RunDisney

In 16 days I will be boarding an insanely early flight to Orlando and beginning a fairly sleep deprived weekend of Disney fun! Last summer my friend Laurie got this bright idea to register for the Disney Princess 10k, held on the weekend of the Disney Princess Half Marathon. RunDisney events are pretty huge - I have another online friend who does a lot of them, but it was not something I ever considered doing since it's not a cheap trip. But here I am, just barely two weeks out and getting ready to run.

I have my bib number now (33929) and signed my waiver, gathered my costume for the race, and I just have to keep training and also figure out how I'm going to pack for an entire weekend in only a carry-on, which I have never done before. It's going to be interesting.

I always knew I wasn't going to run the whole 6.2 miles. I'm just not a runner, by nature, and didn't really think that was a feasible goal. So I've always been an interval runner, but I've been messing around with my intervals trying to figure out what I could reasonably sustain for 6.2 miles. I've only ever done 5ks, and only officially two of those.

For a few weeks I as doing a 3 min run/walk interval, and I was keeping a 14:45 or so pace that way. The pace requirement for the race is 16 min/mile, so I was within range. But then I read something about 30:30 intervals...as in 30 seconds...and although it sounded kind of crazy I decided to give it a try. Holy cow, what a difference! I immediately shed a minute off my pace without changing anything else. It was pretty cool, because I didn't realize that 30 seconds wasn't near enough time to get fatigued, so it was time to walk before I could get tired enough to slow down. Rinse and repeat. So far I've done a 5k using this method, and although I thought it would be super annoying to keep walking/running/walking so often, it really just sort of became an easy habit and I didn't even really have to think about it. So that's my plan, right now. 30 second intervals, and then as the race progresses, especially towards the end, I can adjust as needed. Not too tired? Maybe run longer. Tired? Walk more. When you factor in the character stops I may make along the route, I don't think it will be a problem.

Here's our race course:

I'm glad the long, boring stretch is at the front of the race. It will still be dark (the race starts at 5:30 am!) so hopefully by the time we starting getting into Epcot the sun will be nearing the horizon.

I decided to give a little love to Izzy the Pirate for this race, partially because it's pretty different costume-wise and there probably won't be as many others dressed as her, and partially because Kate has been on a serious Jake and the Neverland Pirates kick lately.

I cannot wait for it to get here. It's going to be a seriously fun, seriously exhausting, and seriously busy weekend.