Disney Royal Family Kids Race

After the 5k my sister and I hurried back to the hotel where our husbands (who ran much faster than us were) my mother and my daughter waited for us. We did not have enough time to really get cleaned up, so we just changed clothes and got my daughter dressed in her cute little running skirt. Once we were changed we headed over to the Wide World of Sports Complex where my daughter could make her racing debut.

On the bus ride to the race I kept asking my daughter if she wanted to race and her reply every time was “YEAH” and she kept asking if she would get a medal too (she saw the one we all got for the 5k) I told her she would and that seemed to really get her excited. I guess my daughter likes her BLING!

Once we got to the race we had to find our start position and wait. There were several different kids races going on so there were a TON of people there. I ended up lining up with my daughter in our section while my mom and sister went to the finish to try and get some pictures. For some reason that I will never understand Disney decided to start the races with the 1mile kids run. This was the race with the oldest kids in it. I was lined up with a 2 ½ yr old waiting till this was over. I must say none of the little ones we were with took the extra waiting well. It is very hard to keep a toddler entertained while standing in a crowed spot for 30+ minuets. Next year Disney please start with the youngest kids first.

After about 5 min of waiting my daughter was ready to go. I kept reminding her about the BLING she would get and that seemed to calm her down for a little. After about 15 min the BLING no longer mattered to her, she needed to move and play and standing around waiting with a bunch of strangers was just not her idea of fun, she was done. So I did what any parent would do in this situation and told her that once she crossed the finish line she would get CANDY! This worked, but she kept telling me “NOW MOMMY, LETS RUN NOW!” I just kept reminding her that it was not time yet and she would get her candy soon.

When it was finally our turn to run, my daughter grabbed my arm with both of her hands and we took off. Okay she is two we did not really take off, but she started to run. I finally got her to let go of my arm and just hold my hand and she ran her 100 meters with a huge smile on her face. When we crossed the finish I picked her up and told her she did it and gave her a big hug and kiss. Then we headed over to get her BLING, she was so excited when they put the finishers medal on her. (note she wears the backback everywhere, she is a huge Dora fan and Dora always has her back pack so my daughter has to have hers too.  There was no taking it off for the race)

Now we had to go find my sister and my mom then go get some lunch and then off to Disney World to meet Mickey Mouse. This weekend sure was packed, I was not even thinking about the fact that I had to run 13.1 the next day. I must say by the end of the day I was exhausted. My daughter refused to sit in the stroller at Disney World so I had to carry an extra 33 pounds around for several hours so my feet were dead at the end of the day. Once we were back in our hotel for the night I really started to wonder how I was going to do a half marathon in a few hours when my feel felt like they were going to fall off.

The Disney Princess ½ Marathon report coming next!

Disney’s Royal Family 5k

The race story must begin at 3:45 when the alarm went off. For some reason Disney requires us racers to get up several hours before the race to go stand around and freeze till the race start. And yes people it was freezing. I have been getting use to the cold weather living out in Kansas and normally I would not call 40 degrees freezing anymore, but when you are just standing around for a few hours in it, it is COLD.

My sister, brother in-law, and husband all joined me for the 5k so I did not have to freeze alone. We were on the first buss to the race from our hotel and were very excited to see when we got to the start that they were selling coffee, Disney thinks of everything. We all got a cup of Joe, well not my husband he hates coffee (I know he is not normal) he got hot coco, and then waited for the race. Disney had a great DJ at the race who kept us all moving and grooving to some awesome tunes while we waited. My sister and I had a great time singing and dancing while our husbands tried to act like they were not really with us.

As the race time got closer we all split up, my sister and I were going slower than the guys so we headed to the back while they headed up to the front. When they counted down the start and fireworks went off we were so very excited. Of course like any other race we started at a slow shuffle then a walk then a little bit faster walk and so on. Once we finally got to run we started to warm up and really enjoy the fact that we were at Disney.

For the first mile we ran through the parking lot at Epcot, and then we headed in to go around the world. I have to say when we finally ran into Epcot I was so excited and giddy, I mean come on running in a Disney park who gets to do this (besides the other thousand people doing it with me)? The very first character we saw was Mulan, we stopped to get a picture and this started the trend for the rest of the race. My sister had a time goal for the race and we quickly figured out that we were not going to make it. With the very slow start then all the characters we HAD to get pictures with it just was not going to happen. Luckily we both agreed that this race was more about fun than time so we just decided to have a good time and forget all about a PR.

As we were running around the countries at Epcot there were characters all over to stop and get pictures with. We stopped at most of them and when we were not stopped at all the photo opts we were singing and dancing while running of course. There were also a ton of volunteers along the course just cheering us all on. When we finally were approaching the end of the race I was very disappointed. I wanted to keep going it was so much fun and I felt great why could I not just run around Epcot all day? We ran through the finish and got our finishers medal then headed back to our hotel. After all my daughter still had her race to do in a couple hours and we had to get ready for that.

And the Countdown Begins

Only four days till we arrive in Orlando, Florida. And let me tell you, the excitement is building. There are so many things about this trip that have me excited I can hardly stand it, here is a list.


1) I get to meet some of the running moms who have help to make me the runner I am today.

2) I get to run in my first ½ marathon

3) I get to run in not one but two Disney races

4) I will run a 5k with my sister who is aiming to run the whole 5k for her first time ever

5) My daughter is running in the Disney kids races

6) My daughter gets to meet Mickey Mouse for the first time

7) I can get out of this winter hell for a week and defrost

8) I will get to visit family and friends in Miami for a week after the Disney festivities are over

Can you all see why I am so excited? I have already packed up my daughters things for the trip and have a mental note of what I am packing for myself, I am sure I will start the actual packing tomorrow.

With all the excitement of the trip I have not had much time to totally freak-out about the half marathon. Don’t get me wrong I am freaking out a little just not a total freak-out. I know I have done the miles and can run this, but my last long run went bad. I set out to do 8 miles and ended up at three. Not exactly as planned, but I know we all have bad runs right? My two long runs before that went so well I felt like I could do anything so this one bad one should not get me down or make me panic thinking that I am going to bonk at three miles. This is what I keep telling myself, and then that other little voice in my head says this was a sign, you did not train properly and those two great runs were just a fluke you can’t run 13 miles. I am wondering if this is how all runners start to feel before a race at a distance they have not done yet.

I guess with all the stuff going on and all the planning to try and see as many friends and family as I can in one little week, my head is just spinning and it should not surprise me I am a little worried about my race. I do feel better knowing that a couple of my running mama’s Anna and Jill will be running with me which really makes me feel much better about it. I know they will keep my spirits up and my legs moving.

I am curious though do you get like this; you know second guessing yourself before a big race? Or do you feel confident in your training and know you will Rock it?

YakTrax - Review

I was contacted last month by YakTraxs to see if I would like to try out and review a couple of their items. Of course I totally jumped at the idea. I have heard of YakTraxs but never had the opportunity to give them a try so I was really curious on how they really worked and would hold up when running in a few inches of snow. I was sent the YakTrak Pro for running and the YakTraxWalker for walking. Please note that my review is totally my opinion, although I was sent these items to review the review is mine good or bad.

I am sure you are all wondering what the difference is between the Walker and the Pro besides the price. The only real difference I noticed is that the Pro has a strap that goes around your shoe to hold it in place. I must say people if you are going to use these to run in, you NEED this strap. The difference in price is $10.00 and I would totally recommend you spend the extra if you plan to run at all using the YakTrax otherwise there is a very good chance they will come off.

I have been doing a few runs here and there with these YakTraxs since I got them. I wanted to make sure I tried them on several different surfaces and conditions so that I could really try them out. I must say that I was totally and completely impressed the first time I tried them out and took off on ICE, yes that is right people straight ice and I did not slip or slide at all. However this was on a paved trail and in some parts of the trail the Ice and snow had melted and it was just straight pavement, the YakTraxs did not do so well on that. When I had to run on the pavement it made a crunchy sound very similar to the sound when running on ice. And the YakTraxs started to slip off. Although you may think this is really bad, I do not believe these were made to be used on straight pavement, they performed very well on the snow and ice which is what they were made for.

On another trial run the YakTraxs went on with me was right after a good snow and there was about 4 inches on the ground. I decided this was a great chance to test them out in a LOT of snow. The YakTraxs did great, I however suck at running in snow my legs were burning something fierce. With an all snow run the YakTraxs did not slip or slide at all, the strap around my foot held them in place and they griped perfect so that I could even try out a little sprint (I say little because it is very hard to sprint in that much snow). I have also been using the Walkers when I go get my mail, you may think this silly but I live out in the country and we have a gravel driveway that is very long and gets very icy. I normally slip and slide all the way to the mailbox and back but with these on I did not slip or slide once.

My overall opinion of the YakTrax is that they are AWESOME! My first snow run, I was slipping and sliding all over and had to be very cautious of every step. With the YakTraxs on I can just enjoy the run and not worry about falling and busting my face or butt. If you ever have to run in the snow or ice I would highly recommend getting a pair, they really do work. They are also very easy to get on and off so if you are out and decide you don’t need them anymore you can just slip them off and carry them, they are surprisingly very compact. You can see from the picture that they are small and fold up so they would be very easy to carry or put in a pack. The one on the left is the Pro with the strap they one on the right is the Walker.

Make the best of it

So this week was a good and bad running week. I ended up missing one of my short runs early in the week and made up for it my doing a longer run mid week which was nice since the sun came out and the day turned out to be a perfect winter running day. Then as the week progressed it became abundantly clear that my long run was not going to go as planned.

My husband was away this weekend on reserve duty so that means I was a single parent for the weekend. My plan was to go visit my mother for the weekend, (I usually do this whenever my husband is on reserves) and my mom could watch my daughter while I ran my 10 miles. As the weekend approached I realized this was not going to happen since the weather was going to be too bad to make the drive.

So I came up with Plan B. Do my long run on Friday while my daughter was still at school. I was really ahead on my work for the week so I had the time to take off for a couple hours to get my run in. This sounded great to me, till Friday got here and it was about 33 degrees and a rainy, sleeting, snowing mess. URGH! I could not find the motivation to go out and run in that. I don’t mind running in the rain, I actually like it a lot, but that is when it is warm out, I just cannot imagine running in the rain when it is cold out, I just kept thinking that I would never warm up and be running while wet and cold. So this idea was a bust.

Now we come to Plan C, the dreadmill. Just the idea of running 10 miles on the treadmill was enough to make me feel depressed. Don’t get me wrong I love my treadmill, it has helped me so much this winter but 10 miles…. Come on that is just torture. All day Friday I just kept thinking how I would have to do this run on the mill, and was just sad and depressed the entire day. I did go to the video store and rent a movie hoping that it would help make the torture not so bad, but I just could not get the motivation up to be excited about my upcoming run. As a matter of fact I spent several hours trying to think of ways to get out of this run, I know bad Tracey. As the night was coming to an end I finally decided what a total baby I was being. I mean come on I had to do this run, I really need it for my training so I could either make the best of it or just be miserable right? I decided to just try and make the best of it and get it done.

I wake up on Saturday morning and get everything ready to run and then as soon as my daughter gets up I bring her down and put her in front of the TV (I know bad mom I totally used the TV as a baby sitter here, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do) got her breakfast and juice then went down to start my run. About every 15 to 30 min my daughter came down to let me know she needed more juice, more food, a clean diaper, a new TV show, or just to see what mommy was doing. This made the run take much more time than needed since I had to keep running up stairs to take care of her and get her what she needed, and the treadmill kept resetting so I am pretty sure I ran more than 10 miles anyway. But to tell you all the truth, it was not that bad. The movie helped a lot, time flew by and I still felt great and strong the entire run.

My lesson and the lesson I want to pass on to all of you is to make the best of the situation. This could very well went the other way and been a horrible long miserable run, but my decision to just make the best of it because I had to do it either way really made the difference. I went in to the run in a good mood and had fun with it even though the situation was not ideal and my run went great. Remember it is up to you to be happy or sad, if you can’t change something then make the best of it and it may just turn out better than you thought.

Happy Runner

So I headed out on Saturday morning for my first long run in several weeks. The plan was to run 8 miles. I must admit I was excited and nervous at the same time. Excited because I love long runs there is just something about a nice easy long run that I crave, nervous because I have not run 8 miles in about a month. I decided not to set the alarm to just sleep till I woke up and then head out for my run. I also decided to hit my favorite trail (Mill Creek 16 miles of paved trail), mostly because it would be an out and back so I HAD to do 8 miles no matter how I felt.

The morning started out pretty good, my daughter woke up at 5:30am but I was able to get her back to sleep, so I did not have to actually wake up till around 7am (now that is sleeping in people). I had all my fuel packed up and ready to go so I got dressed ate some toast with peanut butter and then started my drive to the trail. I know with only 8 miles you don’t really need to fuel much, but I was nervous and with only three weeks till the ½ I wanted to make sure I had all my fuel down for the race. I opted to take a GU about 10 min before I got to the park for an extra boost before the run.

When I got to the trail head there were a few cars so I knew I would see some other runners/bikers whom I always love, makes me feel like I am not running alone when there are others on the trail. I did some quick stretches and put on my fuel belt and iPod hit start on the Garmin and off I went.

That first mile was not too bad; mile two I could feel the shins but again not too bad. Mile three was the usual pain but I know that after three it is all over so I get through mile three pretty fast. My fuel plan was to have a GU every 30 min so I ate my Espresso GU at this time, man that caffeine did me good. By mile 4 I was on fire, singing and dancing and very glad there was no one around me at the time. I was feeling great. At 4.5 miles I saw a family of deer, I stopped for just a second to snap a pick with my phone and send it to facebook, then kept going. About 6 miles in I had had another GU and was jumping up and down with every stride. The Black Eyed Peas started to play with the song “I got a feeling” and every time the verse came on about jumping off the couch I literally jumped in the air and sang out loud. So now I am feeling like this run is super easy and just loving life.

I thought about doing 10 miles since I was feeling so good, but opted to just stick with the 8. I don’t want to push it too much and not have my shins heal or have them get worse (see people I am learning my lesson this time) I think a lot of the fun and energy on this run was probably from all the GU I was taking (caffeine and sugar YUMMY), but it was one of the best runs I have had so that is fine with me. This weekend is my 10 mile run and since I have to do it at my mom’s it may be all in the snow, I am actually looking forward to it. And I can’t wait for the Disney Princess ½ marathon to get here, I know I am ready for it…Woo Hoo Florida here I come!

My 3 week ½ marathon training plan

Some of you may be thinking, three weeks you are nuts! Well you may be right, but I think I can do this. I signed up for the Disney Princes ½ marathon back in 2009 with a group of other Running Moms. I decided that I would go all out in my training starting January 1st 2010, and all out I did. Not only did I start my ½ training I started P90X again. I think the combination of the two was the cause of my ever present shin splints. So now I am 3 weeks till my first ever half marathon (the last one I hurt my knee a few weeks prior and could not run, see the trend) and have not had a long run in three weeks and did not run at all last week, because I have been trying to get my shins to heal. Life throws things at you and you gotta roll with it or give up and I am not the type to give up so with three weeks to go I will get ready for this half marathon.

So my friend Bethany helped me come up with this plan while we were at Rocky last weekend. And so far so good, I find that my shins get worse if I run consecutive days so I am only able to run 3 days a week. Here is the my new 3 week half marathon training plan.

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday – P90X weight training and ab ripper hell (okay it is called ab ripper X but if you have ever done it you know it is HELL)

Tuesdays and Thursdays run 3-4 easy miles (speed work, and hill repeats also aggravate the shins so that is out)

Saturdays – Long run start with 8miles, then 10miles, then 8miles the weekend before the half.

So far this week I have done the plan and even though I can feel my shins in the first mile of each run, I have felt strong and like I could keep going. I am now using my compression shocks after each run and doing a ¼ mile warm up then stretches before each run. This whole plan depends greatly on my long runs, if I am unable to do the 8miles tomorrow things will need to change.

My back up plan known as Plan B (I learned at Rocky that you always need a Plan B) is to do a run 4 walk 1 for the half if I have problems with the long runs or if my shins really flare up before the race.

Now here is my caveat. Please do not try this at home, to properly train for a half marathon you should give yourself WAY more than three weeks. I will not take any responsibility if you try and do the stupid things I do with my poor body that I beat to hell every chance I get.