Less Than 2 Weeks to Go!

I really can't believe that the Disney 1/2 Marathon is now only 13 days away. It's been over a year since I decided to try it - I remember talking about it on the phone with M.K. at Thanksgiving '07. It's been a long, sometimes hard, road for me to get the training - I tend to get really frustrated if I can't do something well, and running definitely has been, and continues to be, a challenge. But, I'm proud of myself for sticking with it, and as my step-mother-in-law has been saying "to finish is to win." As long as we finish, we'll get the medal and it doesn't matter if we were the fastest (not!) or the slowest (hopefully not!) people out there.

I have one more long run to do, today. I'm shooting for 10 miles. Hopefully it will warm up some since right now it's in the low 30's here! After that, I'll start my "taper" and just do short runs each day until we get down to Disney.

Right now, race day weather is looking less than ideal (37 degrees at the start, feeling like 27 degrees), but I'm hopeful things will change. I did buy some new running pants yesterday, and also some earmuffs that fit around the back of my neck so I can wear my running cap, too (since I'll need the visor once the sun comes up). The pants were on major clearance - only $1.44! Alec found them & didn't even realize that was the price - I didn't, either, until they rang up on the register. That sure made me feel less guilty about the $20 I spent on a new travel bag to carry around the parks!

If anyone is interested in tracking me, or Alec, throughout the races, you can sign up for e-mail or cell phone alerts at this website:

http://disneyworldsports.disney.go.com/dwws/en_US/events/eventDetail/detail?name=WdwMarathonDetailPage&pid=pip-3-3

About half-way down, you'll see an option for Runner Tracking. I'm doing the Half Marathon and Alec is doing the Full Marathon. Just a couple of warnings:

• Evidently, the system didn't work so well last year, and some runners' finishes were never recorded. So, if you sign up, and you never get notified that we finished, don't panic!
• The races start at 6:00 AM Eastern, so you may not want to use the cell phone option if you don't want to be alerted that early!

I can update my Facebook page (for those who are "friends" with me on there) from my cell phone, so I plan to do that as soon as I can after the race to report that I've finished. Alec is bringing his laptop, so hopefully he'll be nice & share and I can update the blog as well. My cousin K. recently discovered she can blog from her phone, so I'll try to figure that out between now & the race, too!

I'm not sure how much time I'll have to blog before we leave on the 8th (though I do want to get my last few weekly recipes up!), so I want to go ahead and thank everyone for being supportive of this goal - whether you've left a comment, sent an e-mail, or just sent up a supportive thought or prayer when you've read this blog, I really appreciate it. I know I'll have a lot of people with me in spirit on the 10th!