Tinkerbell Half Marathon

In January Lauren turned 30.  When Sarah and I turned 30, we did a trip to San Diego with our fam, so she decided that for her 30th she'd like to do Disneyland, with a twist.  She wanted to run the Tinkerbell Half Marathon, and she wanted all the girls to run it with her!  I reluctantly agreed, being totally out of shape and an avid running hater.  It took 7 months and over 100 miles logged to be ready (well, by my definition ready only meant that I could run the whole time and had nothing to do with speed or performance), but I did it!  Mike was so supportive, and he trained right along side me the whole time.  I surprised myself by how diligently I stuck to the training schedule, and I managed to accomplish something I never imagined I could do.  Thank you, Lauren!

The race was incredible.  There were 10,000 women running and 800 men!  People were serious about running in costume, and we saw zillions of Tinkerbell wings and men dressed as Peter Pan.  We ran through Disneyland (before the park opened), through Anaheim, and finished at California Adventure.  There were all sorts of Disney characters stationed along the way with whom you could take your picture, and the line for Aladdin had to have at least 30 women!  Despite the fact that Aladdin was adorable, I didn't participate in that. I knew if I stopped running even for a minute I'd never start again and someone would have to come and find me curled up behind a trash can somewhere.  There were bands, dance groups, cheerleaders, and many ladies from the Red Hat Society all along the route to cheer us on. Mom and Dad totally surprised us by appearing on the sidewalk in Downtown Disney, and Dad even ran along with us for a minute or two to see how it was going.  It was so cool! Sarah, Ryan, and Chris dragged all the kids out to mile 8 to give us moral support, and their screaming was one of the best moments.  Lauren and Mike were generous enough to run right with me at my snail pace, and they were incredibly encouraging.  We ran the entire distance, and crossed the finish line just after 3 hours (I wasn't kidding about the snail pace, but we were far from last, which was lovely), and we were all bewildered that it was finally over.  Overall, it was an amazing experience, and Lauren is already talking about our next one, so I guess I'll consider doing it again!

Crossing the finish line.  That wasn't our actual time, we didn't even start the race until half an hour after the gun went off because it takes that long to herd thousands of people over the starting line!

My sweet medal.