May The Force Be With....... ME! {Part 1}

Race morning started bright and early. Well, I guess I shouldn't say bright, because it was 3:40 a.m and the run was definitely not up! 

As I started getting ready, I was trying to force myself to eat goldfish crackers, but my nerves had started again, so I only had a handful! Before we walked out the door, I told my friend Miranda that we needed to pray. One of the things my dad told me in my blessing was to make sure I prayed before and after the race! We stood there together in our hotel room, while I said a quick prayer that we would both be safe and that we could make it through the race. Once we said amen, it was time to head out and we left our room around 4:30 a.m.

Luckily, our hotel was really close to the starting line, so we were just able to walk over. It was nice to kind of start warming up and the feel the energy of the other runners walking with us!

My race bib said I was supposed to be in corral “D” and Miranda's said she was in corral “E”. There weren't very many people standing in corral “E” and I felt bad telling her to go stand back there by herself for more than an hour, so I told her to just stay with me. Plus, I didn't necessarily want to be alone either!

The race began at 5:30 a.m. but we had to wait awhile to start since we were one of the last corrals. I did some stretching to keep my muscles warm and we chatted with some of the runners around us.

Finally it was our turn! As we got closer, we could hear the announcer, who was with C3-PO and R2-D2, cheering everyone on! We could also hear the Star Wars music playing! Our corral got up to the start line, they counted us down, and we took off. The big screen overhead said “May the force be with you” and then told us all to run!!

Miranda and I walked the first three-quarters of a mile together. We were right in the middle of the pack so it was kind of hard to run. Once I made it to Harbor Boulevard, I decided I was ready to run! Miranda and I wished each other good luck and I took off!!

It felt so good to run! I felt happy to be running!! I felt much better running than I'd felt in months!!! I knew my dad's blessing was helping me and I knew the prayers of my family and friends were giving me strength! The “force” was definitely with me!

As I ran toward the gates of Disneyland, I thought back to my first Disney race. During that race, my dad was waiting for me right before I went into the park, cheering me on. I imagined him standing there, cheering me on, and that gave me a boost of energy as I ran down Main Street!

The course took us into Frontierland and I saw a huge line of people just standing around. At first, I didn't know if they were all runners and I couldn't figure out why there were all just standing around. As I got close to the Rivers of America, I could see Chewbacca standing there taking pictures with runners. 

Before the race had started, I had told myself the only character I really wanted a picture with was Darth Vader. But, I knew I wouldn't be able to stand in any really

long lines because I needed to be careful of my time! I was hoping that since I was toward the end of the pack, that most of the runners would be through by the time I made it to the characters.

I was wrong! Really wrong! 
As I ran into Tomorrowland, I could see a huge line and there was no doubt in my mind what they were waiting for! As I ran around the corner, there was Darth Vader standing in front of the Innovations building! There were even Storm Troopers walking around! I debated for a few minutes whether I should stand in line or not..... but the line was at least a 20 minutes long and I knew I couldn't afford to lose that much time!

(I wasn't able to get my picture during the race... but I did manager to get

one while we were in the park!!)

From Tomorrowland, we ran back toward It's A Small World. There were a couple of Jedis standing there, cheering us on, and they didn't have any lines. So, I stopped for a quick selfie!!

We made our way through the backlot, which is one of my favorite parts! A lot of the employees come out to cheer and give high fives! It's so cool to see them all there, so early in the morning, giving up there time, to help make the race fun! They were also working on Splash Mountain while we were there, so all of the logs were sitting out and that was kind of cool to see!