The Magic Kingdom Awaits!!

This weekend we will be at Disney World for fun and run! A birthday to be celebrated on Thursday (daughter Kate's), a half marathon to be run Saturday for the boys (the first for son Alex) and the full marathon on Sunday for me. I have not run since last week. I'd like to run on Thursday morning to get acclimated to the warmer weather (really, compared to the negative temps we've got going on now, Florida will be downright hot) and see how things feel. But I'd hate to re-strain if my leg still needs a few days off. I'll make a decision Thursday am.

I'd been pretty noncommital about a costume for the race. Everything I've read about running a Disney race is that you should really run in a costume. You don't run to PR, you run for fun. And really, there is nothing more fun than running in a costume (as long as it doesn't cause chaffing). But I can be a great procratinator so nothing had really be done toward making a costume happen until last week. At first I thought that maybe I would be pre Fairy Godmother Cinderella. Cinderella in rags.

 

 

So I went out to the HobLob in search on tuille to make a tutu for the skirt. I had great sucess with a tutu I made for the Screaming Pumpkin, a 10K run through a local cemetery, so thought it would be fun for the race and easy at such a last minute to construct. When I got to the store and had the rolls of brown tuille in my hand, it just seemed so "blah". Given my current mood regarding my ability to complete this event, I thought I would much rather be sporting something brighter and more fun than a brown tutu. I was immediately drawn to a glittery light blue tuille that resembled the snow covered and frozen view out our windows. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I thought how appropriate to represent a character from the movie Frozen given my slip in the snow and my state of woe.

 

Looked up pics on my phone and decided that I would run as Elsa, or at least a non-animated version. I snatched up that lovely tuille, got some elastic and got to work on a new tutu. After an hour or so of cutting and attaching, with glittery puddles everywhere, a lovely wintery tutu was complete. I pulled on my booty shorts and the tutu and contemplated. Six miles in a tutu was no big deal, but would 26? I had to admit that as cute as that skirt was, in the end (pun?) I would probably be a rather chaffed and raw runner.

Screaming Pumpkin Wonder Woman tutu on my dress form/medal display, with the wintery and reluctantly abandoned Frozen tutu.

 So. Back to the drawing board. Since I had no time to try to order anything, I decided that I would make a running skirt similar to a pink one that I had purchased from Sparkle Athletic. I went to the fabric store hoping to find a light blue sequin fabric, but no luck. I did get silver sequin fabric for the skirt and found a gauzy, veil like fabric for Elsa's cape. A fortuitous stop at the grocery store (had to stock up for the polar vortex headed our way) with all of their Christmas stock on severe mark down got me some felt snowflakes and some ethereal plastic and furry snowflakes (? hard to describe but really quite lovely) to add to my costume.

Once home, got the skirt stitched out pretty quickly and glued one of the felt snowflakes to a light blue tank that I already had. Then on to the cape. Got it cut out easily enought and gathered and sewed the top, but hand sewing the snowflakes took a long, long time. End result is that it looks pretty cool. A bit bride-ish, but hopefully with the snowflakes it will scream Frozen, rather than bride. I'll top it off with my white visor and we should be good to go!

As nervous as I am about the strength of my leg and whether I'll run on Sunday, the excitement of a vacation at Disney is winning out. This is our second time to go to Disney as a family. Our first time was five years ago and we had such a wonderful time. We really have great memories of that trip, so much so that we've talked often about going back, which is huge because we really prefer vacations going skiing or camping/hiking. This will be the first winter in several years that we didn't get Epic Season Passes for skiing in Colorado. And of all the places where I might have to walk(mostly)/run(?) a marathon, I think Disney World tops the list!