I’m moving! (To a new blog, that is.)

Needless to say, we’ll be getting professional design help at some point…

You can find the full story as to why I’ve decided to switch gears here, but basically, Todd and I have decided to launch a new blog together.

(He’s just as fun as I am, promise.)

I mean, he’d have to be…who carries giant stuffed dogs for 26.2 miles…?!

I can’t tell you how much I’ve appreciated all of the support you guys have given me over the years, and I hope you’ll consider joining us over at our new on-line home. I’ve missed blogging and we have lots of great material, promise!

Like this:

Photo credit: Randy Chapman

Or this:

Nothing says “romantic honeymoon” like a marathon…

We also have a Facebook page, and I’ll be sharing new posts and our goings-on via Twitter. And Todd and I will both be playing catch-up on your blogs in the coming weeks…so expect to be seeing lots of us.

A match made in heaven?

I can’t wait to reconnect with all of you!

Jen

Hello, everyone (she says sheepishly). I know…it’s been a while. Suffice it to say that wedding planning has been taking up a LOT of my free time lately.

I know I’ve been gone for FAR too long, but I miss blogging (and all of you guys!) and actually have some exciting things going on, so I figured now is as good a time as any to rejoin the blogging world, right? Things have calmed down a bit as far as the wedding planning process, and I promise I’ll be back with (somewhat) regular posts…and I’m also working on catching up with all of you guys!

So since my last post a million years ago, wedding plans (and, um, finding matching “Just Married” Disney-themed shirts to wear in the parks afterwards, lol) have pretty much consumed my entire life. The actual process of coordinating our super-small “Escape” Disney wedding has actually been relatively painless, but I think the stress of trying to make sure our guests (all close family members) will have fun and not feel like our destination wedding is some sort of inconvenience/obligation was starting to take its toll on me.

I allowed myself to become obsessed with making dining reservations and booking special activities (like an amazing Wishes cruise!) and planning itineraries and wanting to make everything just right for everyone…until I realized that the only person I needed to focus on was my groom.

So I’m trying to force myself to chillax a little bit and keep in mind that it’s OUR day and trust that everything will work out just fine for our guests. Fortunately, things have been falling nicely into place, and I’m proud to report that just about everything is set…and, needless to say, I am SOOOOOOO excited to marry this guy in the most MAGICAL place on Earth. <3

A little “engagement” photo, courtesy of my sister, haha

Anyway, let’s talk about running. Todd and I did complete a half marathon this spring — the Asbury Park Half Marathon — which I actually busted my butt to train for as a potential PR race. For a time, I even had my sights set on a potential sub-2. (Ah, gotta love the optimism).

It was my first non-Disney half marathon in 2013, and I still have yet to beat my time from that race (sad isn’t it?)…so I thought it would be the perfect local race for us since we’re trying to keep expenses low and save every extra dollar for The Big Day.

But, of course, due to higher temperatures than predicted and an untimely little visit from my period, I felt like complete CRAP and completely bombed the race (couldn’t manage to get to the finish line in anything faster than 2:15). A full recap will be forthcoming, I promise!

Todd, however, totally KILLED IT (as I knew he would) and has a shiny new PR: 1:55. I was disappointed in myself and hated the fact that I trained so hard (I even did speedwork for crying out loud) for pretty much nothing, but I’m super proud of him!

But here’s the even BIGGER NEWS. As I’ve mentioned a number of times in the past, I’ve been wanting to compete in a triathlon FOREVER…but a paralyzing fear of swimming in the ocean has been holding me back, and every summer I’ve used the “well, I’m training for XYZ race right now, so I really should just focus on that” excuse.

Thing is, the thought of training for another marathon right now could NOT be any less appealing to me. I just…can’t. I want to focus on taking care of myself (read: dropping a few pounds so I can look particularly radiant in my wedding dress, lol) and enjoying this exciting time before the wedding, and marathon training in the summer months has a tendency to damn near KILL me. I’m always exhausted and starving and cranky and MISERABLE, and with the excitement/stress of the wedding in November, I thought it would be just too much for me right now.

Plus, since the dates of all of the SUPER EXCITING fall marathons were wayyyy too close for comfort to our date (and I didn’t get into the NYC Marathon this year), or would be too costly for us to justify the trip right before the wedding, I thought it could be a great time to try something else.

So…this happened.

I finally decided to face my fear and I will definitely be taking on my first triathlon this summer!

In preparation, I thought the first and most important thing I should do was sign up for a local open water swim clinic. I even invested in an insanely-priced wetsuit since the water is still so freakin’ cold, so I figure I HAVE to give this my all, now!

Wetsuits = flattering, lol

I’ve done two beginner clinics so far and you know what…I didn’t do half bad for someone who really isn’t much of a swimmer. Even more surprisingly, I actually found myself ENJOYING it! The group swims have been in the Navesink River and start on the beach in a GORGEOUS park, so it’s easy to forget about the idea that I’m swimming with the fishes and who-knows-what other creatures.

I also went out and bought myself an athletic bathing suit (didn’t think my little skirted bikinis would hold up so well in the river/ocean, haha) and I’ve really been enjoying having lots of different workouts each week, from running to biking to swimming to strength training…oh, and of course, Taekwondo.

So, yeah…I’m pretty much obsessed. I’m joining local triathlon clubs and stalking triathlon Facebook pages, and I’ve even dusted off my sad little hybrid bike and have swapped my Sunday long runs for long bike rides (while Todd runs behind me at the park…ha, sucks to be him).

I think the Jersey Girl Triathlon will be the perfect first triathlon for me; it’s a 300-yard ocean swim, 11-mile bike ride, and 3-mile run. Assuming I don’t drown in the ocean or get eaten by a shark or anything, I’m hoping to do at least one more in the early fall with some longer distances.

I’m really excited about the idea of becoming a triathlete, and as a side benefit, hopefully all of the cross-training combined with my now twice-weekly strength training sessions will mean I’ll have to take in my wedding dress.

So, that’s my story for right now. Like I said, I PROMISE I’m back and will be a more active participant in the blogosphere! Thanks for your patience and support, as always!

Who has triathlon tips for a first-timer who has NO CLUE what she’s doing?!

How did you manage the stress of wedding planning?

So, anyways…it’s been exactly a month since I last blogged. But once I give you my excuse, I hope you’ll understand why!

Of course, since Todd “put a ring on it,” I’ve been in wedding planning mode. And I am THRILLED to report that we have both a date and a location for the big day.

We will be getting married on…

NOVEMBER 10, 2016. WOOHOO! <3

But even more exciting? Guess where we’ll be tying the knot?!?!

I’ll give you a hint.

That’s right.

WE’RE GETTING MARRIED IN FREAKIN’ WALT DISNEY WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, long story short, Todd and I do not have large families. And the extended family we do have, well…let’s just say we’re not close. We also only have a handful of friends we’d really want to invite. So the night we got engaged, I confessed that I had been looking into destination wedding options…specifically at The World (and let me tell you, he was SHOCKED, lol).

Honestly, it seemed like it could be the perfect option for us. Rather than sinking thousands of dollars on a wedding in the NY/NJ Metro area for a guest count that quite honestly wouldn’t total more than, say, 25-30 people at most…we decided to pretty much elope with just our immediate families.

Also? The thought of spending months choosing flowers and centerpieces and DJs and caterers made my head spin. It did not excite me. AT ALL. I think that I’m missing one of the genes that makes me a typical girl because I gotta tell you, I couldn’t care less about any of it. I’ve never flipped through bridal magazines or watched shows like “Say Yes to the Dress” or spent hours on Pinterest drooling over wedding ideas, and I have no interest in a bridal shower or bachelorette party or any of the traditional stuff. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I’m just not that into it.

But you know the one thing I *did* always secretly hope could happen? That I could get married in my absolute favorite place in the world to a guy who was willing to put on some mouse ears and slap on a “Just Married” pin and go take a million pictures in front of Cinerella’s Castle.

Check and check.

So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered that Disney has a package that’s JUST for couples like us. (Which, P.S., I had been researching long before I had a ring on my finger, haha.) Plus, a wedding at The World seemed only appropriate, and not just because I’ve been a crazy obsessed Disney fan pretty much since birth. Such a huge part of our relationship has been running…and running at Disney…and we’ve made so many awesome memories there already.

The Disney Fairytale Weddings & Honeymoons “Escape” package is for the couple and up to 18 guests, and for a pretty reasonable amount of money you get a package that includes all the basics: the limo, the cake, the bouquet, the venue, etc. Better yet, you get a “wedding planner” and they take care of EVERYTHING for you…all you have to do is check off a few preferences like flower color, cake flavor, etc., and show up on the big day.

So, um, yeah…not only could I get married at Walt Disney World, but I could do it in a way where I didn’t have to actually PLAN anything?

SOLD!

I was so excited to share the news here but wanted to wait until it was official (if you’re planning the smaller wedding package, you have to wait until 8 months out to the day to book your date…and we wanted November).

We’re still working on signing contracts and whatnot, but everything HAS been booked for us! Here’s the plan:

We will be getting married at Disney’s Wedding Pavilion at the Grand Floridian at 10am on Thursday, Nov. 10.

Photo credit: Disney’s Fairytale Weddings & Honeymoons

Then, as part of the package, you get to have a champagne toast/cake cutting ceremony at the Grand Floridian. Where we may or may not be inviting (read: paying) some special friends to stop by…

Photo credit: Disney Fine Art Photography and Videography

We will then proceed to a short “reception” at the California Grill in one of its private rooms (Napa Room) overlooking the Magic Kingdom. We’ll have the option to customize a buffet menu for our guests. (Did someone say Mickey waffle bar..?!?!)

Photo credit: Disney Fairytale Weddings & Honeymoons

And we’ll finish the day with a private dessert party at Epcot while watching Illuminations. Since we’ll be escorted into the park by a “guide,” I’m allowed to wear my dress in the park!

Photo credit: Disney Fine Art Photography and Video

And the following night, I hope to book a private pontoon boat to take us onto the Seven Seas Lagoon to watch my most FAVORITE fireworks…Wishes.

Oh, and one of the MOST EXCITING THINGS EVER? We’re going to book a private bridal portrait session in the Magic Kingdom prior to park opening. Obviously this privilege costs about a million dollars, but I know it’s going to be SO, SO worth it. The plan is basically to cut corners on all the things we don’t care about as much (ahem, flowers) so that we can splurge on the once-in-a-lifetime stuff.

Photo credit: Disney Fine Art Photography and Video

So, that’s the story so far. In case you didn’t pick up on it, I’m sooooo excited — and can’t wait to share all of the details with you guys along the way!

Who wants to share some of their favorite wedding planning tips/advice?

If you could get married anywhere in the world…where would you choose?

Yes, in case you weren’t quite sure, this IS the obligatory “hey look at my left hand” picture we took to announce that…

WE’RE ENGAGED!!!

Todd asked me to marry him in Central Park on Valentine’s Day…at the precise location where we finished the New York City Marathon together last November.

I guess the obvious idea was always to “pop the question” at the end of a marathon, but seeing as how we both tend to be on our death beds after running 26.2, Todd (understandably) had his reservations about making that our special moment. And seeing as how I was sooo sick after the NYC Marathon, and he was sooo sick after the Walt Disney World Marathon, I’m thinking he made the right decision, haha.

So, anyway, I knew he had planned “a special day” for Valentine’s Day, but I was not informed as to where we were going or what we were doing.

(That being said, I DID know that a ring had been procured and that it was coming soon…so I had a pretty good feeling that this was going to be the day.)

After a delicious breakfast at Turning Point where I enjoyed an omelet and devoured sampled Todd’s amazing pancakes, we hopped a train into the city. Mind you, Sunday’s temperatures were forecasted to hover at a high of something like 5 degrees due to the wind chill, so let me tell you…it was FREAKIN’ COLD. Like, brutally cold. Like, cold enough that the streets of New York were practically deserted.

But, nonetheless, we made our way to Central Park as our first stop. It was a ghost town (duh) with the exception of a few crazy runners…appropriately enough. Todd found the site of the NYC Marathon finish line, and then it was a little bit funny (not gonna lie) to watch him struggle to find a patch of grass — since, OF COURSE, there were all these gates up due to some sort of lawn treatment that was being done — because I knew what was coming.

He told me that he hoped this location that once represented the end of something we accomplished together could now symbolize the beginning of something entirely different…and many new adventures to come.

And it was perfect because neither of us are the type of people to enjoy big public displays or lots of attention from strangers, so the fact that it WAS so cold and the park was practically empty meant that it could be a private moment for just the two of us.

After THE BIG MOMENT (and, um, using my little mini camera tripod to take about 1,000 pictures), we jumped back on the subway to visit the New York City Marathon exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York.

It wasn’t quite as elaborate as we thought it would be, but there were tons of awesome pictures from the race, some interesting factoids, a timeline, and a couple of pieces of memorabilia…so it was a cool way to relive the experience.

Then we went to our early dinner reservations, where we enjoyed a ginormous Porterhouse steak for two.

The day concluded with Todd surprising me with tickets to see Finding Neverland on Broadway…which I absolutely loved. (Even though there were parts that are so super depressing and sad that I couldn’t even stand it). But, I mean, how could we not have some sort of Disney representation in this special day…?

So, I guess it’s official. This princess has officially found her prince. <3

…and she couldn’t be any happier.

Who else has a proposal story to share…?!

After the previous morning’s traffic fiasco on our way to the half marathon, we set our alarms for even earlier (ugh) just in case of a repeat performance. After getting dressed in our Rapunzel/Flynn costumes and doing some last minute safety pinning (to make sure certain chameleons stayed put for 26.2 miles, lol), we were out the door…and ready to sit in another hour of traffic. That morning took us even longer to get to Epcot, and if we hadn’t left by 4am we could have missed the start of the race.

(Obviously in hindsight we should have just taken the runner buses, but I like having our car in the parking lot so we don’t have to deal with bag check and we can park hop, etc. at our convenience for the rest of the day.)

So, once again, we made it to the corrals with just moments to spare, and before I knew it we were about to begin another 26.2 mile journey.

The temperatures that morning definitely felt warmer, and yet maybe slightly less humid (thank god). It was definitely wayyyy too hot for running a marathon, but I was in Disney…so, you know, whatevs.

Our early miles were pretty much an exact replica the previous morning. Running in the dark. Forcing ourselves to keep our pace slow and steady to conserve energy for later. And sweating our asses off.

We skipped the characters who appeared before the Magic Kingdom because they were either repeats or characters we didn’t especially care about (I’m still not into The Nightmare Before Christmas).

By the time we reached the TTC, we both had to make a pit stop, and we were soon continuing on to the Magic Kingdom: THE BEST PART OF ANY RACE, ANYWHERE, IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD.

Running down Main Street was AMAZING as always, and that morning was even better because we weren’t running through a cloud of fog. We could actually, you know, see the castle.

And, as a bonus…we were getting LOTS of attention for our costumes.

You know what’s even more glorious than running down Main Street? Running down Main Street when the castle is still all lit up for Christmas.

Our first character stop that morning was for Lilo & Stitch. Because, I mean, c’mon. It’s Stitch. And I loves him.

And then began the most magical part of the marathon. The reason I wish I could run this race every single year for the rest of my life. There are no words to describe the elation of running through the Magic Kingdom. If you took the “high” of crossing the finish line of every single race I’ve ever completed and added them all together, it still wouldn’t compare to how I feel when running these 1-2 miles through the park.

Call me a dork, but…it’s the truth.

And this year was THE BEST YET because, unbeknownst to me, the course had been changed quite a bit (due to the closure of the speedway, I presume).

Suddenly I found myself running by Splash Mountain and through new Fantasyland and spending way more time in the park than ever before. It was AWESOME.

And there were some amazing characters out along the way, including my favorite princess ever. When we jumped in line, Sebastian was posing with Ariel and I was SOOOO EXCITED. But, of course, he was escorted away by a cast member when there were just a few runners in front of us. Boo.

I wish we could run all 26.2 miles through Magic Kingdom. Not even lying.

Before I knew it, it was time to exit via the backstage area and start making our way over to Animal Kingdom. This stretch of the course isn’t especially exciting. I was still feeling just fine, but Todd had been complaining of some tummy issues so I was hoping he would start feeling better.

Obviously, the good part about starting in an earlier corral for a Disney race is the comfort of knowing that you can stand in line for some characters and take pit stops as needed…and little did I know then just how much we were going to need that extra cushion (spoiler alert). I was feeling especially grateful that I damn near killed myself to score an almost-PR at The Love Run last spring to submit for corral placement for this race.

Character lines hadn’t been TOO outrageous at that point, but we did stop for a TON due to the extra time in Magic Kingdom, and of course we spent time taking pictures in front of the castle — which is why those 1-2 miles in the park always take us AT LEAST 30-45 minutes, if not more. Our pace was muuuuch slower than our usual race pace, of course, but we were still generally running around an 11:30/mile, if memory serves. So I wasn’t too worried at that point.

When we leave the park, we tend to get stuck behind a cluster of walkers on narrow paths before the course opens up (a little bit) again closer to the golf course. We just did the best we could. It’s not like we were trying to PR or anything (obviously), but we did try to weave around other runners whenever possible and if the course got too congested we’d walk a bit until we could find an opening.

And, fortunately, we found this guy and jumped in line right before he was supposed to switch for Donald. Lucky day.

The stretch leading up to Animal Kingdom had some surprises for us this year. It seemed every half-mile or so had a different character…and they were all really RARE characters, with lots of VILLAINS! Never knowing what character you might spot up ahead is a GREAT way to keep your mind off the agony of, you know, running a marathon.

I thought it was pretty much the coolest thing ever, so we jumped in line for pretty much all of them. Couldn’t help myself.

They also had some animals out for us as we got closer to the park. Seeing this guy was pretty much my favorite part of the entire day, not gonna lie, lol.

We made our way to Animal Kingdom for a short stretch of course inside the park. It was time for another potty break and some more silliness.

Todd still wasn’t feeling quite right, and truth be told my stomach wasn’t 100 percent either, but that tends to happen when I’m a.) running in the heat and b.) when I’m traveling and haven’t been sticking entirely to my “normal” food.

The Animal Kingdom part of the course is over sooo fast, and I knew the next several miles might be a bit of a struggle. So I enjoyed our time in the park as much as possible…especially when another runDisney photographer grabbed us to pose us for pictures in front of the tree.

Before I knew it we were back on highway, it was warming up…and things got a little boring. Especially since I know we were headed to the Wide World of Sports, and that’s just not a highlight of the course for me.

Halfway there!

This is probably where things started to take a turn for the worse for Todd. Now it wasn’t only his stomach, but his feet were starting to hurt big time and I knew the previous morning’s half marathon (and all the walking we did around the parks) was catching up with him. I’m used to tackling back-to-back races so I guess I knew what to expect, and I worried this might happen to him because it was his very first time with any sort of multiple-day race challenge.

So it seemed only appropriate that this was our next photo stop, lol.

We kept plugging away, but I could tell our walk breaks through water stops were getting longer and longer, and as we approached Wide World of Sports and Todd kept asking to take impromptu walk breaks, I knew we might be in a little bit of trouble. Unfortunately, we both remembered that it was right around this point last year when Todd lost his mojo, and this time we had the added fatigue of running the Goofy Challenge thrown into the mix.

I was feeling perfectly fine at that point; a little bit of fatigue in my legs and feet, obviously — and I still don’t do well in the heat, pace-wise — but when I’m in Disney I just don’t feel pain. It sounds ridiculous but it’s so true. So I tried to do my best to keep him in good spirits.

My high school yearbook quote, lol

We ran/walked through Wide World of Sports. I was encouraging Todd to conserve his energy as best he could, and unfortunately all of our tomfoolery earlier in the race had caught up with us. Though we started in corral F we had fallen wayyyyy behind the runners with similar running paces, so we were getting trapped behind walls of walkers. Because there’s really just no room to run on the narrow paths at Wide World of Sports, we opted to just walk whenever it became impossible to weave around other runners. Todd said his legs/feet felt a little better after each walk break, so that’s what we did.

And, you know, we rested our legs standing in line for pictures. How do you NOT stop for a photo with Goofy when you’re *thisclose* to completing the Goofy Challenge?!

Wide World of Sports felt like it went on forever, but we did pick it up a little bit for our victory lap through the stadium.

After we left the complex we kept plodding along towards Hollywood Studios. It sort of felt like we were moving in slow motion at that point. Because this section of the course is something of an out-and-back, we could see that there were no other runners headed into Wide World of Sports…which I knew meant we had fallen a bit further back than I thought.

I knew we had a little ways to go before the glorious Hollywood Studios/Boardwalk/Epcot portion of the race, and let’s just say Todd wasn’t in the best of spirits. His feet were killing him and his stomach was still upset. Since he has talked me down off the proverbial ledge many, MANY times in races before, I made it my mission to help him get to that finish line! We continued with our run/walk and made our way sllllllowly towards the final stretch of the race: the last 10K.

It was somewhere in mile 21 when I made a joke to Todd about how we were “almost safe” from the balloon ladies. Truth be told, we’ve never actually seen the balloon ladies, but if you run Disney races then you know that you have to stay in front of them in order to avoid being swept from the course for falling too far behind the time limit. Not 30 seconds later, a pacer on a bike rode by and announced: “just letting you know that you guys are about 2 miles ahead of the balloon ladies right now.”

And let me tell you I have NEVER seen a swarm of people all start sprinting at the EXACT. SAME. TIME. I knew well enough that we would be “safe” once we entered Hollywood Studios in mile 22, so I knew that we were fine. But Todd and I tried to pick up the pace nonetheless! We’ve never been that far back before, and it wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences to know that the “dreaded” balloon ladies were now chasing us to the finish line!

We made it into the park and runners were cheering and high-fiving and cast members were congratulating us on the way in, but since I’m such an experienced marathoner now (ha), I knew very well that these last couple of miles were still going to be pretty brutal. Even with all the distractions along the way.

I was thrilled to take on this final leg of the marathon because there’s so much park time and you get to run along the Boardwalk, but Todd was not having ANY of it. I knew he was hurting and I let him dictate whenever it was time for us to take another break.

The man still manages to smile for the camera, though…gotta love him, lol.

And what better way to take a break than standing in line for more pictures?

I have to say, I LOVED all of the “rare” characters this year.

I think his spirits lifted a little bit in the park because Hollywood Studios was already open for the day and thus there were lots of cheering spectators (as well as disgruntled park goers who made it clear they were pissed at us for clogging up all the walkways, haha).

My blogger friend Kim from Barking Mad About Running spotted us on our way out of the park, so it was awesome to have the personalized cheers.

The path leading up to the Boardwalk is basically a disaster because it’s damn near impossible to run. Everybody and their mother was walking, and because it’s so narrow you really can’t go ANYWHERE. Todd’s legs had basically fallen apart by then, anyway, so it was fine by both of us if we had to walk a little bit more.

But we were sooooo close to the finish and we had been out on the course for sooooo long…I was anxious to get to Epcot and cross that finish line!

We were able to run/walk/hobble/whatever you want to call it to the Boardwalk, with a few extra walk breaks. I knew for sure that he was struggling then because I heard a few expletives slip out of his mouth. And let’s just say that I’m the one with the potty mouth in this relationship, lol.

I knew we were going to make it, and I tried to be as encouraging as possible. I think he was kind of annoyed at the situation because I was bouncing around and making jokes and smiling and acting like an idiot and giving high-fives to people…and here he was in pure agony.

Seriously…I will say it again. There is NO SUCH THING AS PAIN when I’m running in Disney. I’m sure I was just as tired and in as much physical discomfort as he was, but I just don’t *FEEL* it the way I do when I’m running any other race. Why do you all think I’m so obsessed with this marathon?!

The views on the Boardwalk were beautiful as always, and with less than a 5K to go, I was feeling PUMPED.

At long last, we made it to Epcot for what is seriously the MOST INCREDIBLE marathon finish you will ever experience. Magic Kingdom is obviously the best part of this race for me, but the lap around the World Showcase is a close second. Between the spectators cheering you on and the absolutely EPIC music you hear playing in each country, there is NOTHING like it.

Oh, and the fact that there are a bunch of characters and absolutely no lines because we’re the only idiots who stop for photos in the last 2 miles of a marathon, lol.

As we ran towards Future World, I could feel my emotions bubbling up…and I almost lost it. Here I was running the race that started it all. It sounds corny but running the Dopey Challenge in 2014 as my first marathon really did change my life forever. Not the least of which is that it gave me courage and a level of confidence that I never had before…and it made me realize that I could accomplish absolutely ANYTHING.

And I kept thinking about how Todd had told me so many times “I’ll never be able to do the Goofy or Dopey” because he legitimately thought he wouldn’t be able to finish. And here he was about to complete his first Goofy Challenge.

Everyone was cheering for “Rapunzel and Flynn!!!” and I was soaking up every second of it as we made our way towards the finish.

And, ladies and gentlemen, after more than 7 hours and 15 minutes on the course…WE FINALLY MADE IT to the finish line.

There are no words.

It was our absolute worst marathon time to date, but I didn’t care one bit. I enjoyed every second of it and I wasn’t the least bit sorry for all of the photos and characters and silliness along the way.

I’m not sure if I’m ever going to get Todd to agree to run the Goofy Challenge again. And he pretty much laughs in my face whenever I mention the idea of running Dopey together someday.

But I could not have been more proud of this guy for completing his first Goofy Challenge.

After some much-deserved chair time in the finish line area (um, and also, devouring those Oreos in the snack boxes…OMG I LOVE OREOS), we made our way…slooooowly…back to the car to hop to Magic Kingdom.

Because, yeah…obviously this had to happen, lol.

After a Shower Pill “bath” and a fresh change of clothes, we headed to Liberty Tree Tavern to stuff our faces and enjoy the rest of the night in Magic Kingdom. I know ya’ll probably think we’re gross (and also a little insane), but since it takes us so long to finish the race, if we went back to the hotel for showers, etc., the parks would practically be closing by the time we got back. And ain’t nobody got time for that.

So, for the record, after the race was over some clouds rolled in and temperatures dropped and suddenly we were both FREEZING. UGH — it couldn’t have been that chilly during the race?! So, anyway, this happened. Thank goodness for Snuggies.

Anyways, this recap has probably gone on long enough…so thanks for sticking with me, and, as always, for all of your support along the way!

Have you ever been in danger of being “swept” from a race course?

What’s your favorite part of the WDW Marathon/favorite Disney race?

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside this time around, and while it was a beautiful resort, unfortunately its location in relation to Epcot didn’t do us any favors on race morning. Though we were up by 3:30 and out the door a little after 4 (I always rent a car), we sat in RIDICULOUS, bumper-to-bumper traffic the entire way to Epcot. Between the road closures and police officers re-routing people and the zillions of runners trying to merge themselves onto one single-lane ramp to Epcot, what should have taken 10 minutes took almost an hour. UGH!

So by the time we parked and walked allllllllllll the way to the starting line, they were just about to release corral F! Our streak of JUST making it to the starting line of races continues.

Of course, we still made time for a few quick photos along the way, lol

In other news, that morning was HUMID. I mean seriously HUMID. Oh, and foggy…it was actually pretty creepy! It wasn’t sweltering hot or anything (I think it was in the 60s/approaching 70), but there was so much moisture in the air it was ridiculous. Don’t believe me? Here’s what our earliest race photos looked like:

As you know, for this race we decided to go as two of the Three Caballeros, and simply carry our third little duck friend. Well, let’s just say that my stuffed duck was pretty much soaking wet with sweat by mile 2. Groooooooss.

We started the race at a nice, easy pace, and our first official photo stop was Wreck-it-Ralph, who had a pretty huge line. But our plan was to stop for any characters we really liked in the first miles of the half marathon, so that if there were repeat characters in the marathon, we could skip ‘em.

As we got closer and closer to Magic Kingdom, I was feeling pumped to be starting another leg of the Goofy Challenge. Other than the god-awful humidity, I think we were both feeling pretty good.

And then you turn the corner onto Main Street and feel even more AH-MAZ-ING. I’m still waiting for the day when this gets old, and, yet…never does.

We stopped for a couple of character pictures (and a potty break) in the Magic Kingdom. This mile always clocks in on our Garmins as 30+ minutes or more because of all the character silliness.

When we stopped to take some pictures in front of the castle, one of the runDisney marketing folks took us aside and took a bunch of pictures of us since, as he said, “it IS the Donald half marathon…”

Photo credit: runDisney

We made our way through Magic Kingdom (which is STILL all kinds of glorious fun to me, BTW), and one of the more unique photo opps of the morning was in the backstage area: Peter Pan and the gang!

Of course, after you leave the park, the course becomes a crowded, congested mess. We’ve become accustomed to this and either try to run on the grass or simply take unplanned walk breaks when things get out of hand. There’s really not much more you can do; unfortunately, there are still lots of runners who walk in the middle of the path, stop unexpectedly, walk in groups of 3+ across, etc., so I’ve decided not to get agitated by it and just try to go with the flow.

We found a couple more friends along the way, and soon it was back to the boring old highway.

I will say that the marathon course is SOOOOO much better than the half, and the more times I run the marathon, the less I enjoy the half. I know runDisney tries to keep us entertained with the parade performers and the floats and the bands along the way, which I very much appreciate, but at the end of the day you really are just running on highways.

Excited to find Donald!

The goal of this race was to take things sloooooooow. I honestly don’t even know what our pace was at that point, but I did feel that we were running SIGNIFICANTLY slower than usual. I knew Todd was in for a real treat during the marathon the next day, and since he’s not used to the back-to-back race experience, I thought it was best to take the half marathon as easy as possible.

So thats what we did. We walked through water stops and kept our pace steady, and soon enough we were back in Epcot and making our way towards the finish!

We were excited to see more duck friends along the way, and had to stop for a picture with Scrooge!

And, of course, we had to stop for a quick photo with vacation Genie, haha.

Before I knew it, we were leaving Epcot and had reached mile 13! I had met a Twitter friend (hi, Sarah!) earlier in the race, and she happened to be taking pictures at the mile 13 marker…so she was kind enough to take ours.

We crossed the finish line in what was our worst half marathon time for a Disney race (or, you know, in general)…our usual Disney time is right around 3:30 since we stop for photos with practically ever character. (And we obviously couldn’t miss the opportunity to get a finish line photo with Donald, haha.)

But other than some sore feet, we both felt pretty good, so I certainly wasn’t complaining about our finish time.

We hung out in the finisher’s area for a few minutes, and thought it might be a good time to take a picture with another duck.

We also ran into Meranda and Lacey from Fairytales and Fitness! I’ve been reading their blog forever, and we had finally met for the first time at the expo the previous morning…so it was awesome to see them again!

Photo stolen from Fairytales and Fitness: http://fairytalesandfitness.com

After we made our way to the car to freshen up and slip into my magical OOFOs, it was time to hunt for our third caballero. We found him in Mexico. Donald was SUPER excited to see us, haha.

And then I decided it would be just gosh darn hilarious if we rode the Three Caballeros dressed as the Three Caballeros.

Doesn’t get any dorkier than this, folks.

The cast members in the Mexico pavilion went absolutely bananas for our costumes, and insisted on taking pictures with us, LOL.

It was a great ending to that morning’s 13.1 mile journey.

We spent a few hours in Epcot before grabbing an early dinner at ‘Ohana, and then went back to our resort for night-night to prepare for the next day’s marathon!

Walt Disney World Marathon recap…coming soon!

Disney runners…do you always stop for photos with characters along the way?

How do you deal with congested race courses?

Who else loathes Florida humidity as much as I do?! 

Todd conquered his first Goofy Challenge, and I added another glorious Mickey marathon medal to my collection.

Though it was WAAAYYYYYYY too humid for me for both races, we had an amazing time running Disney. And — no surprises here — I still think the Walt Disney World Marathon is the best marathon in the whole wide world.

The half marathon was awesome because we had a blast running as some of our favorite ducks. We got LOTS of attention from cast members (I think a lot of fellow runners/other spectators had no idea who were were, lol) and also the runDisney marketing folks; they took some awesome pictures of us in front of the castle and at the finish line and already used it on social media. So, basically, I’m famous.

Photo credit: runDisney

Oh, and we also managed to find our third caballero, live and in the feathers (haaaaaaa), after the race.

The marathon was a bit tough for Todd. He definitely isn’t used to running back-to-back races, and he struggled in the second half of the marathon. But I think he got a really good look at why I love the Walt Disney World Marathon so much. Even though my feet hurt, I was tired, etc…it’s kind of like I just don’t feel it. I’m having WAY too much fun to truly feel the agony of running a marathon.

It was also our closest encounter ever with the dreaded “balloon ladies”…we started in corral F but stopped for a photo with just about every character along the course. Toss in a couple of potty breaks and numerous photos in front of the Cinderella’s castle, the Tree of Life, etc., and, well, let’s just say we barely beat the balloons into the Hollywood Studios gates.

Almost there…

Even though Todd wasn’t really feeling it in those final miles, we stuck together and made it across the finish line! And then hobbled our way over to the Magic Kingdom for our FastPass+ reservation with Rapunzel (I seriously could NOT be any dorkier if I tried).

I’ll be back with full recaps and lots (and lots) of photos next week! Happy weekend, everyone!

What’s your favorite part of the WDW Marathon?

Do you have a favorite half/marathon that you run every year?

]]> http://thefinalforty.com/goofy-challenge-2016-we-did-it/feed/ 31 http://thefinalforty.com/goofy-challenge-2016-final-thoughts-and-costume-reveal/ http://thefinalforty.com/goofy-challenge-2016-final-thoughts-and-costume-reveal/#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2016 17:33:27 +0000 Jennifer http://thefinalforty.com/?p=6225 Hey guys! So, um, yeah…Merry Christmas…and Happy New Year, too! (Seriously, I’m the worst with keeping up with my blogging when things get busy).

But since I’m working on catching up on all of your blogs, I thought I’d offer a quick recap before we go into the *real* reason for this post.

Which is, of course, revealing our costumes for this weekend’s Walt Disney World Marathon!

So, Christmas was good. Lots of holly jolly fun and whatnot. And LOTS of dressing up my four-legged son and making him pose for corny Christmas pictures. Hahaha.

In terms of our training for the Goofy Challenge. Well…let’s just say it didn’t go EXACTLY as planned. Then again, does it ever? After my brief hiatus after the Richmond Marathon (which I STILL owe you guys a recap for, sad to say) we jumped right back into training. My goal was to do a few long runs and at least a handful of shorter runs each week to get myself back in “marathon shape” as quickly as possible. And, of course, complete some few back-to-backs so I could prepare myself for Goofy.

I literally do run on Dunkin’….

Long story short, we only made it up to 16 miles. This is the least prepared I’ve ever been for a marathon, and I don’t like it. I can honestly say we did the best we could given the time constraints. We were also careful not to ramp up so quickly that either of us risked an injury (let’s just say I considered jumping from a 13-miler to an 18-miler because we ran out of time, and Todd put the kibosh on that one, LOL).

After our last long run…and enjoying a new festive (and super sparkly) Christmas gift from Todd.

Do I think we’ll be okay? Yes. All of our runs went quite well, and I’m actually feeling a lot stronger than I thought I would. But I know it’s not going to be pretty, and we’ll probably have to do a fair amount of walking towards the end of the marathon.  I wish we had gotten up to say, 18 miles, but I’m still pretty proud of the fact that we ran two marathons in November and then went immediately into another round of training for Goofy. I’m obviously not there to PR, so I think as long as we run smart, we’ll be fine. It was sort of a last-minute decision to do the marathon in the first place, so time was not on our side…but I know we’re going to earn those medals.

Plus it’s Todd’s first “challenge,” so I’m excited for him to have the experience of “going Goofy.”

Okay, so without further ado, I wanted to share a preview of our (still not entirely finished, lol) costumes for this weekend! Especially since runDisney costumes are such a hot button issue right now thanks to the “new” rules released yesterday…which, to me, seem like common sense. Probably nobody should be running in Jedi robes, no? I do think the timing of the announcement was pretty horrendous and really unfair given that some runners are already IN Florida with their costumes. And they definitely could have been just a teensy bit clearer on their choice of words (now people are thinking SparkleSkirts are forbidden because it’s a skirt “layered” over shorts…).

Fortunately, since I like to focus more on altering actual running clothes to look like a costume, I’m thinking we should be fine. And by “I,” what I actually mean is “Nancy”…because Todd’s mom once again saved our butts and helped us pull together what I think are going to be FABULOUS race costumes at the last minute!

For the half marathon, we will be channeling our favorite parrot and rooster, lol. We’re both obsessed with The Three Caballeros, and since it’s technically the Donald Half Marathon, we figured it was appropriate.

And just in case you were wondering where the third Caballero will be…

Found this bad boy on eBay. And, yes, my crazy ass will be carrying him through 13 miles.

For the marathon, I wanted to go along with our costume theme from last year and go as another one of my favorite princesses — since I don’t think it’s likely I’ll get Todd to run the Princess Half Marathon anytime soon. Guess who…?!?!

I have a few more bits and pieces I’m still pulling together, but I’m beyond excited to head to Florida tomorrow and conquer another Goofy Challenge!

Sooooo…what will you be wearing this weekend?! If you see us, PLEASE do say “hi” — hoping to catch up with some of you this weekend!

Have you ever gone into a race feeling under-trained/unprepared?

That’s right…I am running the Goofy Challenge yet again in just a few short weeks!

We were originally going to sit this one out because, well, we were just at The World for the Wine & Dine “Half” Marathon and some people (*cough*Todd*cough*) thought that it was “too soon” to go back to Disney. (Insert eye rolls here.)

But then he came around and we decided to make an impromptu weekend trip because the Walt Disney World Marathon is my most favorite special race. I was so sad to be missing it, and since we survived the New York City Marathon and the Richmond Marathon last month, I was feeling like I could take on the Goofy again in January.

The Walt Disney World Marathon was the site of my very first marathon, of course, when I lost my damn mind and decided to run the Dopey Challenge in 2014.

Oh, that glorious bling…

 And, then we ran the marathon together for the first time earlier this year.

After Wine & Dine turned out to be a bit of a bust — a not-so-spoiler alert for anyone who doesn’t know, but the race was cut in half due to weather-related conditions — I was feeling especially disappointed that I traded in the opportunity to run my favorite marathon for Wine & Dine. So when Todd agreed that I could casually look around to see if there were any bibs still available late last month, he probably thought it was too late.

Haaaaaaaaaa, boy, was he wrong.

We had no trouble nabbing two Goofy bibs from Dream Departures Travel, AND we booked the Port Orleans Riverside (I’ve never been!) for a pretty reasonable price.

SCCOOOOORRRREEEEE.

So that’s pretty much what I’ve been up to these past couple of weeks. After the Richmond Marathon, I took a full two weeks off (!!!) because I had just HAD IT with running and wanted NOTHING to do with it. That always happens after a marathon, so I pretty much know what to expect by now.

But after two weeks of nothing but a karate class or two, I felt like a lazy slob and started to actually miss running (*gasp*), and I knew I needed to get motivated again and set a new running-related goal.

And what better goal than tackling 39.3 magical miles in two days?

So we’ve been basically trying to train for this particular challenge over the course of 6 weeks or so. Our first “long run” after Richmond was supposed to be 10 miles…and we packed it in at 6. No joke.

It was the first time I’ve ever “quit” during a long run, and I felt terrible about it. My body just wasn’t ready yet, I guess, because I physically and mentally just could NOT do it. It was quite possibly the most I’ve ever struggled, and that’s saying a lot because I’ve had some baaaaaaaaad long runs. Todd wasn’t feeling it either.

But then I got back into the swing of things with a couple of short runs that week, and the following week we successfully completed a 10-miler. And it wasn’t too bad at all! We did 13 miles this past Sunday, and I’m going to squeeze in two more long runs (with shorter runs the day before to simulate Goofy) of 15 or 16 and then 18 or 19. And then that’ll be it.

Our first (successful) long run after the Richmond Marathon!

We’ll obviously have a short taper this time around, and I do feel like I’m “cramming” a training cycle into a pretty short period of time, but I feel confident that I can do this. And, hopefully, we won’t be stuck in a super late corral since we registered so late (we still don’t have our waivers yet…boo) so that we can still have plenty of magical fun along the way.

So. Pumped.

Who else will we be seeing this January?!?!

Have you ever “quit” during a long run?

We woke up around 3am (ugh) on Sunday morning to start getting ready. I was going to drive to my parents’ house (who live closer to the Meadowlands), and then my dad had the pleasure of dropping us off at the bus stop in the wee hours of the morning. We arrived a little after 5am and jumped on a bus, and made our way to Staten Island.

Right from the beginning, I loved that I wasn’t feeling so anxious. This year would be different. This year, I knew exactly what to expect from the race, from the wait at the start village to the toughest parts of the course to the glorious finish in Central Park…so there was really no need to be terrified. I could just sit back, relax, and soak up the NYCM experience.

Of course, we arrived at the starting village with a ton of time to spare, so we grabbed some goodies (it was early, so no lines yet!) and found a spot near the bridge to chill out for, oh, 3+ hours.

We were both assigned a green start (the lower level of the bridge), but I knew Todd really wanted to experience running on the upper level…so we hung out in the orange village and hoped they wouldn’t give us a hard time for trying to change colors at the starting line.

My first major concern of the morning? Compared to last year, when I sat in the village in the BITTER COLD, shivering my ass off…it felt like a warm spring afternoon. The temperatures for that day were NOT especially favorable for me, because it was supposed to climb to the mid-60s, and I actually ended up shedding most of my layers in the starting village because I was hot. Really, really not ideal for me!

Wave 3 wasn’t set to cross the starting line until 10:40, so we spent the next few hours chomping on bagels, Belvita, and pretzels, sipping coffee and hot chocolate, and waiting impatiently for our wave to be called. Some of us were more impatient than others, haha.

I just kept hoping the sun would stay far, far away for the duration of the race. It was supposed to be a cloudy day, so even though it was a little warmer than I would have liked, at least we wouldn’t have the sun beating down on us.

They called our wave and we had no problem changing colors (just as long as you don’t try to jump ahead a wave/corral, they’re cool with it), and we were about to start my second NYC Marathon journey.

We made one more pit-stop and squeezed into the starting area just as they were closing the gates (an ongoing theme with us).

I was beyond thrilled. I couldn’t wait to experience this race together. And when they started playing “New York, New York,” I was about to jump out of my skin with excitement.

We purposely hung back towards the end of the F corral so I could snap a few extra pictures on the bridge without blocking fellow runners or causing any safety hazards. Worth it? I think so.

As we crossed the Verrazano, I felt freakin’ fantastic. There’s nothing like the thrill of running over the bridge and making your way towards that first stretch of cheering spectators. I think we were both feeling pumped and ready to conquer this marathon.

Todd kept having to remind me to slow down, because my classic error in races is getting swept up in the excitement and going out too fast. I was feeling super comfortable between a 10-10:30 pace, but he wanted us to hold back closer to an 11ish minute mile to conserve energy. Knowing how I crashed and burned last year from starting the race under a 10-minute mile, I knew he was probably right.

Honestly, the first 10K flew by for me. I was feeling good, Todd was feeling good, and I was certain that we were going to crush this race. We trained our asses off all summer, and it was going to pay off.

We were both taking in the sights and enjoying being called out as “THE APPLES!” Most people seemed to “get” our costumes really easily, and were cheering on “The Big Apples,” etc…but we did actually hear some other interesting cheers along the way. We were mistakenly called strawberries, cherries, and my personal favorite: “mistletoe.” Hahaha.

Somewhere around mile 8, my feet started to hurt. Why? I have no idea. Everything else felt fine, but my feet were aching like no one’s business. Other than that, I just felt warm. Very warm. Like, as in I was already sweating through my clothes. I know it could have been much worse, but I was NOT happy that the temperatures were already approaching the 60s by the time my wave started. To me, that’s way too hot for running for 5+ hours. I know myself well enough to know that anything over 55 degrees takes a toll on my pace and how I feel, so I knew I was in for a real treat.

Still, I managed to ignore my feet and soak up the energy and have fun interacting with the spectators, and we crossed the halfway point around 2:30. I honestly hadn’t been watching my Garmin all that much. The thrill of running NYC keeps me occupied to the point where I tend to stop compulsively checking my watch. I also end up turning my iPod off entirely so that I don’t miss a second of it.

Plus I was trying to just keep my pace comfortable. I was so afraid of falling apart like I did last year. I remember feeling a little disappointed because I thought we were doing a little better than a 2:30 half, and I didn’t say it yet, but I knew then it was unlikely that we’d meet any sort of sub-five goal that day.

Don’t get me wrong, I was in WAY better shape than the previous year, but the fatigue was setting in and with the way my feet were feeling, I didn’t know if I could negative split…especially knowing that I had a few tough sections of course still ahead. Like that damn Queensboro Bridge, for starters. Last year, it was the absolute death of me; it was the moment where I started to convince myself that there was NO WAY I was finishing this race, and I had a total meltdown.

But this time around, I knew exactly what to expect. I took the bridge slow and steady. I acknowledged the burning in my legs and reminded myself it was only temporary…the hill would NOT go on forever. I embraced the struggle and anxiously awaited the roar of screaming crowds on First Avenue.

And, most importantly, I looked for that spot on the bridge where I got an awesome photo last year, and I had my little mini-tripod ready to go so we could get one together, LOL.

As expected, the crowds on First Avenue were AMAZING, and we were both looooving the attention. Unfortunately, though, it was somewhere in this second half of the race when I started feeling…not quite right. My stomach hadn’t been bothering me or anything like that, but I was unexpectedly hit by a wave of nausea. I was fueling exactly according to plan and schedule, and I was definitely trying to make sure to stay hydrated; we walked through every water stop, and I diluted my Gatorade with water like I always do.

And yet, for some god-knows-what reason, I suddenly felt like I was going to hurl all over the sidewalk.

I told Todd I felt sick, so we took a short walk break or two to see if it would pass. And it did. For, like, a second. We’d start running again and I’d feel so unbelievably nauseous. I’ve had nausea during races before, but usually only in much warmer temperatures, and it typically passes within a couple of minutes.

I wanted to keep running, so I tried to ignore it as best I could. And for the the next few miles, it was bearable. But as we inched our way closer and closer back towards Manhattan, it was coming back with a vengeance…to the point where I kept having to crouch down on the sidewalk and stick my head between my knees for a few moments of relief. I didn’t want to go to a medical tent, nor did I want any medical volunteers to come and yank me off the course, so I kept our breaks as short as possible and kept scanning the sidewalks for trees where I could throw up (as far away from groups of spectators as possible) if I had to.

Hunting for vomit trees wasn’t exactly what I felt like doing that afternoon, but, there you have it.

In case you were wondering, physically speaking, I felt fantastic — the aching in my feet has subsided a bit, and I felt strong. Believe it or not, I felt like I definitely had another 9 or 10 miles in me. It was exactly how I’ve always wanted to feel in mile 17 of a marathon. So it just figures that I suddenly had to feel nauseous for NO APPARENT REASON WHATSOEVER.

But here’s the amazing part. Despite how sick I was feeling, I was not – I repeat, NOT – freaking out. I was not panicking. I was not crying. I was not insisting that I “can’t do this, woe is me, I’ll never make it, blah blah blah.” After I completely fell apart last year at the first sign of struggle, I made it my mission that no matter what happened on the course that day, I was NOT going to let myself succumb to my “old” ways.

I knew that, no matter what, I was finishing the NYC Marathon that day. Whether it took 5 hours of 7 hours, I didn’t care. And I was proud of myself. Really, really proud of myself. I felt so sick, and I was struggling so much, but I never for a second let myself think that I didn’t have it in me to finish this marathon. I still managed to smile for the cameras, high-five the spectators, and just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Meanwhile, let’s talk Todd. He was doing just as great as I was until we started approaching mile 19 or so. He’s dealt with back pain and various other leg/feet issues in previous races, but didn’t have any major flare-ups as we trained for NYCM. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to be the case on this day.

Here I was about to barf all over the place (sorry for the TMI, but, hey, that’s the truth) and he’s slowly starting to fall apart because his lower back is absolutely killing him. At that point, I knew any time goal was long gone, so my new goal became getting both of us to that finish line. First I’d stop to put my head between my knees, then he’d need to stop to stretch out his back, and on and on we went.

As we crossed the last bridge back into Manhattan, one of the spectators was chanting “Last. Damn. Bridge. Last. Damn. Bridge” over and over again, which I thought was hilarious. But it wasn’t quite enough to help Todd’s back (or his feet…or his legs…) or to help me ignore the relentless nausea I was dealing with. When either of us felt like we had to walk…we just walked. It’s not like us at all, but that’s all we could do at that point.

 Needless to say, that final 10K seemed to drag on for hours. The spectators saw we were struggling and it seemed like the cheers for “THE APPLES!” were getting a little more intense. I could no longer force down any sort of fuel, and I tried sipping just a little bit of water at those final water stops. Fortunately, I felt slightly better than I had earlier in the race. Todd was pretty much in physical agony any time he was running, so we did a run/walk all the way into Central Park. I wanted to keep running straight for the finish line, but he needed a few more walk breaks, so we stuck together and did the best we could.

He was feeling down on himself and making ridiculous comments like “maybe we’re not meant to run marathons.” But, honestly, I was feeling the exact opposite. I think it takes a special kind of person to have the dedication to train for a marathon for months on end, endure the pain of actually running 26.2 miles, and then keep signing up again and again in efforts to improve yourself.

Maybe we’re not the fastest runners in the world, and maybe we sometimes struggle just to SURVIVE a marathon (let alone RACE a marathon)…but you can’t say that we’re not tough enough to get to that finish line — no matter what it takes!

Sure, I was disappointed because things weren’t going our way, but I was so proud of us because I knew we were going to make it. And I was proud of myself because I didn’t fall apart.

Races don’t always go the way we planned, but I feel there are always lessons to be learned along the way. And there are some lessons that only running a marathon can teach you. On Nov. 1, I learned that I no longer have to doubt myself, and that not even the toughest marathon can bring me down. When I felt sick, Todd did everything he could to try to make me feel better, and when he was hurting, I did everything I could to cheer him on and get him to that finish line.

Soooo happy it’s almost over!

We both were falling way short of our expectations, but, hey, that’s life. To me, this year’s New York City Marathon became a representation of how we come together to boost each other up when things get tough. To me, that’s not a bad thing at all.

We finally, FINALLY saw the finish line up ahead, and I was excited to spot Karla from Run Karla Run, who was announcing at the race! She gave us a special shout-out, which made me feel like a rockstar, and gave us that final boost to FINISH. THIS. MARATHON.

Moments later, I successfully completed my 6th marathon!

We crossed the finish line of our longest marathon to date in 5:42. Given that our marathon PR is 4:57, and last year I struggled so much and yet still finished in 5:17, this obviously wasn’t a desirable time for either of us.

But I genuinely didn’t care, and I still don’t care. Despite our finish time, in my mind, this race was a success. It was LITERALLY the first time (other than a Disney race) that I didn’t have some sort of panic attack/meltdown. It was the first time I felt genuinely confident in myself during a marathon. And there is nothing that can take that away from me.

We both had a tough race, but we still managed to have some fun along the way. We basked in the sweet success of knowing that WE MADE IT for a few minutes before suffering through the slow death march out of the finish line area.

I had to sit down a few times because I was STILL feeling sick, and I tried to force down a pretzel and take a bite of apple (then immediately felt like I was going to throw up, so I put the kibosh on eating for a little while).

The apples holding their apples…haaaaa

After about 10 years of sloooow, painful walking, we were wrapped in ponchos (which I removed immediately because I was still HOT) from the volunteers and were released on the streets of New York…and I was once again sitting on a curb with my head between my knees. WTF?! I tried again to eat some pretzels but could only force down a few, and I desperately wanted a soda or anything that I thought might help settle my stomach. When we both felt strong enough to walk a little more we found a bagel place, and I enjoyed what had to be the most AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS bottle of Cherry Coke that I’ve ever tasted. I started feeling a lot better.

By the time we had our dinner reservations at Joanne’s (where we went last year), I was feeling a little better and managed to eat some spaghetti. But I still wasn’t myself, because normally I want to #EATALLTHEFOOD after a marathon, and I still felt like I was forcing it down.

By the time we were on the train back home, though, I felt fine, and ate my way through the kitchen later that night, haha.

In conclusion, the New York City Marathon is unbelievably amazing. Period, end of story. I am so thankful that I had the chance to run it again.

This year’s race may not be meaningful to me because I PRed (ha, yeah right) or crushed any other personal time goals, but it will be forever meaningful to me because Todd and I managed to work together and support each other and boost each other up enough to get to the finish line. Cheesy as it sounds, there it is. Laugh all you want, I don’t care.

I didn’t get the redemption I was hoping for in terms of my finish time, but I will absolutely, positively be entering the lottery again every year forever and ever.

Have you ever fallen waaaaay short of a time goal, but been happy with your performance anyway?

Will somebody please tell me what can cause nausea during a race because I need to figure this out so that it never, EVER happens again?!