I was recently contacted by Nairn's, a Scottish company that makes oat based cookies and crackers, to review their product. They sent me two boxes of their oat cookies. I received two flavors: Stem Ginger and Mixed Berries.
Nairn's cookies come packed in 4 individual packets, which make them easy to throw in your lunch or take with you on the go, and it keeps the cookies fresher. Nairn's cookies make for a slightly sweet, but healthy alternative to a traditional cookie. They are wheat (but not gluten) free, are made with 100% pure wholegrain oats, and have no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. A serving size is 2 cookies and they are roughly 90 calories per serving. The cookies are about $4.00 a box on the Nairn's website, but I also found them on Amazon for about the same price.
Individual packages
The Stem Ginger cookies have a very strong ginger taste and are almost spicy. If you love ginger you will love these. For me, the taste was a bit too strong. I liked the Mixed Berries flavor more. It was mild and not overly sweet. The cookie is thin and crispy. They also have a dark chocolate chip flavor. I really wish they would have sent these. I love chocolate, and think I would have really enjoyed these and I really liked the idea of them being a bit healthier choice.
As I already mentioned they also have oat based crackers in a variety of flavors, but they didn't send any of these for review.
Overall, I would try these again, but I think I would opt for the chocolate chip.
Disclaimer: I was sent two boxes of cookies for free for this review however, I was not paid to review this product or asked to provide a positive review. The opinions contained in this post are my own.
On Saturday, I did something I have never done before. I did two races. One race in the morning and one race in the evening. Now, the total distance was still less than I would do in a half marathon, so it wasn't necessary a huge challenge or anything, I just thought it would be fun. My morning race was a 10K, and the evening race was a 5K.
Both of the races were Halloween themed, and I had planned to wear a costume at each of them. However, we got our first hard freeze and super cold temperatures (mid 20s) on Saturday morning. Since I'm a slower runner I knew I'd be out there for more than an hour for a 10K, so I thought I would be too cold in my ballerina costume. I opted to just wear the costume to the evening race, which would still be cold, but likely be in the 40s vs. the 20s. Plus, I figured with an evening race there would be more people in costume anyway.
Me & Jim pre-race
The first race was the Halloween Hustle in our home city of Lee's Summit, MO. Jim and I did this race last year. It's a fairly small race, but it's put on by Bodies By Brad and Jenn - a local personal training studio where I have actually trained. Also, our good friend and running buddy is the massage therapist there. So we are happy to race and support this local business. They have a great set-up with a 5K and a 10K. You get an awesome medal and technical tee - and PANCAKES at the end. It's really a great event. There's also a costume contest which I didn't compete in since I decided against the costume. I decided to just go with black and orange attire....Halloweenish.
It was about 28 degrees at race start - COLD! On my Thursday morning run it was 73 degrees, quite a temperature shift! Jim and I did this race last year and we had both done the 5K. The 5K had been 2 loops, and the 10K 4 loops. I was expecting the same thing, and had this thought in my head. This would turn out to be a HUGE MISTAKE! I did the first two loops (3.1 miles) and I was struggling a bit more than I would have liked. I was feeling really tight from the cold and just couldn't seem to get into much of a rhythm. I started my third loop and literally was the only one out there for as far as I could see. I thought man, am I seriously like the only one doing the 10K. I figured the faster runners were ahead of me and I just couldn't see them, but wasn't ANYONE about my same speed or behind me. I even said something to one of the volunteers - "Am I the only one doing the 10K"? He said "I don't know, I'm just managing traffic". I finally finish loop 3 all by my lonesome and start to do loop for when another volunteer asks "Are you doing the 5K or the 10K"? Duh, the 10K. He said, "you have to make a left and finish the 10K down there"? "Huh???" "But I've already done 3 loops and ran 5 miles - is it another out and back where I can just do 1 loop to get in the 6.2". Yes, he replies, everyone does 2 loops. I start running that direction when Jim runs up to me - "Have you already ran 3 loops" he asks, "yes" I reply. He said "well then don't go that way, that's another 3 mile loop and it's hilly as heck". I decided to just do my 3rd loop. I knew I'd still get in my 10K even if it wasn't the route I was supposed to be on. If I had done the other one I would have ended up with about 8 miles.
It was a total bummer though because I ran the last 3 miles all by myself. Where had that guy been when I completed loop 2???? I found out after the race there was some chalk on the ground to show that the 2 races split off, but I hadn't seen it. That is my major complaint. You either needed multiple volunteers there shouting - or you needed really good signage to show the course split! It was frustrating to say the least. In the end, I still finished the race with just over 6.4 miles on my Garmin. It wasn't a great race but I finished in 1:13:11 - which was an 11:47 pace (officially). According to my Garmin I did and 11:23 since it was just over 6.4 miles. Not bad for me.
After the race I met back up with Jim. He had a great race and finished first in his age group. We got some pancakes and waited for the awards. It was absolutely FREEZING. I had been fine while running, but as soon as I stopped it was cold. By the time we got home I was chilled to the bone and it took several hours to warm back up.
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The 2nd race was the Monster Dash 5K. It's in the River Market area of Kansas City. It's a great little shopping area near downtown. The race didn't start until 7pm. It was still cold, but at least it was in the low 40s. I was doing this race with 2 girlfriends so that would be fun!
Yes, the pink tennis shoes really make this costume work...hahhaha!
For this one I went all out with my costume. The Black Swan! I had decided on this costume at least a month ago and I had working on putting it together for weeks. Yes, I am a total dork but I LOVE HALLOWEEN! My girlfriends didn't quite share my enthusiasm. My friend Jocelyn did have a cute little mask, and my friend Cindy went all out in her trick or treat gloves. There were lots of people in costume though, which is always fun.
I was planning to run this race fairly slow. I was in costume and I had already done a 10k...so I wasn't expecting much. I ended up running with my friend Jocelyn. We passed the first mile pretty easily at a 10:11 pace - yikes, I told her, we are going "fast". Mile 2 was a 10:12, but then mile 3 was pretty much up hill with a few pretty decent inclines and I started to fade. Oh well, overall I finished in 31:47 (a 10:13 pace) - my PR is 31:40. I had really run pretty comfortably and honestly could have pushed myself a bit harder in mile 3 - I had no idea I was so close to my PR or I would have pushed a little harder! This was a pretty small race, but I finished 17th out of 57 in my age group, which is awesome for me! I'm always towards the bottom half of finishers, this time I was toward the top. That felt pretty good, even if it was a race that didn't bring out all the fast runners.
Close up
After the race we headed out for pizza. Great way to end a fun racing day!
On Sunday, Jim and I ran the Prairie Fire Marathon/Half Marathon. Jim ran the marathon and I ran the half. I had eyeballed this race since the previous year due to the medal with the blazing rabbit logo. I freaking loved the medal, plus Wichita is only about 3 hours from home. This was Jim's "A" race for the season, but I had no real goal other than to finish.
AWESOME Medal
As I mentioned in my previous post, injuries have kept me from running or training much lately. To make matters worse, I had been sick for over a week going into the race. The previous Sunday I started getting a sore throat, which turned into severe head and chest congestion. I finally broke down and went to the Dr. Friday night before we left town and found out I had a sinus infection and bronchitis. I got an antibiotic, but I knew it would still be a few days before I felt better.
Jim and I headed to Wichita on Saturday and went straight to the expo. We met up with Jon from 2SlowforBoston and chatted awhile. Well, Jim chatted, I had almost no voice and had to talk in a whisper or sound like a 14 year old boy going through puberty with my voice cracking every other syllable. But, it was still nice to get to meet him. Hopefully he didn't think I was rude for not talking more :)
Jon, Me & Jim
Race morning came and I still felt pretty bad. I hadn't slept much the night before (or really for the past 4 or 5 days) due to the hacking cough, but I was up early and ready to give it whatever I had. I could tell Jim was nervous and I tried to say motivating and encouraging things. It was going to be his day, not mine. Luckily our hotel was super close to the start, so we stayed in until almost 7:30 before we headed down to the starting line. The race started at 8am.
Me & Jim pre-race
The weather was pretty nice...temperature wise at least It was about 55 degrees, cool, but not cold. Temps would likely be in the upper 60s or low 70s by the time I finished the race so I knew it would get warm fast. The major issue was going to be the wind. It was about 20 mph at the race start and was only supposed to increase during the day.
Me & my friend Christa (Jim in background)
My friend Christa was also in town for the half marathon, so we met up before the race started. She is MUCH faster than me and I hadn't planned to run with her at all as I knew I needed to start slow and take it easy. But when the gun went off I found myself running with her and talking. I was feeling pretty winded already. When we crossed mile 1, I was doing a 10:46 pace. I know this is slow for most people, but for me, especially recently, it was fast. I told Christa I was going to have to slow down if I was going to make it through the race. I was already feeling pretty exhausted. Christa said goodbye and headed off. I slowed down into a more comfortable pace....or so I thought. Somehow mile 2 was actually a little faster than mile 1, but yet I was feeling pretty good. In spite of my cold and lack of running I did a 10:38 2nd mile. I somehow start thinking I'm Super Woman. UM, maybe I'm running faster because there is a 20 mph tail wind and I'm going down a slightly downhill stretch......but no, suddenly I start thinking, wow maybe I'm stronger than I realize and I can run this pretty fast today. I'm an IDIOT.
From miles 3-8 I still managed to maintain a pretty consistent pace of about 11:20, not bad really. But then at mile 9, it HIT me. All of a sudden I was running straight into the wind, and climbing a small, but gradual uphill. The lack of mileage and the sickness really start to take their toll. I totally crash. I started wishing this was a 10 mile race like my last one. 13 miles was going to be HARD! Miles 9-11 were in the mid 12s. I started run/walking every 5 minutes or so. I continued to get more tired. Miles 12-13 were just hard. I was walking more than running and averaged 13:30s. I finally saw the finish line and couldn't have been happier. I finished in 2:37 an 11:59 pace overall.
I found Madi and Nate (my step-daughter and son-in law) at the finish line and waited for Jim to finish. In the end, unfortunately the day wouldn't turn out as planned for Jim (you can read his race report here). I was so disappointed for him. I knew how hard he had trained and how much this race meant to him and I could feel his pain.
Overall, the weekend was just kind of downer...but that was just due to personal experiences. The race is great, and I would recommend it to anyone. They give an awesome medal and a nice technical finisher shirt at the end. The course is flat and runs through some beautiful neighborhoods and downtown areas. But sometimes, it doesn't matter how great the race is, it's just not your race. But we still had a good time in our own way. It's always great to spend time together doing the thing we love.
I’m laying it all out here.I’m frustrated to say the least.
I’m going to try not to complain….a lot.I have accomplished some amazing things this year – my first marathon in January, my first Half Ironman in July, and a 5K and half marathon PR.These are not things that come easily.I know this.
But here’s where my pain point is.I don’t know if I will ever know my true potential as an athlete and that’s frustrating.In April I set my half marathon PR with a 10:58 per mile pace.At that time I was easily running my shorter runs in the low 10s and could even eek out a 9 something pace during my speed sessions.I knew, just knew that with continued training I would get my times down even farther and finally inch my way from bottom of the pack to middle of the pack…maybe, just maybe.
But here we are in October and I’m running my slowest times all year.Yesterday I did a 4 mile run and averaged a 13:10 pace.I wasn’t pushing it, and I have a cold, but still it’s tough to see that kind of pace on the Garmin.I have a half marathon Sunday, one I have been looking forward to.It is a super FLAT course, a great one to set a PR on.This is the race my husband Jim has been training for all year (the full marathon of course), and while I can’t say I’ve been training specifically for this race, my plan was to start training pretty intently for it in late July.I totally expected to be able to set a new PR at this race, and now I’ll be lucky to do it in under 2:35.
OBSTACLES have kept me from doing much over the past few months.I am literally a walking injury.If I’m not injured I’m sick.Jim told me that if he didn’t live with me, and see that all my issues are legit he would totally think I was a hypochondriac.I know I have become the “What’s wrong with Michael now” girl, and that’s just downright embarrassing.
So what’s the problem??It’s multiple things.As many of you know I injured my back several years ago and this really is the central issue for me.I do not have strong core and I know this.I know that to do what I want to do I need a strong core.But, I had been so focused on endurance for my marathon and half ironman I hadn’t had much time to focus on strength.Therefore, my plan post-half ironman was to focus on BETTER, FASTER, STRONGER….that was my new motto!But then, out of nowhere I develop Veritgo….that last for weeks, I can barely walk, much less train.I finally get through that and I sign up for personal training sessions and get ready for improvement.Only one issue, within 2 weeks I had completely wrecked my back.One day after a long run I was reaching across the bathroom tub and threw my back out. I was in bed for 4 days!I spent the next 10 days recovering – stretching, ART therapy, etc.I finally recovered, but have continued to just have a list of minor nagging issues, and 2 colds in the past two months on top of everything else.
So it’s not surprising that I am where I am today.Not really surprising at all, just frustrating.I am ready to push myself to the next level.I have the dedication and mental focus to move forward, but sometimes my body will not let me.Every time I push, it pushes back.
But here I am again.I am signed up for a core/leg strengthening class for cyclists (I’m sure it’s good for runners too).I’m hopeful it will give me what I need, but I am worried that I will injure myself yet again.I know to be careful, and I am…but sometimes it still just happens.So there it is, all my woes.If anyone has thoughts or suggestions I would LOVE to hear them.
A few months ago Jim and I (and a few friends) decided to do the KC Blues & Brews 10 Miler. It sounded like a fun race that included an awesome medal and a post-race concert by the Blues Travelers. It was held in downtown KC and was routed through many KCs hot spots including the historic 18th and Vine Jazz District & KC Power & Light District.
I have to admit, ever since my Half Ironman in July....I've not done alot. It really hasn't been intentional, but in typical Michael fashion, I've had more than my share of injuries and set backs.....including vertigo, throwing my back out, and dealing with peroneal tendonitis. Throw in a nasty cold in there and yeah, like I said, I haven't been doing much training.
Me and my tri-girl friends!
My running times lately have been SLOW to say the least. While earlier in the spring and summer I was running comfortably in the 10s, my recent training runs had been in the 12s and even 13s!! No fun. So, I knew this wasn't going to be PR setting race, but I wanted to just go out and have fun.
We didn't do a pre-race dance for this one, but we do one heck of a post race air band!
I actually felt pretty good on race morning, and managed to finish the 10 miles at an 11:14 pace...I felt GREAT about this! It was no where close to the half marathon pace I had set in April, but considering how little I'd been running lately I was pretty happy with it.
Jim had a good race too, which was basically just a recovery run for him after his 20+ miler the day before. Had he been racing this one he could have easily placed.
After the race we enjoyed some tunes from the Blues Travelers! I have to say that they were totally awesome! Jim and I of course acted like a couple of idiots for awhile and then headed home with another race in the books!
Yes, that's me with a Moon Man...I totally won Best New Artist :)
So as I mentioned in my last post - Disneyland Half Marthon Recap, I had scheduled my vacation around this race. My sister Wendee lives in LA so it's an awesome place to visit and get in family time. I had originally planned to fly in on Friday night and fly home Wed morning. Then on Thursday, I would drive to KY to attend my 20 year High School Reunion. It was going to be a GREAT week.
On the Wednesday prior to the race I received a text message from Wendee that read "Any chance you could stay a couple of extra days and go to the MTV Video Music Awards wih me on Thursday". WHAT???? I was freaking out. Wendee is an Ad Exec for a large company and she has had the opportunity to go to events like that alot. She has gone to the Grammy's, the Oscars, the American Idol Finale......the list goes on and on. But I have NEVER been to anything like this in my life. I wanted to go so much, but I also really wanted to go to my reunion. It was a 12 hour drive to KY from KC. And if I didn't come home until Friday it was going to be almost impossible to make it there in time. I stressed over it for a short time, and I looked into flights from LA to KY and from KC to KY, but couldn't justify them - it would cost me close to $1000 to fly. Finally, after some fretting I just decided to buck up and make it all happen! I would stay for the VMAs, I would fly home on Friday and I would drive to KY to attend my reunion. I knew I would be completely exhuasted, but hey you only live once right???
So I will try to briefly recap the 10, yes 10 days of my vacation.
Friday night - Fly to LA
Saturday - A brief 2 mile run to get the lead out, packet pickup, meet up wtih Caroline of Candadian Runner in Exile, shopping for VMA dress, and then check into hotel for the race
Sunday - Disneyland Half Marathon, some pool time, and a great Spaghetti & Meatball Dinner
This was the sign Jack made me and his Aunt Wendee before the race!! He's sweet and thoughtful like that!
Monday - RELAX.....Massage, Mani, Pedi & Movie
Tuesday - Universal Studios Hollywood - It was a HOT day but it was a blast.
The 3-D Transformers ride was AWESOME....if you are a total geek like me you would love it!
This guy was soooo cool! Bumblebee :)
Just a little road work before we left!
Wednesday - A 3 mile run. Wendee actually had to go the San Francisco for work :( but a friend of hers picked me up and we went out for Greek food and a little site seeing.
Giant plate of Greek food, couscous, humus, and chicken shawarma
Thursday - THE BIG DAY. The VMAs. I started the day with a 3 mile run and then a 4 mile bike ride over to the beach!!
Ahhhh...been awhile since my toes were in the sand
Then it was finally time to get ready for the VMAs. We got invited to both a pre and post party. Fun....both parties were for advertisers so there were no big celebrities or anything but they were still fun. We had to be at the pre-party to get out tickets about 3:30....so it was pretty early in the day. I knew it was going to be a long but super fun day.
Me & Wendee at the rooftop pre-party!
Pre-party....I normally couldn't imagine wearing a dress this short, but when in Rome right??
Finally - it was time for the VMAs. We had no idea where we were going to sit. When we walked to our seats we were 15 rows from the main stage. AWESOME I said, these are GREAT seats!! I have to admit, I probably would have enjoyed the VMAs a bit more maybe 10 years ago, as I wasn't a huge fan of many of the performers and even didn't know who some were - 2 Chainz??? Say what? But the person I was looking forward to seeing was P!nk! I LOVE HER! Anyway, when we sat down we noticed a platform in front of us. I didn't think much about it, but then a guy from the VMAs came over and said "You'll need to watch your feet, there will be one performance here, and there will be a couple of other shots from here". WHAT....we were front row for a secondary stage!! Who is peforming I asked? "P!nk" he responded. I almost had a heart attack! She was going to perform literally feet away from me.
I immediately begin texting people. I'm going to be on TV. I'm going to be right next to P!nk! It's going to be an amazing night!
Before we knew it the host of the MTV Awards, was right in front us and we were on TV. Jim sends me a text. You are on TV, you are being such a tourist totally shifting to the side to make sure you are on TV....well of course I was :)
P!nk, yes she was that close. I even touched her arm!
Watch the video and see me on TV. I'm right behind P!nk, at one point it's just me and her on the screen...I'm totally texting, but still on TV. After she goes to the main stage my TV debut is over.....so it's a quick view.
All in all we were on TV 3 times!! Once behind the host Kevin Hart, once behind P!nk, and once behind Emma Watson...and the guy in the Mexican suit, I sitll don't know who he was.
Pic Jim sent me of us on TV. That's Wendee on the left and me on the right behind Emma Watson and the Mexican suit guy.
It was such a fun night!! I was so glad I had stayed. We went to the post party for a bit (which was DJd by Pauley D from Jersey Shore) and then headed home so I could pack....... :( Wow, my week had gone by soooo fast!
Friday - I leave LA at 9:15 am - a pretty early flight after a long day the day before. I land in KC at 2:30 pm. Jim meets me at the airport just so we can see each other for a few minutes since it's been a week. He takes me to my car, and by 2:45pm I am on the road to KY. Just like when I left, it is pouring rain! The drive is slow....not good when I have so far to go. The reunion actually started Friday but I knew I wouldn't make it to Friday night's event, I was just hopeful to make it to Saturday's event. I had hoped to drive at least half way on Friday, but with the rain I didn't make it that far. I did drive 6 hours, but only knocked off about 5 hours of the drive. It rained all 6 hours!! I would have 7 hours of driving the next day and I would lose another hour due to a time zone change. It was going to be a long day.
Saturday - I got up early and showered and headed out. I drove, and drove, and drove! I finally reached my cousin's house where I'd be staying at 2:30 pm. The reunion started at 6pm and was almost an hour away, so I'd have to leave just after 5pm. Not much time at all. I chatted with my cousin and her family and my uncle. Tried to take a quick nap which didn't happen and then it was time to get up and get ready for the reunion. At the last minute my cousin decided to come with me. Yea! I would have a date. She graduated the year before me so knew almost all of my friends.
The reunion was awesome! I was so glad I went. It was great to catch up with old classmates and friends. I just wished more people had come. I couldn't help adding a few High Scool/20 Year Reunion pics.
Me & my friend April...one of my BFFs from high school. We even had our Senior Pics taken together.
Me & my friend Patrick. He's still so much fun!
Me & my friend Valetta. I wish I could still eat giant ice cream sundaes like that!!
Group Senior Prom Pic
20 Year Reunion Pic
Sunday - I woke up early the next morning, too early after not getting home til 1:30 am....but I was on the road by 9:30. I made one quick stop in Lexington to visit my friend Coy from First in Philly! And then drove to St Louis. I opted to only drive 8 hours instead of the full 12. I was totally exhausted by the time I reached the hotel.
Me & Coy!
Monday - I woke up fairly early, got some Starbucks and decided to relax at the hotel for a little while before heading home. They had a great pool! I lounged by the pool and read a book, then finally headed home about 12:30pm. I got home about 4:30 pm exhausted....and so not ready to go back to work the next day.
One last little bit of vacation before heading home.
In the end, I had a fabulous vacation! In 10 days I changed time zones 5 times, spent over 24 hours in my car, spent 7 hours on a plane, stayed in 3 different hotels, and 2 different homes and experienced so many things that will leave me with memories for years to come!! It was amazing. I did pay for all my fun, as my body was totally run down by the time I got home, and I got to enjoy a nasty cold for the next week.....oh well it was totally worth it!!
I know this was a long post, but I hope you enjoyed sharing my journey with me! What a great vacation!
Well, as many of you know, after running the Walt Disneyworld Marathon in January, I had my eyes set on a new prize – the coveted Disney Coast to Coast medal!All you have to do is run a marathon or half marathon at both Disneyworld in FL and Disneyland in CA in a 12 month period and you get an extra medal for your AMAZING accomplishment.Disneyland does not have a marathon (thank goodness) so all I had to do was find my way to California for a half marathon and I’d be set.The Disneyland Half Marathon is held over Labor Day weekend – perfect.
Already in our corral...still dark
Lucky for me my middle sister lives in LA.So in February, I e-mailed her and asked if Labor Day would be a good time for me to come out for a visit….and oh did she want to run a half marathon with me by chance.I was actually kind of shocked when she said yes!She has done a half marathon before, and even triathlons….way before I ever thought about doing either, but it had been several years since she had participated in an organized race.I was super excited when she said yes.I knew it would be fun to do the race together and I knew she’d be much more enthusiastic about the 5:45 am start time if we were in this thing together!
Me & Caroline
I arrived in LA late Friday night, but the race wasn’t until Sunday.So Saturday my sister Wendee and I headed over to the Disneyland Half Marathon Expo to pick up our packets, and I also got to meet Caroline of Canadian Runner in Exile!She was just as sweet as she seems in her blog.It was exciting to finally meet her.Wendee and I walked around the expo some and checked out what little merchandise they had left.Man that stuff goes fast!I had hoped to get a Coast to Coast t-shirt, but all they had left were plain unisex cotton tees….no thanks!The expo was pretty typical of a larger race with the usual vendors.It was nice, but nothing I hadn’t seen before.
After picking up our packets, we headed over to the hotel to relax.Disney recommends you arrive at the race by 4:30 am to get into your start corrals.My sister lives about 45 minutes from Disneyland, so we opted to get a hotel the night before so we didn’t have to get up even earlier.The hotel was a quick 10 minute walk to the race which would be perfect….or so we thought more on that later.
Pre-race dance....it runs in the family!
We got up bright and early about 3:45 am on Sunday and got ready.We snapped a quick world famous pre-race dance pic, got our gear together and headed out the door.There were 7 corrals for this race A-G.The corrals start 5 minutes apart.I was assigned Corral D, but since Wendee didn’t have a qualifying race time in the past 12 months she was automatically assigned Corral G.You can move back a corral, but not up, so we had no choice but to start in Corral G if we wanted to run together (which we of course did).
We walked to the race – which was a short 10 minute walk – checked our gear in and then walked to our Corral.I looked at my watch – it was 5:05 am.The race didn’t start for another 40 minutes, and since we were in the last corral we wouldn’t start for well over an hour!The time actually went by fairly quickly, but by the time 6:15 rolled around and we finally started we both had to go to the bathroom.I was surprised there were no porta pottys in the corral lines – there were at the Disneyworld Marathon, but not here.Once our corral final moved up we noticed that there were porta pottys just before the start line, so we opted to go ahead and go before our time officially started.However, by doing this we were some of the very last people to start the race.We were totally at the back of the pack. Disney has a strict 16 minute mile rule.They have a final pacer with a big set of balloons….stay ahead of the balloons they told us.I thought we should be fine, but I knew we were going to walk quite a bit of the race.I had recently had a flare up with my back and my sister had only done 4 miles as her long run going into the race, so I really didn’t know what to expect!
I suggested we do a run/walk method from the beginning to conserve energy.So we did a 5 minute run/1 minute walk and also walked the water stops.This ended up working out great!We were maintaining a decent pace and staying well ahead of the dreaded balloons!The first mile or so is outside of the park, but of course since it’s early in the race it goes quickly.Miles 2-3 are inside Disneyland which was so fun.That’s why you do these races right?We stopped a few times for some pictures with characters or just some pictures of the park.Then from mile 3-9 you run on boring streets!I have to say I was pretty disappointed with the route overall.Yes, at the Disneyworld Marathon you are outside of the parks a lot too (probably 20 of the 26 miles), but at least you kind of run in and out several times.This was a long, long stretch of nothing.They didn’t even have characters or anything outside of the park.Again, comparing to Disneyworld they had characters all along the route.They did have cheerleaders, and cars, and things along the way, but all in all it was kind of boring.
Angels Stadium
Finally at mile 9 you get to enter the Anaheim Angels Stadium.This is pretty cool.You get to do one loop on the warning track around the field, and there is a huge crowd inside the stadium cheering you on.They have the Jumbo Tron on so you can see yourself on TV.However, it was terribly narrow, and there was pretty much no way to run through there.You had to walk the entire time, which was ok with us, but I imagine others weren’t too happy about that.After you leave the stadium it’s back to boring streets, you never go back inside the park again.
Mile 12....almost done!
Overall, I still had a blast and was glad to experience this day with my sister, but I was pretty disappointed in the overall route.Almost the entire route was on very narrow streets and with so many people racing, it was wall to wall people the entire time and it was often hard to run.I would have to say that the Disneyworld Marathon was much better!If you want to do a race at a Disney Park I would definitely recommend that Disneyworld over Disneyland.
We ended up finishing the race in 2:55 which was pretty good I thought!I had honestly thought we would be over 3 hours.We finished the race and got our medal which was AWESOME.And then I also got my coveted Coast to Coast medal!!I loved having the double bling, and was surprised by just how many people also had both.
Coast to Coast on the left, finisher on the right
After the race my sister met up with a friend of hers who had also ran but had finished about 30 minutes ahead of us.She asked us where we stayed the night before and we said the Sheraton – oh, she stayed there too she said!Small world, we were both at the same hotel.We left the race and started walking.I said, we didn’t come this way, and she said, oh she was heading back to the shuttle bus.We told her we didn’t take the shuttle because it was only like a 10 minute walk, so she said she’d walk back with us.She put the address in her phone and we headed that way.We walked and walked forever.My sister said, man we must have taken a different route, because it was much shorter this morning.She said, oh well it’s just up here on the corner and she named a couple of streets.I said….um that’s nowhere near where we stayed.It was then that we realized she had stayed at a completely different Sheraton.Oops, there were 2!!!I put our address into my phone, and we were 2 miles away from our hotel!!We had just walked about 2 miles, and now we still had 2 more to go, after doing a half marathon!We had to laugh so we wouldn’t cry.We had literally been about ¾ of a mile from our hotel, and now we were going to walk 4 miles to get there!!We had started walking to the hotel at 9:40 am.I think we finally arrived around at 10:45!!We were exhausted!So with the extra mileage and the mileage to the race that morning, I guess we had done somewhere in the neighborhood of about 18 or 19 miles!I laughed and said I guess we were ready for a marathon.And remember, my sister’s longest run going into this race was 4 miles!!
Yes, we will finish!! That was an order!
When we finally got to the hotel, we asked for late check out – 4pm – awesome!So we relaxed, went to the hot tub, and then hung by the pool before heading back home.Overall, it was a great day!It was so much fun to get to do the race with my sister!It was a great bonding experience.
Finishers!
We had a wonderful few days afterwards as well…..but I’ll write about that in another post!Let’s just say we ended up on TV later that week….so stay tuned.
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