Disney Princess Half Marathon race report

It was the dawn of another day... the dawn of another time ... it was Princess Half Marathon day!

Up early, again ... but again we dawdled, not even leaving the room until just after 4am. Why? Because we knew that A) the start village is super close to our hotel and B) we wouldn't start until nearly an hour after the gun would go off. We even had to wait in line for a bit, finally getting on a bus around 4:30. Still, we had PLENTY OF TIME. Plenty.

We did stop to use the porta potties, though the woman in front of me and I nearly forced a couple of NOT VERY ATTENTIVE WOMEN to PAY ATTENTION AND TAKE THE DAMN PORTA POTTY. I can honestly say I wasn't even the meanest person. I thought the woman in front of me was going to frogmarch these women into porta potties. Seriously.

Then it was time for the loooooong march to the corrals...

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

Keep moving toward the light... we had to walk around the back of L to then walk past P and O to get to N in another column.

Our journey was EXTRA long because, of course, we were waaaaaay back in corral N. Third from last. Neverland. Never again will I fail to submit proof of time!

Never have we been so far back. Except maybe at the New York City Marathon.

This is the view from the front(ish) of corral N. The start line is a very long way away.

Almost before we knew it, the first corral started. With fireworks. It was another typically nice Disney touch that EVERY corral had a firework sendoff.

Corrals were being released every 3 minutes (at first), then every 4 minutes. But because we weren't all in one massive line, our corral didn't even start moving until almost half an hour after the start. Of course, we just had PLENTY of time to take pictures!

Today the role of Ursula will be played by Carol Channing.

However, we did eventually get closer to the start, enjoying the burst of fireworks every few minutes and finally being able to hear the chatter from the hosts.

Look! The start line!!!

I do love that Rudy and ... umm ... the other host ... get dressed up differently every day. I also like that they have oriented the stage a bit differently so that people don't try to take pictures in front of it as the race starts... Here's one thing we definitely noticed ... when we're in the front half of the pack, the corrals are quiet and focused. Here in the back of the pack, we heard tons of chatter about balloon ladies, fretting about being swept, and lots of singing along with the music. It was actually kinda nice ... the singing, not so much the fearful chatter...

Then, finally, OUR TURN!

This race was super bizarre. We managed to separate from our corral really quickly after the start .... only to run smack into the back of the previous corral. With corrals spaced by only 3ish minutes, this happened THE ENTIRE RACE. We ran, in traffic, the entire time.

One amusing side-effect of starting so late ... we took a DAYLIGHT PHOTO in front of the Magic Kingdom parking gates!

This was super weird ... it has always been dark when we ran here before, so it was surprisingly disorienting.

Our late start also allowed for a daylight photo in front of the castle. Or the bottom half of the castle...

It was pretty fun, running through Magic Kingdom in the daylight ... until right about here, as we prepared to run through the castle.

Oh.My.Goodness. The path through the castle is surprisingly narrow ... AND there were so many ladies all trying to get through ... we had to come to a complete stop several times. It wasn't until we were well on our way to Liberty Square that we were able to break free again.

I had heard that the castle was a bottleneck ... and it is always a slow point ... but I had never had to come to a complete stop before. Judging by the bibs of the folks around me, we had caught up with the H - I - J corrals at this point. Crazy.

2016 Disney Princess Half Marathon course map

Once we left the park, things didn't get any easier. We had to run on a single lane past the Grand Floridian... but it was crazy crowded. I thought a woman was going to punch me when I brushed against her to pass her. (No, I didn't even use a RunBell. I promise.)

But then, bliss -- we were back on wider roads, and things were pretty uneventful to the finish. We got a lot of love from spectators and other runners for our costumes; I met two women running as Flotsam and Jetsam (adorable!); and I clearly PWNED every other Ursula on the course. No, really. Oh, and Wil was seriously the best Triton. (Well, okay, the woman running in the white beard and wig gets some props from me.) And it was funny to hear "merMAN! merMAN!" called out on occasion.

Even the little out and back in Epcot was easy peasy... even though the park had opened by the time we got there. (Sheesh!) And, of course, I do love the gospel choir!

We held hands as we ran through the final stretch, got a nice shout out from Rudy ("look at the six pack on that guy!"), and finished in 2:38:57. Amusingly, that's good enough for 369/1644 in my division. Wow.

Pretty medal? Check. 

We also, of course, picked up our Glass Slipper Challenge medal, a couple of snack boxes, and then simply made our way to the buses where we only waited a minute or two. It was interesting to be around a lot of people who were clearly hurting, but to not feel all that tired. Perhaps the forced pacing and slowdown kept us from tiring ourselves out?

Amusingly, we went back to the hotel and then decided to walk through the cafeteria before going to our room... and then bumped smack into Tony and Sue (who hadn't seen our costumes). We were greeted as returning heroes, which was fun, and told that everyone else "looked so tired". :)

Will we run Princess again? Probably not -- too far to go, timing not right, etc. etc. But I'm super glad to have run it once. I do wonder how things would have gone for us if we had been able to start with our pace group ... but maybe I would have gone out too fast and then gotten tired at the end anyway? Still, the key takeaway from this race is SUBMIT YOUR PROOF OF TIME, DAMMIT!!!

Disney Princess Enchanted 10K race report

Who's a Disney Princess? Who? Who?

It's no surprise that I have wanted to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon for a few years now. Not from any need to free my inner princess ... but from a simple completion standpoint. It was ... until very recently ... the only runDisney half marathon I hadn't yet completed. (Darn you, Star Wars Dark Side! And I'm not including the Disneyland Paris half because... well... because...)

But the timing never really worked out ... it's not all that close to Wil's birthday, we'd have to take a long break, etc.

But in 2016, the stars aligned, and we decided to include the Princess Enchanted 10K and Half Marathon in our big trip with Tony and Sue (more on that later...).

Wil and I flew down on the Thursday because, well, we'd been challenged with arriving on time before. The expo on Thursday was open until 8pm (awesome!), but we did manage to arrive at exactly the wrong time ... 5:30ish ... when all the locals got off work and went to expo to avoid the tourists. We turned into the Wide World of Sports driveway and just sat.

the sign says "Expo Parking" ... not sure they meant here on the driveway...

But Disney, being so very gifted in the ways of parking, sprung into action before our eyes and we suddenly were swept into an overflow parking lot and on our way to the Field House to pick up our packets.

seriously, can I PLEASE remember to take a better photo next time???

It was pleasantly uncrowded ... though amusing because, once again, the only line was for our corral. A tiny confusion ... I had ordered two "3-packs" of pins plus an extra one for Sue, and a necklace. Only the extra pin was tagged on to my registration ... so I was directed upstairs to pick those up. But first, we picked up shirts ... but the volunteers at the table got all goofy over our TOTALLY AMAZING PIN LANYARDS (which are, truly, TOTALLY AMAZING) so made us pose for a picture. You can see just how empty the expo hall is on a Thursday evening!

We went upstairs, picked up the other pins and necklace (and basically prevented them from forcing an additional pin on us ... "No, see, I already picked it up downstairs. No, really."), and also made a quick stop at the small merchandise store in the Field House. There we browsed in peace and quiet, picked up the three "race medal" pins, as well as a couple of this year's runDisney Vinylmation blind box figures, before heading over to the other hall to pick up our shirts. 

Holy crap, was that a good decision. MAYHEM!

We picked up our shirts (BLACK SHIRT FOR THE GLASS SLIPPER CHALLENGE!!!!), and briefly tried to look at the merch in the main hall. But it was chock-a-block with people ... seriously, we couldn't move in there ... so we ditched. Let this be a lesson to you .... seriously, ALWAYS TAKE THE 5 MINUTES TO LOOK AT THE MERCH IN THE FIELD HOUSE. They might not have everything, but you will not be crushed. And you might find all the things you actually want...

Fast-forward to Saturday morning and it was time to get up super duper early to go to the 10K.

Most times we have been super careful to get on the shuttles 2 hours before race time ... but this time, because we were starting at the back of both races, we took it easy. I mean, there is NO REASON for us to get on the bus at 3:30 for a race that starts at 5:30 ... and that we won't start until 6:30... So we dawdled, not even getting in line until 4am. Yeah, you read that right. We were LATE. (And still had HOURS to kill at the start village...)

Again, we were in the back because I had failed to submit proof of time (and, for whatever reason, Track Shack is unable to look at past performances they have themselves timed... but I know it's my own darn fault). The absolute last corral for the 10K... and third from last for the half marathon. Sigh.

We got off the shuttles with lots of company ...

Went through the bag check ... where we showed them the insides of our little race belts (which we *didn't* have to do the next morning...), and then into the start area. We got a tiny bit lost, figuring the start would be the same for the 10K as for the half, and were faced with this view of empty portapotties, as far as the eye could see...

cue swelling music here... "portapotties as far as the eye can see"

Se stood around feeling a little lost, before finally asking a passing security person. "Oh, no, the start is THAT way."

Ohhhhh.

well, okay, the signage should have been obvious....

We decided there was nothing to do but march to our corrals. To corral F. The land of Far, Far Away. How far? We couldn't even see it when we started heading that way.

"C" is in the distance. How far aways is "F"???

F is for Failed to Send In Our Proof of Time...

F'ing corral.

We got ourselves in this giant corral ... and waited. And waited. And waited. We eventually started 50 minutes after the start. That's right ... the leaders will have long since finished when we started. But we did have Plenty of Time to take the obligatory pre-race photo!

race faces!

Finally, it was our turn to move forward. We did our best to gently move to the front of the corral and snapped this photo.

It was a nice touch that each of the corrals received a full firework sendoff. Much fancier than in Disneyland!

The 10K course was... unexpected. We started on some roads back around the parking lot, and it already felt crowded. But within a couple of minutes, we broke through and had open road ... for a few minutes, before we ran into the back of the corral ahead of us. This was the way the entire run felt ... we could never get into a rhythm because it felt like every few minutes we had to slow way down and maneuver through crowds. We got to Epcot and ran around the back side of World Showcase, before popping out and running the loop around the Boardwalk. It was funny to hit this stretch with fresh legs, rather than at the end of a marathon!

Disney Princess Enchanted 10K Course Map, 2016

Then back into Epcot, a funny little loop around Future World, and then out past Spaceship Earth and out to the finish in the parking lot.

We collected our handsome 10K medal, took our post-race photo, picked up our snack boxes, then headed back to the hotel.

one down, one to go!

Would I run this race again? Probably not -- but it was fun to run our first 10K at Walt Disney World. Would it have been better had we been in a corral with our pace group? Yes ... probably for everyone. But lesson learned, eh?

And, yes, we did get a really pretty medal...

2016 Disney Princess Enchanted 10K medal

Happy Pi Day!

In celebration of Pi Day, of course we had pie for dinner. A few nifty Pi facts, courtesy of my developer pal Taylor:

Without Pi... we wouldn't have jpeg images

Without Pi... most fonts would have square edges

Without Pi... runners wouldn't be able to track their mileage with a smart device. 

Revised registration dates for RunDisney events!

News for runDisney fans ... new registration dates and races for 2016 and beyond!

It's like having a shopping list ... but (and maybe it's heresy!) ... I think our only 2017 race will be Tinker Bell... don't break the chain!

2015 Running Goals in Review

Yeah, yeah. It's 7 weeks into 2016. But better late than never, eh???

It's no spoiler to say, flat out, that I didn't achieve most of my goals in 2015. But I did end up achieved more of them than I would have thought.

I had decided that I wanted my goals to be both long-term and short-term, and give me different things I could focus on at different times... the idea being that I had the opportunity to achieve different types of success throughout the year.

Here's what DIDN'T happen...

Run 700 miles

This one as such a damn stretch. And I didn't even come close. And, seriously, the races packed in at the end of the year provided many of the miles. I hope to do better in 2016.

2015 miles

449.6 miles

0 miles 

700 miles

Break 2:10 in a half marathon

This was a big stretch -- I haven't run close to that pace in nearly 3 years now. Perhaps, I dunno, TRAINING for a race could make this achievable. But, since I was unable to force myself to train (sigh), and I kept getting small, hobbling injuries, I didn't come near this in 2015.. As in, fastest time was 2:22 and change. I do still think that on the right day, on the right course, I could hit it. Maybe 2016.

Run 15 in '15

Ahh, this. Another spectacularly poor performance in 2015. Even with a new system whereby I would grade myself on a percentage of weeks completed... well... I'm still getting a failing grade. I only had 15 weeks where I ran 15 or more miles ... So that's pretty grim. Not sure I can even pretend that I'll so something along this line in 2016.

15 in '15 weeks

15 weeks

0 weeks 

52 weeks

Run a sub-8:00 mile

This was a big tough goal. My fastest mile EVER was somewhere between 8:15 and 8:30. I never ever ever work on my speed. Nor do I ever run on a track. Nor did I really work on this one. I don't even think I ran a time trial in January 2015. Big red failure, here. That said, I did run a very cold and stiff "time trial" on January 1, 2016 ... running a mile in a sluggish 10:22. I can definitely bring that down once the weather gets warmer and my joints unthaw a little...

Break 1:00:00 in a 10K

Nope. Though to be fair, in 2014 I would have thought this was a real long shot. Except when we "took it easy" at the Tinker Bell 10K in January 2014 and ran 1:02 and change. Then a month later I ran 1:01 and change. But I didn't really make the time to run any more 10Ks ... or work on my speed. I'm going to bring this back in 2016.

Blog an average of 2x / week

This shouldn't have been difficult -- but in the end I only published 68 posts in 2015. I can do better in 2016 ... and I need to develop the discipline of blogging more often... and about more than just race reports. (Thanks for the continued tough love, Suz!)

Run a 5K PR

No speedy runs whatsoever in 2015 ... but I am gonna make this happen in 2016!

Run to work 50 times

Seriously, nada. Though I did walk to or from work about 30 times ... so this is on my radar and achievable, I think. Just gotta get on it in 2016.

runs to work

- 

0 runs 

5 runs

Here's what DID happen...

Run 15 half marathons

Fifteen... and then some. (Half marathon #15 was the Hartford Half Marathon, on 10/10/15.) I finished the year at 21 half marathons ... and a totally unexpected three FULL marathons. I'm super proud of this!

2015 half marathons

21 halfs

0 halfs

15 halfs

Run half marathons in 5 new states

Color this one done! Being able to run the Center of the Nation Series with Mainly Marathons and pick up 5 new states ... and then spend some time back east to run in three more ... with another state coming up in a couple of weeks. So happy to take such a big chunk out of the rest of the list.

5 new states

NINE NEW STATES!

0 states

5 states

So, two big happy successes ... and a whole lotta failures. I want to streamline my goals for 2016 ... fewer goals, but still keep them spread across different types of goals. More to come on that!

Guess where we're going?

More info to come...

2015 Team Wil-Sun Awards ... and Race Review Roundup

why, yes, I *do* enjoy earning medals... why do you ask? (2015 medal collection)

Look, it's February 16. And I've been trying to make myself sit down and write this up since, oh, December 16th. But life gets messy sometimes... Messy good, or messy bad... mainly messy good in my case. So blogging pretty much dropped off the radar.  Hey, the fact that I didn't publish my race report from the Seattle Half Marathon until January 8 ... almost six weeks after the fact ... should have been a clue. And, really, we're now in the seventh full week of 2016 (gulp!)... so I've only just barely slipped a little more... 

ANYWAY. We ran a bunch of races in 2015. And had a bunch of adventures. How many? I ran:

3 FULL marathons

21 half marathons

3 10Ks

1 8K

3 5Ks

and STILL didn't hit my mileage goals! (More on that in a later post...)

All of those races left a big impression on me ... but it's award season and of course that means it's time for the second annual WIL-SUN awards!!!

Best Bucket List Race: Beat the Bridge

This race is a Seattle classic ... and one I've been wanting to run for years. The idea is simple: set several thousand people loose on a course, and raise a drawbridge 2 miles down the road 20 minutes after the start. Your goal? To Beat the Bridge... Of course, nowadays to make people happy they don't raise the bridge until 20 minutes after the last group starts, which means that most people have more than 20 minutes... but, hey, it's run AND raises a lot of money for the JDRF. And, finally, we ran it in 2015.

Best Costumes: Tigger and Winnie the Pooh, Tinker Bell Half Marathon

First and foremost, I loved the costumes. Sure, it was great to run in them.... we got lots of love on the course from our fellow runners, volunteers, and spectators. Heck, strangers posted pictures of us on social media. But, seriously, this was the reason to make and wear these costumes:

Best Mid-Race Food: Center of the Nation Series

Seriously, this race offers things like hard-boiled eggs, rice krispie treats, veggie chili, breakfast burritos, hot noodle dishes, and more things than I can remember ... Norm's Kitchen always seemed to be turning out some new and amazing thing to restock the food table. Every time we passed through, I would pick up half an egg, some potato chips, and a little slurp of Coke... and then sometimes I'd pick up some real food as well. Not having to eat gels the entire trip was pretty awesome for me.

Best Post-Race Food: Ghost of Seattle Marathon

With sponsorship from Field Roast and Odin Brewing, this race provided a great array of hot and delicious post-race food for omnivores and vegetarians. And they even had food left for the slowpokes (aka US)! The on-course food was also varied and interesting ... clearly this is a race put on by people who know what a great race should offer.

Toughest Race Course: Run Like the Wind Half Marathon

I have never been so tired at the end of a race, nor so happy to be finished as I was during this hilly, rocky, windy half marathon. I seriously think this was harder than hiking Rim to Rim in the Grand Canyon in one day. For days after I was sore ... but not in my running muscles, mind you -- in my stabilizing muscles. I have NEVER had sore obliques after running. Until after this race. A big challenge and a cool little race in a weird spot: on a wind farm. (The race slogan is "Uphill, Into the Wind, Both Ways", and they mean it.

Biggest Dumbest Challenge: Achieving Kilimanjaro level in the Double Agents

I own this. This is my fault. But running three half marathons AND three full marathons in 9 days ... running the three fulls in three consecutive days ... well, that was big and dumb and tough. Lots of limping and whining. But, hey, my obliques were never sore! I also want to point out that a bunch of people did 4 and 4 in 9 days ... so they're WAAAAAY crazier than we are...

Best Medal of 2015:

This category is super hard this year, as I managed to score some amazing medals. Hey, it's an honor just to be nominated. So here are the runners up, in chronological order:

Star Wars Half Marathon

Okay, this gets bonus points for being the Yavin medal ... you know, the one Chewie DIDN'T get at the end of Star Wars: A New Hope? It took years, but runDisney made up for it by designing the inaugural Star Wars Half Marathon medal as a replica ... AND making the ribbon look like Chewie's fur and bandolier. Nice work, Disney! (And, umm, yes, I might have written a fangirl post about this medal months before I earned my own...

Run Like the Wind Half Marathon

This is flat-out gorgeous -- a laser cut wooden medal like I've never seen before. It's big, delicate, and so amazingly pretty. I have a pretty big collection of bling at this point, and this one definitely stands out.

Wineglass Half Marathon

I seriously can't do this justice in a picture ... I tried and white background and a black background ... no luck. But let me tell you about this medal... It's a pressed glass medallion, each one hand made by an artist at the Corning Museum of Glass. The design changes every year, but each one follows this style. It's unspeakably pretty -- possibly the best part about an above-average race. And that's saying something.

Hartford Half Marathon

This race got SO MUCH right ... including this decidedly different medal that's shaped like the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch. It's heavy cast metal in three dimensions -- not flattened on one side. And the marathon medal. while similar, is larger and a different color. This medal isn't the biggest or the blingiest medal of the year, but it sure is handsome. 

And the WIL-SUN (surely we can't call it the WILLY or the SUNNY...) goes to...

Center of the Nation Series

Maybe this is cheating ... but just look at this monster! I loved that we received the top piece and the "year" piece when we picked up our bibs the first day, and then every day when we completed a race, we received a new state medal to attach. Each of the individual medals are heavy and handsome ... so all together they are simply amazing. I really hope to earn some more of these medals in 2016.

Top five running moments of 2015:

I can't really rank these ... they are all super special in different ways. But here they are, in chronological order of occurrence...

1. The "Sunday Night Lights" Deck Run on the Caribbean Running Cruise. Glow sticks? Check. Glow necklaces? Check. Crazy high winds that caught the undersides of your feet as you turned a corner? Check. And we ran circles around a group of folks who had taken over the pool deck to watch Princess Bride so that the rest of the boat couldn't watch the Super Bowl. Amusing. 

2. The "Haiti Relays" day on the Caribbean Running Cruise ... notably getting to run with some of the boys from the Street Hearts charity. We brought shoes and clothes and toiletries and, later, raised several thousand dollars to buy another house so that the charity can expand. I am getting weepy even now, a year later, remember how great it was to meet some of the boys and see the pleasure they took in the day. 

3. The Maniac / Fanatic cheering area at the Tacoma City Marathon. My love / meh relationship with the race continues. I hate having to go down to the expo. But boy did I love the finish-line cheering section filled with my fellow Fanatics ... both hearing a huge cheer go up as Wil and I approached the finish, and having the opportunity to pass the cheering along as others finished. It's almost -- ALMOST -- enough to make me run this race again. Almost.

4. Seafair Pirate Run 5K ... this was pretty much fueled by my community at Brooks ... but I think I will always look back on this day as one of my perfect, golden running moments. From the pre-func at T.S. McHugh's, to the pre-race chatter with old friends, to the view from my beloved Viaduct, to the random meetings on the course, to the post-race Super Soaker assault, to the post-post race celebration at T.S. McHugh's ("You're back already??:), this was a perfect running event. 

5. The entire Center of the Nation Series ... 6 half marathons in 6 states in 6 days... Seriously, this was the most ambitious running project we've yet done, and also one of the most amazing and fun. I loved feeling like we were all in it together ... and it gave us an excuse to do a big road trip for our 10th anniversary. 

Best Overall Race: Hartford Half Marathon

This was the obvious winner ... a race that got almost everything right. Useful and thorough pre-race communication, offering to ship packets (for a fee, but that's cool), a great race shirt, an amazing ports-potty set up (revolutionary!), a nice course with plenty of water stops, a CANDY stop, a spectacular finish line, super efficient post-race water (seriously, a filled custom water bottle and a bag of snacks?!?), runner-only food including vegan chili, and a city that was super thrilled to be hosting an event. I LOVED this race, even if I personally struggled in it.


Now it's your turn ... what awards would you give to races you ran in 2015?

Princess Half Marathon costumes complete!!!

This one was a struggle, but thanks to LSF Suz's inspiration, may I present our costumes for the Princess Half Marathon this weekend?

Before you ask... WIL is wearing the King Triton costume, while I will be playing the role of Ursula...

Well, this is unfortunate....

Okay, first and foremost, I take complete responsibility for this. I'm the one who forgot to log back in to the runDisney site a month after registering for the Princess Half Marathon to provide our proof of time. But I figured, hey, they'll remind me, right? And, even if they don't, they'll have any of SEVENTEEN PREVIOUS RUNDISNEY RACES to look at for a proof of time. Right?

Wrong.

Waivers for the Glass Slipper Challenge came out today, and Wil and I have been assigned bib numbers 26715 and 26776. You're right, those DO seem like high numbers. How high?

Yep, corral N. Third from last corral. Hell, we won't start until after the first corral finishes. Neato!

Now, again, this is my fault. Though one does wonder why I couldn't have just submitted a proof of time when I registered, like most races do. And how does it serve anyone to not want people in the right corral for their pace? It looks like we'll be spending a lot of time weaving through the walkers. (And, again, there's nothing wrong with walking these races -- I'm just sorry that we'll have to get past a few thousand people to get some open space to run.

Amusingly, we backed these on kickstarter a while back, and I feel like we finally have a place to use 'em...


Ding! Ding! I think "the Blockade" is the most relevant "When to use Runbell" example on www.run-bell.com

(this gif just makes me laugh and laugh and laugh...)

Will this work? Will we get screamed at by laydees? Maybe. Will it become something of a game? Probably!

Tourist Run Amsterdam - a running tour review

Ever since I heard about the idea of a "running tour", I've wanted to go on one. Well, sorta -- I have wanted to have gone on one... since, well, this sort of thing makes me anxious. What sort of thing? Running with strangers, in a small group, where maybe I won't be fast enough, strong eoungh good enough to keep up. And, of course, everyone would point and laugh, forever. 

And so I was nervous about doing this. So I am actually rather dorky-proud that I went ahead and booked the tour with Tourist Run Amsterdam for Saturday, my last full day in town. Shortly after submitting my payment, I received an email from Paul, and we arranged to meet in Dam Square, near the national monument, the next morning at 9am.

Did I mention that a storm blew in on Friday night and it was pouring down rain and blustery wind? Winter Storm Gertrude had hit Scotland on Friday and blown across to the Netherlands. I decided I would wear my Gore-Tex jacket to the meeting point so that I didn't get soaked while I waited for the others. Spoiler alert: I never took it off. 

GTS ready to hit the cobblestones!

Today we were joined by two other runners, neither of whom had ever been on a running tour either, and one of whom had never run more then 5k. So we had a nice, friendly little group. Paul wanted to get us running so we would warm up, so we ran to Museumplein and snapped a photo in front of AmsterdamIce. 

doing my best Hans Brinker at Amsterdam Ice

Paul told us a little about the area, then we ran through the Rijksmuseum (well, underneath it!) and back into the center. One regret: for some reason, probably nerves, I didn't turn my GPS on, so I don't have our tour on a map. This makes me more sad than you could possibly know.

I really can't say where all we ran ... we had lots of twists and turns, and did I mention that it was POURING DOWN RAIN still? But it was still really fun to run around a city I don't know well, not having to worry about where we were.  We crisscrossed canals...

with my tour-mates on a canal

Stopped on the Magere Brug across the Amstel river...

standing on the Magere Brug across the Amstel River

and even ran to a point where we had a great view of the bridge...

view of the Magere Brug

(where Paul took a "sneaky pic" of me...

Paul's "sneaky pic" of me taking the pic of the Magere Brug

and I considered what life would be like in a canal-side house:

on the Amstel

At one point we stopped on a bridge over a canal with a perfect view of the Zuiderkerk:

Zuiderkerk

and got a nice group shot, as well:

the team in front of the Zuiderkerk

We also saw some quirky sights, like Amsterdam's narrowest street, a 1-meter wide passage in the Red Light District (okay, there's a smutty joke there...). We also saw this little beauty, by a secret artist who installs these works of art here and there through the city, each one reflective of the neighborhood. 

street art that pops up around the city -- this one in the Red Light District

Throughout the run, Paul told us snippets of information about Amsterdam, both historical and modern-day, and pointed out lots of sights. He was funny, spoke excellent English, and kept a close eye on his runners to make sure they were having a good time -- no matter what the weather is like! The pace was pretty gentle, too, and we ran about 8k in the hour.

map of a sample run -- not exactly ours, but close -- can't believe I forgot to turn on my GPS!

So if you find yourself in Amsterdam, look Tourist Run Amsterdam up and tell them Sunny says hi. I do wish that I had taken this tour at the beginning of my stay rather than on the last full day -- so that I could have used it to orient myself. It was a fun way to get an overview of the city, get a run in, and do something most tourists wouldn't do.

#runselfie in Amsterdam!