Princess Half Marathon Pt. 3 - The Half Marathon

Welcome to the final installment of my Disney Princess Half Marathon recap! Sunday was the big race and the one I was the most eager to finish. Last year I did not have a great race and was still battling the nerves from that. I'm pretty sure my fancy sparkle skirt gave me the power to get through. 

My skirt is Black Diamond.

I swear, I am not a spokesperson for Sparkle Skirt. I just really love them. I also wore my first shirt from Raw Threads and I really liked it. Normally, I only run in tech shirts, but I liked the bamboo material. It was super comfortable and made running in the humidity tolerable. 

Cathy, Lorren and I were in corral J (they went all the way to P) and Michelle was in N. Before we took off, Scott sent me a text telling me where the lead racer was. One of my favorite things about this race is seeing the first place female running on the opposite side of the course. There is something so inspirational about seeing an athlete of that caliber just coasting along. It gives you that extra oomph that you need sometimes. So when we were took off I made a point to watch for the first female, except I never saw her, she was that fast. The first female, and actually, the first person, to finish did it in 1:11. That's insane!

Okay, back to the non-Olympian runners...

Lorren and I pretty much stuck together for this race, similar to the 10k. The course was pretty spooky because of the fog/mist/humidity. When we approached the toll plaza for Magic Kingdom, you could barely see it. 

I think this helped a little mentally, because you couldn't really see how far away you were, so it was like a pleasant surprise each time you can upon a mile marker or landmark. 

My favorite part of the race is everything that surrounds Magic Kingdom. Once you hit the parking lot and Transportation and Ticket Center the crowds are already forming. I love all of the signs and complete strangers that cheer you on. Big shout out to the woman with the sign that said, "Have fun storming the castle!" I think I laughed about that one for a few miles. Well, at least until I came upon the three fairies with the sign, "You are running Malificently!" Genius I tell you!

The next best thing is running up Main Street towards the castle. The cheering squad is huge and it just pumps you up. 

We coasted through the kingdom pretty quickly and hit the 10k mark with the same time that we had the day before. I was feeling pretty good. Lorren? Well...

Poor Lorren. 

We got our boost at the halfway mark with "Let it Go" blasting from the speakers. It seriously was the perfect song for that point in the race. 

Lorren and I stuck together until the 15k mark and I had to leave her. Trust me, it was not an easy decision. 

I costed through the last 5k+ and finished right around the time I wanted to end. I finished in 3:18:59, my best time to date.  Scott met me with my medal and it was perfect!

We both waited for Lorren and Cathy to cross and then headed over to the tent to get our Glass Slipper medals. 

There was no better feeling than having those two medals clinging around my neck. 

Michelle finished shortly after we got our medals, so we hung around and waited for her and snagged this lovely photo:

Yes, we all wore Raw Threads shirts and Sparkle Skirts. It's an addiction!!!!

I am so insanely proud of all of us for finishing our biggest challenge to date. 19.3 miles over 2 days. It definitely made all of those early Saturday mornings worth it.

Thank you to everyone who has encouraged me along the way, especially Scott! I can't wait to do this again next year!