Disneyland
Half Marathon Weekend 2013
I’m a little
worried I’m going to upset some folks with this blog, but just a little.
Although I
had a wonderful weekend with my friends, I didn’t L-O-V-E my Disney Half
Marathon experience and it’s all my fault.
I went in to
this weekend unprepared physically, emotionally and attitudinally.
It’s simple.
I don’t love
Disney races. I know, you’re all
gasping in horror! WHAT?! How can you not love the Disney race?
Running
through the park!
Awesome
T-shirts!
Multitudes
of BLING!
This is all
I can say; it’s not really my thing.
I will
attempt to explain MY
feelings about this knowing that how I feel is not indicative of the race or
experience I could have and should have had.
What I
should have done is sucked it up, instead I simply sucked.
There are a
few key reasons why this race was not a favorite of mine and my sincere hope,
dear readers, is that someone, anyone learns from my mistakes.
1.
Don’t sign up if you can’t afford it.
Disney races are expensive. I’m a Grad Student in between jobs. I didn’t know I’d be in between jobs when I
registered for the race, but I still have no business throwing $300 at entry
fees not to mention the costs of staying near the park and eating out in a
tourist area for almost 4 days.
I need to be smarter about the races I choose. They
need to fit in my budget in totality, not just the entry fees.
Disney does give bang for the buck, but let’s be honest;
once you’ve done one Disney race you’ve done them all. The shirts change, but
the medals don’t. The speakers at the Expo are not varied and the finish line
expo is the same. Even the course
through the parks is pretty much the same in all the races (sometimes you go in
a different direction J
). I’ve done the 2011 Disney 5K,
Tinkerbell in 2012 and 2013 and now Dumbo’s Double Dare. Not much has changed except for my resentment
at the money I’m spending to do the same thing again and again.
2.
If you expect a certain OUTPUT your INPUT needs to
match.
In the words of Fiona Apple, I’ve been a bad, bad
girl. I have been lessening my workouts
(see next lesson) but not what and how much food I put in my body. I’ve been neglecting the most important part
of my desire to be a better athlete; nutrition.
I’ve simply ignored the fact that I have to fuel my body properly. I’ve been tired and nauseous at workouts
because I think it’s smart to eat a bunch of candy right before. I haven’t been drinking enough water or
eating enough vegetables. I have been
ignoring my pants getting tighter and my face getting rounder. I’ve been neglecting ME!
I know first-hand how great workouts feel when I’m
eating healthy. I remember with fondness
how great my body felt and wonder if I’ll ever feel that way again.
As if I don’t have any control over this.
I have all the control. My goal is 2 marathons and an Olympic Tri
next year. This is doable, but I will be
miserable if I don’t fuel my body properly.
INPUT=OUTPUT
3.
Sometimes you need to rest if it hurts.
I have a strained upper hamstring. It comes and goes in waves, hurts most when I’m
sitting and has been troubling. The Physical Therapist says he can rehab it in
2-4 weeks, as long as I don’t run for that long.
I haven’t NOT run at least once in a week since
late 2010.
I have races coming up.
I am still going to have to run, but I need to
listen to my body. I need to take it
easy.
I want to be an old woman runner.
Although I will continue to run to train for my
last two events this year, I’m going to cross-train as well.
Walking and swimming and upper body/core workouts
will become more prevalent as runs will become less.
4.
Going into something with a bad attitude will
equal a bad performance.
In the corral on Sunday I said to my friends, “I’m
going to get my worse time today” and I did. I let all the things I didn’t like
get to me. I was tired. I had to get up
early. My leg hurt a bit. It was fixin’ to be a scorcher that day. I don’t like
Disney races. Lo and behold…. I sucked!
Nearly 15 minutes slower than my worst half marathon time.
I literally gave myself permission to SUCK. Who
does that?
Take it from me; it didn’t make anything any
better. My attitude didn’t give me more sleep, it didn’t make the day cooler, and
it didn’t make my leg hurt less.
In fact, my bad attitude made all of these little
things seem enormous.
Stuff’s not always going to be awesome, but really
why make it worse?
5.
Find the races that motivate you.
The truth for me is that Disney races aren’t a
motivator FOR ME.
I think it’s so wonderful that these races give
people an opportunity to step out of their fitness comfort zone and doing something
amazing because running and walking 13.1 miles is amazing.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a slow runner. My goal is to get faster. My injury is kind of making me start back at
the beginning. I gained a lot early in the summer and pushed too hard, now I’m
paying for it.
At most races, I’m a “back of the pack” runner. Because Disney is rookie-friendly and many
people do it for the Disney experience instead of the race experience, at
Disney races, I’m a “middle of the pack” runner. This somehow made me believe yesterday that
I had no pressure to perform. I don’t
need to get better; I’ll be in front of people.
I know, I just got the middle finger from a bunch of you
and I deserve it. But think about why
you run and what you run for. Maybe it's not the same for you and me.
I run to better myself.
Running has made ME a stronger, more patient,
kinder, happier person. Competition has
done that for me. Not competing against
anyone else, but striving to be better and to catch people.
I know I could have done that yesterday. Plenty of people were in front of me, shoot,
plenty of people passed me! But I need to strive to be with the middle of the
pack. I will probably never win a race
and I’m cool with that.
I just believe that other races are better for
me. I can change my attitude about it
and I will try, but until then I want to pick the races that challenge ME.
That’s not to say I will NEVER do another Disney race, I
think I just need to go about them differently.
I need to get a bunch of friends, sign up as a group, ensure we all want
to stick together, find silly costumes and stop everywhere within the park to
take pictures. We could cross the finish
line together, holding hands and laughing our butts off….that is how I think I
need to do future Disney races. THAT
sounds fun!
I also got
to experience a few things I already knew, but are worth mentioning.
1.
Great friends can make any experience worthwhile
I am LUCKY.
I must have done something right in a past life to deserve people like
Heather and Cody and Neil and Ryan and Sue in my life. I KNOW I made the right decision joining
#Run3rd because Sean is so motivating and it helped me reconnect with Stephanie
and I feel like I truly have new friends in #Run3rd Captains Tracy and Dawnley.
It was so fun to pass Jason on the course and smack
him in the buns and get the same treatment when he passed me.
It was so fun/funny getting horrible service everywhere
(do we have a sign on our heads?) and reveling in the great service we finally
received at Bubba Gump’s (Thanks Abe!!!)
I loved spending Monday at the parks with Vayden
and Laura and celebrating Neil’s birthday! (See I don’t hate ALL things Disney,
I’m a season pass holder!)
Despite my bad race ‘tude, I had a wonderful time
and my great friends loved me despite my grumpy butt face!
Blessed indeed
2.
Being proud is a really great feeling
Listening to Sean speak about inspiration was, well
for lack of a better word, inspiring. He
can articulate how I feel about lacing up my shoes and hitting the
pavement. Becoming a runner is truly a
life-changing experience. I know not everyone has a runner inside of them, but
I encourage everyone to find their passion and raison d’etre and to be the best
they can be.
In my darkest time I once wrote, “I want to be
inspired so I, in turn, can be an inspiration.”
Running inspires me and I feel confident and proud
saying that I have inspired others.
Watching the #Run3rd video and seeing my face up
there after a multitude of races warmed my heart and puffed out my chest a
bit.
Nothing wrong with that.
AND…I got the opportunity to be SUPER proud of a
friend. Kanika got a bib the day before
the race and bravely weathered the heat and 13.1 miles to finish her very first
half marathon.
Her guts and determination made me realize that the
day wasn’t too shabby!
3.
A positive attitude at the right moment CAN
change a day.
The very best part of the Disney Half starts around
mile 8.5. You run by a lumber yard and their
sign out front read, “The time to quit is never.” This made me smile.
For me, this was the point of no return. Even at my strongest I would not have been
able to get a decent (for me) time, let alone PR. My self-fulfilling prophecy was coming to
pass, but the sign made me smile and remember to not give up. Finishing 13.1 miles is pretty cool, so I went
a little faster. Then we got to the classic cars.
Kudos to Disney for “dressing up” what could’ve
been the most BORING part of the race.
The cool cars, the lovely people offering high 5’s, these things
made.my.day.
And then you’re running THROUGH Angel Stadium. I will admit, I came out of that tunnel and
stifled a sob. I felt so small and so
HUGE at the same time. I was so busy
smacking people’s hands and getting their good energy that I missed myself on
the Jumbotron.
This all led to a mid-race revelation.
“Heather, you may have started this race with a bad
attitude, but you don’t have to finish that way. You’re performing poorly, but
that doesn’t mean you have to behave poorly.”
I finished the race smiling and happy and
accomplished.
I ran a 10K on Saturday (finishing moments ahead of
Joey Fatone of NSync, I hope I can find a pic!) and a half marathon on Sunday.
That’s a pretty big deal.
Go ME!
All in all,
I wouldn’t trade my Disney experience (well, maybe my half marathon time alas….).
I love my friends and I learned lots of great things about myself and that’s
really the most important part, right?
