First of all, you guys are awesome.  I received a completely unexpected reaction to my EXPOSED post, and many of your comments literally brought tears to my eyes and made me all sappy.  I feel so lucky to have such a nice little bunch of blog readers, and if you guys were the only people who read my blog for the entire rest of my life, that would be just fine with me.  You are all so awesome!!!

Also.

Did you guys get the memo that I’m running the Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon on March 7th?

In like…6…er…5 days?

Five DAYS.  Not weeks.  DAYS.

In the midst of my ‘I’m going to Disney World’ brain fog, it sort of slipped my mind that I’m going to be running a 1/2 marathon while I’m at Disney World.  Sort of a way to earn my vacation, if you will.

It’s not that I haven’t been running, because I have.  The problem is that I haven’t really mentally prepared myself for the fact that I’m running a race, because I’ve been completely preoccupied with meeting Mickey again.

I don’t know if this will prove to be a good thing or a bad thing.  I guess time will tell.

In the training realm, I was feeling fairly confident in my running as of late until yesterday.  I was scheduled to do my final long run of 11 miles.  The first problem was that I had to do it on the treadmill, since there is still snow everywhere, and I’m afraid of getting hit by a car.

My head was not in the game.  At 1.5 miles, I wanted to bail, and that normally doesn’t happen until at least 2 miles.

I’m kidding…kind of.

So, from the beginning, I just didn’t want to be there.  I wanted to be at home, baking almond paste cookies and roasting root vegetables in a 425 degree oven, while wearing my Boojiboo apron and feeding my dogs cheese.

Seriously, these are the things I was dreaming of while I was on the treadmill.  I never claimed to be normal, but I’m definitely simple.  And by “simple”, I mean that it doesn’t take much to make me happy.  Not that I’m “simple”.

Dreaming of roasting vegetables aside, I tried to make it work.  I became fixated on the fact that at the 45 minute mark, I could slurp my vanilla bean GU (again, I look forward to the simple things).

I was only running so that I could slurp a GU.  That’s pretty pathetic, no?  However, I didn’t make it to that 45 minute mark because of this familiar “twinge” that I felt in my left fibular head.

Remember?  The GOOD leg, that has now suddenly gone BAD?

What the hell is the deal with this anyway?  Last year, all I dreamed of was a good right leg.  Now I have a right leg that gives me no problems whatsoever, and the damn left leg is running a muck.

Dear Running Gods,

This $h!t is not fair, man!

Sincerely,

Me.

So, if we rewound to last year, I would’ve just kept running, and then spent the next 6 months of my life enduring agony and frustration with each run.  Yesterday, with my better judgment solidly in tact, I got off of the treadmill.

And then I slurped my vanilla bean GU…because didn’t I deserve to have dessert after running 4 miles and having a knee pain?

Actually, I slurped the GU because my game plan was to get on the bike and finish out my 2.5 hours of cardio time (I’m anticipating that my finish for the Disney Princess 1/2 will be between 2:15-2:30).  After watching the end of a creepy documentary about the “real” Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the beginning of the Housewives of NYC episode where Bethenny and Jill get all girly catfight at a charity auction event, I decided that I had enough.

I was bored of the bike (and I had already seen that episode of the Housewives 43 times anyway), so I stopped.

I justified this decision fully because, well, I had a fridge full of vegetables at home that weren’t going to roast themselves!

Not to mention, my new Nike Free 5.0′s are causing the most heinous blisters on the entire bottom of each of my little baby toes.  I’m rethinking my decision to attempt the break in of a new pair of shoes 2 weeks before the race.

I also never said I was smart.

I might have to resort to running in my old Nike Pegasus 25′s…in order to preserve what little skin I have remaining on my toes.

In any case, I’m kind of ready for the race, and kind of not ready for the race.  I only hope that the “twinge” was just my knee’s way of telling me that it was craving roasted vegetables.

* Have you joined my Facebook Group yet?

* See how my training is going over here!

* Looking for my eBook?

*Check out my body image project!

I began training for the Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon about 3 weeks ago.  The race is on March 7, 2010, and after all of my training issues over the past year, I decided that this time I was going to be gentle.

If you know me or read me, you will also know that “gentle” is my own personal antonym.

To emit anything of a “gentle” nature is completely foreign and torturous.

I say too much, I do too much, I love too much, and I generally care too much.  All in a very non-gentle fashion.  Although my intentions are always genuine, and my actions are always true, I am so UN-gentle that people often mistake my bold and brash tendencies as being disingenuous.

I swear…I really do care THAT much.

I really am THAT nice.

I really WOULD pick you up and drive you across the country if you needed to visit your aunt.

And I’d probably buy you a Diet Pepsi and some Cinnamon Gummi Bears for the road (but that would be a semi-selfish purchase because I’d make you share the cinna gummi’s).

It’s just the way I am.

But there is nothing gentle about it.

All of this bibble-babble aside, when I realized and truly owned the fact that I needed to train for the Disney Princess 1/2 in a gentle fashion, I was sure that I would most definitely self combust in the process.

I am the girl who “ran” The Baltimore Marathon after injuring herself in like week 4 of training.  And I was technically still injured from my previous training.  I just don’t DO gentle.

But, I’m DOING gentle.

I chose to bunk all of the ideas about whose training plan I needed to follow this time.  Hal Higdon is a training genius and all, and I’m sure that Nike’s training plan is killer, but all of this talk about who is doing which training plan has begun to feel like some sort of high school click.

“The COOL kids are using the [insert name] plan”.

Screw that.  Your girl is following her own damn plan this time.  My internal plan.  The one that my body guides me through.  The theme for life right now seems to be “get in touch with your own body, sista.”

It’s all very Chi of me, no?

(and I’m not speaking of the flat-iron-variety Chi this time)

I just cannot be held to the expectations of another person’s training schedule.  I’m doing me this time (in a strictly “G” rated fashion).

I have a plan, but it’s MY plan.

Errr…hopefully I don’t die at the end.

Have you tried following your own training plan in the past?  How did it go?

* Have you joined my Facebook Group yet?

* See how my training is going over here!

* Looking for my eBook?

*Check out my body image project!

Due to the brilliant idea of my friend, Jen, today I am registering for the Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon!

In the past 30 minutes since she asked me to join her, I have invited the rest of my family and friends.  I want everyone to come!!

I have always heard such fun things about the Disney Marathon experience, and wanted to do it “someday”.  So, my someday is March 7, 2010!  Now, just to figure out the details about hotel and such…hmmm…

Here are some details about what the registration includes:

• Race Registration
• Commemorative Champion® Ladies Tech Shirt
• Goody Bag
• Event Weekend Transportation from Select Resort Hotels only
• Personalized Bib (Must register by January 1, 2010 for names to appear on bibs.)
• On Course Refreshments
• On Course Disney Entertainment
• Post-Race Refreshments
• Family Reunion Area with live entertainment and characters
• Half Marathon Finishers receive a very special Princess medal
• A one-year subscription to REDBOOK* (a $3.92 value).
  Offer and refund details. *Subscription offer valid for US residents only.
• Specially themed KODAK single use camera

If anyone else is planning to do this race, let me know!

So excited!

* Have you joined my Facebook Group yet?

* See how my training is going over here!

* Wonder what I’m eating?

* Everyone loves a giveaway!