It’s been a minute! I’m back from the half marathon weekend and I have so much to discuss. Where to start?!
I’ll cut to the chase of the race results first. I completed it! (Obviously.) I finished the race in about 2 hours and 47 minutes, according to my official RunDisney results, although if you’ve ever ran these races, you’ll learn it’s not that exact, give or take 5-10 minutes due to a variety of factors, which I’ll go over. But this isn’t too far off since when I trained, the farthest I ran was 20 km in about 2 hours and 30 minutes time. The half is 13.1 miles, which is about 21 km, roughly. I placed 6115 out of 20100 total finishers, and 4818 in the gender place out of 17106 women who finished.
I can’t begin to tell you all the emotions I went through that day. From the start to the finish, every thing felt like a whirlwind. In retrospect though, I’d have to say it was quite the experience of a lifetime. It really does move you to see what you can do, what you are capable of and everyone around you motivating you as you push forward. It’s an amazing feeling.
Morning of the Race
I woke up feeling so anxious. Actually, that’s a lie. I didn’t really get any sleep that night at all, maybe an hour if I was lucky but I felt like I was up the whole night trying to fall asleep and then gave up at a certain point and just got up to get ready and warm up with my resistance bands for glute activation. So I didn’t wake up, per se, more like I got up at 1am since I had to be on the buses by 3am. The race doesn’t officially start til 5:30am so it was a long morning. I had a banana and a protein bar for breakfast on the bus although I wasn’t feeling very hungry but I knew I was going to need it as race fuel later on. You don’t want to run on empty. I was also racing with one of my best friends, which helped a lot to keep each other company during the long wait, since the beginning of the race took forever. It officially started at 5:30 but they launch in corrals and I was corral F so I didn’t get to start until nearly 6am.
My poor sisters also woke up in the dead of the night to make the mecca with us to the start line. Looking back, they didn’t need to be up so early, but now we know for next time they can just meet us at the Magic Kingdom checkpoint instead. I feel bad making them get up so early but I really appreciate the dedication to being my cheerleaders for this weekend. They were a big part of my trip and helping me push through it and I had such a great time because they were with me in body as well as spirit. They even made posters and held them up proudly. Just them being there and running to each checkpoint, screaming my name out, saying “YEAHHHH THAT’S MY SISTER!,” texting me throughout the race to check in with me and how I was doing, taking all my photos, well, it really did mean A LOT to me. It takes a lot of love to do something like that and it really meant something to me that they took the time out of their lives to come out for me.
Products I Used (for the makeup enthusiasts)
I read a few blogs regarding makeup specifically for races because I knew that regardless of how people warned against wearing makeup during races, I was going to do it anyway so I wanted notes from other racers who had done it. I’m vain, we know that, so let’s get that out of the way. I did my makeup, locking it in with primers before applying anything and then setting the finished look with Urban Decay’s All Nighter Spray, which is why everything still looked intact despite the humidity and my face feeling like it wanted to melt off, for those asking how I was able to cross the finish line still looking like a princess, hahaha. Using both primers to start and a setting spray to finish was double insurance.
I looked into a lighter coverage foundation than my usual full coverage to lessen the damage that might incur from the combination of foundation and sweat clogging up your pores and causing breakouts. I bought Dior’s Dreamskin cushion, which I ended up loving. It’s light and feels great on. It still covers up my freckles, albeit lightly, and I love that it just looks like an enhanced version of my natural skin, similar to a BB cream finish. I used a more natural looking color blush as well, as opposed to my traditional bright pinks. I tried to stay in neutral tones closer to my natural complexion, so that if I did sweat and my makeup started to melt off, it wouldn’t look a complete hot mess. I did choose a nice bright Barbie pink liquid lipstick though with a layer of glitter on top for my lip color. I wanted a punch of color to match my race outfit. Liquid lipstick I highly recommend for long wearing color. A lot of blogs also highly recommended waterproof mascara which I definitely can attest to its recommendation since regular mascara will definitely give you some raccoon eyes after a few miles. I opted out of false lashes for the race though to avoid the lash glue melting if mixed with sweat and getting in my eyes.
