEAR squad.  They took some great shots of everyone coming up to the finish line.

I wasn’t impressed with the 5K medal though. They were just a giant advertisement for the new Disney movie “The Princess and the Frog.” We had to take the obligatory medal shot for posterity.

Joan promptly rewarded me with donuts at the finish. Yum!

I am still catching up on race reports. I have the Princess Half Marathon and the New Bedford Half Marathon on my to-do list. And…I am now officially registered for the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC in October too!!! EEEK!

This is my final race report for the 2010 Goofy Race and a Half Challenge. We unofficially completed the Dopey Challenge by running the 5K too. It’s just an awesome experience. (Long post alert but at least there are lots of pictures. )

The night before the full marathon was calm. Jill and I decided to make it an early night so we could get some much needed sleep after a couple of nights of barely any. We completed our pre-race dinner ritual of eating pasta with sauce with sides of bread and Caesar salad. It’s always good. We ended up trying to sleep at 8 pm. It sounds so early but we were getting up in a little over 6 hours. It was 19 degrees,with a feels like 8 degrees when we woke up. It managed to get a little warmer as the morning approached. But it was STILL COLD!!!

Since it was so cold at the start, we were really bundled up. Here we are getting ready to shed our sweatshirt at baggage check and don our lovely trash bags. It’s so sexy let me tell you….but they work. They keep our body heat in. Then you wrap yourself in an old mylar to add an extra layer of warmth.

Because of our anticipated finish time, we got to start in the blue start. It’s definitely the one I prefer. You start your morning in the World Showcase. Since it’s so dark, it seems like it’s the middle of the night. Actually, it’s close enough - LOL!  I love the music playing, seeing all the torches around the lagoon lit. It’s such a pretty sight.

It was cold. The sun was welcomed when it showed up. It was surprising that it didn’t feel strong. We were running in FLA after all. My running club hosted the Mile 13 waterstop. It was great seeing them at the halfway point. It meant we were getting closer and closer to the finish line with every step.

Miles 23-26 are great. You are running through Hollywood Studios and the crowd support is amazing as you go from the park and head up to the Boardwalk. My in-laws are there waiting for us to run by. This year I also had Ken’s aunt and uncle. Another great year for fantasic family crowd support!!! I know they frozen waiting for us but seeing them is always such a nice lift. I mean, we were running and still cold. LOL! Ken and Kevin were waiting for us in the World Showcase right before we ran through the United Kingdom. I absolutely love this shot that Kevin snapped of us. It’s great!!! From there you turn one corner, tackle a small hill and you got 1.1 miles to the finish. It’s all the way through Epcot so the crowd support is phenomenal.

I was really booking it during the last mile because after I saw the Mile 25 clock, I realized that I would be able to break my record if I just pushed it that last mile. Jill told me she couldn’t do it but to go for it. We parted ways there. But sticking together for 41.3 out of 42.4 miles wasn’t shabby!

There is always a photographer very close to the last mile marker. I had to strike a pose…the finish was so close!

And then there it was…the finish. I was so set on making my time, I didn’t high five Donald when I passed him. DOH! Oh well, maybe next year. :):):) Maybe Mickey will be out there.

The finish line was spectacular. Everyone is cheering and excited despite the cold temperatures. Now, I was so emotional after I crossed and received my Mickey Medal and mylar. I didn’t know whether to laugh at what I accomplished or cry tears of joy. So, I just started to laugh. Gloria, a volunteer, gave me Goofy medal in the tent after the finish. I will never forget her. As soon as I left the tent, I saw Kenny and Kevin. Kenny told me that I managed to squeak out a 4:23:09, a new personal record by over one minute. YAY! While I was still standing there talking to Ken, Jill was out of the tent with her medal. She finished 4:24:48 and it was a PR for her by over five minutes. We got the obligatory medal shot at the photo opportunity corner after the medal tent.

We were going to stay around and watch some friends finish but it was too cold. The chill was starting to get to the bones. We had some stretching and showering to get to. So, we headed for Epcot so we could walk back to the Boardwalk. Here we are with the new tradition of taking the picture in front of Spaceship Earth, Epcot’s icon.

My husband took this amazing picture of me last year at the finish, so he took it again this year.

42.4 Miles done! It was sad to know that it was over. It was an amazing experience. The training and the effort was so worth it. Plus, you can’t beat celebrating your accomplishments with a bunch of old friends either.

Until next time!!!! I can’t wait for 2011.

WOW, I really can’t believe it’s been two months since the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend. Since my sister and I had signed up for the Goofy Race and a Half Challenge, we were up at 2:50 am both Saturday and Sunday to run. The alarm went off, yeap, just like I said, 2:50 am. I managed to roll my butt out of bed and take a quick rinse shower to loosen up the muscles. Since it was only a half marathon, we were able to just munch on some peanut butter toast and yogurt before heading out to the bus. We finally made it to the start and it WAS COLD!!! It was colder in FLA than it was back home!!! What the heck was it doing snowing in Central Florida the morning of the Half Marathon?!?! It was unreal.

The snow managed to turn to pelting sleet for the first few miles. Annoying but at least it wasn’t raining. The run was so fun! There were a ton of people surrounding us so we just went with the flow. The Christmas decorations were still up are the parks and it was the coolest experience to see the Christmas Tree on Main Street all lit up when you turned the corner to head toward the castle.

I have to say this year’s Donald was a blur. I remember just having fun and chatting with random people and Jill. At Mile 12, we saw a few of our friends volunteering at the water stop. Thank you to all who volunteered!! This runner truly appreciates it.

By the time we made it back to Epcot, it was raining. The rain was starting to penetrate the clothing but it didn’t stop the fun. We got our AWESOME Donald medal and our new wristbands for the Goofy Challenge. In order to qualify for a Goofy medal, Disney gave us a silver wristband at packet-pickup. If you finished the Half Marathon in the allotted time, you swapped out your silver bracelet for a blue one. The blue one made you eligible to claim your Goofy medal after you finish the full marathon the next day.

The runner baggage claim took FOREVER!!!! It took so long that our body temps were crashing from standing still in the cold after being warmed by running. Thank goodness we were ready to head back to the hotel and the bus line wasn’t too long. I would have preferred to wait for some friends to finish and then walk through the parks but we were too cold and the parks weren’t opened when we finished. So, we had to wait for transportation, which thankfully didn’t take too long! 16.2 miles down, 26.2 to go and still smiling!!!