That Time I Signed Up For A Long Race

{{{DISCLAIMER: I wrote this post months and months ago..... probably in May..... Oh...and sorry 

for the lack of pictures}}}

I don’t remember the first time I ever heard of the Disneyland half marathon.

I had a co-worker who ran it once. I remember thinking it sounded cool, but not giving it much thought beyond that because it was something I would NEVER be able to do!!

I casually looked into it last fall, right after doing my first 5k.

My endorphin's were kicking in and I felt invincible. OF COURSE I could jump from a 5k to a half marathon in only a mater of months!!

And then, I stopped running and thoughts of the half marathon went away.

In January I got on the Run Disney site again and found that registration for the 2013 race would open in only two days. I watched a couple videos online and my motivation was back! I wanted to do a Disneyland race so badly! But with only eight months until race day, I didn’t know if 13.1 miles would be feasible. Luckily for me, Disneyland would be hosting an inaugural 10k race.

There was a lot of scrambling, but in the end, my mom and two of my cousins signed up to up to run the Disneyland 10K with me.  That was January 22^nd.  There were 220 days to race time!

The only problem with signing up for a race in January, is that the next couple of months are FREEZING!! And it was especially cold this year!!! We're talking single digits!!! There was no way I could go outside and start running! So I went to Gold’s Gym almost every day after work to run on the treadmill! It was tricky in the beginning because I had let myself fall so far behind with months of not running. But I eventually go to the point where I was running three miles on the treadmill!! I was pretty dang proud of myself, especially since I was doing it at a slight incline.

In February, I decided I need to get some practice running NOT on a treadmill. I knew that running on pavement would be different from the treadmill and I wanted to see how I did. So my mom and I went to a rec center with an indoor track to run.

There was a sign posted on the wall near that track that said 10 laps= 1 mile.

I could do 30 laps no problem…. Or so I thought!

I started running and realized THE TREADMILL IS A BIG FAT LIAR!!!!!

There was no way in heaven or hell that I could actually run a mile on that dang track, let alone THREE!!!
I think I only ran about six laps before I gave up and walked.

It was bad…..

All the excitement and momentum I’d felt at the gym was completely gone.

I felt defeated

That feeling of “you’re not a runner” came back full force and I wondered what the heck I had gotten myself into!!

I knew standing on that track that there was NO WAY I’d be able to run the 10k…..
I wasn’t meant to run……

It was a few days before I finally went back to the rec center.

On that second visit I told myself I wouldn’t stop until I got to one mile….. even if my lungs exploded in the process.

By some miracle, I did it. That gave me a small glimmer of hope.

It also helped that I played Ke$ha's Tik Tok over and over and OVER? Why? Because the first time of the chorus says "DON"T STOP"!!

My running from the middle of February to the first part of March was pretty sporadic.

I didn’t really love the rec center and there was NO WAY I was getting back on a stupid treadmill.

I just had to make it to daylight savings on March 10^th when the sun would still be up after I got off work so I could go outside and run.