My Third Full Marathon...and the 10K

I signed up for my third full marathon yesterday. That marathon being the WDW Marathon in January. I also signed up for the 10K, plus had the task of signing up my non-running mother for the 10K, which was super duper insanely stressful. Not to mention, my mom doesn't have an Active.com account and can't remember her Facebook password to register via Facebook login. Grrrrrrrr. I even tried to hack into it. True first world problems, right there.

I knew that the 10K would fill up really fast, but that I would have plenty of time to get signed up for the full. WDW Race registrations always open at noon EST. That means 9:00am for Arizonans in the summer (AZ does not observe daylight savings, so sometimes, registration is at 10:00). This means that I took my lunch at 9:00 after getting to work at 8:30. #winning

I had one link open on Internet Explorer and one open on Google Chrome. I planned to start my mom's first since it was the only race she was doing. I got right in and was doing both when I got stuck on explorer at the very end. Horror! So I quickly finished mine and raced to get back in to do my mom's. Success!! Within probably 15 minutes of opening, the 10K showed "on hold" and then a few minutes later was sold out.

 

The 5K was sold out pretty quickly and then this morning, so was the half. I'm guessing the half sold out quickly because it's an anniversary year.

Also, I don't recall this being an option before. I wonder if this is in response to the increasing amount of people that seem to enjoy studying the results to see if they can find cheaters. I certainly enjoy some good online drama, but I'm not going to go searching for it.

 

It seems our pals at runDisney are listening to complaints about a lack of merchandise for runners. I know, I know, waaaaaahhhh, the whining gets to be a little much. But. I do agree that it's ridiculous that it sells out so fast. I can live without race merch, but I do feel bad for first time racers that really want a souvenir. They added several things at registration. Thank God they added the effing Tervis tumblers. Personally, I don't give two shits about it, but the whining about a lack of stock during Star Wars clogged my Facebook feed.

 

Granted, this means I won't get to enjoy witnessing a massacre a là Walking Dead style at the expo over merchandise, but maybe the whining will stop. I don't know.

This scene was filmed at a runDisney expo. Will Glenn survive his quest for a car magnet?

 

I did preorder a jacket only because I'm running the full, but it seemed like there weren't different jackets for each race like for the pins, so I'm not sure what I'll be getting. Hopefully nothing like this! Eeeek. I did a google image search and found this gem.

This makes my eyes hurt.

 

So yeah. I'm signed up for the 10K and full marathon for January. I'm exhausted just thinking about training for a full, but at least my longest runs will be during better weather instead of when I trained for NYC in the summer in the desert. In case anyone is interested in my first WDW Marathon experience, here is a link.

 

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Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire

Some interesting stuff went down at the Boston Marathon on Monday. That's not unusual, considering the latest trend in bib thieves, race bandits, and cheaters making the news and rounds on social media. This situation, however, is a bit different.

I will preface this story by saying that this thread was originally posted in a closed running group on Facebook of about 2500 members. I wouldn't normally post stuff from a closed group, but this situation has escalated to the point of being posted on Reddit by a member with the original poster's permission, using full names and all. Below is the original post on the group.

 

Needless to say, everyone in the group went batshit crazy over it. I spent hours last night reading all of the comments on this post as people tried to put the pieces of the puzzle together and figure out how she got a medal, etc.

It's very clear that this imposter lied and never ran Boston, but the lengths she went to just to make her friends believe that's she did is insane. Like genuinely insane.

I never went to the "wrong" Tina's Facebook page. It wasn't necessary considering the amount of screen shots showing up in the thread on Facebook. Lie after lie was posted, digging herself deeper into a hole.

I'm sure she never thought this would escalate the way it did, especially considering she wrote about marathon Sunday, when Boston runs on a Monday. She said she missed the "trade show" (not expo), but still somehow has a hat and jacket....not to mention someone else's bib. I'm guessing you can preorder merchandise for Boston, so maybe she did that? She's definitely not educated on racing because her terminology is wrong.

Anyway, I couldn't stop watching this train wreck last night, nor today. This is great stuff. The Reddit thread was posted within the last hour, and it's starting to light up. If you're interested in watching the crazy like I was, here is a link. The thread on Reddit also has links to some of the original posts that started all of this.

 

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The Struggle Is Real

Two weeks from today, I head to Disneyland for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon weekend. I'm super excited, especially for the vacation part of things and spending time with some of my favorite race buddies. And since it's Thursday, here's a throwback Thursday picture from the inaugural Tinkerbell Half in 2012.

Laser beams: ARMED

 

In case you're wondering why my tutu is so awkward looking, those aren't gaps between strands. It's actually black strands that aren't showing up in this picture. I figured I'd alternate colors since I was wearing a black top, but that didn't work out so well. Plus, I totally hated running in a tutu. So that was my one and only experience.

Anyway, I'm actually trained for this race. I've been dedicated to my running since New Year's. I'll admit to a few weeks of very low or no mileage, but in general, I haven't been that dedicated in years.

Now I realize that this isn't really a cause for applause because that is what you are supposed to do, but I don't have the best record of training for races. I really tried this training cycle. On Monday, I ran 10 miles after work. I rarely run that kind of distance on my own. I have good intentions and everything, but I burn out at 6 or 7 miles and call it a day. Plus, when you run like a turtle, 10 miles takes a couple of hours.

Seen on my run. All I can say is...WHY?!?!

Generally, I tend to run faster at races, so I'm hoping that what I'm clocking right now is slower than what I can pull off at Tink. I really want a PR, and I feel like I really earned it, but my pace at home isn't indicative of that happening. It's close, but I had antipicpated being a bit faster at this point.

Granted, I'm fairly confident that I can pull off a time that is better than what I've done in awhile, but I don't know if an actual PR is in the cards. And that thought is tormenting me because, like I said, I really trained this time.

This is me as a bitmoji. Everyone needs this app on their phone. For real.

 

Not to mention, the weather here is getting gross. I ran 5 miles last night in this:

Totally not ready for this, yet.

So basically, I'm hoping that the excitement of a race and cooler Cali temps (although it's certainly not that much cooler in Cali right now) will help me PR. In the meantime, I will concentrate on my last two weeks of training runs and properly hydrating...on mimosas. Just keepin' it real, yo.

This is what we do after we ride ponies on the weekend.

 

 

 

 

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Promises, promises

Well, once again, I've been a bad, bad blogger. They good news is that this time, I didn't disappear because I stopped running. I actually have been running. I've just been so incredibly busy that I haven't made time to write posts or read other blogs. My bad. I'll make it up to you. I promise. I'll change, baby, I swear. (If that doesn't sound just like a promise made by a bad boyfriend just to get into your pants, then I don't know what does.)

So, I've actually been doing a lot of running. Tinkerbell Half is on the horizon and I'm super excited. I get to see a bunch of running/blogging buddies. And since I have actually trained, I'm hoping it will be semi easy. Truth be told, I'm hoping for a PR, but I don't know if I have actually improved that much. We shall see. I also planned on losing 20 pounds before Tink and that didn't happen. At least I can be proud of the fact that I actually trained for a race. C'est la vie, right?

I'm also taking a break from horse showing. I feel like I've been showing nonstop for the last year and a half. It has certainly paid off. 2015 was an incredible year. We had an awards banquet on Sunday for the Arizona Dressage Association and I ended up First Level Rider of the Year.

 

 

I'm super excited about that. Louie and I also ended up regional champions and reserve national champions for the US Equestrian Federation.

 

I won't even pretend that this is a humble brag. It's an all out brag. In my defense, I've never had a year like that before and chances are low that I will again, so I'm riding this awesome wave for as long as possible.

I ended up showing a lot to get this accomplished and I really feel exhausted. I need to focus on training my horse to move him up another level. Less horse shows means there is more room for races! I think I will be doing RnR Las Vegas this year. I haven't done it since the first year they held it at night and it was a total shit show. I've heard it's great now, so I'm excited to try it out. I also like that I can run the 5K the night before and it counts as a challenge. That's much better than having to run a 10k the night before like at the runDisney events.

This is from RnR AZ, but I'm hoping for something awesome like it.

So what has everyone else been up to?

 

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