Running

I'm following the Jeff Galloway runDisney training plan for the Star Wars 10k, which is awesome because it uploads to my Google Calendar. This weekend I was supposed to do 3.5 miles.  I was able to do it, despite my cold, so that was pretty awesome.

Here are my splits from my my Mapmyrun record for Sunday's run run:

For my training, I've been working on interval running.  I used to have a goal to run a whole race, but that seems somewhat unrealistic right now.  I've found a pretty comfortable groove at a 1min/1min interval.  I'm doing about an 11:30 pace on my runs and about 18:00 or so on my walks.  I know, I'm terribly slow, but all I need to do to avoid being swept at my Disney race is stay above a 16:00 pace overall, And I'm below that, so I think I will be ok.  I'm trying to be really careful to not push to hard.  

I think the potential for getting swept is what scares me the most about doing the race.  It happened to my parents a few years ago and my mom was really upset.  For those who don't know, Disney has a pace requirement and if you aren't meeting that pace, they will pull you off the course and take you to the finish in a golf cart.  You don't get to finish the race.

My running journey started about 5 years ago when I decided that I wanted a Disney Princess Half Marathon Medal from Walt Disney World in Florida.  It's shaped like a tiara which makes it the coolest medal EVER!  When I told my mom about it she decided that she would train too, because a Disney run sounded fun, but she would do the Disneyland Half Marathon (we are west coasters, so it's closer.)  Well, before we knew it, there were about 12 of us who were all going to do the Disneyland Half.  Awesome.  Until I went and did my first 5k.  It turned out to be a trail course (unbeknownst to me), and I injured my shins.  I had already registered (and paid for) the Disney Princess race well in advance.  But I couldn't do it.  I couldn't run.  The pain in my shins was just too much.  So I didn't even go and try to do the run.  It seemed better to just waste the cost of the run than to also waste the airfare.  They mailed me my shirt and my bib and I cried.  At least I was smart enough to not sign up for the Disneyland Half.  

I was also really jealous of my mom and all the others who were doing awesome at their training.  I went down to join them for the race and even made everyone charm bracelets to celebrate. But a few weeks before the race, my mom injured her foot.  She went to the race anyway and she tried her hardest, but she was too slow and she got swept.  She was so upset and I felt so bad for her.  But I was also so proud of her.  She was hurt and she still had the courage to go out there and try.  I admire her courage so much for doing that.

I'm scared the same thing will happen to me.  That I will have worked and trained so hard and in the end, failed.  Failed to finish.  But right now, things are going well.  Since my last whole30, my shin pain has been gone and I hadn't had any pain during my training so far.  I hope things go well and I can finish the runs I have signed up for.  

And someday, I'm going to get that princess medal.