God Answers Prayer!

Where to start.....Jan of this year I ran/walked the Disney World Half Marathon. This was to qualify for my coast to coast medal. Coast to Coast Challenge is where you complete a half marathon 13.1 or a Full Marathon 26.2 in Disney World Orlando FL and then complete a Half Marathon in Disney Land CA. in a full calendar year. I was a little nervous b/c I haven't been back training long. That weekend I completed the 5K, Toured All 4 Parks , Downtown Disney and completed the Half Marathon. Apparently it was too many miles too soon. My IT band started hurting. It started in my calf about mile 10 went around my knee and up my leg. I stopped for ibuprofen, and biofreeze. Said a prayer and kept on going. I hobbled around with some leg pain. I finished and under 3:30 which qualified me for my coast to coast medal. YEA!!!

Disney World Half Marathon 2012

When I got home I just road the bike at the gym and tried to stay off of my leg for a while. Well I got to looking online at the qualifications of the Half Fanatics. I had signed up to run Tinkerbell Half Marathon the end of January, Mercedes Half Marathon, and Princess in February. My friend was trying to talk me into running the Gulf Shores Half the week before Tinkerbell. I was on the fence about signing up. My leg was hurting and I didn't want to do anything to jeopardize my Coast to Coast medal. When I found out that if I did the Gulf Coast Half that would be 4 halfs in 36 days qualifying me to move up two levels in Half Fanatics. It was a 4 hour time limit so I just thought to myself. I could sign up and walk it. That way I wouldn't risk injury. So Stupidly I signed up for the Gulf Coast Half against the advice of some of my friends. It was a 500 person limit so I knew if I was gonna walk it...Odds are I was gonna be last and I was gonna be okay with that. I made friends with a girl named Stephanie out on the course. It was her first Half Marathon so I stayed with her most of the race. Her friends were all very fast runners and she was nervous being her first half and was happy to have a talker with her. LOL

YIKES!!! fire truck staying on our tail.

Well as predicted the fire truck got behind me and getting on my very LAST nerve. I didn't want to breathe his fumes and I was way ahead of the 4 hour time limit. As you know if you are a licensed driver its very hard to drive at 4 miles an hour so every couple of minutes you would hear his engine rev up. Making me feel pressured to run. Which I knew very well that I should not be doing b/c my leg was already hurting and every time I tried to run it was worse. There were two other girls in the back of the pack with me. I told them to go ahead b/c I could not run with my leg pain. When we got to the water station my new friend Stephanie asked the guys at the water stop to tell the fire truck to "BACK OFF" and they did. YEA!!  I passed a man around mile 10 and wasn't last anymore and didn't have to stress over a veh on my tail. I just kept going. Put my ipod in and listened to my praise and worship music.  I love this one song from "The Gospel Soundtrack"  He Reigns / Awesome God....because in the because in the beginning of the song when the music starts before the song starts you hear them say " This song right here its dedicated to all my people that felt like giving up and you didn't think you were going to make it."Then the song starts!  Its just a happy praise & worship song that really gets me going.

13.1 finisher!!!

With that ....I made it to the finish line and under 3:30 so I actually had 30 minutes to spare. And...I wasn't last.

Because I was pressured to run from the fire truck. My leg was was in terrible pain. I could not even bend it to get in the car. I wanted to cry. I put ice on it all the way home. Lots of biofreeze, & ibuprofen.
This is when I went into panic mode!! I knew I shouldn't have done the half marathon. Some of my friends told me it was crazy & not a wise idea. But Im stubborn, I wanted to see if I could do it. Not to mention I love a half marathon medal!! At this point I have three days to have my leg healed b/c I am flying to California for my very first visit to Disneyland!! I won the Tinkerbell Half Meet Up run with Jeff Galloway & runDisney, I have registered for the Half and 5K!!! At this point Im praying for a miracle. The last time I had leg pain that wasn't even near the pain I was feeling. It took me 3 months of therapy to heal. I knew that the only thing I could do at this point was to pray and have all my friends pray. I went to the chiropractor who let me borrow her personal inserts for her shoes, told me to buy some "fever few with willow bark" from the herb store, I used "the stick" and biofreeze too. She worked on me for 3 days and then I was off to Disneyland.

Neverland 5K! We are ready to Run!!

Got to Run in the Empty Parks!! Thanks runDisney!

Sleeping Beauty's Castle!

Coast To Coast Finisher!!!

I finished the 5K, Ran the Run/Walk with runDisney & Jeff Galloway, and finished the Half Marathon!! I got my COAST TO COAST MEDAL!!! All was right in the world.

I believe in the Power of Prayer!! Its the only way I could have accomplished 3 half marathons and 100 miles logged this January!!