Zooma Half Marathon

Today I ran the Zooma Half Marathon which was in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island. This is a women's race series. My running partner, Lisa, and Lisa's friend Heather and I signed up for it about 3 months ago. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in downtown Fernandina and it just happened to be right by the start! It was great because we were able to walk out to the start just a few minutes before the start.

Ready to start!

The course winds through downtown Fernandina...

On Center Street

...turns north on 14th street and crosses over a bridge which then leads you through a back gate into Ft. Clinch State Park. 

Beautiful morning!

After running to the beach access area, you turn around in the parking lot and run out of the park, onto the beach road and then end at the Ritz Carlton. The worst part was running through soft sand. It was a bit longer than 13.1 (more like 13.3.)

ALL DONE!

Although I did not set a personal record, I had a great race. It helped to have Michael and Annie along with Lisa's daughter, Rachel and her friend, Shelby cheering us on. We even had our good friends, John and Denise, cheer us on! They came up and stayed with other friends Lu and Sandy, who hosted us the night before for a tasty Tex Mex dinner!

Zooma had a nice after-party on the lawn at the Ritz but we were starving and ready to eat our well-deserved post-race burger, so we didn't linger long.

Our blingy medals

Thanks to Lu's suggestion, we ate at T Rays and had a great burger!

I even ate the bun and the fries!

Now that that one's behind me, I've gotta find something else to train for. My Sonlight pals have invited me to run in their hometowns. Hmmm...I'll have to see when those races are! Destination races are fun!

Winter Hats

For this week the Style Me Blogger's post is supposed to be about our favorite winter hats. Uh oh. I only have one really. And it isn't a fashionable hat. It's a totally practical kind of hat: a cold-weather running hat (as opposed to my warm weather running hat which is a baseball cap). When I'm running is about the only time I need to wear a hat in the winter in Florida, because I'm usually running during the coldest part of the day: right after the dawn.

I look dorky in hats!

What I like about this particular hat is that it has a ponytail hole in the back so that your ponytail can stick out when you pull it down over your ears.

Isn't this brilliant?

I usually wear my hair short and don't need this hole, but when I first bought the hat my hair was long enough to wear in a ponytail. And my hair has grown quite a bit in the last three months so that it can almost fit in a ponytail. Therefore I will get to use the hole again very soon now that it has turned cold!

More like a pigtail than a ponytail

Since I live in Florida, I don't wear winter hats during the day. I do have a hood on my parka that I can pull on if needed but I find that a hat 1) doesn't look good on me and 2) messes up my hair. 

I'm sure my styling sisters to the north have more to say on the subject. Check them out in the links below!

Shoes to Shiraz | Two Teens and their Mama | A Lovely Little Wardrobe | R Squared 

Confessions of a Frumpy Mommy | Family Love Inspiration Education  

The Mishaps and Mayhem of Solitary Life | The Blondissima | Familiar Joy

Positively Learning | Quilty Joy Joy | Daily Style Finds | Sheila's Potpourri | Puppies and Pretties She thought she could | Looks like Lauren | Foxy's Domestic Side | 
Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After | Wardrobe Therapy

Disney Half Marathon

One goal completed! Kinda. 

I had set a goal time of 2:17. I missed that by a long shot.

We were supposed to submit a proof of our time by Nov. 1. We thought it was by the end of November. When we realized we had missed the deadline, we also realized that we were going to be placed in the VERY last corral. Behind the walkers. Behind the people who walk a 20 min mile. *sigh*

At the expo

Honestly, I didn't really care. I quickly realized that this was a running EVENT for me and not a running RACE. Michael and his brother, John, ran with me since they had signed up for the Goofy event. The idea was that they would run easy with me on Saturday and then run hard the next day. They weren't counting on all the starting and stopping required by the crowds as well as all the off-road running in order to pass people. So they ended up being quite sore and had trashed legs for the marathon the following day. Oops!

Here we go!

But I digress. Back to the race! Disney just does everything so well. There were Disney characters, cheerleaders, high school bands, huge TV screens blaring music, cast members cheering, volunteers passing out water and Powerade, and spectators ALL along the way. In the half you run through two parks, in the full you run through all four parks plus ESPN zone. But again, I'm getting ahead of myself. 

Did I mention that there were 16 corrals? They started with A and went through P. Yes, we were in corral P. We couldn't even see the start line or hear the announcers where we were. We had to walk quite a ways to even get in position. Disney had trash boxes set out along the way for garbage, recycling and clothes. 

Corral P circa 6:00 am

This is what it looked like standing in Corral P for over an hour. Each corral had their very own start complete with fireworks.

Get ready! Set! Go!!!

The race started at 5:30. Since each corral had their own start, we waited more than an hour before we started. Here is ours. See the stage and large screen? And the fireworks?! Donald Duck gave our "Ready? Set! GO!" 

The first of two highlights of my race was seeing Annie on Main Street. I've gotta brag on her a little bit. She figured out on her own how to come find us, by herself! First, she walked to the front of the campground, then she caught a bus to the back of the campground where she caught a boat to the Magic Kingdom. She texted us her location so we could look for her. 

When she got in position it was dark

It turned light while she waited for us for almost an hour!

So happy to see Annie!

It was an overwhelming feeling to hug her mid race in the midst of that sea of people.

She tried to find us at the castle, but I didn't know to look for her (missed that text).

She then caught the monorail to Epcot so she could see us at the finish line. She wormed her way to the front of the line and again texted us her position so we could spot her as we came out of the park.

The second highlight for me was running into Bob and Prudence along the routes these are friends of ours from church who were also running the Goofy. We happened upon the around mile 9 and ran with them for a few miles. Those miles just flew past! It's so fun to run with friends! 

The best part was finishing. I so enjoyed running and finishing with my husband. That was a first for us! 

All done!

And at the very end Timothy met up with us. Felt great to be done! 

The next day the three of us got up early to cheer for the twins during the marathon but we kept missing them at different points (Magic Kingdom, Grand Floridian and Polynesian). We finally met up with them at mile 18 at ESPN zone.

Timothy handing out high fives!

Feeling good!

Silly boys!

All together now!

At the finish line we were able to connect with old friends. (Love those cell phones!) He was our priest from our church in Tampa and I had worked with his wife as a classroom assistant in her 5th grade class. It was so sweet to see them! They had read our Christmas letter and knew we would be in Orlando for the race. Since their son was doing the Dopey Challenge, we were able to connect!

Hanging out with the Stulls

All in all it was a great time at Disney! Although it's hard to be there and NOT go to the parks, we still enjoyed hanging out in my brother's RV at the Ft. Wilderness campground, riding the monorail and the boats around, shopping at Downtown Disney and eating at Trail's End restaurant.

Downtown Disney Princesses

Enjoying the weather on the water

Saturday night dinner

Now I want to run another half marathon so I can hit that goal time!