Pre-Race Recap - RunDisney's Wine & Dine Half Marathon

Well, since it has now been three weeks since I ran my first half marathon, I guess I should provide another recap, huh? I haven't been avoiding it...I guess things have just been a bit hectic.

Anyway, in my last post, I talked about Friday, so let me run through Saturday's preparations before my final post about the race itself. In short, this was my goal for Saturday...

Rest Those Legs!

With a night race on the docket (I mean, who runs at 10:00pm?), my focus was on two things: eating properly and getting enough rest. After taking our time getting up and ready, Michelle, Mary, and I headed down to the breakfast buffet at the Yacht Club's Captain's Grille, which is a great (and less busy) alternative to the Beach Club's character breakfast at the Cape May Cafe. Since it was late morning, I decided that this was going to be the "big meal" for the day, so I did help myself to a few helpings of this, that, and the other...although I kept it pretty simple and stayed away from spicy and/or adventurous foods.

After breakfast, I went back to the room to lay down for a little bit and to contact a blogger or two whom I was planning to meet over the weekend. Well, I got in touch with Jen Lefforge from Running for my Life! and Michelle, Mary, and I had the opportunity to meet her for her lunch right back at the Captain's Grille! It was awesome getting to spend some time with Jen, and we are hoping to get together with her and her whole family at some point during the Marathon Weekend in January...she's done the Full at Disney before and will be running the half marathon this year; her husband Scott, however, will be undertaking the Goofy Challenge! 

Although taking a picture at the time slipped my mind (I guess I'm still not used to this whole blogging thing), later that night, Jen and I did remember to get a pre-race shot...

With our Newest Friend - Jen Lefforge!

After lunch - well, Jen had lunch, Mary had ice cream, and Michelle and I had iced teas - it was off to the pool for some R&R. Fortunately, it was a bit of a cloudy day, so finding a shady spot (and staying out of the energy-draining sun) was not difficult. Oh, and on the way to the pool, I ran into a couple of other bloggers - Pam and Christine, the mother-daughter running team from We Run Disney - who happened to be staying at the same hotel. It was great getting to meet them as well; in fact, we also ran into them on Sunday night at Thunder Mountain in the Magic Kingdom, and Michelle put it best when she said, "it just feels like we know you already because of your blog!"

From a food standpoint, for the remainder of the day, I ate small snacks every couple of hours (a banana here, a yogurt there, a CLIF bar here, and a peanut butter bagel about three hours before the race)...and, most importantly, I kept drinking water, and I mixed in a few waters with nuun tablets for some pre-race electrolytes.

I was able to lay down and get an hour or two of (very light) sleep around 4:30 to 6:30-ish, and then it was time to suit up...

Flat Pete - Ready to Run!

And at around 7:30, I headed downstairs to catch the bus to the Starting Line. 

My first half marathon awaits. Let's do this...

I'll tell you the rest next time. Until then, enjoy your journey...