Katie & Swanie Survive the half meet
 

Come join us on August 31st at 1 PMish on the patio at Tortilla Joe's to clebrate our finishing of the Disneyland Half Marathon. Alternate location UCI Medical Center :D

Katie & Swanie

PS - We'll also be around all weekend if anyone wants to meet up.

I'll come play! Or drink. Or something ;)

Half Marathon? Wow!! I know my Hubby would like to run that with you but I can only send you lots of positive mojo on your participation as I probably can't make it up.

Yay for you guys!!!! {and it will be Tortilla Joes, not the UCI Med Ctr!}

I'm sure we can use extra help pushing the wheelchairs and oxygen tanks too. ;)

I can't imagine what a lightweight I'll be after suffering from heatstroke and sheer exhaustion. Alcohol and half-marathons? Can we ask that all cameras and recording devices be banned from the meet?

:D

Nope.

Oh no, there have to be cameras for those of us who would like to be there but can't :)

Negative.

I'm wondering if Full Marathon Lani is going to do this...
:)

Do they have a 1/1000th marathon? I can do a 20 meter crawl.

Damn, we have a wedding to attend.

We'll be around the park all day Fri & Sat - Heather's bro and his family are in town... maybe we could help you carbo-load on Saturday night...

Excellent - do you still have my #?? Just give us a call.

Yup!! Please take lots of pictures. Good Luck :D

I'll be doing the 67 inch Schottische though DCA..

All seven of us survived the 5K this morning and are back at the Hojo's resting before dinner.

Pray for us tomorrow ;)

She'd have to do it twice....

;)

We *might* make a guest appearance

Tortilla Jo's at 1pm sounds like a reasonable hour/location

We're getting ready. Hope to see people tomorrow!!

Good luck and have fun!

:cheers: for the finish line!

Hope the race went well! :cheers:

Talked to Katiesue, she survived! Not walking too well, but she'll get over that. She ran the 1/2 Marathon in 3.3, so not too bad at all! Swanie just breezed through.

WTG Katiesue & Swanie!

we survived. Showered then heading over in a bit to Tortilla Joes.

Congratulations again to Katiesue and Swanie!

It was a nice, "intimate" gathering at Tortilla Jo's- then Borneio, Rose and I went over to Splash Mountain and sank a log- all my clothes are hanging up to dry now, and my shoes are effectively destroyed. :D

Its 2 am and I'm still wet.

Sounds like a personal problem ;)

Thank you guys so much for coming. Great to see you. I can actually hobble a little faster today.

Congrats!
:)

Congrats to the fastest swankers :cheers:

Congrats!!!!!! I'm sorry I couldn't give you a sweaty hug. ;)

We made it back to AZ tonight. The trip was action packed and way too short! I'm dreading going back to reality tomorrow.

I had an absolute blast. Katiesue and I walked together for 11/almost 12 miles, then I jogged to the finish. I think she had enough of my bouncing around high-fiving the crowds. :D Our goal was to stay one step ahead of the sweepers and we did a pretty good job.

Katie was a bit of a celebrity for the first couple of miles. She wore a tank top that said "This seemed like a good idea 3 months ago" on the front and "Race Official. Do Not Pass." on the back. I can't tell you how many runners came up to her to tell her how much they liked her shirt. :D It was pretty damn funny. My other favorite was a rather large girl with a shirt that said "Does this shirt make my butt look fast?" There was no shortage of interesting costumes and people on the course.

The course wasn't exactly "scenic" but there were some really neat moments. The entire Anaheim stadium area was lined with cheerleaders, the UCI Band, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts and they were all cheering us on by name. Also, the last stretch was lined with early finishers, medals around their necks, encouraging us all on. It was AWESOME. And I got to high-five Chip as I crossed the finish line. I couldn't have asked for anything more. :)

Thanks again to CoasterMatt, Rose and Borneio for meeting up with us. It was nice seeing you again. :)

I'm already looking forward to the WDW 1/2 in January. In fact, my sister told me tonight that she'd like to do a 1/2 sometime and she is considering doing the Rock 'N Roll here in AZ a week after my WDW. I may try to do back-to-back weekends. I need to find my next victim since Katie has made it perfectly clear that she'll never do it again. ;) She should be so proud of herself. She finished in spite of shin splints, a bad hip and too many blisters to count. She really gutted it out. :cheers:

Congrats to you guys!!!

Aw, I LOVE that shirt, katiesue!! And yes, you definitely should be proud you guys did the race and finished it!!!

My mantra - if Alex can do it I can do it, if Alex can do it I can do it.....

LOL Alex was there?

Oh, and I know that mantra. A freind of mine did the Mist Trail with a baby on her back, and she wasn't a fit person either.

Here are a few photos from the 5K and 1/2 Marathon (which I spoilered due to size). We took something close to 80 photos for the 5K and set a blazing 25 minute mile pace, but we had a ton of fun. I didn't carry my camera for the half, but I have a few photos pre and post race. The official race photos will be up later in the week.

The Swanies before the 5K.

Katiesue and Madz before the 5K.

Mr. Swanie keeping up with the kiddos.

The kids hamming it up.

Littlest Swanie and her special medal.

The Girls post race.

Half Marathon Runner's retreat pre-race.

Me annoying Katiesue BEFORE the race even starts (this was a running theme :) )

Post race and SMILING!

My girls and my medal.

Okay, aside from the miles that looks like a lot of fun!!

Thank you for sharing the photos!!

Between the 5K and the Half Marathon (a combined 16.2 miles), I'm guessing we walked enough for a full marathon with all of the trips from Hojo's to the DLH and all around the parks. :eek:

We would have used ART more but it was an absolute nightmare. Honest to the Lord above, after the Half we waited for the bus only to have the driver pull up and start yapping about how she's had to go to the bathroom for over an hour and she's driving on only 2 hours of sleep. The woman got off the bus, locked it up and walked away for 20 minutes while all of sat there with our medals around our neck. Then when she got back she had the nerve to start to drive away with out letting us all on!
:mad:

Yike!

Hey, how long did it take you guys to walk it? {I may have missed the time}. How long before the sweepers came up behind people? :D

I am soooo tempted to try this on my own at home and see if I can do it. We've walked 7 miles but I am into walk/running it and then maybe moving up.

Oh, I survived a 5k but I ran the whole thing {not fast, of course, but it was 'running' to me}.

You guys are inspirational, definitely!!! :snap: and a :snap: :snap:

Congratulations to the half marathoners! Thanks for sharing those photos.

Congratulations! Great pictures.

When's the next half marathon? I'd like to do it.

Really. :)

Katie & Swanie Survive the half meet
 

*Raises hand* Volunteer's for next years....i really really want to seriously the medals looked awesome and just the thrill of actually doing something like that and finishing and participating in it just makes me want to get out there and succeed. What did you do to train? Loved the pictures.

It's Labor Day weekend again in 2009. Um you'll have to ask Swanie about the training - I just showed up.

Kidding - there are a number of training programs for a half marathon. I just kept getting hurt. Some real training would have been beneficial.

Katie & Swanie Survive the half meet
 

Thought it would be Labor Day Weekend 2009. Shouldn't be a problem with the date at all. OK i will ask Swanie about the training.

We finished in roughly 3:32:00 and 3:38:00. If I had to guess the sweepers would have been clearing the roads at 4:00:00. It was based on 3:30:00 after the last person in the last corral and wave crossed the starting line. With 13,500 people, it takes a while for everyone to move past the starting sensors. Also, we settled in with the walkers, but the runners were doing it in sub 3:00:00 times. Don't even ask how fast the winners ran the race! They were finishing their 13.1 miles at my 6.2 mile pace!

I'm gonna do the AIDS Walk L.A. on October 19 - as part of NBC Universal team.

I oughtta be ok for this, I walk a mile every day from my last bus stop to the front door.

So, we could walk it if we wanted to? I walked only a short way today and I think the heat messed with me. The Hubster is sooo hip to do this, to train with me. He'll do anything to bust my butt.

Matt, how far is that aids walk?

AIDS Walk L.A. is 6.2 miles.

I think I may have my sights set on the Coast to Coast challenge for 2010. I saw the medal that people got this year, and am very bummed I couldn't commit to the DL 1/2 to get that medal. It's too late to register for the WDW 1/2 for 2009, and I don't think I'm prepared to do another marathon given my lingering knee problems.

Like Steph trains, will you? I know you walk a lot at Disneyland and work but how many miles is that?

One thing in the favor or races, they start early. So, you can use up all of your energy and then go home and pass out.

Not that I know anything about that....:D

I should probably look into doing one of these sometime - walking. I don't run.

I know I can't run that far. I think I am going to train and see if I can mix in running with it. I tried it today, almost 1 mile walk/running. I didn't run the whole mile, but, I only walked to catch myself and then went again.

But, that was only for 3 miles. I need it to not be hot. So....I don't think I'd do this one you guys did. I need one in the cooler months.......start off early and be finished when the day starts to warm up.

Lisa, you walk a lot with your pooches, right? Just like Matt walks a lot with his work. That is a head start. :snap:

I walk about 6 miles a day on average. But, it's not always a fast walk and we do stop to pee.

Doing a walk/run is probably the way to go, unless you can maintain a fast walk the whole time. For Disney races, there are time cutoffs, so you need to be able to maintain an average 16 min/mile pace (approx.).

I would suggest checking out some books at the library for some example beginner training plans. John Bingham's books are good for people who are interested in doing a walk/run program.

Good for you for giving it a go! I hope you stick with it.

The Jeff Galloway programs emphasize a run/walk method too. I used his program to get ready for this year's race.

In a nutshell, his program starts with building yourself up to walking 30 mins. without being winded, then adding in short jogging intervals until you work yourself up to adding walking breaks into your jog. Does that make any sense?

I know this is going to come as a complete surprise to everyone...but I'm a highly competitive person. :p Last year when I was training for my 5K and 10K and saw it more as weakness to walk in my runs, but since I was giving a much longer race a try this year I decided to try the run/walk method. I was amazed at how well it works and how my time really didn't suffer as a result of the walking breaks. One last tidbit from the Cliff Bar Pace Team, they say that if you can work yourself up to jogging 5 miles...they say you can easily complete a Half Marathon using the run/walk method.

Now, a 16 min. mile isn't a stroll in the park, but it isn't a terribly brisk pace either. If anyone is curious to see what their natural pace is, I would suggest going down to your local high school and walking their track to get an idea of where you stand.

A 15 minute mile is 4.0 on a treadmill. I believe a 16 minute mile is 3.8

I did run/walk for both of my marathons. For the second one, my goal was to bring down my time, so I worked up to doing 1 mile of running followed by a walk break, to approximate walking at the aid stations. I ended up finishing in just over my goal of 5:30. The first marathon I did 8 minutes run/2 minutes walk. It works, and keeps you from totally crapping out at the end.