My First Half Marathon (+ Weekend Recap)

Oh my goodness. Yesterday, I ran my first half marathon: 13.1 miles. If you rewind to Friday, you’ll remember that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to run at all after a week of intense hip pain. But I did it and I’m over the freaking moon.

I’ll tell you all about it, but first I’m going to give ya the other highlights of the weekend.

 I apologize in advance for the dramatic variation in picture quality here. Sometimes, fab lighting. Sometimes, dark restaurants and early mornings.

Pre-race

After a flight delay on Thursday (ugh, I was not happy), I made it to the Disney Caribbean Beach Resort around 9:45. I gave my parents the biggest hugs and caught up with them while I unpacked my stuff. Then, we slept.

On Friday morning, I knew I wanted to try to run again. I had tried and been in way too much pain to actually go anywhere on both Monday and Wednesday, and I really did not want my first run in over a week to be the race. I wanted an idea of what my pain was like and if I thought I’d be able to race. My dad and I headed out for a short jog over to get breakfast around 9:15, and since I felt okay after that, he accompanied me for about 2.5 miles around the resort.

Don’t get me wrong, I was going nearly 20 seconds/mile slower than all of my training runs, but at that point, I was just thrilled to feel okay running. It didn’t hurt, really. It just didn’t feel like I could pick up the pace.

I came back, stretched, and chatted with my mom for a bit while my dad ran a few more miles. Once we were all showered, we headed over to the race expo to pick up my bib and explore a little.

But first, lunch.

I got a pretty good turkey Cobb salad, minus blue cheese because I don’t love blue cheese. And I stole some of my mom’s homemade chips because they were yummy.

Our service was super slow because they couldn’t find our table, so we got free dessert. Enter: the Mickey ice cream bar.

And then it was off to the expo. After some serious convincing, I was able to get my corral moved up based on my Big10K time. I tried to enter it beforehand and failed because I’m obviously a tech genius. They reluctantly pulled me up about 12 corrals, and I’m so grateful. My start would have been so late!

I got a Tinkerbell Jamberry wrap at the expo (because why not?), plus my race shirt.

And then we headed back to the resort for an early (mediocre) dinner and pretty delicious dessert.

{Flourless chocolate cake + peanut butter mousse + some crunchy brittle + caramel}

Then I did a little work (my next week is crazy busy) and my aunt and cousin stopped by after a full day at Animal Kingdom and Epcot.

On Saturday, we got up and showered, and my mom and I headed out pretty early to go to Disney Springs for some shopping + girl time. I bought cute new sunglasses for myself, and also got two cute new mugs and a pretty wine glass. Hey, I’m gonna be 21 in ~16 days.

{My new Chip mug}

Lunch at Frontera Cocina was fabulous. I got the Coctel Rojo, which was basically a shrimp and scallop ceviche in spicy cocktail sauce with jicama and avocado, and my mom and I split a giant plate of tortilla chips and guacamole. I haven’t had tortilla chips in ages and I went to town. Great decision.

I spent the late afternoon doing some more schoolwork while my parents went to the pool, and we ordered pizza for dinner (delicious).

Then, we started preparations for an early bedtime and an even earlier morning with my aunt and cousin.

I freaked out right before bed because I forgot to make a playlist and then when I did, nothing would sync. So frustrating, but I resolved it manually… and then took an hour and a half to fall asleep. Thanks for the fireworks, Disney.

The half marathon

My 3:00am wakeup call came way too soon, but once I got up and washed my face, I at least felt alive. I ate a Pressed by KIND Apricot Pear Carrot Beet bar before we left and started to sip some water. I was freezing, but my favorite sweats and a tech pullover helped a lot.

We were down at the buses with my aunt and half-asleep five-year old cousin by 3:50, and probably got on one just after 4:00. I ate a Maple Sea Salt RX bar on the bus.

Race traffic was insane, and by the time we got to the gear check and first round of bathrooms, it was nearly 4:45. My aunt and I stood in a short-but-slow bathroom line, and by the time we’d taken a quick picture, it was around 5:10 and the corrals were supposedly a half a mile away. So, we left our cheerleaders and ventured on.

It felt like way more than a half mile, the crowd was moving at a crawl, and we just wanted to get there already. We had both envisioned an hourlong wait in the corrals, and we were barely going to get there on time. Crazy. To ditch the crowd, we followed some other runners behind a line of porta potties. It was dark, muddy, and we weren’t sure that there would be a place to exit, but we thought it was our best bet.

We’re both rule-followers, so sneaking behind the bathrooms felt weird. What started as about 5 people doing it turned into a whole long line of desperate runners trying to get to the right place. ‘Twas a little treacherous, but we emerged much closer to corral D and fast-walked there.

The race was supposed to start at 5:30, but it was closer to 5:40. We thought we were at the front of our corral, but ended up actually getting pushed back to corral E. Apparently, we aren’t that aggressive. Whatever.

And then… we were off. I started my MapMyRun a little early, but wanted to get it out of the way before I crossed the start line. Kim and I ran together for a bit, but then I pulled ahead and she wanted to use the bathroom, so we split pretty early.

I wish I could say I’m one of those people who remembers every single mile, but alas, nope.

I know that I felt really good for the first part of the race. I was a little annoyed when my app said my first mile was at 9:47 min/mile, but then I realized the crowd was thinning out and I’d been surrounded by slower runners for that mile. My second mile, according to the app, was about 30 seconds faster. 

My original goal when I registered for this race was to finish in under 2 hours. Then, I got hurt twice, and my goal was really just to finish. Then, my long runs made it look like I could still achieve a sub-2 hour time, so I got hopeful. And then I spent the last week thinking I wouldn’t even be able to run at all, so I once again just wanted to finish. After my first three miles, I was back to casually hoping I could finish in under 2 hours

Most of the first part was dark and not exciting. Good energy and lots of costumes, though, which was fun to see. Also, how do you run in some of those costumes? Some people go all out. Our before and after pictures include tiaras and tutus (thanks, Mom!), but I wasn’t running in them. 

I saw my parents and cousin a little after the 5K and 10K marks, and then plowed through the rest of the race while they took pictures of (and with) my aunt and made their way to the finish.

Around mile 6 was Cinderella’s castle, which was cool and pretty, but I stressed myself out about it a lot because I never saw the mile marker and was afraid I had somehow skipped part of the course. I didn’t. I still spent all of mile 6 to 7 worrying about it. LOL.

The second half of the race felt rougher, but I ran faster. Around mile 8, my hip started tightening up a bit and I got a little concerned. I wanted to be able to tell myself, “Just x more miles,” but 5 felt like too many to say that. I was also having random occasional pains in my feet and knees and was just kind of dragging. There were also more “hills” (highway ramps) during the second half. My playlist was a bit over an hour long and it started to repeat here, which was exactly what I intended and needed, because I knew some of the peppier songs would get me through tough miles.

And then I latched on to one other runner and just used her to pace myself for a while. We passed each other a few times, and that gave me something to focus on when I was struggling.

Around 11 miles in, she pushed pretty hard to speed up, and I/my hip wasn’t quite up for that, so I kept plugging along at whatever pace we were running before. Also, at this point, I got very annoyed because the highway signs said, “Disney Springs” to the left and “Epcot” to the right, but the course sent us left. No. We end at Epcot. I want to go right.

That mile did go pretty quickly, though. It was 12 to 13 and 13 to 13.1 that dragged a bit. I mean, we hardly had to turn for the entire race, and my tired legs were much better suited to straightaways than to turns, but there were several in that last stretch. I took those super slowly. When I hit 13, I looked ahead to see where the finish line was, and it definitely looked like it was more than a tenth of a mile away, but I picked it up as best I could and got there.

If my parents had been there, I probably would have cried. I was super proud and emotional for the last mile, but kept swallowing it. I thought it might all overflow there, but no, which I was okay with because there were a million people congratulating us and handing us water and bananas and bags of stuff. I didn’t really want to lose it and then fall over or something.

I had no idea what my chip time was, but I stopped my MapMyRun after I slowed down. It said 2:00:55. Since I knew that I had started it a little early and stopped it a little late… I knew there was a chance it was under 2 hours, but I wasn’t counting on it.

I texted my dad to find out where they were and ask if he knew my time, and he told me it looked like I was just under 2 hours. I was pretty freaking happy about that.

Post-race

My aunt came in about 5 minutes behind me (she ran a sub-2 hour half was a few years ago, so she was alright with that) and I got lots of hugs, some pictures, and some story time once we met up with my parents and cousin, and we got to the bus stop right on time to head back to the resort, where I foam rolled, stretched, and took a long shower. And then laid in bed. And then walked very slowly to lunch because I was super stiff, but also freaking starving.

I had an amazing, enormous turkey BLT with a little too much garlic avocado aioli (still super delicious, though) and an ice cream sandwich.

Then, I came back to the room to relax and type this up and stretch some more. And then I headed to hang out by the pool with my computer because I needed to get sh*t done, but I also wanted to be in the sun. When in Florida…

I’ll definitely post more about what I’ve learned while training and all that, but this is already a monster of a post, so if you have any questions, just send them my way!

Today, I’m headed back to school on a morning flight, and I’ll get there around 1:00pm Chicago time, which is enough time to go to the discussion section and lecture I’m supposed to make. Then, I have about 9 days left on campus before my extra long spring break. It’s gonna be crazy and busy, but I’m so so so glad this weekend happened. The end.

A weekend at Disney + my first half marathon! #fituniversity #FitFluential @rundisney Share on X

Your turn:

Who’s your favorite Disney princess?

What workouts are you loving right now?

How was your weekend?