Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon Part 1

It seems like every time I take a trip with friends (well, most of the time) we end up having some sort of bad luck along the way.

If you have some time, please join me for a whirlwind story of two girls who were just trying to run 13.1 miles, 858 miles away in one weekend.

Our story begins last May at my bff's bridal shower. I had mentioned to Stacey Marshall that I was going to run the Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon for my 25th B-day and that she should totally join me. Well, she agreed! We signed up, trained separately ( boo!) then waited anxiously for February 26th! Flash forward to Friday February 24th. It was finally time to do this thing!

yum.

 I took 1/2 a day from work for travel to Orlando so we could have plenty of time Saturday to do all the necessary things (get bib numbers, shopping, laying out by the pool etc.) before the big race Sunday. We checked in, got some KFC (healthy, yes) and then waited to go through security. Stacey and I freaked out when we had to take our flats off in order to go through. It was just gross on that floor! Plus, I will admit I had on my travel comfy flats that were a little stinky... sorry dude behind me! We got through but not without a oopsy from Stacey's bag. She didn't have her 3oz bottles in a clear bag. tisk tisk. We should have taken that as sign #1 of bumpy trip to come.

Come on Stacey, get with it.. you are dating a pilot! ;)

We had stand by tickets from her boo, Greg who is a pilot (hi Greg!) We weren't 100% sure we would be on the first flight, but hopeful for the second one out that night to Charlotte. Well, storms came and delayed and cancelled flights so we got no where friday night. Stacey and I  were upset and freakin out. We went our separate ways for the night while Greg had to work some magic and get us last min flights to Orlando in the early morning in order for us to get there on time for the Expo Saturday.

I played a little of this while we circled...

Needless to say it was a bumpy situation; the flight ordeal itself and the actual turbulence. The flight to Philly was AWFUL! Almost my worst plane ride to date. But we didnt care because we were going to DISNEY yall! After our excitement level went up close to landing, we had to circle and circle and circle the city till we were about 15 mins past our time of arrival! The pilot said "We had to take the scenic air route because more planes are trying to land"  We were gonna miss our next flight!! We felt sorry for the guy next to us going to Cancun. His fight for the sunny south was to depart at 8:55.. too bad it was 9:05 when we landed. As soon as we got off we found help to get around. You ever been in that airport?! Its huge and confusing. We immediately found a guy with a sweet ride to shuttle our butts to the bus where we had to go clear cross the world to our gate. I tried to get a video of the ride because he had a little bell he rang while saying "watch the cart please!" it was hilarious. We made it just in time. Orlando was within our reach.

and landed.

 Finally arriving at 1:00, we got our bags and headed on the Disney magically express to our magical hotel! I just love Disney!

We headed over to Disney's Wide World of Sports for the Runners Expo. Very exciting stuff! 

Getting my bib number!

Sweaty Bands galore!

Madness

Word.

Then we saw Mr. Jeff Galloway! 

                                       Running Glass Slipper.. Always need one of those!                                    

       

Gettin' our pose on with the sign!

And last but not least... Eating Pasta in our cute dining hall of the resort the night before. We were exhausted at this point and still hadn't even ran 13.1 yet. More to come in Part 2!