One year

It's crazy how much the past year has had an effect on everything. A year ago, I fell and twisted my left ankle. I didn't realize it at the time, but I also hurt my right knee. I dealt with the ankle injury for a few months since it was a severe sprain, all while dealing with moving. After getting settled in as much as I could with a bum ankle, I started realizing I was having a ton of pain in my right knee. I went to the clinic but they weren't much help for a while. It took me a few months to get them to send me for an MRI which showed I had some damage in there. After finally getting a referral to an orthopedic doctor, I had my right knee scoped. They fixed what they could but I had been dealing with injuries for so long that I lost a lot of muscle. They did not refer me to physical therapy so I'm still not completely healed.

I've been out of the running game for a year. I've been able to do some walking in the past couple of months since the surgery but I've had a hard time staying consistent because I've been struggling with so many things.

In the past year, I've learned how much running was really helping my depression. Unfortunately, I learned this because I have not been able to run and I've found myself struggling with depression a lot during this past year. When I was running regularly, I would still have some hard times where I would slip into a depressive cycle but I found myself coming out of them pretty quickly.

One of the hardest things about depression is that it sucks all of the energy and motivation out of you. When I find myself bearing the full weight of my depression, it's hard to find the motivation to simply get out of bed, much less work out. On those bad days during this deployment, the only reason I got up was because the dogs needed to go outside. After letting them out, I would sit on the couch watching tv and playing on my phone or laptop. I'd get up because they needed to come in or go out again and to feed them. Then, sometime in the early morning hours, I would go back to bed.

I made plans with people and traveled to force myself out of the house because I knew if I didn't, there would be long stretches of days where I'd never leave the house unless I was going to a drive thru for food.  I forced myself out but that did not make the depression go away, it just provided a temporary distraction. Once I was home, I would look around at the mess in my house, at the crap I was eating, or the fact that I hadn't had face to face human contact in days and I would want to change it, but I just didn't have it in me.

I've gone backwards on so many levels during this past year. I was already struggling with regaining weight during the last few years since we have been moving pretty frequently and I was having trouble finding a new routine. When I got hurt, that problem got much bigger. I had already regained a decent amount of weight but in the past year, I've gained 30 pounds which means I've regained everything I had lost by the fall of 2013. I am back to my heaviest weight.

Gaining the weight made me hate myself which in turn makes the depression a little worse. Not being able to run, gaining weight and dealing with my husband being on the other side of the world has really taken a very big toll on me emotionally, physically and mentally. I've been in a bad head space for a while now because my depression flames the fires of my anxiety.

My anxiety and depression tell me I'm worthless. My anxiety makes me think no one wants me around. I know I'm a lot to deal with at times so I start to feel like a burden to the people around me. My anxiety tells me that no one really likes me, they only deal with me because they like my husband. It tells me I'm easily replaceable. My anxiety is this little voice in my head that makes me question everything around me and tells me I'll never get any better.

This week has been really tough for me. My Facebook memories keep reminding me of that stupid awkward step that I took last Memorial Day that led to the injuries I've been fighting for a year.  Seeing those memories and realizing how far I've gone in the wrong direction have set me on edge emotionally. That's why I had a mini melt down Friday night.

I went to hang out with the group for Friday night dinner as usual. We were standing and sitting around waiting for our tables​ to be ready when suddenly I felt very overwhelmed. I was suddenly really missing my husband and the little voice in my head was telling me no one wanted me there. When a couple people asked me how I was doing or if something was wrong, I couldn't lie and felt the tears starting to try to break free. I ran outside and started crying in the parking lot. I was embarrassed and just overwhelmed. I didn't know what to say when a couple of them came to check on me. There was no concrete reason for it happening. The truth is I just needed to cry. I've been bottling up a lot of emotions and frustrations this week and suddenly they all surfaced. After talking for a few minutes, we headed back inside and dinner was fine. I laughed, I talked, and I felt a little better.

Another complicating factor for everything right now is the fact that my husband will be home next month. I know that sounds like it should be a happy thing, and it is, but the end of a deployment sucks. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it's still a ways away. Time starts slowing down and the emotions of the deployment start catching up to me. I travel a lot during a deployment to keep me occupied and help the time to pass. After a while, traveling gets to be very tiring and I always slow down or stop going places as the end draws nearer. When I stop moving so much, everything I've been running from catches me.  I also start realizing all the things I planned to accomplish while he was gone and that most of those things aren't done. I feel pressure to make the most of the time left during the deployment to try to check off as much of the list as I can plus the normal parts of getting ready to have him home. It becomes very overwhelming. During the end of the deployment, I'm excited that he will be home soon but also feel like a failure because I did not do enough while he was gone.

On top of the usual end of deployment crap, we are also moving again about a month after he gets home. We are heading to a 3 1/2 month school in Virginia and then moving overseas at the beginning of 2018 most likely. We still don't know where for sure but it's supposedly happening and all of our stuff will need to be backed up before we head to Virgina.

After getting home from dinner and chatting with Mac for a few minutes, I decided I was finally going to start running again. I'm still no where near 100% but I can run(very slowly) short distances as long as I'm wearing a brace. I'm doing a 12 week 5k training plan so I can try to ease back into running. I ran for 1 minute and walked for 4. It wasn't fast, but my average pace was better than I expected since I only ran 6 of the 30 minutes of the workout. My knee was sore and tired when I finished but I was pleasantly surprised at how it went.

I'm trying to start to claw my way out of the pit that I've been in this part year. I worked up a training schedule after my run that will last until we move. I'm going to also try to go to the pool more and use my Orange Theory membership more regularly. I'm trying to start cooking again instead of just grabbing fast food or take out.

I know that losing weight will help my able and knee as well as my mental state. I know that moving more will help alleviate some of my anxiety and help me feel more like myself. I know all of these things, but it is still going to take a lot of effort for me to put them into practice. I have to find a way to overcome the hopeless​ feeling that hits me when I look at all that is ahead of us. I have to focus on one task at a time as I move forward or it becomes too overwhelming.

The rest of this year holds a lot of changes for us and I sincerely hope an upswing is part of those changes for me.

But it was just one block...

Six years ago today I attempted my first half marathon and was swept at the 8 mile mark. Five years ago yesterday, I finished my second half marathon at the Princess Half. I cried as I crossed the finish line. It had been a long year of training and trying to become a runner. I was excited I had accomplished my goal and a little said because Mac was on the other side of the world while I did it. The achievements I made in 2012 at Tink and Princess set me up to go on and complete 16 half marathons between January 2012 and May of 2016.

Unfortunately, three weeks after completing that 16th half marathon, I fell and severely sprained my ankle. I spent two months letting my ankle recover, but as my ankle healed, my knee hurt more and more. I could barely walk five minutes before it would lock up and hurt so badly I wanted to cry.  In September, I began a battle to figure out what was wrong with my knee and try to solve the problem. It took four months to finally get someone to send me for an mri and then refer me to an orthopedic doctor so that something could be done about it. On February 16th, I had a knee scope surgery to try to correct some of the damage caused by the fall and subsequent months of walking on a injury knee.

Recovering from surgery has been complicated because Mac is once again deployed and I am on my own. A friend took me to surgery and stayed with me the night after but she had her own husband and pup to get back to so I was quickly on my own after the surgery. Fortunately, the surgery isn't too invasive and weight bearing soon after is encouraged. However, I am sure I have been getting around and doing more than most so soon after. The dogs still wanted to be fed and to go outside every 5 minutes it seemed. I still needed groceries and to just get out of the house every now and then. My knee has been sore and hurting some and I wasn't sure what was normal and what was because I was moving around maybe more than I should. I've been hoping that this will lead to me being able to start working out again and to hopefully soon be able to run again. Everything seemed to be going pretty well until Saturday. In a lot of ways, I felt like I was back to where I was before surgery. I think that it was mostly the cold front coming through but it made me worry if I was really getting better.

Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting at home and opened Pokemon Go just to see if there was anything interesting in the neighborhood. Since the game came out, if there was something close by that I really wanted, I would get in the car and drive around to find it because walking around the neighborhood to find it just hurt too much. This time however, I decided to see if I could just walk around the block to find what I was looking for. I put on my sneakers and headed outside, unsure how far I would be able to walk comfortably. As I finished my single lap around the block and headed back inside, I started to cry. My knee was sore but it was nothing compared to the pain I experienced before the surgery.  I even jogged a few steps just to see how it felt and it gave me hope. I know I am not 100% yet but the fact that I could tell it is actually healing I was a little overwhelmed.

The last nine months have been pretty dark. The longer I was injured, the more depressed I became. I am back to where I started with everything. My weight is higher again and I haven't ran since Tinker Bell half last May. When I am cleared to start working out, I will be starting over nearly completely. I have way too much weight to lose again and I can't even think about running a 5K right now, much less a half marathon but I know, with time, I will be able to do it again.

I have a long way to go, but I am determined to do it.

One step at a time...

I have an anxiety disorder

Social anxiety disorder. Also called social phobia, this involves overwhelming worry and self-consciousness about everyday social situations. The worry often centers on a fear of being judged by others, or behaving in a way that might cause embarrassment or lead to ridicule.




I suffer from anxiety and depression. It's something I have lived with for a long time. I am pretty good at covering it up, but it is there and those closest to me know. While I have general anxiety issues, I suffer from social anxiety most often. I constantly worry about what others may think or say and any kind of confrontation or possibility of it makes me a nervous wreck.

This anxiety has been an issue with my running since the beginning. Being in large crowds makes me nervous and zaps some of my energy so the corrals before races aren't fun for me. Most of the time it manifests itself in either me becoming very quiet and a little withdrawn or I become agitated and my temper gets short. Typically after a race, I have a very short fuse and get mad very easily because I have been around so many people for so long and the exhaustion from the race doesn't help either. It can also pop up while we are hanging out in the parks at Disney.

Due to the injuries I have dealt with, I haven't ran or done any races since May but I have definitely continued to fight with my anxiety and depression. In some ways, it is actually worse now. Running helped keep the depression a little more under control and being forced to do nothing for so long has had the opposite affect. Add in the fact that my husband just deployed and it all gets even more complicated.

I've been to both Disneyland and Walt Disney World this month and it was interesting both times. Disneyland was the weekend before Mac left the country so I had a lot on my mind. Plus we had to transfer my bib for the half to him since I can barely walk, let alone run. Because of my knee, I had to rent a scooter since I can't walk long enough to last in the parks. Renting the scooter was necessary but it is hard for anyone else to see why I needed it. This was a big trigger for my social anxiety. All I could think about was being judged for using the scooter. I was afraid that people would just see me as a lazy fat person and not realize I was injured since I wasn't wearing a brace or anything. This all got much worse when I went to Walt Disney World. At DL, we just went straight from our hotel to the parks. I used they scooter and they walked. But while at WDW, I had to use the bus system. This means that every time I got on a bus, I had to get on first since I was in the scooter. They had to drop a ramp and let me on first to tie down the scooter. It wasn't a huge deal with the buses between the parks but it was a little more complicated with the bus to the hotel. I stayed at a hotel in the Disney Springs area and even though they did have accessible buses, the process was a little different. They are higher so instead of a ramp, there was a lift. It was a longer process and I felt like all eyes were on me as this was going on. I hated it.

While at DL, I was traveling with Mac and Heather. We have traveled together a lot over the past few years and I know they always have my back and understand the issues I deal with. While at WDW, I was traveling with someone new. She is someone I have known online for 5+ years and I decided to go down so that I would get out of the house after Mac left. Most of the trip was fine but her last morning there, I was put in a situation that set off my anxiety in a big way. She got into an argument with someone that was getting on our bus because people were being rude and getting on even though the driver was asking them to wait so he could let down the lift for me.  While her heart was in the right place, it ended up putting me in a bad situation. All of the crap was because I was there and on a scooter so all attention and eyes were on me, so I started having a panic attack. It was a really sucky situation. I was able to get my breathing back under control but once I was finally on the bus, I was still shaking from head to toe and I wanted to crawl into a hole.

This was the first time in a long time that it has gotten that bad. I'm really ready to get me knee fixed so I can feel more like myself again. Being dependent on other people or needing a scooter to get around is not normal for me. I want to start getting healthy again and I want to start moving. I have an appointment for my knee this week and hopefully I will have more answers soon.

For now, I just ask everyone to realize that some people are suffering from things that are unseen. Whether it is an injury or something deeper like anxiety or depression, even though you can't see it , it is still real. When they find themselves in a tough situation and it triggers something inside, they are not just being dramatic, they are suffering from something very real and very personal. Be mindful of what you say and do in those situations because you can unknowingly make a bad situation worse.

Maybe it's a train...

So it's been a little while and nothing has really changed. I am still having issues with my knee all the time. I know that part of it stems from an issue with my back so I am FINALLY getting to the chiropractor to try to get it fixed. I went in for the x-rays and consultation near the end of last month. I was supposed to go in again right after we returned from Barbados but thanks to damage from Hurricane Matthew, they had no power for a few days and it had to be rescheduled to this week. I saw him on Tuesday and had a "test adjustment" after seeing my x-rays. My back is f*ed up basically.

My lower back has too deep of a curve because my neck as zero curve(and it should). Also, my atlas(the very top vertebrae) is out of whack. That is affecting everything else and causing problems. He is optimistic that we can change things but it isn't just a small thing. Most of the issues probably occurred when I was in a pretty serious car accident when I was 16 but some of the stuff in my neck may also come from a fall from a horse I had when I was 11 or 12.

Today I go in to talk with him about the big picture and to find out what plan he has for me. I'm hopeful that this will slowly start to help me get back out there. I think I am going to start taking more advantage of my Y membership and focus on the pool since that will be low impact and can even help decompress the spine some. I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that I probably won't be able to do space coast(even though the time limit would allow me to walk it) and that Star Wars Light Side is also not really possible or smart. I hate that I will lose my legacy status at that race but I knew it would happen eventually. I'm still planning to head out to DL and hopefully Mac will be able to run it (I can transfer to him since I bought through my running club not direct from RunDisney) but it will be weird not running.

I want to do this right. I want to get better and heal and I also want to get healthier too. It's going to be a long road but I think I'm ready. I hope so anyway. (I know I'm ready to stop being in pain)

Light at the end of the tunnel?

This is going to be long but this is everything I have been dealing with this summer.


This summer has been a very dark time for me. Moving always intensifies my anxiety and depression and have really horrible packers made it that much worse. When you add in the injury I sustained on Memorial Day, I have had a very hard time.

The beginning of our move was horrible. Mac's orders for grad school ended in early May. This meant that we needed his new orders so we could schedule our move and get ready to leave Florida.  Our original plan was to have the packers come the last week in April to pack and load our things before we flew out to California for the Tinker Bell Half Marathon. That way we would have time to get the house clean and get the last of our stuff out before we left. Since our lease was ending on the 15th and we were returning on the 10th, it was going to allow us time to get things done without being rushed.

This Tink trip was supposed to be a kind of big deal for me since it was the 5th anniversary of the race that was my first half marathon that I completed. I was also really excited since Mac was going with me and this would be the first time he could be there for Tink. He was deployed when I completed it the first year and then when I ran in 2014 he was finishing up command and could not leave.

Unfortunately, we found ourselves at the end of April with no orders still. We finally got them 5 days before our flight to California. On top of that, our landlord decided to go ahead and list the house for sale before our lease was up. She had been trying to sell it for years but couldn't so that is why she rented it out. She was expecting it to take a little while to get a bit bu within a few days of listing it, she already had interest and the realtor wanted to start showing the house. We were trying to pack things up since we still had no idea when(or if) the movers were coming. We were still waiting on orders and trying to prepare for a trip. We finally told her we would be out of town and she could show it then but that our stuff would be in boxes as we were trying to prepare to leave. She was very pushy and trying to push us out the door. Our landlord was great and trying to work with us but the realtor was driving me insane. We took the dogs to my parents house so they wouldn't be in the way during the showings and left for our trip.  I had been looking forward to the trip but then the anxiety of the mood started to ruin everything. I seriously considered canceling the trip all together.

Mac submitted all we needed to get the movers scheduled as soon as he had the orders but we still had no idea when they would be coming when we got on the plane. I spent the first part of our trip worrying about the move and hoping we would have time to get things done. We were in California Adventure one day when Mac received a call from the packers. They wanted to come before we got back from California. He told them we wouldn't be back and needed to do it later and they hung up after saying they would see what they could work out. I immediately started searching for earlier flights to send Mac home immediately after the half marathon so he could be there for the packers. Fortunately they called back and said they would be there the Thursday after we flew in on Tuesday. I was finally able to breathe a little but I was still worried about the time. the realtor wanted us out immediately and though the owner was flexible with us, we wanted to get out so we didn't have to deal with the pushy realtor any more.(She called us NUMEROUS times while we were in DL) However, I managed to finish Tink once again as well as the 10K and finally earned my Pixie Dust Challenge medal(I ran the unofficial on the first year of the 10K)

Once we arrived home, it was a mad dash to get out of the house. The packers came and packed and loaded EVERYTHING in 12 hours. Two days after returning from California, all of our stuff drove off heading north. It was headed to storage since we had no where to live yet. Mac wasn't supposed to report to South Carolina until July. We planned to spend the time in between staying with family and visiting with friends before heading to SC in June to get on the housing list and find a temporary place to live until a house on base was available. We spent some time at my parents' house and then decided to head to Mac's parents' lake house right before Memorial day.  We met up with friends at the GA  Ren Fest on Memorial Day. It was a great day of seeing friends and hanging out. Then in a second, everything changed. I walked out to the parking lot with Ad to get something from her that she brought me and drop it and a few things we bought in the truck. On my way back in to go to the pub sing that ends the day, I stepped off a wooden bridge and twisted my ankle. I knew it was bad when it happened. I hit the ground hard on a gravel path and my right knee took the brunt of it. I stood up, bleeding, and knowing things were bad. I hobbled over to the gate where a worker helped me to a bench and called for first aid. My ankle was instantly 3 sizes larger than it should be and I had blood running down the other leg. I called Mac to come to the front. I was in a ton of pain but kept hoping that I was wrong. When the EMTs got there, they immediately told me to go to the ER and get it x-rayed. We called Patrick and Justin and told them we had to head to the ER and they came to the gate to say goodbye.

On the way to the ER

On the way home from the lake after getting the dogs

The ER didn't tell me much other than it was badly sprained. I left with a giant splint thing and no idea where or how I was going to have a follow up for it. We didn't have a place to live and since I am on Tricare Prime, everything I do has to be approved and only a few drs outside of military installations will see me. We drove back to the lake that night. I had to sleep in a recliner so I could keep my leg in a position that didn't hurt. The next morning Mac packed up our stuff and we headed back to my parents'  so we could figure out the Dr situation. After several phone calls, we got it worked out. After more x-rays, I was once again told it was a bad sprain and given a brace. I was on crutches because I could not put any weight on the ankle at all. Not long after dealing with the crutches, I noticed I was having a lot of pain in my right hip and knee from supporting all of my weight. As my left ankle slowly got better, my right leg got worse. I was scared I needed surgery on my ankle since it was taking so long to heal. Once I was finally told it was probably fine, I decided to try to run on it a little to see. Surprisingly, my ankle seemed fine, but my right knee hurt so bad I couldn't run. I was devastated. It had been two and a half months since I hurt my ankle and it was finally healing and then a new injury started plaguing me. I am registered for the Space Coast half again in November as well Star Wars DL in January. I need to be training but I was in so much pain I could barely stand, let alone run.

I have had an idea about the pain in my knee but wasn't sure what to do about it. I have had some issues with my back for a while due to a fall while wind surfing last year.  I think I knocked a few things out of line and that has been causing issues with my hip. Being on crutches and supporting most of my weight with just my right leg for so long aggravated my back and hip and it eventually moved down and put strain on my knee. This was made worse when I tried to ride my bike to keep from just sitting on my butt all the time. I over did it a little, mostly thanks to Pokemon Go and in just a few days, my right knee was so stiff, I could barely stand. The last couple weeks it has been so swollen that I can't bend it or straighten it all the way. It hurt so bad that I couldn't sleep. I decided to make an appointment with a chiropractor to see if they can help get things back where they should be but unfortunately the earliest they could get me in is the 22nd. I've also been trying to stretch the extremely tight muscles in my leg. I've taken aleve and ibuprofen and whatever I could think of to help. Things helped some but nothing made it any better. I finally got an appointment with the clinic on base this past Thursday and she gave me steroids to try to get the inflammation under control.  I can't take anything else for pain with it because of interactions so I went to Walmart with plans to grab another icy hot tens therapy system. I already have one but it is still in a box somewhere and I don't have the time or energy to deal with that cluster to find it. While looking at Walmart, I saw a small TENS device that had separate electrodes instead of the giant pad with the icy hot version(that isn't very comfortable) As I looked it over, I noticed you could use it pretty much anywhere and it even had placement suggestions for sciatic nerve issues. I have been thinking that this has a lot to do with my leg problems so I grabbed it. I came home, hooked it up and couldn't believe the difference it made after just 15 minutes. I moved it around to help a few different areas and by the time I was ready to go to bed, my knee and hip felt better than it has in months.

Because of all the crap that has happened in the last several months, I have gained more weight. I'm back at a number I hoped I would never see again. That has seriously hurt my self esteem and confidence. I am back to wanting to hide out at home. I finally decided to do something about by joining Weight Watchers again and getting a membership at the Y so I can start swimming more. Mac and I will be getting out diving certification soon in preparation  for our anniversary trip to Barbados the end of this month. I'm trying to crawl out of this mess but it is taking time and motivation that I am slowly finding.

As I sit here having my knee shocked, I'm wondering why I didn't do this sooner.  I wish I had trusted my instincts and gone to the chiropractor sooner. But for now, I will keep shocking myself and wait until I can see them soon. Two weeks ago, I wasn't really sure if I would ever be able to run again. Thankfully, after this week, I think I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully things continue to go well and it isn't just a train.

My feelings on the Princess Half Marathon

Because the Princess Half marathon was my first race attempt 5 years ago, many of the running friends I have made on FB are connected to that race. Because of that, my feed is flooded with posts about registration opening up today. In years past, I was posting about it too. Now I find myself fighting a feeling of disgust and anger every time I see something about that race. It used to be a race that brought up nerves and excitement and now it doesn't.

When I attempted Princess in 2011,  there were something like 11,000 runners in the half. I never felt crowded and ended up being completely alone just before I was swept. There was a feeling of community and acceptance with everyone there. As the years went by that changed. In 2012, when I completed my first Princess, there were around 19,000 runners I think. It was a little more crowded but still manageable. It was still a good time but the attitudes seemed to be shifting. The last several years they have been allowing 26,000 runners to participate in the half. It is way too crowded, especially in the back corrals and unless you are fast enough to be in the first corrals, you will never find yourself alone on a stretch.

The attitudes I run into on the course have also gotten horrible. There is pushing and shoving, yelling and cursing and it is just not fun. I admit I have a mouth like a sailor, especially once I an hurting and get tired, but I rarely direct it at anyone. It is usually just a random word thrown out to relieve some frustration so I can continue forward. People yelling at walkers or bitching about other runners is never an uplifting thing. Sure, you still find some people that are encouraging and supportive but they are being drowned out by they bad. Runners that do not submit a proof of time(your fault, not mine) and end up ion the last corral try to shove there way through the slower runners and they are not nice about it at all. Just because you screwed up and didn't do what you were supposed to do does not give you the right to belittle the people that are right where they should be.

Don't even consider the expo to be a fun and easy experience either. That is where the claws really come out. WDW races have not gotten their act together and started doing it like they do in California. There, you have a designated area where a line forms and they give out wrist bands so you can't jump the line completely. Then they allow small groups of shoppers into the official merch area so you can still see what is going on and get your things. As shoppers go to check out, they let more in. It is calm and civil and much easier to get what you want as long as you go early enough to get in line. At WDW races, it is chaos. There is a line but once they open the doors, it is a free for all. Then the lines for checkout become insane and it just doesn't make since. They have a system that works very well on the west coast, they need to figure out how to use it in Florida.

Nothing about it is fun anymore. The hotels that weekend cost a ton of money, the crowds in the parks and at the races are crazy and people are just getting mean. It costs too much to go and have a miserable time so I have pretty much sworn the race off entirely. I may do the 10k once in a while and if I ever get fast enough to end up in one of the earlier corrals, I may attempt the half again, but for now, I am done. I love the California races and I would much rather spend my money on flying out there than going to Florida and being miserable.

Days like today always leave me with conflicting emotions. I see people that I love and miss signing up and part of me wants to be there and do it with them. But then I remember how horrible it was this year and I never want to run it again. I'm sure one day I will actually do it again, but I hope some things change before that day comes.

About what I expected: A Star Wars Dark Side recap

I know it has been a while since I posted. Since then I have completed halfs number 13(Star Wars Cali), 14(Princess Half) and 15(Star Wars Dark Side Fla).

Star Wars in Cali was great. I felt better than I expected during the race especially since I did the challenge and it gave me hope again. I love that race and everything about it. Then came Princess and it was rough. The more I do WDW races, the more I hate them. There is just something about them that makes them hard. I don't know if it is the course or the weather or a combination of things but they always seem to be crappy races for me. After Princess, I had very low hopes and expectations for Star Wars Dark Side. A race in April in Florida sounded like not a lot of fun and then you throw in a course map that looks like the course was going to be bad made me feel like it was probably a one and done(at least until Star Wars Land is complete so they can change the course).

I signed up for all three races for that weekend so I could have at least one medal from all of them. I did the 5K with Rach and her mom and it was fun and laid back. We dressed up as workers from the Dark Side Cookie Co(a play on the Great American Cookie Co) since you always hear that the Dark Side has cookies. We had shirts, visors and aprons that I made for us and we handed out oreos on the course.

Saturday morning, Mac and I did the 10K. It was interesting. If you looked at the course maps in the event guide, it showed that the 10K was basically just the first half of the half marathon with a little difference in Epcot and mostly a reverse of what we ran for the shortened Wine and Dine. We started out in front of Epcot and ran around into the backlot area. We came out in World Showcase next to Mexico and turned towards Spaceship Earth. After going around half of the lagoon, we headed out the back side of Epcot onto the Boardwalk. Running on the boardwalk is always nice because it is nice and bouncy since it is all wood but I knew the trouble area was coming up quick. Between the boardwalk and Hollywood Studios the course gets VERY NARROW. I knew it was going to be bad and it was. There were so many people it was very hard to run and then you add all the jerks that are trying to shove through the crowds and it was a nightmare. Once we were through that madness, we were at HS. There was a small group of 501st members out front for pics. It was nice that Disney allowed them to be a part of the race but it wasn't as good as the presence they have at the California race because Disney limited the number of members allowed to be out there. The first time I noticed that the course was different from the published course was in HS. In the event guide, it looked like we would run by the new Launch Bay and then through a back stage area to get back unto the main "road" towards Tower. However, we just ran into the park and immediately turned right onto the normal path instead of going farther in towards launch bay. Because of this we didn't run by ANY of the Star Wars stuff in the parks. We headed out of the back lot area behind Tower of Terror and onto the road towards Wide World of Sports. This was pretty straight with a few over passes that sucked because of the banking of the roads on the curves of the ramps. To enter WWoS, we had to take the horrible dirt road that I hated when I ran Tower of Terror 10 Miler a few years ago. After winding through WWoS, we were done and headed to the buses to go to breakfast. After the 10K, I really wasn't looking forward to the half the next day.

Checking out the 501st members before heading into HS

Sunday morning we were up super early. They moved up the start time up 30 minutes because it was supposed to be a little warm and that would give us more time before the sun came up. We were in the 8th of 12 corrals so it was a little over 30 minutes before we got started. The first mile was exactly like the 10K but after that, it changed some. When we hit the World Showcase, we turned left instead of right. After circling the back half of the lagoon we headed onto the opposite side of the boardwalk than we ran during the 10K. That is where the crowding and shoving started during the half. It only got much worse as we headed to the narrow sidewalk on the way to Hollywood Studios. I may have threatened to shove a few idiots into the water as they shoved past me on the right side but I did not do it. We ran a little more in HS than during the 10K but still not past any of the Star Wars attractions. At least they did have some storm troopers out on the stage as we ran by. They had a group from the 501st in front of the Fantasmic theater area which was nice but still not the same as Cali. Soon we were out of HS and headed towards Animal Kingdom. The road there and back was a part of the course I was not looking forward to at all. As we headed down the road out of HS, we found out we had a at least 20 minute lead on the pacers. As we went up one of the ramps, I looked back and only saw a sea of people. I wasn't feeling great that morning so this made me feel a little better. As we headed down the road to AK, I started to feel a little nauseated and my stomach was cramping up. I had a melt down at one point and started crying. The only reason I cared if I finished or not was the Kessel Run Medal. I didn't want to miss out on the giant millennium falcon medal. At that point I did not care about that race anymore but I wanted that special medal for doing both Star Wars races and that is the only reason I kept moving forward. As we got closer to AK, I could see the pacers behind us. I tried to speed up but they were still catching us. By the time we got to the 11 mile  marker, they were getting very close. I started running just after mile 9 and had been running the entire time. I wasn't running fast, but I was running. Mac was also pushing me along during a lot of it. We were trying to get to the stupid dirt road but at least this time it would mean we were safe and that was around 11.8 miles. They were right behind us as we turned onto the dirt road but I didn't care because we were close and I was going to get my medals. Once we finally finished, I had to find ice, a mister fan and a place to sit because I felt like I was going to pass out. After taking a minute to regroup, we got our challenge medals(dark side and kessel run). We headed over to the buses with a plan to jump on the bus to Epcot for breakfast. However, the bus situation was a NIGHTMARE. There were probably 1000 people in line for the Epcot bus so we hopped on one to the Poly so we could take the monorail. Even though we had nearly an hour to get there after we finished, we did not get to Epcot in time for our reservation. We ended up going to a very yummy place off property but not until after a little frustration and bickering due to the completely unorganized mess that was transportation after the race.

Mac literally pushing me to the finish line.

The general consensus from other runners that ended up on the same monorail with us was that it SUCKED. Everything sucked. The course, the entertainment(or lack thereof), the crowds, the transportation situation, it all sucked. It was just as much of a disappointment as I expected it to be. I went it to the race weekend with the expectation that I would not do it again, at least for a few years. I only did it this year because it was an inaugural race and because I wanted that millennium falcon.  So now that it is done, I will go back to loving and running the Star Wars race in Cali and leave this one alone until construction is over and they can come up with a much better course. I'm glad it is done and I am glad I have my medals but this race is way down on my list of races to repeat.

At least we got our medals