groppi girl blogs

Yeap…another race report. Don’t worry though. They will be back in full effect in the fall. This race report concludes the sixth half marathon I’ve done in as many months. The WDW Half (as part of the Goofy Challenge) in January, the Princess and New Bedford Half Marathons in March, the Run to Remember in May, and the Old Sandwich Road Race and 13.1 Boston in June.

The 13.1 Boston was supposed to be a great day. My friend Katie had made the pilgrimage up from Baltimore to participate and we were disappointed. First of all, the race wasn’t even in Boston. It was through Canton and Milton. The course was nice but the hills were almost tortuous. My friend Ann Marie, who raced with us, said it best…it was more like mountain running.  The water stops ran out of cups so 50% of the runners had to either drink out of communal jugs or get water poured into their palms…not how it should be for a half marathon at the end of June…however, I digress.

It was pretty cool that the photographers got us at the starting line. Jill is in the pink tank and I’m in the blue. The weird thing was that to get to the start you had to climb over a rock wall….hmmrff.

The course was challenging. It was up steep hills 50% of the course. My sister Jill is trying to bounce back from an IT Band problem and this wasn’t a good race for her. So, instead of running alone, I decided to jog it slow with her and get her to the finish line. She was amazingly strong to tough it out and finish!!!! Now, she is on a strict rest schedule until Sunday, when we’ll take a test run.

Here we are at the finish…it was by far the worst half marathon we had ever run (over 14 minutes of our next worst time ever). It was disorganized, injured laden and tough. But it’s finished and it’s in the books. I’m so proud of Katie, Jill and Ann Marie for their strong finishes. The race committee tried to pull up the timing mats early on Katie and Ann Marie. But they made it to the finish just as the clock was being taken down. Jill and I were able to get their medals for them and award them at their finish.

The food after wasn’t that bad. There was plenty of it and Katie was proudly showing off her muffin at the finish.

It was a good time with great friends. I just wish that 13.1 Boston would get their act together and put an organized race out there. I look forward to the Philly Rock’n'Roll Half Marathon so I can put another decent time back on the books.

Another crazy month…June just flew by. At the beginning of the month, my friend Gracie traveled up from CT to race the Old Sandwich Road Race with me. It was fabulous. The course was beautiful. It was a hot and muggy day but that didn’t dampen the majestic beauty of this historic town road.

The staging area was at beautiful Ellisville Harbor Park. The race started at 8:45 am so we didn’t have to rise too early to get to the starting line.

Isn’t Gracie so cute in her matching shirt and skirt? I wasn’t sure that I would need to bring my hydration on the course but I’m glad I did. The race director did a great job with the water stops but I think they could have added a few because it was such a hot day.

The course actually started on the dirt portion of Old Sandwich Road. The course was a little bit more effort but you were rewarded with lots of shade on this hot day.

And we were off! I spent the first 3 miles with Gracie but then we parted ways. My dear ole hammy doesn’t allow me to walk then start running again without protest. Gracie told me to go so I did but miss having her company.

Once the majestic dirt portion ended, you hit the horse stables near my in-laws house. They were so pretty! My mother-in-law was waiting outside her house to greet me with some nice cold water. Bless that woman!!!!

Gracie fought through a tough race and I managed to get back on the course to run the last quarter mile with her! It was awesome. She had made some great friends from CT on the course who kept her company. Overall, the race was fabulous and I would do it again. The only thing we missed were FINISHER MEDALS!!!! It would have been nice to celebrate our accomplishment with some fantastic bling. Maybe Craig will listen and have bling next year. :):):)

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!