Coast to Coast

It started about 8 months ago when I got this crazy idea to train and run a half marathon. I booked the Tinkerbell half at Disneyland. I had Houston and the training process began 6 weeks later. I started by walking and walking and walking. It was so hard to just walk a mile. I remember how hard the first 2 weeks were, I wanted to give up. I continued on and walked a lap then jogged a lap. Eventually I was only walking every now and then. Having a newborn and a 2 year old is not easy to train with. I would put one of them in the gym day care and push the other in the stroller. Depending on who I need a little break from. :) I trained using Hal Higgons training as much as I could. I got up to 9 miles and was suppose to run 11, but when it came time I just didn't want to run that in Florida. Oh ya you don't know why I was in Florida. Let me explain!

I joined ItWorks a month or two after I booked my run. I later found out as I trained that ItWorks was having a conference the same weekend of my half.... Here is how my week went.

Preparation:
The week before I got called to be the advisor in the Y.W. I taught the new ciriculum on the 12th. Clean my house and did laundry for me and Houston and Peyton oh and packed all of us! I also booked and bridal expo of this weekend. I got everything ready for some of my team members to do that. The night before I was at a skinny wrap party and when I got home I realized I still need to pack a little bit more. I was anxious and could't sleep. Michelle picked me up at 5:00 so I was running on 3 hours of sleep. After a few stressful moments we eventually made it to Florida!! I

Florida: It was warm and amazing!! We stayed in a few different hotels around Tampa. We went swimming and laid out in the nice sun by the pool while playing family feud on our phones. It was nice to just get away. We ate some amazing food too. After playing for a couple of days we went to the Conference. I learned so much about this business and about my self. I met some really great people too. We also ate out of a food truck and that was pretty cool. I met some of my  FL team that I have only talked to on the phone before. They are some amazing ladies who are working really hard. I was there from Tuesday to Friday night. The conference didn't end until Saturday night so sadly I had to miss the big Diamond party. I did however get to go to the cocktail party.

As I left Friday I was very sad to go, but so excited to see Mike and Peyton and go to Disneyland of course.

California:
I got in kind of late, everyone was already in bed. The shops we're all closed. I un packed my gear and set my alarm to meet Lynne at 3:30 in front of Paradise Peir. My plan was to wake up go get a bagel or something to get food in my stomach. They said a Pretzel place would be open in Downtown Disney, but it was not! I had to meet Lynne so I did not eat... I was in a different corral then the rest of the fam. I was in B and they were in D. I eventually left them. I stretched and made sure I was warm along with the hundreds of people surrounding me. Mickey and Minne were there to start the race. It was amazing my adrenaline kicked in quickly. As we ran the Cast Memebers cheered us on at almost every turn! My favorite thing about it was running down main street. I couldn't hold back the tears. I was at a turning point in my life. I have this great job I am accomplishing a lot of personal goals and I was running down Main street one of my favorite places ever. See the Castle with hardly anyone around me was amazing. I ran all around both parks and behind the scenes I got to see where they keep the animals and things like that. Where employees clock in and all sorts of things. My next favorite part was round mile 4 I was behind the sceans when they had us come out right by King Tritons Carousel  World of Color was on and the water works started again. It was just a magical moment for me I'll never for get it. It also made me keep running. I had another adrenaline rush. Eventually we came out of the park I really didn't love running up and down a couple of hills. Then we had the long stretch. It was about mile 9 that I hit a wall. Usually when I hit a wall in training I put my head phones in and turn it to a powersong one that I know will disract me and get me going again. Sadly my headphones didn't work which meant I had NO music!! Which was awful... I continued on I wanted to walk so bad. My body kept telling me to just slow down and walk, but my stubbornness said heck no! Therefore I ran and ran and ran some more! Finally I could see mile marker 12 and I entered back in to Disneyland parking lot  I knew I was close and so I pushed it. With tears in my eyes I crossed that finish line with out walking. I met my goal. I felt so accomplished and was so proud this whole experience was a moment i'll never forget.

As I came out I felt sick and pain and exhausted  I got a massage right after which was extremely painful. I later learned that the girl shouldn't have gone that deep right after that it should have been more of a healing massage. I went up to our room and took an ice bath which was cold but AMAZING the pain was almost gone instantly.

So that was my race! As for Disneyland we stayed in the Grand Californian! It was so nice being able to stay right there so close to go in and out! Especially being so dang sore. The swimming pools the view and the ambiance of it all was amazing. It will be hard to compare this trip to any other.