After signing up for this race last April (I couldn’t make it to the Labor day race since I was in Greece, and this was the first running of this race), this weekend finally arrived. I picked up both kids after working a half day on Friday, while Dave met us back at home shortly after. We hit the road to head south about 2pm, keeping Peyton up the entire time so that she could sleep in the car. The drive was uneventful, and we got into Dave’s parents’ house right at 8pm, just as he predicted. We chatted a bit, then Dave texted Teddy. He had to work at 3am, so he wanted to meet sooner than Dave had suggested (Dave had wanted to get the kids asleep first). Luckily, Dave’s mom stepped in to watch the kids fall asleep, and we left right away. We hit up our favorite shaved yogurt place, and met with Teddy and Eunice. We caught up and ended up closing the place down, getting home around midnight.
In the morning, we found out it took Brandon another 30 minutes to fall asleep, while it took Peyton another hour. I was going to hang out with Dave’s parents until lunch, but Dave wanted to head out to the expo, so we didn’t miss anything. He said he didn’t want to hear me complain about missing anything 🙂 So, we got to the expo about 11am, meeting up with Tina who had arrived about 30 minutes earlier. We picked up my race packet, shirt, and got some swag. The kids were hungry, so we fed them some yogurt, some dried cranberries, and some sample protein bars. We stopped short of the power drinks, and chose water for them instead. After walking around about 2 hours, we headed out to find real lunch. We went to one of the larger malls, thinking we’d have more options. The problem then was that there were too many options! We did pick a pasta option, and we found a great deal! We ordered one app, two pastas, and one dessert, plus two pastas to take home! We also got one kids’ dish to split, and we had enough food for all of us for the next few meals! Full from lunch, we headed back to check into the hotel. After settling in, we then went to grab some things for me for the race, and then it was time for bed. Our hotel was right behind the Mickey and Friends parking lot! The kids went down around 745pm, as they were tired for not sleeping well the night before. They didn’t even wake up when the fireworks went off at 830pm. It sounded like we were in a war zone! I tried to sleep at 9pm, and the tv went off at 915pm. I did manage to fall asleep shortly, then woke up at what felt like it HAD to be 2-3am. I looked at the alarm clock, which had been set for 415am, and it was only 1145pm. Ugh! This is what happened my very first race. I woke up every hour. I’ve only had a few moments in my life when I had problems sleeping – the night before our wedding, the night before boards, my first race, and last night. I was even sleeping with Brandon, who moves way less than Peyton, while Dave was with Peyton. He warned me I should go over to his bed to sandwich Peyton, but I didn’t want to be kicked. At around 145am, I looked at the clock, coughed, and then heard a THUNK! Then Dave said, “Oh no!” then I heard the cry. Yes, in that order. Luckily, I was already awake, so I quickly got up, scooped Peyton up, and brought her over to Dave’s bed again. I asked her what she’d hit, and she was holding her head. It did sound like her head against the nightstand, which had had pillows covering it. She stopped crying within a minute, and soon went back to sleep. She was fine, though I checked her head to make sure there was no bleeding. She was fine, but I stayed there just in case. I was up by 4am, and decided to get up and turn off the alarms I’d set so as not to wake anyone up. I met Tina at 445am in our lobby, and we headed out to the start line. The stats of the race were 11,000+ women signed up, with 920 men. Since it was a Tinkerbell event, there were many dressed up like Tinkerbell in tutu skirts, wings, and even some booties over their shoes. It was pitch dark, but the spot lights lit up the streets. Before the race started, the National Anthem was sung, and there were even fire works, though subtle, since we were close to the hotels! Tina was in the “A” corral, so she left me at the “B” corral and went to ahead. Our plan was to meet up at the end of the race, since I knew she’d be way ahead of me. The race started about 30 minutes after we’d lined up. They had announcers and music to pump everyone up. There was just a sea of people, which made it difficult to move. Even after the race started, and we approached the start line, the crowd didn’t get any thinner. It was difficult to get “started” at my regular pace even though we were supposed to be with the same paced runners. We had to submit times in order to be grouped together. I’m not sure what the range was, but I sorta became a running snob when some of the runners in my group started walking within the first mile. It meant that I had to run around them, and squeeze through to get by. You’re supposed to walk to the sides, but some were 2-3 across, making it more difficult. The road narrowed a bit out of the parking area, making things difficult. After the first mile things started to sort themselves out, and I got some elbow room. Our hotel was along mile 4, and I thought I had set Dave up to receive texts updates. I really wanted them at mile 10, to help motivate me. But I did look for them in front of our hotel as I’d wanted to ditch my gloves. Even though they were “throw away”, I still didn’t want to give them up. Too practical, I guess. I texted Dave that I was leaving the hotel area, and told him to meet up with me where Tina was going to meet me. So, I ran. And ran. I saw one dad with his baby, presumably cheering on his wife two times! I guess since he looked like Dave, and was rather a quiet supporter, he reminded me of Dave. I saw some signs multiple times. When I didn’t see my family, I picked a sign, “Go Mommy!” and thought to myself that they were my family, cheering ME on. Every time I saw a double stroller, I thought it was Dave. It did motivate me to “find Waldo” and eagerly await seeing their faces. We’d picked up two blank signs to decorate, but we’d forgotten to get markers at the store when we went for our final run. Dave was going to have the kids each decorate one, and I was looking for Peyton’s “smiley” face. I was a bit disappointed, because I was running slower than my training times, but I was on pace to finish before 2 hours, 30 minutes, which was my “goal”. My real goal was to finish, but I’d secretly told Dave that was my ultimate goal, besides finishing. We were out running around Anaheim, and some parts were boring, but whenever I felt that way, I’d see a random person in the crowd cheering. These people are so supportive! It’s incredible, and they have no idea (or maybe they do) the impact they have on the people running. It’s so encouraging and awesome for them to be sitting out in the cold cheering all these people on. They also had formal cheer squads from high schools and bands. They even had a military band! We ran through Disneyland from miles 2-3, and then headed back into CA adventure by mile 11. As I was approaching DCA, I spotted familiar faces!! I saw Dave, and then Brandon, who was smiley, and then Peyton, who gave me her confused face. She was giving me “the look”, not knowing what was going on. I think she still has a problem with seeing me out of context, in this sea of people. Or maybe because she is in the backseat of the stroller, she can’t see as well. I was finally able to throw my gloves at Dave! I should’ve given him my jacket, too, but I had all my gear in the pockets and wasn’t expecting to see him like that. It was totally what I needed to get through the last few miles. I saw him again at with only 1/2 mile left, which helped me push through to the end to see them more quickly. He was walking back to meet me, and I saw him on the other side walking back, over the barrier. I crossed the finish line, and made my way to find Tina and then Dave. Within 2 minutes, we all found each other. Tina had been there already for about 20 minutes, so she was ready to go when I got there. She’d been sitting as she got tired of standing to find me. We took a finishing picture, then headed back to the hotel. All in all, it was a great experience. I ran the entire thing, stopping for water only, oh, and my shoe lace coming untied! My shoe lace NEVER comes untied, so I was pretty upset having to stop. Many other runners stopped to take a photo in the near empty Disneyland, but I was focused on my time. I guess I should have stopped and taken advantage of being in the near empty park. Tina said not many people in her corral stopped, but we had at least 5-6 deep, which also made me not want to stop.
I went home, showered up, and we hit the road again. Dave’s dad had shingles, so we didn’t want to risk further contamination, even though we’d seen them the day before. So our plan was to leave a day earlier than planned. We stopped by for our UCLA recruiting trip for the kids, meeting up with Mike for breakfast, then going to the student store and our favorite cookie/ice cream place up there.
Here are some picture from the weekend:
1) The two headed sleeping monster
2) The Tsao family, posing
3) The start line
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5) What Peyton found at the UCLA store
We gassed up and pottied in WLA before heading out. We all fell asleep, while Dave drove us back home. We didn’t need to stop again until we made it home! Well, I’d wanted something salty but not fat. Dave came up with ramen, which was perfect! In fact, the place toned down the saltiness for the kids, while I kept mine “regular”, so I could drink up. It was a perfect combo, especially since we’d left 80 degree weather and came back to 60 degree weather. I unpacked our stuff, and sent the kids to bed. I think both are happy to be back home, especially Peyton, who is happy to see her bed rail again.
Final official time: 13.1 miles, 2 hours, 27 minutes, 50 seconds. Phew.