Last minute freak outs!

Anyone else having last minute freak outs? I can't be the only one trying not to have a meltdown the night before my 6:30 am flight!

The worst part is, I'm not worried about the race AT ALL. Maybe I should be, since my longest training run was only 10 miles and I only did 2 back to back run days, but I'm really not. I know I can do both distances, I've done them each once before. I'm slightly concerned about recovery, but not nearly as much as I expected to be. 

No, my freak outs are about other things. Things like:

Will the weather hold up long enough for my flight to get out? And will I spend all weekend hanging out in the rain?

Will Mother Nature rear her ugly head in other ways? (I don't think PMS is helping the freak outs much)

Will I be able to get my bag through bag check with all 6 bottles of smartwater weighing it down, or will I be chugging one in line for security?

The list goes on and on, but I have to let it go and attempt to sleep. Hopefully by the time my 4:30 alarm goes off, I'll be in a better mental spot (hopefully I fall asleep sometime before my 4:30 alarm goes off!). 

For tonight, I leave with two questions. 

1. Anyone staying at Sports have extra heart stickers/tattoos? I didn't have time to go look for any and would love to be recognizable for other #pinkheartsphm chicas.

2. Any good suggestions for a good non-park place to explore alone on Monday? My besties that I'm traveling with will be at MK all day, but I'm staying back to catch and early evening flight. I'm looking for something new to explore or see while I wait for my trip on the ME. 

Also, if you see me in corral H for the half (not sure where that is for 10k), come say hi! Flat Minnie (10k) and flat Belle (1/2) don't do it justice, but this is what I'll be wearing!

The Year of the Happy Endings

Welcome to my year of happy endings!

Why should anyone bother to read this? I'm just another almost 28 year old living out my dreams on the East Coast, right? Maybe. But anyone that bothers to get to know me will quickly realize that I'm not just another 20 something living in the big city, trying to make a name for myself.

I'm a school social worker with a passion for working with kids with disabilities.

I'm working on my PhD in Social Work part time, on top of working full time.

I'm planning my wedding, set to take place in just 129 days!

And on top of trying to balance all of the above, I'm chasing my Glass Slipper dream of racing in Disney for the 3rd time next month. Yeah, add training for that on to my normal schedule and you can just guess how prepared I might be for that one.

I thought I would try blogging for a number of reasons. Mostly, I need an outlet for all of the crazy thoughts in my head that my fiancee, family and friends are tired of hearing about on a regular basis, and what better audience than the internet! If my stories and antics are helpful to anyone else, even just by putting a smile on their face, than it makes every moment worth writing down. And I promise you, my life will provide plenty of laughable moments, and my kiddos at work will fill in the blanks when I'm having a relatively normal week.

Secondly though, I am literally spending the next year running toward my goals, including the one of getting married and starting this new phase of my life, which will hopefully one day include a family (that I can take to Disney as much as I want!). My first goal of 2014 though is to complete the GSC. And to be honest, I wasn't too positive about it until a couple of weeks ago. It took just a couple of days of work spent stalking Facebook and the Princess Half FB groups to get me completely motivated to get moving again. I joined a gym. I bought my first SparkleSkirt (that should have been enough right there, those things are AWESOME). I started planning my costumes. And I went back and found the blogs of the women who had run before me and motivated me to get through my training for my first Princess and first half LAST year at this time. And I started to realize something: those women, who I thought of as wonder women and my half marathon heros, are just normal women like me, talking about their experiences and sharing them with others.

Well, blow me over. I can do that too!

So here I am. I hope to encourage other first timers and other princesses to get out there and move, just like others have encouraged me. I've realized that it's never too late to start- I can say I didn't officially start training for GSC until January 3rd (my first run in 2 1/2 months) and 2 weeks later I'm ready and can't wait to get to Disney to hurdle my next challenge.

GSC will just be the first- followed quickly by trying to balance wedding planning and multivariate statistics for the next 4 months and keeping my sanity through Memorial Day weekend wedding craziness. Heaven knows how I'll be handling married life come May 25th when things REALLY get real. But I do know that I'm going to attack each hurdle like this first one- running with a purpose and a goal in mind. And hopefully at least someone reading this will be along for the ride!