Teacher-Runner Shannon Clark

Originally posted on Shannon's blog: I Run Read Teach

Follow her on twitter @shannonclark7

On facebook: Reading is Thinking

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Oh, boy! What can I say? It was one of the biggest accomplishments in my life. A very EMOTIONAL event. 

Yes, I’m talking about the Disney Princess Half Marathon on February 24th.

Last weekend of February 2012: 1st 5k race after completing the Couch25k program-39:52

Last weekend of February 2013: 1st half marathon after running for the past year-3:10:57

It’s been a long and fulfilling journey. Picture this-December 2011-I first told my family that my goal was to be able to run a 5k in 2012. My husband LAUGHED at me and said I was too old and too out of shape. Can we say “dagger eyes”????? It was on after that! 

I started running with the couch25k program weighing in at 163 lbs. 5’1.

A little bit over a year later I’m weighing in around 132-133 lbs. 5’1.

Now on to the Princess Half Marathon recap. I was feeling a little like superwoman when I signed up for this race. Well, A LOT like superwoman. The closer it got to race weekend I started getting REAL discouraged. I only have myself to blame. I DID NOT train like I was supposed to!! At all. 

My longest run was a 9 mile run 1 time about 4 weeks before the race. My other runs were 6 miles and below. Mostly below. 

The Monday before the race I got sick with a stomach virus. Really. I’m not making that up!!

So Friday the 22nd my husband and I headed down to Orlando. Yes, he took off from work to go with me. And believe me he is a workaholic so this was special! After driving 500 miles from Alabama to Orlando (me) and not having slept in over 24 hours (him) we (the Grumpycats) finally arrived at our resort. THEN we left to go eat. BIG MISTAKE! We got lost!! 1 1/2 hours of lostness. Enough said about Friday.

Moving on to Saturday. I went to the Race Expo to meet up with Amy at Juice Boxes and Crayolas. She is soooooo sweet. Loved meeting her and her sister-in-law and hanging with them for awhile! Hubby texted me a little after 12 noon to see if I was ok.  In other words-he was bored. I got back to resort, we got ready and went out to eat. He was in SUCH A BAD MOOD!! Here’s some background on my hubby. He loves to farm. Loves animals. Loves working. Does not love Disney World or any place that might offer a little bit of entertainment or fun.  :) Seriously. He should have been born Amish OR back in the 1800s!

Finally, Sunday morning 2am wakeup time arrived. I was soooo nervous. I ate 1/2 a banana while I got ready and then got on the shuttle to head toward my doom race. Had to hang out until 6:30 am since I was in the last corral to start. My stomach was GROWLING before I started running! 

They shot fireworks everytime a corral started running. It was exciting AND nervewracking!

This was around mile 5.5. I saw that castle and almost got choked up. Talk about a good feeling!

That’s the last pic I took until a whole day after the race. Yeah, I had to rest up. 

Here’s a pic of my mile splits:

And here’s a short summary of them:

Felt good (I’m talking PUMPED) until mile 6. Then started feeling tired. Started hurting a teensy bit around mile 8. Mile 11 I almost started crying because I didn’t know if I was going to be able to keep on.  Miles 11-13 HURT!! And who in the world wanted to ever add that .1???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Finished in 3:10:57.

I thought I was going to die after the race. Really die. And my hubby transformed into the sweetest human being EVER. He took such good care of me ALL day Sunday!! Thank you, Joe. I’ll love you forever for that!  I mean I would have loved you anyway but…

Here we are Sunday afternoon at the AMC dine in theater. Those things are sooo cool-anything where I get to eat AND watch a movie is #1 in my book! See how I’m leaning toward him? I was REALLY trying to hold myself up. 

It was a GREAT and FANTASTIC time in my life that I’ll NEVER forget!

And not even a week later I have already signed up for my next half marathon. Am I crazy or what? The Zooma Women’s Race Series in August in Chicago! I’ll be running that one with Susan over at BRB. Well, she will be waiting for me at the finish line! 

I don’t have any pics of me at the race-yeah, I bombed on that! I’ll probably purchase a couple from marathonfoto in the next couple of weeks.

 Bling Bling!!

To sum it up:

A once in a lifetime experience that made me feel like I was on top of the world!

What is yours????