Stronger @Medifast

Last Tuesday night, I went with a friend of mine to see Kelly Clarkson perform in St. Pete.  He had actually bought some really awesome seats in the 11th row, and the place was packed, so it was an amazing feeling to be so close to the stage and see her in person.  I hadn’t heard any of her new music recently, so when she announced that her next song would be “Stronger“, I was a bit surprised to hear (and feel!) the crowd go insane.

The song was one that really hit home for me.  Everyone in the place was jumping up and down and singing along – while I didn’t know the lyrics, the chorus rang through my head over and over again:

It was stuck in my head the rest of the week.  I found myself humming it quite a bit – silly as it was.

You can probably imagine my surprise when on Saturday morning, I was 2 hours away from home at Weeki Wachee Springs with my daughter, and this song and video was played at the park.  Apparently the mermaids of Weeki Wachee submitted a video of themselves to be added to Kelly’s official video, and they were selected.  The timing of the song was just so odd – I was less than 24 hours away from the Princess half marathon, far from home, and this one particular song with the lyrics that meant so much to me just HAPPENED to play.

Sunday morning, I was up at 2 a.m. (wheeeeeee for 5:45 a.m. start times at Disney!), and headed out to Epcot’s parking lot to meet up with some friends (Meghan, a high school friend, and Sara, a friend I’ve known since PRESCHOOL!).  We were all excited and ready to go – Meghan and I were in Corral D to start, and I was exceptionally pleased that I was in a MUCH higher corral this month than I was last month (last month, I was in H – dead last).

The start of the race was a little late – we weren’t sure what happened, but it was about 7 minutes later than it should have been.  It added to the anxiety in the crowd.  Soon after, the fireworks for the first corral went off…and we all started moving up.  I honestly have really liked that part in each of the races – you can feel the energy moving through the crowd, and it builds the closer you get to the starting point.

Our fireworks went off, Meghan and I wished each other a good run, and away we went.

I was really surprised at how much stamina I had in the beginning this time.  I’ve been really sick with a hell of a sinus infection, and was admittedly tired since I stayed up WAY too late the night before.  And I was freezing.  Holy crap, it was really cold and I stupidly thought that shorts would be enough.  I was in a tank top, a long sleeved shirt, a jacket and shorts and was chattering and shaking up until about mile 3.  I finally warmed up enough to take off my jacket (but didn’t pitch it this time, I really liked this jacket) after I passed the 3 miler timer.

I was also pretty ticked at Run Disney – their timers were way wrong in the beginning (and as of writing this, my time on the official boards is still incorrect – it doesn’t match what I was texted at the end of the run, so I have emails in to correct this) – when I hit the 5K mark, it said I had run 3 miles in 55 minutes.  Grossly incorrect – I had run it in 30.  But I didn’t let it get me down too much, because I had looked at my phone when I started and knew what my exact time was.

Flew up Main Street and stopped only one time for a picture the entire race.  I may have to eventually make a collection of these.

Right before I hit mile 7, I could see runners dancing – like literally dancing as they were running.  And the dance looked familiar.  I took my earphones out to listen to what the music was – and it was that Kelly Clarkson song again!  It was chosen as the halfway Princess theme song, and the exact moment I pulled my earphones out, I heard the chorus.  It really pumped me up and I picked up speed, and grinned like an idiot as I continued along.

At mile 12, there was a person there cheering the runners on (apparently she was out on the course earlier in the race, but she moved to mile 12).  Her sign made me tear up – that happened with a lot of runners – because there is no better feeling than having thousands of people cheer you on.  I thanked her and waved, and pushed it a little harder.

(a special thank you to MandaMoves.blogspot.com for the picture)

I had actually downloaded the Kelly Clarkson song to my MP3 player for Sunday morning and put the player on random.  I didn’t know when it would pop up (I like not knowing what song is next so that my brain gets pumped up at various times on the course), and kept waiting to hear it.  It played exactly when I needed it the most – at 12.5 miles it came blaring through my headphones.  As I ran down the sidewalk towards Spaceship Earth, I realized I was singing out loud – and noticed to my left side, there were some odd arm movements going on.

Random strangers, running with me, were singing and dancing to the song with me.

Instead of being embarrassed about it (because Lord knows I was not born a singer), I belted out the chorus with them and found a good ten people were doing the same thing.

It was the big push that I needed.  As I rounded the corner before the finish line, I took off my headphones to fully listen to the cheers from spectators (and to listen to the chorus standing out there singing Hallelujah), and picked up my pace just a tad more – used that last burst of energy that I had.

The moment I crossed the finish line, my phone vibrated with my final time from Disney – and man, I really hope the photographers grabbed a shot of me, because both of my arms shot straight up in the air and I immediately sobbed (what is with me and crying at the finish line?) – I had beat last month’s half marathon race time by twenty full minutes.

I called my running buddy Todd to tell him as I waited in line to get my picture taken with my medal, and I am honestly surprised that he was able to decipher what I was blubbering.  Holy moley, it’s extremely difficult to take normal breaths, cry, and talk all at the same time after running 13.1 miles.  As I hung up, I heard someone say my name, and there was Meghan – she came in a few minutes after me.  We got a finishing picture together, celebrated by getting some cupcakes (hey, I deserved it after that run!) and we headed home.

As soon as I got home, I immediately put my medal up on my “medal wall” and my family oohed and ahhed over it.  Madison asked me what the last song was that I listened to before I crossed the finish line, and I told her it was Kelly Clarkson’s – she immediately blurted out, “Oh, Stronger???  I love that song!  It makes you feel good and makes you feel like you can do anything.”

Yes, it’s true, kiddo – that song is right.  What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, stronger…just…

Follow along with some other fantastic Medifast bloggers!

Kelly at The Turnip Farmer
Jenni at Jenni From the Blog
Stephanie at The Adventures of Goober Grape & Monkey Man
Alison at O My Family
Jessica at The Unemployed Mom
Mariana at The Domestic Buzz

*FTC Disclosure: My husband and I receive free product in order to evaluate and comment on our experiences on the Medifast program.  Medifast products and the Medifast program are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or illness. Any medical improvements noted while on the program are related to weight loss in general, and not to Medifast products or programs.   All thoughts written here on my blog are 100% mine, unless some zombie is standing next to me screaming ‘brrrraaaiiinnnsss’ and then there might be some mumbo jumbo on here that doesn’t make sense…then I can’t be held accountable for that.  But there is no zombie here right now, so these thoughts are totally and completely my own.