Race #101- Walt Disney World Half Marathon

Now more than halfway though the Dopey Challenge (race-wise, not mile-wise!) we were just starting the Goofy Challenge!

Faith wanted to wear her Hope Water jersey, so the two of us and Blair decided to dress up as Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

We hung out at the Hope Water tent before the race with a big group of friends.

And had some more fun in the corrals!

Soon, we were off!

Faith was running with her hubby so I was on my own which was fine with me since I love stopping for pictures.

There was a random hot air balloon on the ground.  It was cool, but I didn't really get the significance of it.

Before I knew it, I was at the Magic Kingdom tollbooth!

As I turned the corner before going into the TTC, Cori was there to greet me!  She always knows the perfect spots.

The one big hill at Disney?  Right before the Contemporary---lol  But there's some awesome music (and Mickey hands) to get you going.

And then my favorite part of some runDisney races..turning the corner on Main Street and seeing the castle. And during Marathon weekend, it still has the lights on it!  Simply magical!

And of course I have to stop for a picture in front of the castle

Around this time, Faith messaged me that she was going to wait for me at mile 7--I wasn't too far behind.  

Around mile 8.5 or so, we saw the balloon ladies heading into the Magic Kingdom.

And Sebastian had no line, so we stopped for a picture.  Turned out to be one of my favorites of the race, surprisingly.

We saw Cori again and got a group selfie

We made it to the overpass right before the Studios.  Faith was tired so she took a quick nap

And we got yelled at during one of our walk breaks and had to drop and give 10

Spaceship Earth meant we were almost done

And when we saw cheerleader Minnie right at the end, we had to stop for a picture!

Disney races are just pure fun!!

Our official time was 2:35:08.  I placed 7831 out of 21505 overall (so top half), 3370 out of 12311 for women (top third) and 603 out of 1960 in my age group (top third).  Not bad for just having fun!!

Race #100- Walt Disney World 10k

Wow!  I can't believe I've done 100 races!  The 100th was originally going to be the Disney Marathon, but I forgot about the race over the summer and then I added another winter one.  I can't help myself!

Dopey Challenge Part 2--diiiiidn't start out so great.  Faith and I drove separately since we would be pushing time to shower and get to work.  And as soon as we parked at Epcot, I knew I had screwed up.  I looked at her and mouthed that I had forgotten my bib.  Yup--left it sitting on my bathroom counter.

I was freaking out as I flew home--Faith, however was calm.  Luckily I live right behind the Magic Kingdom AND we always get to races early.  By the time we got back, we still had 45 minutes until the race.  I've never been so mad at myself though!

We decided to dress as Goofy since we'd be doing his challenge too.

We took this one a little easier and did intervals.  It's hard to believe that 11 months ago I could run a 10k straight through.  I really need to work on endurance and speed.

During the race we decided we need to do this 10k next year and not go to work after since there were several characters we wish we could have stopped for including Rescue Rangers and characters from Ratatouille.

We finished in 1:10:34.  I placed 3683 out of 11,004 overall( so just a little out of top third), 1374 out of 6282 for women (top quarter) and 252 in my division.

Race #99- Walt Disney World 5k

Dopey Weekend was here!  Part 1 of the challenge was the WDW 5k.  Fatih and I decided to dress up as Dopey since we were running his challenge and all!

We were in corral B so only had a short wait before we were off and running.  We saw Holly in the corral!

It's been a few years since I've run a Disney 5k but they're so much fun.  We saw quite a few characters (including a black cat that I couldn't place--it was Muffins from Bolt) but we couldn't stop for any pictures since we had to head to work after the race.

I actually ran the whole thing without stopping for a walk break (it's been since spring since I've been able to do that).  And our time was 32:07.  Not bad! (I apparently forgot to stop my runkeeper).

Race #60- Space Coast Half Marathon

I was excited to run the Space Coast Half Marathon for the second time.  I would be getting the Challenger Shuttle  medal this time.

Heather and I arrived the day before and headed over to the expo.  Unfortunately, they ran out of a lot of the women's sizes.  Which is really horrible planning.  In my opinion, they should should run the shirts like Disney.  You keep the shirt size you order and then there is a separate area where people can trade shirts.  No one should be able to trade for a different size right there at packet pick-up because then they run out of the correct sizes. So I had to get a Unisex Small.  Ugh.

 I still love how the sides are different though.  And I made to sure to get my moon pie this time!

We walked around and met up with Faith, Bergen, and Ginger.  There were lots of great photo ops.

 I also bought this cute shirt.

 We had dinner out and headed to bed early.

The next morning we got up and decided to take the shuttle to the race start so we went over to the mall and waited and waited and waited.  The shuttle wasn't coming and we started to freak out a little so we drove over the race start and luckily found a spot close by.

We were ready to go!

 This race last year was the first time I had gotten a big PR and I was hoping for at least another small one here.

The course is pretty and I felt good for most of the race!  I ran 4 miles at around a 9:30 pace and then did 2:1's like I had trained.  But I was feeling so good that after a mile of doing 2:1s, I bumped it up to 3:1s and did that for the rest of the race!

Apparently I really like to cheese it up out there!

I ended up with a time of 2:13:07, a 7:06 PR!

  I was pretty excited!  I didn't think I'd get below a 2:15!

 I waited around for Kris, Heather, and Jen to finish.

I finished 54 out of 312 in my age group, so top fifth.  I was 758 out of 3301 so top fourth.

 I can't wait to be back next year to get not only the Discovery Shuttle medal but also the Milky Way Challenge medal for doing 3 of the races!!

Race #59- Blue Talon Bistro Turkey Trot 5k

The first thing I did when I found out that my family was going to my grandparents' house in Williamsburg for Thanksgiving was to find out if there was a race up there that day!  And I was so glad to find the Blue Talon Bistro Turkey Trot 5k.  It started and ran all through Colonial Williamsburg.

We picked up my race packet and shirt the day before.

The weather was FREEZING! And with 10 minutes before Target closed the night before the race, I realized that I had left my running gloves and ear warmers in Bella's bag at the people who were dog-sitting her.  Ooops! Thankfully, my dad came to the rescue and we rushed to Target with about 3 minutes to spare!

The weather in the morning was in the 30's and right before the race started, it started to rain/sleet so everything was slippery.

 I took it a little easier than I normally would have because of the wetness on the cobblestone/brick streets

But it was so much fun to run along a course that I visited so many times growing up.  I really want to run the half marathon that goes through Colonial Williamsburg one day.

My official time was 27:50, my second fastest 5k race at the time.  Not bad!  I was 555 out of 1,824 overall, 175th out of 971 for females, and 26th out of 103 for my division.