Disneyland Half Marathon

Back in February, I received an email from RunDisney warning me that tickets for the Disneyland Half Marathon were to go on sale the following day.  It is a race that I have always dreamed of doing, I mean who wouldn't want to run at the happiest place on Earth?  Call me crazy, but we registered the next day.  Yes, we know orders always change, and we could have ended up staying in Virginia.  We knew we would have just arrived, and we wouldn't know anyone.  And we didn't even have a plan for the boys, since they couldn't come with us.  But we registered anyway.  Call it irresponsible, but, I mean, come on, it's DISNEY!  We love Disney!  And who really gets to run through the park before it opens?  

Well after arriving in California, we quickly realized that we had no plan for the boys.  We tried to defer the race to 2015 with no luck.  Eventually we learned that Daddy Step's brother was to come Labor Day weekend.  It was perfect!  The boys love him, and he graciously offered to watch them.  

So we headed out to Anaheim for our packet pick up the day before the race.  

The only thing I can say about my first impression of Disneyland in California is that the staff were horrible.  Not the race volunteers, (they were wonderful) the actual Disney staff.  This is the third Disney park we have been to (Florida, Tokyo, and now here) and we were absolutely disgusted.  At race Expo, I overheard one woman pointing out guests and laughing.  I then heard her say, "Look at this one, he's too fat to be at an Expo.  You're supposed to be fit to run a race.  There are so many fat people here."  I kid you not.  As if that was not enough, much of the rest of the staff were completely unfriendly and rude.  I was crossing my fingers that the race day would be better, but they remained the same.  I suppose it is the Southern California way, but I still thought it was unacceptable.  

Packet pick-up in downtown Disney

That evening, we went to bed very early.  We were up the next morning at 2am to get ready and head out the door.  The race began at 5:30, and we had an hour drive to get there.  We parked in the Daisy lot (how ironic) and headed to a little pre-party they had.  Basically it was lots of photo opportunities, and potty breaks.  

Waiting to go, and posing with some toy soldiers

We were told to go to our corrals (again, rude people!) and we waited, and waited, and waited.  We wanted to go to the end of the line, because we just wanted to have fun with this race.  Our intent was to walk and take photos through the fun parts, and run the rest of it.  We ended up starting at 6:15, and jogged for awhile before entering the park.  

Waiting to go.  Leave it to Disney to have a fireworks show before a half marathon!  

Once we entered the park, it was just a leisurely stroll and lots of photo opportunities.  I honestly don't think anyone could run through this part.  There were people stopping every which way to snap photos.  We had a blast seeing the characters and sights.  And we are really looking forward to our visit in October.  

Running by Toy Story things.  The boys are obsessed right now, we had to snap a photo for them.

In Cars Land

Mainstreet, some character sightings, and more cars land.  

Looks like I added some of these photos a few times.  It is late

There were lots of performers along the course.  Those guys on the top left were my favorites.  Very funny and animated.  

;lkj

Yep, that would be my husband!

Running through the castle!  It was the smallest one I have seen, but so pretty!

 Eventually the excitement ended, and it was time to run some of the boring stuff.  We ran through the streets of Anaheim for awhile.  We were eventually excited to stumble upon a bunch of people who brought their old fashioned cars out along the course.  They all cheered us on, and we got to look at some really cool cars.  Keeping it with the Disney theme, Lightning McQueen was there.  

Stopping for a potty break!

We made it past the cars and were nearing our next exciting sight.  First up was the Anaheim Ducks stadium.  

We finally made it to the Angels Stadium, where a crowd of fans were there to cheer us on.  It was really cool being able to run on the stadium, and they even video taped and put it on the jumbotron.  What a cool experience!  

Arriving at the stadium

Lots of cheering.  

All of the bottom stands were full!  It was so cool!  

The last part of the run was full of entertainers and music.  I don't think we went more than  5 minutes without entertainment on this race.  

Finally we finished.  I have no idea what our time was, (that time up there was not ours) and frankly I don't care.  This was for fun, and we did just that.  

They had trouble getting it over Daddy Step's hat.  His bill was too big!  

The coolest medal I have gotten from a race!

In the hours that followed the race, I had gotten to become pretty sore.  I am still recovering from knee injuries, and unfortunately it was giving me a very difficult time on this run.  I was limping for 2 days.  After a quick shower and an attempt at a nap, I ended up on my feet for a few hours cooking dinner for a bunch of Daddy Step's friends.  I think being on my feet and the exhaustion was not good at the time (I was limping pretty bad at this point and was in a daze of exhaustion), but probably helped my recovery in the following days.  

And now, we are home, enjoying a week or so of quiet.  

Sprint for Monroe 5k

When I was a kid, my dad ran our town's annual 5k every year.  I always loved going to cheer him on, and loved all the food they had out!  When we planned our trip up to Connecticut, I remembered the race usually took place around that time, and learned it was while we were here.  We signed up with some of the family, and have been looking forward to it.  

After running the half marathon 2 weeks ago, I wasn't too concerned about it.  In fact according to last year's numbers, there looked like there was a chance I could place in my age group.  

Unfortunately, the night before the race, I realized I had no shoes!  The movers had taken all of mine, and the ones that I had just ordered from Roadrunnersports.com were still not here.  So the night before, we had to go to a 24 hour Walmart in Wallingford, CT at 11pm.  I ended up buying a cheap pair of shoes there, just to get me through the race.  They were neon pink and green, but would do the job.  At that point, I lost all hope of placing. 

The next morning we arrived early (D Step's parents live up the road, so we were able to walk!).  We were running with daddy Step's 2 brothers, sister in law, and new nephew.  The weather was perfect for a run!  D Step, F Step, and I started at the front of the line, because we knew we would be some of the fastest runners at the race.  Unfortunately, we got stuck behind a bunch of young kids, who didn't know the rules of racing.  So when the gun went off, we had to sprint very fast to get ahead of them.  

D Step was just a little bit ahead of me, but I knew I couldn't catch up to him.  But I was still doing pretty well.  The race was very fast, and went through familiar streets of my hometown.  

I ended the race with a time of 23:17, a personal best for me.  Guess those shoes served me well after all.  My first mile was done at a 6:33 pace, mainly because I was darting around young children.  

The food afterwards was great.  Lots of bananas, watermelon, and other random things I never grabbed.  I am a firm believer in bananas and water post runs.  

We stood by the finish line to wait for my brother in law, sister in law, and their baby cross the finish line.  They walked, because he is still pretty young.  Though technically, he beat them both since he was in the stroller ahead of them!  

Daddy Step came in 4th place for his division, and had he known he was so close, I know he could have gotten at least 3rd.  His time was better than mine.  

After we all munched a bit and hung around, they began the award ceremony.  I had a feeling I placed, so we stuck around.  

When they got to the Women 19-29 division, I was ready to at least get 3rd.  But when they said the time of the 3rd place winner, I knew I at least got 2nd.  But then the second place winner got up, she had a time of 24:55.  I knew then that I must have won.  And I did.  Who knew that someone wearing walmart shoes could win 1st place in their division.  

And with that I hope to give encouragement to everyone out there reading this.  When I began running after my injury last year, I was only running at an 11 minute mile.  I was also breastfeeding a 10 month old, and just moving back to the US and adjusting to the time change.  Some runs were better than others, but with consistency I noticed my time getting better each week.  I ran a lot of hills, and a lot of long distances.  Every Sunday I added mileage.  I ran for 1-2 hours.  I ran in cold, I ran in rain, I ran in the hot sun.  My final training run before my half marathon was in the pouring rain.  I was dripping from head to toe.  I ran alone, which was sometimes scary.  I almost got hit by a car once.  I was once almost chased by a redneck. (True Story)  But I ran.  I never gave up on it.  And I hope to give encouragement to anyone thinking of lacing up those shoes for the first time.  It gets better, I promise.  Eventually you will find solitude in it.  And eventually you will begin challenging yourself further.  

And with that, I'm done running for awhile.  I am looking forward to hitting the weights at our new home!  

Half Marathon Recap

Z Step says, "Someday I run 13.1 miles!"

And.... We're back!!!  Have you missed us?  I have somehow gotten so busy, that Big Family Steps has ended up on the back burner since October.  I am so ashamed that I let it get to be this long.  But somehow life got in the way!  Life seemed to much slower in Okinawa.  Virginia is great, but definitely more fast paced than I would like.  I look forward to taking a step back and living a little slower again out in the desert.  With nothing to do within 1-2 hours, I think that will be pretty easy.  

Race Expo gear.  I didn't like the red shirt they were giving out.  So I bought myself these two shirts.  Love the colors and cuts of them.  The green is a bit big and it's an xs!

Speaking of fast paced- D Step and I just completed the Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon in Fredericksburg, VA.  D Step did it back in 2009, and I had said for years that I would eventually do it too.  This was my first Half Marathon race.  I've covered the distance before, but never in an official race.  And I proved to impress myself with it.  

Start and finish line

The race had about 6,000 runners (I think) and ran through many parts of Historic Fredericksburg.  My favorite part was probably in the 8th mile, when we got to run through my favorite area- downtown Fredericksburg.  There were people cheering us along the entire 13.1 miles, and lots of people dressed in colonial clothes in the downtown part.  There was dancing, singing, bands, and lots of great signs along the way.  

This was at the finish line!

Lots of people had signs along the way.  My two favorites were, "Smile if you're not wearing underwear" and a young guy wearing nothing but boxer briefs wearing a sign that said, "Run faster or I'll drop the sign."  There was a girl running who had a shirt that said, "Can I have your beer coupon?"  Seriously, how do people think this stuff up?  

It was pretty cool running under this American Flag!

One of the greatest things I saw along the race was an elderly veteran standing outside his home to cheer us on.  People were stopping to run up and shake his hand and thank him for his service.  It was beautiful.  He was so thrilled and couldn't stop smiling.  

The first 7 miles went smoothly.  Around mile 8, I began feeling some knee pain on my right side.  It's the same knee as I've had issues with before, and I think it's a hormonal issue.  I ran through it, but it definitely slowed me down at the end.  

The 11th mile is what I was most concerned with.  They call it "Hospital Hill" and it has an elevation of 375 feet.  I had run hills for weeks in my training on order to prepare me for it.  I was nervous my knee would give out, but I pushed through and Hospital Hill didn't seem to be nearly as bad as I anticipated.  

Mile 13!

I had slowed down in the 8th-11th mile in order to accommodate for my knee.  But once the hill was over, it didn't seem bad anymore.  I picked up the pace, and sprinted more in the last half mile.  I crossed the finish line at 1:51:38.  There were a bunch of Marines waiting to award medals, and photographers there to snap a few.  Unfortunately D Step and I got separated on hospital hill, so we weren't able to take a photo together at the finish line.  We did get together later for our celebratory beer.  

All in all, it was a great race.  Would I do it again?  Probably.  I must say, I think I prefer weights over running at this point.  I will be sticking it to those for awhile.  I definitely lost some very hard earned muscle in the process of training.  Something about lifting weights appeals most to me.  Being strong is pretty important to me.  And muscle burns fat!  Not to mention, I hate having to take over an hour or two once a week to run.  Then another hour to recover.  I'd rather bust out my entire workout in an hour and move on to spend time with my boys.  

I now vow to keep up with this blog again.  We have movers come this week, and will be hitting the road to CT in about a week.  After some time with family, we will be hitting the road for our 2 week long trek to California.  I hope to blog along the way about all the cool places we are going to!  

The Color Run

 Ever since themed races have gotten big, we have been wanting to do one.  I have seen many of my friends post about their zombie run or mudder and lots of other fun kinds of races.  Unfortunately, not many made their way to Japan.  Luckily, "Virginia is for Runners."  There are tons of races in our area and all over the state.  So when we saw that a color run was coming to Richmond, we knew we had to do it.  It's kid friendly (it's just corn starch) and just a blast of a time!  We were even more excited when D Step's family wanted to join us.  We knew that the run would live up to it's name, "The happiest race on the planet!"

We learned that it was cheaper to register as a group, so we registered with the name "EZ Steps" and made our motto, "Steppin on Color!"  I had everyone buy white shirts that I was able to iron our names and team name onto.  I am very happy with how they turned out.  

I don't think a bunch of text is going to do this race justice, so I will let these photos speak for themselves.  

Before

At the Starting line!

The first color to be thrown on us was blue.  We all really wanted a lot of blue on us! 

Next was green, another that we wanted a lot of!

Next was orange.  Though I love orange, I tried to avoid this one because I noticed that it made the colors look really muddy together.  Unfortunately I still got pelted with quite a bit of it!

Yellow.  There was a really fun guy at this one screaming about how much he loved yellow!

The boys were both cranky during the race, but stayed content in the stroller.  They got a little color on their feet, but not too bad, as the sun shade was up the whole time. (It was SUNNY!)

After the race was over the after party began.  It basically consisted of a stage, free shirts, sweatshirts, shorts, glasses, and more powder.  Every 15 minutes there was a huge color throw, where everyone threw their colored powder in the air.  It was so cool to see the colors all at once.  This was my favorite part. E Step and I stood to the side of the stage for one throw and his bald little head got covered in orange and purple.  The purple ended up being our favorite color.  It was so vibrant and fun!  I literally was rolling in it at the end to get my shirt more saturated.  

Those shorts belonged to the "Runicorn" the mascot of the race.  I tried to get a photo with Z Step, but he was more interested in a bubble gun.  

The boys playing with the color.  Love E Step's head!  And Z Step was laughing while rolling around in it.  

Lots of fun during!

Our afters.  

My family and I stepped on some color alright!  

He had so much fun rolling in it!

Overall, this was a great run.  It was so much fun, and without a doubt was the happiest race on the planet.  The atmosphere of everyone was so fun and happy.  I cannot wait to do this again!  

Post- Baby Half Marathon

You may remember awhile ago I made a list of goals for the new year.  One of my goals that I had set out to achieve was to run a half marathon by the end of the year.  After E Step was born, I hopped right back into fitness, just as before.  I love fitness.  It's become something that I truly enjoy doing now.  Those six weeks after E Step's C-Section were hard for me because I couldn't workout!  You may remember my 8 month pregnant bottom running in the 110 degree weather (don't worry, it was the last run before I switched to indoor workouts). I suffered a running injury for about 6 months after E Step was born and I strongly think it was from nursing (my ligaments never went back to normal!).  

About 2 months ago, I laced up my shoes again and finally got back out on the streets.  Ever since, I have been running 3-4 times a week, slowly increasing my mileage.  I started out more concerned with going the distance required for that day, but eventually I noticed my time getting better.  I started out at a 10-11 minute pace (pushing the HEAVY double stroller) and am now at an 8:42 minute mile (without the kids).  I am confident I can shave some time off that pace with more training.  

With E Step's first birthday just two days away, I set out for a morning run this Sunday morning.  I figured I could run a mile for each month of his life, plus an extra for luck.  My schedule was all set for me to run a half marathon at this point in my training, however I was not registered for any races.  I decided to do it on my own instead.  I am still looking to register for a half soon!  It looks like most are in the spring time though!  

The run was hot.  Very hot.  And on the entire course, I did not once hit any shade.  I brought water with me, and packed some gels and chews for every 45 minutes.  I ran my normal 4 mile loop twice, and then ran to the hiking trail we normally go to and ran around 3 times before running home.  

My favorite part of this run was at the end, when two women who were walking outside on my street spotted me.  They looked like runners themselves, and noticed I looked like I was on a serious run.  They began cheering me on and clapping for me.  I told them that I was literally at my last .1 mile of my half marathon and they cheered louder.  I ended right in front of my house and they told me to go inside and take an ice bath (which I had planned).  

Overall the run was ok.  I did not fuel up nearly as well as I normally do for a longer run.  I didn't drink nearly enough water the days leading up to the race, and my carb intake was much lower then I should have.  I am quickly learning from my mistakes, and am just glad to have finished.  I did stop to walk a few times, which surely added to my time.  Normally I run straight through.  In any case, I will get there in the coming months.  It is still one of my dreams to run the disney princess!  

And so, I can cross another of my goals off my list!  Thanks for the support!

Shark Week Workout

In case you've been living in a cave the past month, I'm sure you've seen the famous commercials with Snuffy the seal advertising this year's "Shark Week."  Shark week is one that everyone gets psyched up for weeks in advance.  When many spend most days or nights glued to the T.V. eating junk food while watching and becoming more and more nervous about that upcoming summer trip to the beach.  After Shark Week is over, many look back at the week in regret of too much ice cream and far too little time spent workout out.  Well that stops now!  In honor of Shark Week, I am sharing my own Shark Week Workout.  So put down the popcorn and grab a bottle of water!  NOW!