TNT Meets Orlando

I just got home from my weekend in Orlando, where I finally got to run this race I’ve been training so many months for! The race was so much fun—I’d love to run it again someday!
We arrived on Thursday and spent the day getting settled and fueling up on carbs to prep us for the big race. Later that night, we went to the running expo where we got to look around and test out various new running equipment. We picked up our numbers, and got all checked in for our race.

This was Thursday nights dinner with some of my coaches, Tom, Dari, and Jacklyn. I LOVED My coaches!

Friday we slept in and then headed over to the Epcot for our TNT Pasta Party with the thousands of other participants from our team, Team in Training.

Here's a good handful of my team- We Love NY!

Here's a glimpse of our TNT Ceremony.

Me with my Roomie- Jocelyn, and my mentor Bethany.

There were 49 chapters that all met together there! I’m with the New York City chapter, so we all wore our “I (heart) NY T-shirts”. We had a really neat motivational speaker, and listened to a bunch of recent stats on actually how much money was raised and where all the money would be going. We made 5.4 million dollars this season in this event alone-- (we all have teammates that are raising funds and running other races throughout the US).We took a moment of silence for the Puerto Rico coach that had just recently passed away from cancer, who in his lifetime had run over 100 marathons, and over 300 half marathons--he was amazing. The food was awesome, but more importantly, the presentation throughout the event was heartfelt, and touching to all that were in attendance. There were hundreds of pictures that came up on the screen throughout the dinner of people that our teammates were running for, or in memory of. There were so many people involved that are still fighting for their lives, and they were my motivation. Later that night, we decorated our jerseys and got to bed early, because we would be waking up at 2:00 to get ready for our race. We could hardly sleep we were so excited!

We got back to our hotel and I wanted to go swimming soooo bad-- the pool was heated, the steam was luring me in. . .

I was ready to jump! My pants were already soaked from the rain.

Race Day:

2:00 am We awoke-- yes it was finally that time! We filled up on our bagels, peanut butter and our bananas, and headed down to the lobby to meet our team. We got on the first bus to leave, and were so excited because that meant that we could check our bags in at the race and wouldn't have to wait very long outside.

Well what we came to find out--the hard way-- was that the place we would waiting after we checked our bags, was also outside.
3:00 am-- we were dropped off in this huge parking lot, and told that we would just have to find some way to keep ourselves warm--for 3 hours. Everyone went ballistic because nobody was prepared for this. They started taking trash bags out of the garbage cans to use as windbreakers, as there was nothing for us to sit behind to block the wind-- that was continuously blowing-- did I mention that it was 26 degrees—later reported to be the coldest day in Orlando in over 40 years!? None of us had outer layers on like our winter coats, just little light jackets, some people were even in shorts. So we're all going crazy after about ten minutes of it, and then it starts sprinkling. We all went to the tents where we checked our bags in, but were forced to leave. There were so many people accumulating in the parking lot, everyone shivering, it really was unbelievable, but we didn't really have much choice.

I know I look like a zombie. . . this is what I look like at 3:00 in the morning-- I actually look pretty darn happy for bein so miserable! And it's those girlies right there-- that I have to thank for it! That's me, Kerry, and her friends from Montana-- Jessie, and Muppy.

Finally at about 5:00am we were allowed to start heading down to our corral, I was a different number than my friends, so we all had to split up. I was totally alone, well- with 20,000 strangers- in the dark, and now it was starting to snow. We were walking now though-- and I was lucky to find my friend Kerry, whom I've never run with before, but I just recognized her from our group. She was so nice and actually introduced me to a couple of her friends that had come out from Montana. They were hard core runners, but were super nice. I was so blessed to have found them. They were good at keeping my mind off of the cold, and had lots of fun stories to tell about how they trained in Montana, with all the packed snow they have there consistently throughout their winters. I was getting a little nervous as I listened to them talk about other races they'd run, and what their pace was. Their time was approximately 2 minutes per mile faster than mine ever was. This is a lot. I resolved that I would just do all that I could to keep up with them and only slow down if I thought I was going to die, but to try not to think about that, ;) and just have fun running with them-- acting like that was a normal pace for me too. I was still insanely nervous.

We waited there for another hour, and then finally the fireworks went off, and it was our waves turn to begin! There were so many people huddled so close together in the beginning that all I could see and feel were elbows- they were unavoidable. Muppy, one of the girls from Montana, saw her mom on the sidelines cheering her on and ran over to her, by the time we'd realized this, we'd lost her, we started running slower looking around and calling out to her-- we weren't going to lose her now, so then we started going back and over to the side, off of the road continuing to call out to her. We didn't know if she had somehow passed us or if she'd gone back looking for us too-- we added about ten min to our time—but our efforts were not in vain, because we finally found her. The running felt great, it took about the first mile for me to start warming my body back up. The weather fought against us for the remainder of the race; we had sleet, and snow, and rain-- lots of rain. We ran all through the Magical Kingdom, and then different areas of the rest of the park. The run was so much fun! The girls kept at their quick pace and I somehow survived keeping up with them- I’m sure it was just the adrenaline rush of it all. They both had to stop for the port-a-pottys, and the lines were pretty long. I was determined to run the entire race, so I just circled the group of port-a-pottys and the trucks, vans, and cars around them. There was a man in the van-- I didn't even notice until about the fifth time I ran around him-- he was laughing at me looking at me like I was a psycho. I know I was--but I just couldn't stop yet.

The race finally came to a finish-- it was so exciting to finally get there! We were instantly wrapped in aluminum- tissue-like- blankets, but I couldn't understand why, as I was so hot running, until an about 20 seconds of time lapsed, and then I understood perfectly. It was freeeezing cold outside! It was raining, and I was soaked-- I couldn't stop shaking. I had to wait in a line to take a picture with my medal before they would let me go get my dry clothes from the bag check-- that took a while.

Look-- we all won! haha we finished, so that made us winners. I wonder what it means when they put your medal on you backwards. . .

Finally I got my bag, but they had sealed it with plastic so that nothing would fall out I guess, but that meant that I wouldn't be getting into my dry clothes in there any time soon. There were a million people trying to get onto the buses and all the lines were meshed together, so people were just forcing their way onto the buses as they curb-sided one at a time. I was so excited to finally get on the bus-- it was sooo warm in there! I came back to my room called mom, showered, and crashed. I slept a good hard 4 hours or so and then my roomy and I decided to go hit the park while we still had daylight. We had so much fun playing on all the rides, and we were there late enough that we got to enjoy the light parade and the fireworks--which were awesome~!

Jocelyn and I were stoked for our first ride of the day. . . Space Moutain! I rembered it being scary, but I got the front seat this time-- I couldn't stop screaming! Haha but I loved it!

Here's the castle I've been waiting my whole life to see--- it was beautiful!

Just getting ready to face the Pirates of the Carribean.

I found some new friends. . . like this guy. . .

and Woody! . . .

Captain Jack Sparrow. . .

Mr. Potatoe Head ;)

And Kermy!!! . . I love Kermy, but ya know who I love even more than him. . .

My Army Boy!

Here we're all getting ready for the Tower of Terror. . . Yes it's that scary!

Look how happy we are. . . this is because I have no Idea what I'm about to get myself into. . . I thought the Tower of Terror was like a haunted hotel, not a thirteen story freefall! haha I couldn't stop screaming-- I could barely catch my breath between them. . . but the best part of the ride was seeing our pictures at the end. Both my friends were turning towards me holding my arms and asking if I was okay with my eyes and mouth open wider than I thought they could even go-- screaming for my life! Ohhh. . . I should have gotten it! Haha it was soooo funny!

We all bought yellow glasses to go with our yellow medals, haha just kidding. We were getting ready to go on the Toy Story 4D-- this was totally my favorite ride!

More fun TNT friends, we surprising all met each other not through the training, as we didn't all train together. We met each other all at the Children's Hospital, when we went to help the children in the cancer unit make decorations during the holidays. It was such a neat experience for all of us to be there with them these sweet kids-- and to get to know one another better.

I couldn't help but sneak another picture of this gorgeous castle after the sun went down. . . it really was magical!

Sunday was truly a day of rest. That night we had our victory party- which was outside- Wahoo! And consisted of leftovers from the big pasta party we had two days prior, haha but it was food, so I was grateful. It got even better when I went to the outdoor bar to get us some drinks—soda, water, etc. and was told that I had to pay for them. I told them that I just wanted to get the free drinks that came with our dinner, and they said there wasn’t such a thing. But, they were more than happy to offer me a bottle of water for $4.50, I inquired about the cans of soda, they were cheaper—only 4 bucks a can! Seriously. Haha I decided to just wait it out for something a bit more in my price range—the drinking fountain! Other than that, it really was such a fun night. It was a good last-minute-chance to hang out with each all of our friends, take some fun pics, and say our goodbyes.
We flew into Newark-- not to be confused with Newark around noon on Monday. Yes, now listen to yourself say that out loud , . . here it? haha yes, this could cause some serious confusion.
So I finally made it home from my adventurous weekend. It was one of the neatest, toughest, craziest experiences of my life, but absolutely worth it!