My Big Fat Disney World Recap!

Here I am, better late than never, with my Disney World recap! I can't tell you how many people welcomed us home with the question "did you get engaged?" It must have been set in their mind that Kurt would propose to me on Main Street...or in front of the Tree of Life...or in front of the Epcot ball....or while we dropped 13 stories on the Tower of Terror. Engagement or not, we had THE best 10 days in the entire world!

Don't worry, I won't go day by day of what we did...everyone likes more pictures anyway, right! But honestly...Disney World is SO beautiful this time of year because the parks all decorate for Christmas!

We went to Disney from November 7th to the 16th, and as you know, ran our half marathon on November 9th! We talked about whether we wanted to do our race at the beginning or at the end of our trip. It took about .02 seconds to decide we didn't want to stress over it the whole week so we did it first! I am so glad we did.

For the first three days of our trip, we stayed at Disney's Caribbean Beach Hotel which is a very nice resort that we've stayed in before. However our ideal location when we go to Disney is the Epcot resorts (yacht/beach club and Boardwalk) because you can walk or take a boat to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios. Primo! But because the Caribbean Beach was a race host resort, we stayed there to ensure transportation to the race! After our three nights there, we actually moved to the Boardwalk Hotel right by Epcot and Hollywood Studios! It is a beautiful place, don't you think? :-)

Our first few days of Disney we actually spent with Kurt's older sister Janine who was down there at the same time as us which was a lot of fun! We spent some of the days at the parks with her and went to some dinners together!

I think you all know how much Kurt and I love Disney World. He grew up going there, I grew up going there and it just makes us so happy. The planning, the parks, the rides, the magic, the food--it's absolutely magical! I always try and convince people, especially adults, that it is as just as fun for adults to go as it is for kids. We always go crazy when we go to Disney. We save up for months so we eat at  as many different restaurants as we can, buy things and just let loose! Disney just makes us feel 7 years old again.

I'd also like to tell you all that this particular trip, we met a LOT of characters :-) Kurt was SOO excited about this let me tell you! Let's take a look, shall we?! Every Minnie loved Kurt, by the way.

Oh how I LOVE meeting characters! It seriously is a blast....they are SO funny! Especially when you think about the people playing them and how they must feel. I saw a little boy try to rip off poor Mickey's nose and a little girl try to grab Pluto's ear. hahaha!! It's also amazing how in character the real life characters are (not the costumed ones). The princesses talk just like they do in the movies, and Gaston...ohhh he was absolutely hilarious!

We went to all four parks, multuple times, and even took a teeeeensy trip to Universal Studios while we were there because, why not?! I can never decide which park I love the best, as I love them all, but if I had to choose, the Magic Kingdom---I mean, that's what everyone thinks of when they think Disney World!

I could go on and on about Disney, y'all know that right?! :-) I do wanna save one last piece for later this week, which is Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party! Let me just say, it snows on Main Street. IT SNOWS! :-)

My first half marathon recap---in Disney World!

Let me just preface this post by saying coming home from a 10 day vacation in the most magical place on Earth is theeee worst!! But, it's also coming up on the holiday season so I can't be too upset. :-) I do plan to post a DisneyWorld recap later this week so if you are interested in that, stay tuned!

Okay! Holy Crap. I can't believe I'm typing this post as a half marathon finisher. I know to some that may seem a bit ehh, but to me, wow. I said in a previous post, a year ago I could barely run 5 minutes without dying and that is no joke. I would run 3 minutes and need to stop to catch my breath, dreading the fact that I was only 3 minutes in and had a ways to go. It's outrageous that Kurt and I just finished 13.2!

Skirt and Arm sleeves by Team Sparkle!!

I want to remember this race forever (even the shitty parts), so I really just want to recap as much as I can! Kurt and I finished in 2 hours and 46 minutes! It was about 10 minutes slower than we had hoped, but to be honest I didn't care at all! We had nothing to prove :-) Okay let's get this recap roaring!

Let's start with this. The Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon took place on Saturday November 9th, at 10:00pm ET. You heard me; 10:00pm. A night race! The weeks leading up to it, I won't lie, I researched the crap about night runs. What to eat, what to do the day of and I will say, everything I read said rest rest rest.

However, Kurt and I got to Disney on Thursday November 7th, and there was no way in hell we were going to sit in our hotel room for 2 days and rest! We spent half the day Thursday and all day Friday walking around some of the parks having a blast! In the back of my mind, I thought to myself that it probably wasn't the best idea in the world, but we were in Disney after all...

The morning of the race, we got up around 8 because we had to go pick up our race bibs, packet information and check out all the fun merchandise at the Race Expo!

It was so cool! Our first fitness expo! I may have gone a bit crazy and bought a few things, including these sneaker charms. I bought a wine and dine one and a Boston Strong one :-) These sneaker charms are from a company called BeeCause and I wish I knew about them sooner.

After walking around the expo for a bit, we headed to Downtown Disney for some lunch and relaxing! We ended up eating lunch around 11:30 because we planned to eat again around 3:00 and then around 7:00. We did end up relaxing in our hotel, watched a few episodes of Hoarders, ate some peanut butter crackers, ya know! We looked at each other puzzled---how the heck were we chilling on the bed while in Disney? It was weird you guys! 

Around 6:00 we finally started to get ready....the Disney hotels provided us with transportation to the race starting at 7:00 and we wanted to get there early! I Minnie-Ized myself and soon enough we were ready to go!!

The pre-race party was in a big open field at Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports, which was where the race started. They had a DJ, characters dressed up like chefs for the Wine and Dine theme and probably about 8 million port-a-pottys. Holy moly I have never seen so many! After hanging around there for a bit dancing and taking photos, around 9:00 it was time to get into our corrals. We were in corral E!

My nerves started settling in. I couldn't believe Kurt and I were about to run a half marathon in DisneyWorld...it was SO surreal! Each corral, they set off fireworks, played music, so each corral felt special! Corral E set off at 10:09 and we were off!

Mile 1-8: The first 8 miles flew by we couldn't believe it! Everything felt amazing. The first 3 miles were running on a highway towards Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom was beautiful at night! The tree of life was glowing, characters dressed jungle themed were dancing all around and songs like "under the sea" and "I wanna be like you" (from the Jungle book!) were blasting! There was so much energy! We looped around Animal Kingdom 2 miles and back onto the highway for the 3 miles back towards Hollywood Studios. We were feeling SPECTACULAR.

Mile 9-10: As we got closer to Hollywood Studios, we entered in the back by Tower of Terror. Something felt off. My legs suddenly became heavy and my stomach was in knots. I ignored it for a bit, got some water and changed my breathing which helped for about a mile or 2. We stopped for a brief photo op!

Mile 11-12: Y'all, I thought I was going to die. I had the worst stomach cramps and my legs were bowling balls! At this point, we had rounded into the streets of New York in Hollywood Studios where the GORGEOUS Osborne Family lights were showcased. It was something I looked forward to running through this entire race, and I ran through it almost in tears. Kurt almost forced me to stop and take a breath and walk for a minute. We walked/ran for about 5 minutes while I regained myself. I felt defeated, but at the same time it pushed me to finish strong.

Mile 12-13: As we left Hollywood Studios, we entered the Epcot Resorts (Yacht/Beach/Boardwalk hotels) and the crowds were wild! They were yelling words of encouragement, cheering us on, holding up signs, and I think that ultimately helped me out that last mile. I looked over at Kurt as we entered Epcot....we had a half mile left. We were going to do this! I started to cry! Both out of pain and happiness that we were about to do this! 

We crossed the finish line holding hands and it was the most amazing feeling ever! They gave us our medals and we got our picture taken! It was such an incredible feeling to have that medal placed over our necks---all of the training, tears and hard work was SO worth it!

It was now close to 1:00am and it was party time! This race ended in Epcot, which was hosting the Food and Wine fest---30 different countries with different food and booze to try! We partied our butts off until 3:30 when we finally decided to head back and sleep. It was a long ass day.

I can't stress enough how thankful I am for all of you who have encouraged me, helped me, and sent sweet words of good luck to us leading up to the race! I appreciate it so much! We had so much fun, and even though after the race I said I probably wouldn't do another half anytime soon, I want to do another one! I never knew that I could feel this sense of accomplishment. It is absolutely amazing and I love it!

One of our pics! We plan to buy this one because we just look SO happy!!

Run Disney, you ROCK!!