Sunday-AKA Race Day

Kristen

Finally, the moment we have been training for-running in the cold, running injured, just plain old running.  The day was finally here.  We set our alarm for 3 because the race started at 5, but since we never really adjusted our internal clocks it was really 6!  Yeah for racing on the west coast!  We dressed and ate and headed out to the race course at about 4:20.  I have to say, it was super nice being so close to the start line.  No need to stand in the endless port-o-pot line.  No need to get there 3 hours pre-race-we literally rolled up to the start line.

 

Heidi and I split up pretty quickly and I walked to my corral and sipped my Gatorade and listened to the speakers.  Before I knew it we were off!  I am not one to remember too many details about the race but I will say this-it is really really nice being up near the front.  I almost immediately has the space around me that I like to have.  A few times, I felt like I was on another training run.  I did not stop for any character pictures although I really should have.  At about mile 3, the men who started in Corral B started passing me-that really brings you down a notch.

Heidi had been complaining about the dry air for the last 2 days.  I finally understood what she was talking about on the race course.  Thank goodness there were so many water stations.  I used almost all of them, which is unheard of for me.  Once we left the parks around mile 6, we were just running through Anaheim.  I'm sure it was nice, but it was pretty dark, so I couldn't see a whole lot.  I did appreciate the people who woke up to sit in their front yards and cheer us on-never underestimate the power of cheering someone on!

Towards the end of the race, I started getting so cold.  I am really glad I chose to stick with my original outfit!  Once done, I texted with Brian who was in church about my times, did some math on when Heidi would finish-do you know how hard it is to do math after a race?-and decided to walk back to the room to shower-best hot shower ever!!

 

This is what I could have done all day!

After eating the non-existent food in the after race box-seriously Disney please do better-I walked back over to watch the race and wait for Heidi to finish.  I must have dozed off standing up because next thing I know Heidi is dancing a jig in front of me-totally strange.

 

This was our race food-WTH?  What am I going to do with a wet nap?

After she got through the crowds we walked back to our room-seriously I love that it was all in walking distance!  Heidi got ready while I laid around and then we eventually made our way over to the parks.  Our plan was to go to Disneyland since we hadn't seen much of it yet.  I was stupid and wore my long sleeve race shirt since I had spent the whole morning freezing.  Once the sun comes out-not so cold anymore!  Anyway, I  took one look at the line to get into Disneyland and said no way.  Heidi tried to fight me on it-California Adventure's line was not much shorter, but it was in the shade and sometimes that makes all the difference!

I pick a line-always the slowest-I get that ability from my parents.  Heidi is doubled over ready to pass out from the heat/dehydration/running.  I look for a bench-none.  I push her more into the shade and eventually we get through the gate.  I think we may have wandered around for a bit until we got our act together and just decided to go drink a beer and relax-delicious!  Eventually we left for our lunch reservation-again delicious-but starvation does make food taste good.

 

This is what it's all about!

Once we left lunch, I really couldn't imagine fighting out way back into a park.  We decided to check out ESPN Zone.  Unfortunately it was the middle of a football game so no go on that!  I bought my son a shirt though-I know better than to come home without what he asks for-which was a 49s shirt.  He was very sad I wasn't going to Washington and couldn't get him a Sea-hawks shirt.  We then decided to take the monorail into Disneyland-no wait going in that way.  Well, unfortunately the monorail broke-you sometimes have to know when to fold them...

Eventually, we just decided to buy a 6 pack and hang out in our room-it was 4:00.  Heidi laid in her bed and immediately fell asleep.  Until. The. Next. Morning.  I watched the game and also fell asleep early-come on people we never switched over to West Coast time-it can't be helped!