Flew down Thursday with Chris (trigods). We did the 5K Friday morning, then met up with G8RSAX, fitphd, and Trixie at the expo. Chris is my best friend, so I've been hearing stories about all you BTers for quite a while, and have had fun meeting some of you in Memphis and Chattanooga when I jockstrapped for him. So I was looking forward to meeting some more people and actually racing with them.

That night we went to dinner with Q, Jess, bunnyrunner, sue, fitphd, Trixie, and ROBIT79 and his family. It was a lot of fun. Sometime during dinner Trixie decided I needed a new BT name, and Soupy was born.

We got up Saturday at 3. Showered and ate a Zone bar, and we caught the shuttle outside the hotel before 4.

We hadn't been there long when they called for the A group. So Chris went to find Trixie and fitphd and we made plans to meet at the end. I was in the B group, so I had a while more to wait. I ate an Uncrustable and walked around drinking some water. When they called my group, I swear we must have walked about half a mile to the start line. That was a good warm up for me. Then there was the national anthem, cool fireworks, and away we went. I had been looking forward to this weekend for so long, and it was exciting to actually be starting.

The first couple miles were tough simply due to the massive amounts of people. I would try to bob and weave my way through the crowds, running on the grass a lot of the time. It thinned out a little, but honestly the crowds were thick the entire time. I know that slowed me down some, but that was OK. Since the next day was my first marathon, I was planning to just take it slow and easy for the whole race.

About mile 3 I was already sweating pretty hard. The air was thick; I couldn't believe how humid it was. I started to worry about the next day.

Around mile 5 we entered the Magic Kingdom. It was amazing how many people were lining Main Street and cheering for us. I felt like a big kid, high fiving lots of people and just taking it all in.

Mile 7 or so we were out of the park and back on the roads. I saw a sign marking where the 13 mile mark would be for the full marathon and I thought, "Holy cow, that's tomorrow."

The last few miles went pretty quickly. I talked to lots of runners around me and met some other Goofy people. I wasn't hurting anywhere, but I was really starting to feel the effects of the heat and humidity. It was sapping my energy and I was ready to be done.

The last mile was through Epcot and the crowds were awesome. That carried me through to the end and I crossed the finish line with a big high five for Chicken Little.

Met up with trigods, fitphd, and trixie at the finish. Hugs all around. Fit and Trixie were quite the superheroes- it was hilarious. And trigods' coon skin cap was nice too.

Figure out how to train for heat and humidity.

Went back to the hotel, showered and changed, and went to eat with trigods, trixie, fitphd, Q, bunnyrunner, and tri take me away. Again I had a great time getting to know some BT people a little better. Then went back to the hotel for a big fat nap.

Ate an awesome dinner at the hotel with Chris and went to sleep early to get ready for round 2.

The freaking humidity. And the fact I was trying to save up for the next day's marathon.

This was my third half marathon. I took it really easy and still PR'd by 7 minutes so I was happy. I've come a long way since my first race 10 months ago, and it was satisfying to realize that. This was a really fun race.