So you think you can run? Life throws curve balls into my training!

I returned home from Diva all inspired to train and make things happen. I ran my next weeks runs without a hitch and planned on running 13.1 on my Saturday run to prove to myself I could. I ran at our local park that has a 2.2 mile loop around a beautiful trail.. the temps were perfect and fall like. Upon finishing my 4th lap I turned the corner and headed up the hill to hear some chick whooping and hollering and jumping around like an actually race was going on... as I got closer i realized the chick was my very pregnant little sister cheering ME on on my final laps for my first half distance! If definitely put some pep in my step and I finished out my 13.1 with a bang! I now knew i could do a half. What a great feeling!

What didn't feel so great was the ache I started feeling in the top of my right foot. I gave it a couple days, but it didn't go away so I went to an Orthopedist only to find out I had a stress fracture and tendinitis. WHAT? NOOOOO? I'm JUST getting on track for my training... so many long runs ahead of me!!  Because tendinitis is an issue with inflammation I also went to my GP to discuss options of anti-inflammatories for my FMS. He felt Meloxicam was the best fit for me, I'm not sure he listened to me that I was training for a marathon and going to be running, because I later learned that I shouldn't have been running while taking it!

How do you bling up an ugly boot? Cute Socks and Hair clips!

  The running groups I belonged to on Facebook and my mentor circle I chatted with all encouraged me to take my training to the pool for water running. I met my running buddy, Nicole at the pool a few times... and we talked and water ran and water ran and talked, along with all the sexy senior citizens that do water aerobics. We learned that on Friday mornings the local Navy reserves came in and did their swimming and training, guess what day was our favorite day to water run?!?  BTW, Did you know it takes like THREE HOURS to run 3 miles in the water?

October and December I might have had 6 water running sessions and zero walking or running sessions and still I hadn't told myself Dopey wasn't going to happen. In December I was out of the boot but still had pain so I asked for a cortisone shot in my foot. If you've never had one you won't understand the pain... it's not just the needle going into a none meaty area of your body.. as they push the gel substance into you the pressure builds and it hurts... I dropped the F bomb a couple times and apologized to my doctor, but it felt like my toes were going to explode!

So what do you do to "train for a marathon" when you can't run and swimming sucks? You get a tattoo for the cousin and Charity you are running for of course!

With the birth of my nephew the week of Christmas, Christmas and New Years,  training in December was a wash... so I was going into Dopey not having run in months, and only having about 75 training miles under my belt.

Lessons learned : Had I been training and adding the miles gradually all along I might not have had the stress fracture, had I had the right shoes it might not have happened also... I was running in Asic gels which were fine for short distances, but I really need the cushion of Hokas for anything longer than 6 miles now. ALSO recovery shoes... I noticed my foot pain the day after when I put on regular flip flops... NEVER wear non supportive shoes after a long run, if ever... OOFOs are my go to recovery shoes now, I live in them. Also, Water running DOES NOT substitute actual running.. it might keep your muscles limber and warm, but it doesn't keep you trained for a race.

How a RunDisney addiction began

Lets go back to 2014.       My FIRST Disney Race.

My sister and I had run many 5ks (3.1 miles) the first year of wogging together (mostly for the costumes) and we came to a point where when we finished the races we thought "eh that wasn't so bad" and we wanted more, so we decided to bump up and try a 10K (6.2 miles).  Caught up in the RunDisney experience via a friend's facebook post who ran Disney all the time we decided to signed up for the inaugural Minnie Mouse 10k in January 2014.

Disney registrations can be trying and hard to get in (sell out in minutes) so we signed up through a charity and ran for Autism Speaks. Which means you pay an initial race fee to the charity and then you spend your months prior to the race fund raising for your charity.  I don't remember even training much for the 10k. I don't think we varied our twice a week runs even.  I do know I put more time into fund raising and even more time into my Minnie Mouse costume , you know, the important stuff.

The Disney experience is magical one, but it's also overwhelming to a noob. So much info to process, we have to wake up at what time?! (3;30 am) We have to stand in the corrals how long?!? (2-3 hours)  You have to plan ahead, be prepared for the early hours, have food in the room to consume at 3 am for breakfast and so on.

 Our first race experience we stayed up late getting all the details of our costumes and laying out our "flat runners" for the perfect picture  for Facebook and THEN decided to read the racer book we got at the expo, which started the panic of we have to wake up in 3 hours, we have to catch a bus because you're not allowed to drive? (which isn't true) and all the other stuff a first time Disney runner is told. I text my experienced runner buddy to work out the details/find out what time she was getting up and worked out what time was best for us.  So we set our alarms and wake up calls and our back up alarms and our back up back up alarms because we've invested WAAAAY too much money to sleep in on this race! But believe it or not, I've heard several Disney horror stories about sleeping through alarms and missing races. I am incapable of sleeping that soundly, because I'm so excited to be running in Disney!

Alarm goes off at 3:30 and I'm up... because getting my fake eyelashes on right is priority number one. (Boy have things changed, make up and costumes are not AS important to me anymore). Once dressed we headed to the race. My husband, was sweet enough to wake up and drive us to the race start. We followed the signs and he dropped us off where the buses were dropping runners off which is like a MILE away from the starting line. We have since learned all the tricks of where to go to park close and limit your walking / waiting pre race. Elise (my sister) and I walked to the security lines and met our husbands who had parked and beat us to the start by the time we got through bag check. This particular race the temperatures were cool and pleasant, no need for sleeves or extra layers, but running in Florida in January can be any temp so being prepared and having gear for all weather is a must!  There is A LOT of standing around pre race... they want you at the "starting party" an hour before you are suppose to be in the corrals, where you stand for another hour and a half.
Race start... Fireworks and we're off...  (Blurry pic... cause I'm running and taking a pic, duh)

The first 3 miles of the 6 miles is an out and back on the highway there are a couple character stops, but Balloon Lady fear kept us from stopping and taking any pics...

Mile 4-5  you run a small section of Epcot (Used real bathrooms, yes!) and then out to the Boardwalk, which was wet and VERY slippery from humidity

 ....it's not til after mile 5 you enter in the backside of Epcot and run IN the park.

 We took lots of selfies along the way which didn't mean losing time waiting in any lines for photo ops.

Mile 6 is just after you run under the Epcot ball and the final stretch is the .2 miles.

Our First 10k, our first race medal and the start of a beautiful thing...

(^^^ 6.2 + miles and my eyelashes and lipstick are still on!<things a serious runner would never say!)  : ) 

My first real race medal and the start of a true blue addiction....

(Lessons learned in this race: DO NOT wear panty hose/tights under your socks for any distance... it makes for raw sore feet and squished toes, cut the feet out at the ankle or better yet wear Zensah Compression sleeves like I do now)   Also this was the defining race for me to realize NIKE's were NOT the shoes for me... it has taken several brands of shoes to find my perfect shoe... Nike's give me horrible shin splints, NB I have knee issues and shin splints, I am now running in Hoka's (Clifton II)  and have very little post run issues with foot and leg pain.)

Post race and back at the hotel we were starving (because we weren't prepared and didn't have breakfast in the room pre race)  and in need of caffeine and thought we'd walk over and fill our cups up... but the walk around the pond added an additional mile to our morning...this is what your face looks like when you are hungry and tired and have to walk back to your room:

The photo did not convince our husbands to come pick us up... so we ate without them and then took a bus back to our room.

SOoooooo the experience was awesome but it wasn't until our last day in Orlando we went for massages at the Swan resort (if you have an opportunity to do this, I'd say DO IT) and we met 2 gals in the dressing room... they were flipping through pics on their phone and talking about having just finished the Dopey Challenge but said they couldn't find there finish line photos (Fast forward 3 years to my completion of Dopey and I have a conspiracy theory that these ladies didn't indeed finish, that they were probably swept but that's for another blog) .... we were intrigued and just like little fish we bit the RunDisney line.  We began saying things like "If THOSE girls can do Dopey, then we can" and other lies you tend to tell yourself in post massage bliss. So we marked our calendars, set reminders to sign up for the next challenge and started saving our dollars.

(a failed attempt at duck lips) : )

So we go from finishing 6.2 miles and decide 48.6 is our next step, that's totally logical, right? Whuuuuuut? Up until this point anytime I've heard someone say they've completed a half my thought pattern is always "I could NEVER run a half and WOULD never ever run a full, that's just crazy!" 

The test results came back Positive, I'm crazy.