I ran. I ran so far away.

I did it!

No.  That doesn't quite capture how I felt Saturday morning as I ran under the FINISH banner.

I DID IT!!!!!

So did Carrie, Carrie, Jenni, Jenni's Super Fast Sister-In-Law, Karen, Katye, Leslie and Winn.  In tutus (made by Winn) and boas (provided by Jenni).  Weren't we adorable?

We weren't really wearing tiaras, I added those in using Picnik.  And our names don't float around us wherever we walk.  But we were fierce, as you can clearly see.  And that was taken AFTER we ran!

Let me just say that I figured, being this was a Disney thing and it was all about princesses, there would be plenty of people dressed up.  Not as many as I thought.  So we kind of stood out.  Enough that a few people came up and asked if they could get our picture, and one of the professional picture-takers did too.

This whole thing was Winn's idea.  She got people to join her by promising she would make tutus.  So 8 adult women decided to come to Orlando and get up at the buttcrack of dawn 5 in the morning to run 3.1 miles in the abnormally chilly cold Florida weather... For tutus.

It was worth every side stitch.

So basically, I ran through 11 countries in under 37 minutes.  Plus the parking lot of Epcot, and behind Epcot, where trams go to die.  Winn, Carrie and I started off together.  Picture if you will 3 women in tutus and boas, power-walking with arms linked up to the starting line.  That was us.  We had really wanted to start closer to the front but the crowd was dense, man.  So we snaked through the throngs, our tutus rustling as we slid past other runners or walkers or Joey Fatone.  Then we broke apart and started running.

I knew I would be behind them, because they are just faster than me, but it was okay.  As long as I had the trail of feathers from their boas in my path, everything was going to be fine.  So I just kept running.  And before I knew it, I saw the one mile mark -- and I was still running, and that is the farthest I had ever run before starting to walk.

That made me feel supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.  (I didn't Google that, how close was I?)

So I kept running, thinking if I could make it a mile, how much more could I go?  I did have to slow down and power walk for a bit, but I lost my trail of pink feathers and started to get nervous, so I started running again.  I ran past Snow White and a dwarf, Belle and the Beast, Jasmin and Aladdin.  I gave Pluto a high five. 

I think the second mile was the absolute longest mile of my entire life.

Then the people on the path cheering us on were yelling, "You're almost there!" and I foolishly believed them, so I willed myself to keep running.  LIARS!  I kept hearing something about going around an 'S' to the finish line, and then I realized I hadn't even seen the 3 mile marker yet, and there was still POINT ONE mile after that!  POINT ONE!  You don't think POINT ONE  mile sounds like much until it's all you have left!

So I kept on running, and those fibbers on the side kept telling me I was almost done.

And then I saw it.  THE FINISH LINE.

I kept my eye on the prize and I ran.  I heard "Go Tutu!" and I raised up my arms to wave, as I was the only tutu around.

And I crossed the finish line.

I felt exhilarated and exhausted, and then I saw a blur of pink feathers in front of me, and it was Winn, and she told me I hadn't come in that far behind her!  For real?!  I was so excited I almost didn't notice when I nearly ran into a row of porta-potties!

I'm not sure that the running bug bit me, but I had a super good time.  It did make me less afraid of trying to run around my block a couple of times.  Except for the black vans that are parked on my street, those still scare me.  Maybe I'll just wear the tutu when I run, then no one will mess with me.

Oh.  And I did run like Phoebe, but it was as we were walking up -- someone in the group wanted a demonstration.  I did The Running Man while we were waiting too.  There are no pictures or video of that. 

I hope...

This was a great weekend and, for me, quite an accomplishment.  Have you ever done something like that?  Maybe it's not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but inside it made you feel pretty darn good?