Contemplation: Half marathon

Did those words just come out of my mouth?  Even more so, did I just write those down?  A half marathon?  Me?  What?!? Who are you?!?  How did this happen?  When did the possibility of running 13 miles seem to be something I could do?

I am a beginner still, having only been running for about 8 1/2 months and now I'm contemplating running a half marathon!  You know that is 13.1 miles, right? Just checking your sanity here. 

There are a couple of things that are intriguing me to attempt such a feat.  1) my good friend Danielle just finished her first half marathon (I'm still so damn proud of her!) in which she trained 4 solid months for, and she was newer to running then I was. 

Seeing her drive and dedication to this goal has renewed my drive to train, but train for what?

Reason #2. Disney's Princess Half Marathon.  When I began reading running blogs when I first started running, this race was all the buzz on the boards.  Everyone was talking about the fun meet-ups they were going to, the cool expo swag, creating costumes to run the race in and the excitement leading up to the race.  Now, I'm already a huge fan of Disney, but I wondered how in the hell could you be so excited to run 13.1 miles with thousands of other people?

Then I saw the pictures.  And read the daily recaps on the blogs.  And saw more pictures and read more recaps, and saw more pictures...and read more recaps...  Before I knew it, I was supremely jealous of all the great times had by everyone and knew that somehow I had to be a part of this magic.  That's the ever present grandeur of Disney though, the magic they instill in everything they do.

I have an old high school friend that is a serial runDisney racer; she has the race bling to prove it!  She had given her pictures and recaps of the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend the month before and had wooed me into the possibility of doing that half marathon race with her and her training buddies.  So I was already entranced with the idea of running a runDisney event at the beginning of next year.  I know she is going to the WDW marathon weekend in January, maybe I can talk her into going back a month later to run the Princess Half with me because you know why...

the registration for the Princess Half Marathon races opened yesterday!!!  GAH!  I can't believe it...it's open to register for already?  What do I do?  I REALLY want to register for the race, though I have no one to room with and no buddies to run with...but I really want to go!!!  (stomping my feet on the ground in a mock temper tantrum)  My hubby even told me I should go!  Oh what to do, what to do!!!

PS- I already have a costume picked out for the race!  Oh I'm so screwed...

Question for you:  Have you run a half marathon?  How did you decide you were ready?  Are you wanting to run a half marathon?  Would you be my running buddy at the Princess Half Marathon? :)