Disney Dreaming: It's Princess Half Marathon Registration Day!

Last night, thousands of women lay awake in bed, too excited to sleep. When they finally got to sleep, their dreams were full of running shoes, tutus, and the familiar outline of a famous mouse.

Despite the lack of sleep, these over-caffeinated women sat perched on the edge of hysteria, laptops and iPads at the ready, for the moment the clock struck 12. And as soon as those numbers turned to noon, all the women aimed their browsers at active.com in a frenzy that crashed the website and caused many of these women to pull out their own hair.

What is it, you may ask, that cause women who normally have the patience of a saint to go ballistic? That caused them to call in "sick" to work so they could be in front of their computers at noon? That flooded social media with cries of "I made it! WOOHOO!" once all had been righted in the internet world?

Why, they Princess Half Marathon, of course.

I was one of those women, although I didn't feel the pressure that most out there trying to register felt today. Since I deferred my Glass Slipper Challenge last year, all I had to do was register for the 5k, which I successfully did after an hour of filling out the same form on active.com.

It was a little crazy there for awhile, but we should have expected it--the Princess Half weekend is enormously popular and any time you have that many people trying to do the same thing at the same time, the internet is bound to crash. I hope everyone that wanted to register today had their running dreams come true and got a spot in the race of their choice.

A lot of people come down hard on the Princess Half--they call it crowded, they call it full of slow beginning runners and walkers, they call the expos a madhouse. They're all right, but I love it anyway. And here's why:

The PHM is "home" for me--it's where it all started. It was my first real finish line, my first long distance, my first shiny medal. It was my first runner's high, my first "mile 11"--my own personal point of half marathon hell--and my first experience into what my body could do if I believed it hard enough.

The first time I signed up for PHM, I did it weeks after registration opened--there was none of this computer stalking on registration day that goes on now. It's definitely a little stressful doing a registration like what today turned out to be, but it's also exciting. The worst part, I think, is getting all worked up and waiting 7 months. I won't even start thinking about training until October.

Until then, I'll keep working on my 10k time to send in for a good corral spot and daydreaming about the 3 costumes I get to come up with. See you at the start, princesses!

A penny for your thoughts: will you be running a Disney race this year? Have you ever missed registering for one because it filled up too quick?

Red, White and 6.2

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and long weekend! I ran my favorite race, the Peachtree Road Race--the biggest 10K in the world!

I love everything about the Peachtree. It's put on by the Atlanta Track Club, so it's (usually) very organized and streamlined. I know some people had some complaints about it this year, but I'll get to those in a moment.

I picked up my number at the expo on Wednesday, and had fun looking around. I visited the Sparkle Skirts booth, chatted with Jeff Galloway, and--as usual--came home with more than I intended to. I

We had amazing weather in Atlanta on July 4th. It wasn't even 70 degrees when I got into my corral and it was cool and breezy as I crossed the start line. The humidity caught up with us, of course, but for July in Georgia I couldn't have asked for a better start.

The best thing about the Peachtree? The spectators and the volunteers. They line the course with hilarious signs, food, beer, cupcakes--you name it, I probably saw it on the route.

 I got so many cheers and high-fives--and I didn't know anyone. And of course, my favorite spectators are the wheelchair athletes and patients at the Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation center for spinal cord injuries. My dad was a patient there and stopping to shake hands and chat with those people always inspires me.

I finished the race both happy and frustrated. This was my "comeback" race--I haven't raced since March. Heck, I've hardly run since March. I was happy that I kept a steady pace through the race, and that my foot didn't swell up or anything weird like that. But the theme for me was definitely "slow and steady"!

Despite my slow speed I finished strong and collected my coveted T-shirt. The Peachtree shirt is a big deal--it's a finishers shirt and the design is kept secret until race day. I also ordered the commemorative medal.

Overall, I had a fantastic race experience. I only have a couple of issues.

The first thing is just something that I thought was tacky. Like I mentioned, people and local businesses were all over the course handing out all sorts of things. And then there's Chick-Fil-A--who started out in Georgia, by the way--out on the course with a register, selling food. Really? I just thought that was super cheesy of them.

My other complaint has to do with some questionable runner etiquette that was going on. For starters, people all over the place were stopping smack in the middle of the road to take photos. I'm not talking runner selfies--I'm talking big group photos where they spanned half the street. Sidewalks, folks! I know that the Peachtree is kind of a giant block party, but stopping and starting and dodging started to get a little old.

Then there was the food issue.

When I finished the race, I headed over to the hospitality tents and grabbed a banana and a powerade. Publix was there with fruit and Coke had lines of coolers with an assortment of drinks. As I walked to my car, I noticed people with bags absolutely stuffed full of fruit and drinks. And now I'm hearing lots of reports of finishers who didn't get anything because these greedy people had taken it upon themselves to stock their pantry for the week. It just makes me really sad that people do things like that. What happened to common courtesy?

Despite those downers, I had a blast. Can you tell by the happy look on my face?

I don't have any races planned until September. In the meantime, I'll be working on getting stronger and working on my 10k time on weekends. It was hard not to come home and sign up for a bunch of summer races--I love that runner's high!

A penny for your thoughts: do you run a July 4th race? What did you do on your long weekend?