Friday, April 18, 2014

Princess Half Marathon Recap, Part I - Everything that could go wrong...

I haven't been enthusiastic about writing this recap because the race didn't go well for me.  The last time I ran Princess, I wrote a 3-part recap including details about our stay in Orlando, the expo, as well as the race!

I wanted Princess to be my post-baby half marathon because I've run it before, I absolutely love it, and it would give me the perfect amount of time to train.  When Disney announced they were adding the Enchanted 10K on Saturday and starting the Glass Slipper Challenge, I wasn't initially sure I wanted to do both races.  I thought I would take time to think about it and see how I felt once I started running again.  When race registration had been open less than 24 hours and the Challenge was already 93% full, however, I decided it was time to pull the trigger.  I signed myself up to do 19.3 miles in 2 days!

We drove to Orlando on Wednesday and stayed at the All Star Sports Resort, like we always do for Disney races, and we planned to come home on Sunday after the half marathon.  Meredith did great on the car ride.  She got fussy for the last 45 minutes, but she was really tired from not having a good nap and being stuck in the car all day.  We ate dinner at the resort and I got her to bed without any problems.

Two hours later when Pete and I were getting ready to go to bed, Meredith woke up.  I tried to get her calm down but she became progressively more upset.  I ended up putting her in bed with me (our room had 2 double beds) and she slept in short spurts either laying on my shoulder, or laying next to me.  Every 30-45 minutes she would wake up and cry and I would rub her back and sing to her a little and she'd settle back down.  She also kept getting hotter and hotter and I knew she had a fever.

At 8am I asked Pete to take Meredith to breakfast so I could get a little sleep.  I think I slept about an hour while they were gone, but when they came back we knew we needed to take Meredith to an urgent care facility.  Long story short, she had her first ear infection.  We got her some antibiotics and spent the rest of the day taking care of her and helping her get some sleep.

Poor sick baby.

On Thursday evening we left Meredith with my mom for awhile so I could go to the expo and pick up my race packet.  At that point I knew Meredith would not be participating in her kids' race, but I still picked up her packet and got her t-shirt and personalized bib.

I love race expos - seeing everyone hyped up about the race, checking out all the cool fitness gear - that's when I start to get really excited!  Disney expos are very impressive.  They're at the ESPN Wide World of Sports and it's basically a huge room full of booths selling all my favorite running things.  This year I bought a new Bondi Band (because I forgot to bring the one I planned to wear) and a Sweaty Band.  I don't like Sweaty Bands for working out because they fit a little snugly on me and give me a headache, but they have been great to wear around the house just to keep the hair out of my eyes.  We didn't stay at the expo too long because we were tired, but I was very excited to have my bib!


After 24 hours of antibiotics Meredith seemed almost completely better, but I was starting to get sick.  When I don't get enough sleep and get run down, I start to have sinus trouble, which was exactly what happened in Orlando.

Feeling better!

Between taking care of Meredith and not being able to breathe through my nose, I was barely sleeping.  On Friday I knew something had to give if I was going to be able to race, so I took some Benadryl and took a very long nap.  I usually don't take Benadryl because it makes me so drowsy I can barely function, but I needed something to make me sleep.  It helped a lot and I started to get better and feel more like I was going to make it.  I took more Benadryl on Friday night and went to sleep early so that I could get a decent amount of rest before the 10K on Saturday.

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