So This Is Love: A 2010 Princess Half Marathon Trip Report!

Hi everyone! We returned almost two weeks ago from a quick weekend stay at Disney’s Pop Century resort, March 5-8. I swear, I finish one trip report and it’s time to turn around and start another one. :D Seeing that my last report hasn’t moved down the page too far, I’m going to be brief with the introductions, as I think many of you might “know” us by now!

I’m Holly, and traveling with me is my love, Brett. Here we are ringing in 2010 from sea:


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That picture was taken approximately 4 days after we signed up for the 2010 Princess Half Marathon! Now, I’m not a very princess-y girl and tiaras and sparkle really aren’t my thing. But after seeing the character pictures from last year’s inaugural event, the thought of meeting Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale in their royal attire had me sold. Therefore, we’d been talking about this as a possibility since sometime last summer; however, we didn’t actually pull the trigger and make it happen until the end of December. Mostly this is because the first week of March is one of the two absolute busiest weeks of my entire year at work. Pretty much everything I do leads up to a week long event and then tapers off from it twice a year. Because of this I knew the only way to make it happen would be to leave after work on Friday and come home Monday (taking only one day off). When we got home from our cruise we made resort reservations, secured some ADRs, and started setting the plan in motion. Oh yeah… and we talked about a training schedule. Can’t forget that! :lol:

Speaking of training… :lookaroun Does anyone remember how well prepared we were for the 2009 Marathon?!? I’m not going to go back and count, but I’m sure there were numerous times throughout that trip report that I swore I’d never go into another one of these events under trained… yada, yada, yada. Yeah… about that. :rolleyes: The motivation to train in the cold weather we’ve been having just wasn’t there. I know, I know, we live in South Carolina... hardly the harsh weather many others have been dealing with. Plus, I’ll admit, neither one of us was truly respecting the distance, considering we’d already conquered a full 26.2 miles, it wasn’t hard for us to tell ourselves we’d be okay pushing through a “measly” 13.1. I’m sitting here shaking my head at myself as I type this.

Anywhoo… enough about our pathetic attempts at training, let’s get on to the good stuff. One thing is for sure, Brett was a real sport about it all. From the beginning, months ago, when I asked him if he’d be willing to run a race geared towards women all the way to the finish line where he’d endured my countless references to him as Princess Brett.

So this is love!!
 

HollyBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 1 – Friday, March 5: The horrible, terrible, no good, very bad departure day

So the Monday prior to our departure I came home from work around 8 pm to find Brett sick with a head cold and accompanying fever. He was looking way worse than me, and I’d just put in a 13 hour day at work. Uh-oh. He kept jokingly saying he should get a hotel room for the next couple nights, so as not to get me sick during my hell week. Nonsense… I’ll be fine! :lookaroun Fast forward to Friday morning (my third consecutive 4:30 am wakeup call)... and BAM, what do you know!? My head felt like it was going to absolutely explode. Begrudgingly I got up and got ready for work. I vividly remember fighting with the pantyhose and telling myself it’d all be okay because I’d be at Disney World this time tomorrow and I wouldn’t have to wear blasted heels the whole weekend.

Best case scenario if all fell into place, I could be out of work by 5 pm. This of course didn’t happen; I ended up having to return to the office to take care of some things, causing our departure to be postponed by about 2 hours. Finally, at 7 pm we were on the road. Brett had prepared an arsenal of Sudafed, cough drops, and tissues for me, along with a blanket and pillow. By the time we got on the other side of Atlanta I was all doped up and drifting in and out of sleep.

We rolled up to the Pop Century guard shack at approximately 3:30 am… tired but excited to be there. We were joking that this was our first trip back to the “slums” since May 2008… five trips ago! I really do like Pop, but apparently, I’ve become quite the resort snob as of late. While I only managed one picture in my drug induced stupor on our way to the room, I think it screams Pop Century:

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Not wanting to waste the whole morning, we decided a 9 am wakeup call would be sufficient and we were out before 4. :snore: :snore:
 

MKCP 1985

Well-Known Member
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Speaking of training… :lookaroun Does anyone remember how well prepared we were for the 2009 Marathon?!? I’m not going to go back and count, but I’m sure there were numerous times throughout that trip report that I swore I’d never go into another one of these events under trained… yada, yada, yada. Yeah… about that. :rolleyes: The motivation to train in the cold weather we’ve been having just wasn’t there. I know, I know, we live in South Carolina... hardly the harsh weather many others have been dealing with. Plus, I’ll admit, neither one of us was truly respecting the distance, considering we’d already conquered a full 26.2 miles, it wasn’t hard for us to tell ourselves we’d be okay pushing through a “measly” 13.1. I’m sitting here shaking my head at myself as I type this.

Great picture to introduce your report! :D You two are quite the handsome couple.

Oh, the training runs didn't quite match the recommendations in the manual? :lol:

Can't wait to read all about it . . . :wave:
 

HollyBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
:lol: Loving it already, Holly!

Thanks, Jenn! I know you'll truly appreciate some of the character pictures to come.

Great picture to introduce your report! :D You two are quite the handsome couple.

Oh, the training runs didn't quite match the recommendations in the manual? :lol:

Can't wait to read all about it . . . :wave:

Thanks, Doug. Training? There's a manual for that?! The phrase "didn't quite match up" is really an understatement! :lol: This trip report should've been titled How Not to Run a Half Marathon.
 

HollyBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 – Saturday, March 6: Epcot/Expo/DTD

So I’ve read a few threads around here regarding the thinness of the walls at Pop Century and the All-Stars and how you can hear everything, but it was something I’d never experienced myself in all my stays at the value resorts. Now I know why... Brett and I are always up by 6:30-6:45am and out the door by 7:30 at the latest when we’re at Disney. We’re just never around the resort long enough in the mornings to notice the crying babies and screaming moms. This morning was different. The family next door figured if they were up, everyone within a three room vicinity should be up, too. Uggghhh.

Once we were ready to go we headed off to Old Key West to get some breakfast at Olivia’s. We didn’t have reservations but figured a walk up wouldn’t be too hard to snag, especially at a more out of the way resort. We got there around 10 am and had about a 10 minute wait. It was extremely odd having breakfast so late. The place was packed with people... we’re used to being one of a very few tables, if not the only one, when we have breakfast. It’s so interesting how you get used to a routine. I felt all out of sorts simply because of the time. Even though I knew what little sleep we got was necessary and I was nowhere near feeling up to commando-ing through a park, I still couldn’t help but sit there thinking about how we had lost so much valuable park time.

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Our food took forever to arrive and I’d say it was closing in on 11 am by the time we got out of there. Our intention was to go straight to the Expo, hand off our race waivers and pick up our packets. When we got to the Wide World of Sports, the parking lots were super packed. Apparently, there were a lot of little league style tournaments going on in addition to the expo. Parking was chaos, so much so that people were parking up on the curb and multiple drivers were “stalking” those walking back to their vehicles. We tried our best to find a way into the overflow lot but there was no way to get there, and no signs or attendants directing traffic. Eventually we just circled out of the lot and headed to Epcot, figuring we’d get back over there before it closed at 6 pm.
 

HollyBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The entrance gates to Epcot appeared insanely busy to me... I was wondering what was going on. Brett had to remind me that we were showing up when hordes of others usually start their day and not at 8 or 9 am. Once inside the turnstiles we made a bee-line off to the right to meet Stitch and Daisy Duck. I was still feeling like a truck had run over me... and character love is a great start to making one feel better!

My favoritest blue guy:

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Sweet Daisy:

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Fastpasses for most of the bigger rides weren’t really an option because it was already pretty late and we knew we wouldn’t be at the park all day so we decided to sign up for a KP mission instead. We got in a quick ride on The Seas with Nemo and Friends before taking off for World Showcase. I took a small handful of Flower and Garden Festival pictures as we browsed the countries. You know how Brett knew I was miserably sick?! Well, other than the glazed over eyes and constant whining coming from my direction... I wasn’t all too into taking pictures. :eek: What?! Quick, get a doctor; someone take this girl’s temperature, she’s not right!

Not a lot of change in the topiaries scattered about World Showcase this year (just slightly new locations for them):

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I don’t have a green thumb, so when it comes to the F&GF I enjoy the topiaries for what they are, but that’s about my extent of involvement in the festival offerings. We didn’t even take the time to go to “Garden Town” headquartered in the Wonders of Life pavilion. I recall walking through there during our May 2008 trip and don’t figure we missed anything this time around.
 

HollyBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Moving much slower than usual we eventually found ourselves in China around 1:30 or so... time for lunch! I LOVE me some Nine Dragons and what’s even better is that, in our experience, we have always been able to get a table without reservations. I went with the honey chicken this time around and Brett had his usual Kung Pao chicken.

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During lunch, at about the time I realized I could hardly taste my chicken because of the head cold, Brett and I decided it’d be best to cancel our dinner reservations. Drat. We had ADRs for the Brown Derby, which we’d both really been looking forward to, but we knew it wouldn’t be worth the money if I couldn’t even enjoy the meal.

You know how when you have a bad head cold, your eyes will just water and tear up? Well, while we were waiting for the check my eyes started watering like crazy and tears started rolling out of them. Brett was laughing and telling me to stop (as if I had control over it) because people around us were going to start thinking he was a super jerk for breaking up with me at Disney World! We were definitely getting some funny looks, or I guess I should say, I was getting some funny looks and Brett was getting some dirty ones. It was at this point we figured it’d be best to skip the KP mission and get some rest! Ughhhh, this day was not turning out how I’d have liked for it to.

After a brief stop in MouseGear, we took some more pictures of the F&GF set up, because we didn’t know if we’d be back, and then we were off for the car.

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I know he's a villain and all, but Scar is looking quite bedraggled!

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But wait... one last character pic before we drive off. We found Herbie... looks like he escaped from the Streets of America:

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HollyBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
It was about 2:30 pm when we got there, but we didn’t have nearly as much trouble finding a parking spot at the Expo this time around. With the new ESPN layover, the Wide World of Sports received some new signage:

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The expo was still hopping, as you can see:

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This is the official merchandise area in the corner:

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There were some majordomos on hand to escort the princesses. For some reason, Brett felt I should go it alone with this photo opportunity. He gets a pass... I mean the guy is a trooper, after all he did willingly sign up to run a princess race with me where men are outnumbered something like 30 to 1!


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We were quick getting in and out of the expo. I was hoping for a cute t-shirt or a small plush runner Minnie Mouse to represent the event, but no such luck with either. Done with the merch area, we signed our waivers, got our goody bags, bibs, and race programs, activated our d-tags, and quickly made our way back to Pop. I was fading fast and it was time for a nap break, pronto!

Storybook Program:

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When registering for the event we each got to pick our favorite princess. I quickly picked Belle, as she's always been my favorite and Brett went for Jasmine, from his very favorite movie. Well... Jasmine wasn't an option. :eek: I know, can you believe it?! So he went with Tiana instead. Unfortunately, her bib wasn't as bright of a green as we'd have liked, and in the picture below it hardly has any color.

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HollyBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Back at the resort I popped more meds and crawled into bed, while Brett got caught up on some work and cancelled our Brown Derby reservations. When I woke up about an hour and a half later he informed me that in lieu of the fabulous dinner we’d cancelled, he scored us breakfast reservations at Akershus for Monday morning. Woohooo! We have all intentions of eating at absolutely every restaurant on Disney property at least once, and this is the perfect time to check off an extremely expensive princess breakfast that we otherwise wouldn’t be all too excited about, nor willing to pay for. Now there’s even more pressure to start feeling better and make it to that finish line. I mean, I can’t very well show up to a princess breakfast without my bling. I would be escorted out immediately.

I crawled out of bed, made myself somewhat presentable, and we took off for Downtown Disney, where we started taking pictures of ourselves with all things princess-y:

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We scoured the World of Disney store in search of a specific pair of Minnie ears I was set on for the race... the ones with the red/white polka dot bow. Unfortunately, the only ones we could find were the sparkly ones with a solid red bow. :( I couldn't find it at MouseGear either. Oh well, looks like I’d be running without my ears.

I noticed a shirt in Tren-D that made me particularly happy... a Daisy Duck shirt! :D And what’s even better, it has Chip and Dale on it as well. I believe it’s from the short, “Crazy Over Daisy,” in which Chip & Dale pick on Donald mercilessly without any provocation and then in the end Daisy sides with the munks! Classic! There were a few other shirts of the same nature. I like ‘em:

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HollyBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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Getting hungrier we took off for the Earl of Sandwich or as we like to say, sammich! In my opinion, this is the most reasonable place you’ll find for a sandwich at Disney. My only complaint is that the place is always super packed. So Brett got in line to place our order while I casually walked around the restaurant, playing my own personal game of musical chairs. I lost a few rounds to pushier people who were basically standing over families as they finished their dinner. I finally staked claim to a two top and had my own little victory party as Brett was nearing the end of the line. Because I wasn’t feeling well Brett ordered me some soup to go along with my sammich... it was potato bacon and super tasty.

After gobbling up our dinner we headed over to the Art of Disney to dream a little.


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At some point in the night we realized we had forgotten to pick up breakfast for the morning. See, last year when we ran the marathon, we stopped by Sunshine Seasons the day before to pick up muffins for the early morning wake up call. It worked out really well and we intended to do the same again but somehow forgot while we were at Epcot. I lost a bet when I told Brett I figured we’d be able to pick some up somewhere at DTD, probably Goofy’s Candy Company. He laughed at my idea that there’d be muffins at a candy shop. He won.

How 'bout cupcakes for breakfast, babe?!

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While we were there we got a glimpse into our blurry future as carnies. Apparently, Brett would have toothpick legs and I’d be a square:

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At least now I know it’s in my best interest not to run off and join the circus. :lol:
 

HollyBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We left DTD, now thinking we might be able to pick up some muffins at the Pop food court... NOPE. No muffins there, either. Knowing some kind of breakfast was a necessity as we were walking out of the food court, Brett saw the Epcot bus about to take off and he went and hopped on it. He was practically gone before I realized what he was doing. I took a few pictures on the way back to the room...

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When I got there I started laying out all the necessities, knowing that we’d forget something if we waited until our 3am wakeup call to get things together. Hmmm... so what do two people need for 13.1 miles across the World on foot:

-2 sets of running clothes
-2 sets of "throwaway" clothes: sweatshirt, hoodie and pants
-2 pairs of running shoes
-2 dtags to track times
-2 knee braces
-1 ankle brace
-2 pairs of socks
-2 race bibs
-8 safety pins to fasten on bibs
-1 amphipod fuel belt
-1 small pack of tissues
-1 fully charged digital camera (without this there wouldn’t be any point in running) :D I'm serious, people!
-8 powerbar gels for fuel
-$20 just in case we beg off the race for a margarita somewhere
-1 extra hair elastic
-1 room key
-1 pre-race bottle of water
-2 pairs of sunglasses
-and last but not least, 1 GOOFY hat and a miniature grabber Goofy to go along with it!

Whew! By the time I had it all laid out, Brett was back with breakfast. Turns out Sunshine Seasons no longer had any muffins, so two gigantic cinnamon rolls it was!

We were exhausted and in bed by 9 pm. There’s no way this cold would keep me from making it to the starting line; however, given the way I felt, I was still extremely concerned that I might not have the energy to make it all the way to the finish line. But we’ll see!

I know you’ve all had that experience where you’ve been asleep for only, like, 10 minutes and you think it’s been eons.... well at approximately 9:17 pm Brett shot up with an “Oh &%#$!” He thought it was the next morning and we’d slept through the whole race. :eek: That’s how tired we were.


Up next... RACE DAY! :sohappy:
 

disneygirl1

Well-Known Member
Oh Holly!!! Isn't just a worst when you are not feeling well ins Disney!!! :cry: I was sick when we were there in September and there were points during the day that I just wanted to cry!!! Anyway, loving the report and am super jealous that you got to go to Disney world again!!! So.... When's the next trip??? :lol:
 

mouselvrmom

Well-Known Member
I'm so sorry that you felt so sick so far... at least you seem to be making the best of it.

And now you've really got me waiting for those fabulous character pictures to come! I'm trying to wait patiently... :lol:
 

HollyBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Great TR so far!

Thanks, Joanna!

Excellent TR thus far--really love the pictures from OKW!

Thank you! The OKW pictures are some of my favorite from the whole trip. I'm a little disappointed, overall, with the pictures I came back with this time, but that's what next time is for. :) Thankfully I get to go as often as I do so I won't have to wait too terribly long before I can take some more.

Can't wait! :sohappy:

Woohoo... the first part of the race is coming up shortly!

Oh Holly!!! Isn't just a worst when you are not feeling well ins Disney!!! :cry: I was sick when we were there in September and there were points during the day that I just wanted to cry!!! Anyway, loving the report and am super jealous that you got to go to Disney world again!!! So.... When's the next trip??? :lol:

I think this is the first time I've felt so bad while being at the happiest place on earth... it really is miserable isn't it?! We're lucky, the next trip is hopefully going to be in October; however, if that doesn't work out we'll be back in December!

I'm so sorry that you felt so sick so far... at least you seem to be making the best of it.

And now you've really got me waiting for those fabulous character pictures to come! I'm trying to wait patiently... :lol:

Thanks, Jenn. Now let's get started with those character pictures!
 

HollyBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 3 – Sunday, March 7: Princess Half Marathon Day!!!!!!!! Followed by some park-hoppping, of course.

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The course map shown above is actually a little incorrect, not that it matters to most of you but there are two big differences in the image and the actual course. The first came just before mile marker 2... we didn’t have to go all the way down and make the exit loop onto World Drive, instead we got to veer off on a right hand exit, making it much shorter (and easier than the banked exit ramp). Also, working in our favor, we didn’t have to go all the way out around the backside of the race track, which gave us an opportunity to run through the MK entrance gates!

Anyhoo, let’s get to it!

So race “morning” came at the ungodly hour of 3 am... we got up, put on all our gear, affixed the bibs to our shirts and drove over to Epcot. Last year for the marathon we took race transportation to the starting line, but this year we decided to drive ourselves. It was kind of nice because we were able to sit in the car until about 4:45 am and enjoy our cinnamon rolls without shivering in the early morning temperatures.

This is my “Hi, it’s 4 am, I have a blasphemous head cold, I’m not wearing any make up, this cinnamon roll is kinda stale, why did I sign myself up for this ridiculous torture, and why is Brett taking a picture of me?” picture!

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Eventually we had to leave the sanctuary of our warm car and head over to the staging area. No pictures of it this time... I was too cold to get out the camera and play. My little throwaway hoodie wasn’t doing such a good job of keeping me warm. I honestly kept reminding myself of the frigid temps the January runners had to endure this year, and how much worse they were than this. We breezed through bag check around 5 am (we weren’t checking anything) and made our merry way down the path to the starting corrals.

Like last year we noticed the old backlot tour trams rotting in their graves:

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I know it’s backstage and all, but this is something that has surprised me during the races we’ve run. Some of the things found in the backstage areas are left around as if they’re an afterthought. Clearly this wasn’t temporary “parking” for those trams, as they were there last year and the weeds have already begun claiming them. It just seems lazy to me and very un-Disney like. It reminds me of those houses you drive by that put an old couch out on the back porch “temporarily,” but it ends up sitting there for eons waiting to go to the dump. :rolleyes: Any explanations?!

Behold the sad sorry state of what I believe were the once beautiful, now defunct, Lights of Winter:

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Why do I think the Lights of Winter rest under that plastic?! I could be wrong, but this is exactly where they were sitting, exposed, last January. So sad.

Eventually we came to the port-a-potty clearing (as seen on the left):

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From there we headed to the slowpoke corral, Corral E, the last of five corrals... meaning when the initial gun/fireworks go off for the 6 am start... we’ll still have 28 minutes until our wave gets to go! There’s a lot of “hurry up and wait” happening in the hours before these races. We spent the time trying to stay warm and I was doing my best to psych myself up; I was really concerned about how the head cold would affect my ability to run. Thankfully, I didn’t feel nearly as bad as I had the day before. I was counting on positive energy to get me through this thing, well that and Daisy Duck in royal garb waiting for me somewhere along the course! :sohappy:

Hey look... there’s another XY chromosome out here! His girlfriend probably roped him into finding his inner princess, as well:

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We were near the front of the last corral, and look at just how far away that start line is. If you squint you might be able to make it out! :ROFLOL:
 

HollyBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The Fairy Godmother was counting down, or at least that’s what we think, seeing as we were too far back to actually see her and from our vantage point she was just a blip on the jumbo screen they had set up. Anyway... 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Fireworks:

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After about 7 minutes the second corral received their send off and we started to inch forward. I was excited to see that all corrals were getting a proper dose of fireworks when it was time. Getting closer:

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Here’s a self portrait right before our own start:

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Brett decided to take the spirit of Goofy with him along for the journey, so he’s equipped with Goofy hat and Goofy colors (his bib was supposed to be a bright green, but you can’t tell in the pictures) and grabber Goofy was along for the ride again... pictures with him in tow are forthcoming. He survived the full marathon attached to Brett’s knee brace last January, so we figured it was only fitting that he join us again this time around.

Hey look... it really is the Fairy Godmother:

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Finally, it was our turn! I was so excited to start running, if for no other reason than to start warming up my body. My toes felt a bit numb for the first three miles. Again, as I whine, I can’t help but think about the poor souls who ran in January.

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