Marathon Day!

The EARLY morning had arrived. The day I would run 26.2 miles for the 10th time! And what a perfect and exciting place to be doing it!

My parents were nice enough to wake up at about 3:15 to take a before picture before I headed down to the lobby to get some breakfast and catch my shuttle by about 4am. EARLIEST departure for a marathon yet I think!

It was a long walk to the start and a lot of waiting! 

The marathon started at 6:30 but my corral didn't start until 7:30 so I had been up for 4 hours before we even started!

The time actually went by fast with all the people watching, music and FIREWORKS! 

They did fireworks in between every corral.

Our first major park we went through was Magic Kingdom...

There were quite a few fans welcoming us in the parking lot and a few inside but mostly it was us runners and some characters...There is the Frozen family cheering us on from the castle :) They had the mics in so we could hear them :)

We didn't get a picture of the Winnie the Pooh ride when we went so I thought I better take one during the run.

And I had a few pictures of me taken with characters that didn't have atrocious lines. 

Yes some had VERY long lines...this marathon is just meant to be magical and fun...very few are in it to get their best times.

Each mile marker had a fun character on it. I took a few of our favs but missed taking Bambi, Lion King, Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan and many more but I did get some :)

As we were exiting the kingdom there was Rapunzel and Flynn...this was one line that was far too long to stand in. I didn't mind waiting some since I paid so much for this run I figured I may as well get my moneys worth but at the same time I didn't want to take two extra hours...there is a time limit :) Anyways...it's kind of weird I have a picture with a stranger in it but Linnea asked where Flynn was so I needed to take it to show her he is in Disney World. 

And well...I love Aladdin and he Genie and Abu so there they are. 

The Disney VILLIANS!

This has always been a favorite of mine...the Robinhood cartoon so I gladly got a picture with Robin, Little John and Friar Tuck. 

After running by some fancy resorts and golf courses we made it to Animal Kingdom. We also ran around the Speedway to get here and I thought that was pretty boring but unique. I thought of Cars and Turbo while running. I wanted to take a picture of the mile marker with Lighting McQueen on it for my nephews but the phone was acting up so no luck.

I got a picture with Safari Minnie and Daisy and saw Mickey but his line was really long so I kept going. At this point was about 15 miles or so I think so stopping and starting was getting harder to do.

I had heard that the Mt. Everest ride would be on for us runners at Animal Kingdom but when we ran by an employee we learned that wasn't the case for us anyways...she said it wouldn't open until a half hour. I guess I was too fast...hahaha just kidding. Same as the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom some people thought that would be on but nope. Thats okay! Animal Kingdom looks like a place we will need to return too! I did get to see some monkeys :)

After Animal Kingdom we ran around ESPN WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS for quite a while but eventually made it to Hollywood Studios. My phone had a little more juice left so I got a few pictures as I was finishing. I had to get one with the monsters since daddy and Linnea love them. 

It was a rainy ending along the pretty boardwalk and eventually we made it to Epcot for the amazing finish.  I am quite sure they were playing the Game of Thrones theme song during the end which was actually very inspiring! I definitely enjoyed my run, loved seeing Disney this way and cannot wait to go back!

The family didnt quite make it to see me cross the line (however they could have told me they did and I would have just assumed I didnt see them because it was PACKED! My phone died so I didn't get a picture of the finish line unfortunately but my dad got these of us in the finisher area.

It was so fun to see the lil princesses with their signs :)

About 4 hours and 45 minutes later I finished! That was about the same time as my first ever marathon as well :) Maybe some day I will break 4 hours. 

Once I did get 4:08 I think!

 I am very happy to have accomplished my goal of doing 10 marathons in my life...and by the age of 35! Which feels pretty young to me still and like I have a lot of time left so I could probably be convinced to do more but I will be taking some time off and trying some new workouts :) I should share that there were A LOT of runners there who made me feel like I was doing "just" the marathon and this was because a lot of runners did the Goofy which was the half marathon Saturday and the full Sunday. There were also people who did the DOPEY which was ALL the races from Friday to Sunday...the 5k, 10k, Half and Full. As crazy as it sounds I could be convinced to do it...but I need to make MUCH more money if I really want to. The miles would be hard on ones body but more so might be the sleep schedule and having to get up so damn early for each run!

After eating my snack pack from the finish line and enjoying my beer we spent the day by the pool and eventually Linnea, my parents and I ended up in Downtown Disney again. Harper was so tired and Chris wasn't feeling the best so they stayed back and napped and ate at the hotel.

Posing with her favs!

And more posing with more favs!

Thinking about this delicious ice cream sundae helped get me through the 26.2 miles and I even got 20% off with my medal :)

We looked at all the neat stuff people made with LEGOS...

We saw lots of live music...They were playing Let it Go!

We walked down a ways and then it was getting very crowded and we were getting very hungry so we headed back to the sandwich shop I was looking forward to. Well...as luck would have it the wait was far too long. Soooo....we found some food trucks and smaller a la carte place. My parents shared perogies and sausage, Linnea got a hot dog and I got a yummy veggie wrap. Oh and a free cupcake for running the marathon! 

My parents bought the girls some new adorable baby stuffed animals as souvenirs. Harper got baby Lady and Linnea got the baby kitty Marie from Aristocats :) Linnea knew she wanted this cat...she saw someone with it at Magic Kingdom and hunted/pouted around for it. They love them and sleep with still and Harper occasionally brings hers to daycare.