What We Ate During the Half Marathon Weekend

On Sunday, Terry and I ran a half marathon. For a recap by the numbers, check out Sunday's post. For a photo recap, check out Monday's post. For the rest of the story, stay right here. I just thought I'd pop in tonight with the details of our run.

Highlights from the run itself:

• Crossing the finish line, obviously. I cried for the last quarter mile or so. It's hard to run, breathe properly, and cry at the same time. I bet I looked really cool, and I know that my gasping breaths sounded awesome.
• Seeing SO MANY PEOPLE out there doing something so challenging. It was truly inspiring! Plus, the diversity surprised me--we saw a huge range of ages and fitness levels (walkers, runners, combo). If I ever do a half marathon again, it'll be when I'm 65 so that my grandkids can hold signs that say, "My grandma is running with you!"
• Terry and I both hit points in the run where we wanted to walk or stop, but neither of us wanted to disappoint the other person (we had agreed to try our very best to run the whole thing). So we didn't stop--we ran the whole.damn.thing, every step of the way.
  
• The costumes were cute but looked super uncomfortable. A group dressed as Nemo, Dory, and Crush was near us most of the run, and they looked adorable. Also, I'm not sure I understand running skirts--isn't the material uncomfortable?
• Disney had set up tons of entertainment: marching bands, dance groups, cheerleaders, and DJs. Those parts of the run were the easiest!
• Running through Sleeping Beauty's castle suuuuuper slowly, which meant we got to enjoy it a little more. Then again, I was so focused on not crashing into people, I barely noticed where we were.

Not-so-awesome parts of the run:

• My foot hurt for the first five or six miles (but then it stopped!).
• We spent the first three miles dodging people. It was SO crowded (but thankfully not claustrophobic-crowded, just a lot of people), and runners had to wind and weave around walkers.
• Mile 12 felt truly awful for both of us. 
• It was hard. Just super, crazy hard. Way harder than 11.5 miles, which we did two weeks ago thinking it would be pretty close to the real thing.
• At the first two water stations, it seemed like everyone just stopped. We had a hell of a time getting through there.

In other People Watching and Fun Sightings news:

• A woman at the Cheesecake Factory taking out a ten dollar bill to bribe a waiter to give her a table. (People really do that?)
• Best sign: "Worst Parade Ever"
• Other good signs: "Run, Stranger, Run" - "Your feet hurt because you're kicking so much booty!" - "I ran it, too!" (from a finisher who then stood and cheered us on!) - "Run faster so it'll be over faster!"
• Guy standing on the side of the street with a cowbell complaining that his hands hurt.
• Guy who gave us our medals said, "Finally, you decided to show up."

And some food from the weekend:

Lunch the day before

Carbo load: Cheesecake Factory

Too nauseous after the run to eat anything

For dinner Sunday night? In N Out! :-)

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