Spring running season is finally here! Its been a whirlwind the last few weeks since we kicked off our spring race season at the disney princess half marathon (our first east coast expo). Next stop is the shamrock marathon.

We really enjoy working the expos together when we can, but lately with different schedules on different coasts and in different countries (not to mention different kiddie schedules to boot!), we have been opting to divide and conquer so that we can literally be in 2 places at once. We'd love to add more events as our travel schedules permit, so keep the suggestions coming. Its so much fun to meet all the runners and share your in the excitement and passion for running. I met a woman at disney expo that shared with us she had just taken a pregnancy test that morning and it was positive! She hadn't even shared the surprise with her hubby yet! As mommies ourselves, we love meeting all the other mommies and little future runners. You running mommies are all an inspiration and reminder of why we love our business so much.

I am looking forward to introducing my little guy to the sport of running this weekend at the shamrock marathon. There is a kids run - I think its something like 26.2 yards.
He will be sporting his "mommy runs faster than daddy" onesie and his super white new new balance trainers. Photos to come. I made the hubby promise to capture it all on camera since mommy will be workin the expo when the "diaper dash" goes off. Christy's 3 kids have all taken to the sport so I'm hoping mine will as all. I always joke with friends and say "running isn't optional" In our family. All joking aside, we both believe as parents it is our job to introduce our children to a healthy lifestyle and multiple sports and support them as they take an interest.

Boston is less than 5 weeks away now and we are also at the peak of our training. Training is going ok, but I just don't have that "baby juice" as Arma refers to it. Baby juice was that extra burst of energy or second wind that used to come mid workout or midrace last spring/summer. The weekend of the princess half, I was scheduled to run a 21 miler. - opted to race the half instead and postpone the long run the following week.

Woah! I just looked at the calendar & realized we have less than 6 weeks till Boston! Who's going this year? Let us know if you'll be running Boston - we'd love to invite you to our "VIP Skirt Party!" saturday night. Time to crank out a few long runs...this weekend 21 miler with Val. Thank goodness the snow is almost entirely melted - I'm hoping we'll be able to get off the roads for a change.

Last weekend was the Disney Princess Half Marathon in Orlando. What a great event. Katri flew out from our California skirt headquarters to help me at the Expo and we both ran on Sunday. Katri is a die hard Disney Running participant. She's run the Disney marathon several times, including the "Goofy" event (the half marathon followed by the full marathon the next day), the Disneyland Half Marathon in Anaheim and of course the Inaugural Princess Half Marathon on Sunday.

We had such a great time at the expo - as our first US East Coast event, it was great to finally meet all of our East Coast running skirt fans and customers. We finally got to meet a lot of ladies from the Disney Running boards and it was really cool to put faces with names after years of emails and telephone calls. We loved all the feedback, photos & skirt chat. We take our customer comments and feedback seriously and thank you all for stopping by to say Hi. Our new "princess" inspired skirt collection was a huge success. The "bling" tiara on the front of the skirt was the perfect complement to our running skirts & athletic skirts. Even non-skirt fans stopped by to pick up our limited edition performance tank with the sparkly tiara on the front. On race day it was a sea of "princess pink", "cindy blue" and "snow bell yellow" - so much so that our camera crew had a really tough time getting photos of them all. We did get a lot of photos - checkout our facebook fan page & tag your photo if we captured you! We are thrilled that you all loved the princess collection and the princess tiara logo on the front.

While I worked the expo, Daddy & baby bear hit Disney World's magic kingdom and a few other parks. I've attached a few photos of some of the weekend highlights.

As for the race, it was a great course and pretty flat. The morning was cool and sunny - with the clocks springing forward - the 7:00 a.m. race start actually felt like 6:00 a.m. It was dark and chilly as they race started, but after about 2 miles or so, I was feeling perfect (aside from the nagging sinus cold I've been battling that is - It's hard to get your waters and gu down when you have to breath from the same orifice while maintaining a running pace). I ran pretty conservative, probably too conservative since I still had some kick with 3 miles to go, but was happy with my results. Katri also had a great race - a PR for her. The course went by super fast, with bands, disney characters and princesses at every mile! I tried to high five every princess and character in sight as I cruised through the course.

Results:
Agegroup/Gender Overall / Racer M/F Age/ bib/ Final/ Pace
1 / 11 / Cindy Lynch 37/ 7/ 1:28 / 6:44
83 / 580 /Katri Sjoblom-Snyder 41/ 684/1:59:06/ 9:05












Post race celebration













The hubby got some great action shots of me from the monorail on his way to the next "meeting point" along the course. I always say it is more of a race for him trying to navigate along the marathon courses to capture the action shots - good job honey!













Coming out of the princess castle (I think this was around mile 5-6)



















Running through Magic Kingdom. Of course I wore my tiara! I remember being energized by the cheers along the course and hearing "first tiara" and "first skirt" as I ran. Even the princesses along the course thanked me for being in full princess flair.



















Katri in finish line stretch (with her award-winning PR smile!)





























Katri celebrating her PR & princess bling bling medal with a little hoola hoop & refreshments!
It was great to be out of the freezing temperatures for a few days. The weather in Orlando was amazing - in the low 80s. It was hard to get back on the plane and fly north. Hopefully we will bring the warmth back north with us.


















My little lion prince! (I have no idea how Daddy got him to stay still for this face painting! I have a feeling he was asleep or there was some physical restraint going on!)

We will be in Virginia Beach next weekend for the Shamrock Marathon and Shamrock Sportfest - hope to see you all there.


Disney Princess Marathon Video