Princess Half Marathon

EEEK! It's here! In a few days we will be leaving for a quick weekend in Florida at Disney World!

The race starts outside of Epcot and then goes to Magic Kingdom. I will be running on the back-lot and through the castle! There are people lining Main Street USA and all around the castle cheering you on. It gives you this high that is indescribable. Once I leave Magic Kingdom I head back towards Epcot and then finish on the other side of the park where Disney characters are waiting to greet you after a long, long run! Then once you cross that finish line you are presented with your medal. You can check out the course map here.

My goal for this race is to finish in under 2 hours and 45 minutes. To do this I will need to keep up a 12 minute 30 second per mile pace. This is fairly close to what I run at my classes. I have no qualms about admitting that I will not be running all 13.1 miles in this race. Hopefully in August for the Disneyland Half Marathon I will be. Here is the plan I have set up for myself: run 2 miles, walk half a mile, run 2 miles, walk half a mile, run 2 miles, walk 1 mile, run 2 miles, walk 1 mile, run last 2.1 miles. It seems manageable, but with my knee... we will see.

There are 17 different corrals, A-P and Elite (which are the fastest). I am in corral J. I'm not too thrilled to be starting this far back, just like last year. The Elite corral will take off at 5:45 am. Last year there was about 6 minutes between each corral being let go, so I am using that time frame for this year. That means I will be taking off about an hour later, around 6:45 am.

You can sign up here to keep track of me while I run. Every runner is given a bib with our number on it for the race. Attached to this bib is a chip that connects to their timing system at different intervals throughout the race.

I can't believe it is here already and will be over too soon! I have been looking forward to this run since last year! Wish me luck!