KatMandooSa is Only HALF Crazy!

I may or may not have mentioned it here before, but the weekend finally arrived. Half Marathon weekend.  Disney's Wine and Dine Half Marathon weekend, to be exact.

I believe I may have been pregnant at the time and I cant quite recall who's brilliant idea it was, but some of my very favorite people in the whole world came together and decided that we were cool enough to run a half marathon.  Not just ANY half marathon.  A DISNEY Half marathon.

A half is a half....13.1 miles here or 13.1 miles in Cleveland...no matter where it's run, a half marathon is the same distance.  Thirteen point freakin one miles.

And while I havent run a half marathon anywhere else (yet!), I have to believe that there is NO ONE who can put on a show the way Disney does.  This event....the entire weekend....was perfect from beginning to end! From the Start to that amazing Finish Line!

It started for us on Thursday when one third of our "KatMandooSa" team arrived from Kansas.  Eric and I had never met Sarah or Ryan in person, but Sarah and I have forged an awesome friendship through the years, and anyone given the Mandy and Matt seal of approval is awesome in our books and we were THRILLED to have them!  Whitney talked about them as though she has known them her whole life, asking "Are Mr. Ryan and Ms. Sarah here yet? When will they be here? They are having a sleepover here, right?"  

We were all pretty pumped for the weekend to get started! 

On Friday morning we dropped Whitney off at school and headed to pick up our race packets and check out the expo at Disney's Wide World of Sports.  It was sooooo exciting and fun! There isnt really anything to compare it to....but EVERYONE was excited and smiley and helpful and amazing. 

Grady was a trooper as we shopped the expo and took pics and laughed with excitement :) 

See that guy right there? On the right? That's Ryan. He had major heart surgery (is there 'minor' heart surgery?) three years ago this month.  Yeah.  And he ran the half marathon this weekend.  AND...he finished in 1:35 minutes.  AND....that means he placed 75th in the entire race and 6th (SIXTH!?) in his age group.  Talk about overcoming adversity.  AND, the best part? He's not just a really fast runner....he's a super hilarious, NICE, fun guy who happens to have the pleasure of being married to one of my favorite girls in the world. :) Love them. 

This is my favorite magnet ever.  

We failed to coordinate race ensembles (my fault. Im horrible at returning emails.) this time, but we grabbed super cute long sleeve tees to wear at the finish line. Cute, right!? 

We really wished Mandy and Matt couldve joined us, but work got in the way. Matt flew in Friday evening and Mandy arrived Saturday, just a few hours before racetime! 

Sarah, Ryan, Eric, and I were like little kids in a candy store at the expo. Ryan and Sarah shared so many great tips and bits of advice since Eric and I are new to running.  I wouldnt have wanted to spend this time with anyone else! So much fun! 

After we registered for this race, I went through a series of goals.  First I wanted to "just finish the race".  I realllllly didnt want to be picked up on a bus and denied my medal.  Then, after training for a few weeks and feeling good, I decided I wanted to finish "under three hours."  Disney requires that you maintain a 14 minute pace and I knew I could walk that fast if I really had to, so "under three hours" seemed reasonable.  Then I trained a little more and learned that I could run at about a 12 minute pace for a while without pain or feeling true fatigue.  So I changed my goal to "finish under two hours and 45 minutes."  That wasnt quite as "easy" as finishing under three hours and it gave me something to work towards.  I love a challenge. :) 

Eric trained a lot harder than I did and he wanted to finish close to 2:15.

Now, I should probably mention that about 85% of my training was done on a treadmill at night after the kids were asleep.  And before last Saturday's race, I had never run more than nine miles.  So I wasnt really 100% sure I could finish 13.1 miles....but I figured adrenaline would help carry me a little :) 

I should also mention that I could regularly play 1-2 hour tennis matches in high school (when I was in my best shape), but I was never able to run more than 3/4 of a mile without stopping.  Never.  I couldnt run the mile in gym class.  I couldnt run four laps on a track without taking a breather.  I could NOT do it.

Yall.  I just ran 13.1 miles and Im in really bad shape lol

To be fair, Sarah RAN all 13.1 miles.  Mandy (missing in the picture above) and I stuck together and committed to a "run four minutes, walk one minute" technique that really served us well and ensured we would finish without dying.  We followed an iphone app that was recommended to me several months ago (still cursing thanking you, Katie B.!) and it worked out really nicely.  We were able to comfortably average 11-12 minute miles, only walking for more than one minute around mile nine and again at mile 12 when I thought my knees were about to blow up. 

The race didnt start until 10pm.  I have never even run a 5k or a charity fun run, let alone a legit running event, but I knew that an early morning start wouldve been much easier than a late night start.  We tried to lay around and take it easy, but with two kids and a dog and six adults who wanted to catch up and laugh, the day was napless and the butterflies set in around 2pm. 

(Whitney was thrilled to have an audience :) She genuinely thought Matt, Sarah, and Ryan were there to watch her, talk to her, listen to her, and generally be amused by her. Thankfully, she LOOOVES my parents and was SUPERRRR excited for a sleepover at Mac and Gramps' house!)

Grandparents really made this weekend possible! Mandy's mom kept Brooklyn and Easton all weekend while Sarah's parents had Paighton and Gannon, and my parents had Whitney and Grady.  We are really blessed to have such awesome parents who not only are willing to step up and help us all out, but who actually look forward to the time with their grandkids and who wouldnt have it any other way. 

Thanks, Mac and Gramps!!

After we dropped the kids off at my parents and got a plan of attack to kill some time before we could check into our hotel for the night, the butterflies were really dancing in my stomach.  Everyone got a plan of attack for where we would meet at the finish line, who was wearing what, what to eat and what to avoid.  And of course, we laughed.  A lot.  Because laughter cures all nerves.

How lucky are we?! These husbands were dragged into our friendship and they are here to stay! They have affectionately dubbed themselves "MaRicAn" for "MAtt, eRIC, and ryAN" and are so awesome that none of us have to worry if our husband is going to say the wrong thing or embarrass us or suck the fun out of our time together.  They go with our flow and dont ask questions. Wise men, for sure. :) 

Kat   Mandooo Sa 2012 :) 

We met some of our other favorites, Julie and Jonah at the hotel after they had to deal with the sad and unexpected loss of a pet. (R.I.P. Jade!). We all quickly got into race gear, packed our clear bags for the finish line, and rolled out to the starting field!

Matt, Mandy, Ryan, Sarah, Julie, Jonah, Me, and Eric

LOVE this pic! My worlds collided! Local besties meet global besties! LOVE!

We parked our cars, boarded the buses to the start field, and the excitement grew!

As we walked into the starting area, I vowed that I would be a happy camper if I just crossed the finish line before this kind woman:  

Disney required that all runners gather at the starting corrals by 8pm.  The first corral didnt start until 10pm.  We are rule followers and, in order to ensure we were there in plenty of time, got to the field at 7pm.  Yes, we sat/stretched/walked/paced/danced/waiting in potty lines for three hours.  And did I mention it was cold? 

It was tricky to strike a balance between drinking enough to stay hydrated but not drinking so much that we had to pee before mile one.  

At 10pm, Ryan and the rest of Corral A got their firework start and the race finally began! We were soooo excited!!  Five minutes later, Sarah and Corral B took off from the starting line.  Five minutes after that, Summer and Mike (didnt get pics with them :( ) started with Corral C. Then Julie and Jonah got their big start in Corral E, and then it was time.  Our turn.  Corral F. 

Fireworks.  Fun music. Chills. It was AWESOME!

We ran through Animal Kingdom first and felt really good about our times at each mile.  Not too fast that we would die quickly, but not so slow that we would A) not finish, B) get a seat on the bus, or C) be embarrassed by our time.  We felt good!

Eric and Matt started in the same corral with us, but were out of sight before we even hit the first mile.  Mandy and I stuck together and worked as an awesome team! I was SOOOOOO thrilled to have her by my side the entire way, taking water and Gu at the same time. Needing to walk at the same pace, and being able to laugh and smile through the entire experience with someone who has been by my side literally and figuratively for some of my favorite moments in my life.  

We hit Animal Kingdom and made our way to Hollywood Studios (holy HILL on the way there! yuck!).  My playlist was perfect, our pace was great, we were both feeling great.  A recipe for KatMandoo success!

In mile 12 we both noticed that our run4/walk1 theory had carried us far but was sorta hard to maintain at that point since walking, even for just 60 seconds, made it very difficult to get going again once it was time to run.  We busted through, and I absolutely know with 100% certainty that I would not have finished if I didnt have Mandy with me.  My knees were THROBBING.  The kind of knots where you wonder if you are doing permanent damage or if its just gonna go away once you rest.  I told her "I cant believe I made it this far and I might have to walk across that finish line."  Instead of getting annoyed with me or even running ahead, Mandy stuck with me and never showed any signs of frustrations.

I finally kicked myself in the butt and realized I could finish under my goal if I just ran a little bit more and finished strong.

So we did.  We ran.  And we crossed the finish line together, laughing and smiling and hugging. And so proud.  We both gave birth this year.  Mandy had Easton in January and Grady will be seven months on Monday.  And this chicks rocked that half marathon. 

It was hard but it was fun.  And in the middle of mile 12, we were already making plans to run the Princess half marathon at Disney in February. It was THAT much fun.

My app tells me that we completed 13.1 miles in 2:44:58.  That means we ran a straight half marathon in less than 2:45.  I beat my goal by two seconds.  TWO seconds.  

In the beginning of the race, it was hard to weave in and out of the slower runners/walkers who filled our last corral.  All that bobbing and weaving added an extra .7 miles to our run.  So technically, we added more than a half a mile to our race just by running around and across groups of people.  Its getting technical, sure, but *I* know I beat my goal of completely 13.1 miles in less than 2 hours and 45 minutes. :) 

My official time was 2:53:56.  I finished 7,628 out of 11,599 runners.  Hey. I might not have finished 75th (like SOME people we know), but I beat almost 4,000 runners. And most importantly, I proved to myself that I can do it.  And I will do it again.  

I love, love, LOVE that this was something Eric and I both conquered.  We may not have run together (he's fast, yall!), but we were there in the beginning and in the end and we had fun the entire time.  We are excited to have friends who also enjoy this kinda thing and look forward to entering more races together in the future! (And for a dude who argued that his Woody Halloween tshirt was a "waste of money" and he "didnt need it", he sure has worn it an awful lot in the last two weeks! ;)

So we did it.  And we loved it.  We didnt break any records, but we had the BEST time.  I want to repeat the whole weekend in my head all over again!

We ALL finished.  And we ALL were freezing and tired at the finish line.  But we all made our way into the finish line party for some cheddar soup in Canada where Mandy scored a bench and we got to sit down for the first time.  We all agreed that we were not prepared to party like rock stars at 3am after running a half marathon, so we all headed out in search of showers and warm beds. 

The entire weekend went by way too fast but we sneaked in some delicious sushi on Sunday night before our traveling friends had to head back to the hotel.  Lots of laughs. Not enough pictures. And never enough time.  Cant WAIT to do it all again!

We are seriously considering the Princess Half at Disney in February.  And Im already registered for a fun Color Run in downtown Orlando in January.  Im not in it to win it or break records.  Just for fun and because its with friends I adore. 

Who knew, when I couldnt even run ONE mile in high school, that *I* would finish a half marathon just six months after giving birth!? 

Crazy.

Oh, and did I mention we got really cool medals for crossing the finish line?!

Grady checked to make sure it was real :) 

He approves.

So 2012: never thought i'd give birth? check. Never thought I'd run a half marathon? check.

What will 2013 bring!?

(babies? NO. more running? YES.) :)