I cannot believe after so many months of training, planning, and prepping, my Princess Half Marathon Weekend is officially over. It was an amazing trip and a fabulous race. Well worth every drop of sweat 🙂
Expo |
Although we arrived on Thursday morning, the official Princess Half Marathon kicked off on Friday morning at 9 am with the opening of the Fit for a Princess Expo. Located at the Jostens Center in in the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex, participants could visit over 65 fitness/running related vendor booths. In addition to the vendors there was also a speaker series. The list of guest speakers included Jeff Galloway, Sage Steele, Susy Favor-Hamilton, and Jon Hughes. Topics discussed raced from nutrition to training to just plain motivation. We did not have the opportunity to sit and listen to the presentations as we were far too excited to visit the vendor booths and to be quite honest Baby Girl was not really in the mood to listen to advice on proper nutrition when running.
Back to the sign…so I cannot believe my eyes. I turn to my sister (actually, I think I grabbed her arm and shook it hard) and show her the sign. We casually (and by casually, I mean we ran over like a couple of maniacs) strolled over the the guy running the booth and ask him if the sign was true. He says that they did indeed have spots. Apparently runDisney had saved 100 slots to offer at the Princess Expo. When we arrived at 11am on Friday, there were only 50 left. We had to register right then and there. I quickly called DH to make sure this was okay, as we would all be traveling to California for this race (There was no WAY the kids were going to let me go to CA alone) and Becca called her husband. Once I got the go ahead, I began the registration process. While I was registering, Becca poked me in the side (actually, I’m pretty sure this time SHE shook ME) and said “He’s here! He’s really here!”. I was so wrapped up in this most fortunate event that I gave her a half hearted mumble of some sort. I had only one thing on my mind. Once I completed my registration, I turned the computer over to Becca so she could register herself and her husband (DH was considering doing it but since we would not have anyone to watch the kids for the race, he was unable to commit). As I walked to the other side of the table, I realized what she was trying to tell me…..HE WAS HERE. It was Jeff Galloway himself, standing right next to us. OMG! What a day. If you do not know who Jeff is, is is the official runDisney running “coach”. He has written a multitude of books on running. He teaches new runners that anyone can run and uses the run/walk/run method. I had to get a picture with him. After Becca finished her registration, I meandered over to him and introduced myself. Now, for those of you who know me personally, you know that I am a VERY shy person and it is very difficult for me to talk to a complete stranger. I don’t even call for pizza delivery for this reason. But the adrenaline from my excitement overpowered my fear and I did it! Jeff and I talked for a few minutes. He played with Baby Girl a bit and commented on writing a new book called “Crawl/Run/Crawl”. He had talked about research he and his wife have done on the benefits of kids running and the effects on school work and standardized tests. I mentioned how my three older children run with me, which he thought was awesome. I also told him how I did not come from a running family but that we have evolved into a running family. My dad has become a running, finishing his first 5k at age 56. We talked for a few more minutes about family bonding and running but I didn’t want to “hog” him as I was sure there were others who wanted to talk to him. I asked if we could get a photo together and he said “absolutely”. It was a wonderful experience. He was so nice and talked to you as if you were an old friend (and not some crazy fan ).
Great recap! 🙂
Thanks Malinda. It was great to meet you at the race. It was a great time. Hope we can meet up again….maybe for a bit longer than right before start time LOL
I ran Princess, too! Great recap! :0) I was searching for Disney Princess Dooney's and I came across your blog! lol I was disappointed as well but that's ok! Have fun in Disneyland!! I know you're going to have a great time and you are going to have an awesome race! Yay Coast to Coast!!! :0)