I am very excited to be participating in the Disney Princess Half Marathon Race in 2018. I have signed up, as a Miracle Maker with Children’s Miracle Network, to run the Fairy Tale Challenge. That means I’ll be running the 10k on Saturday, February 24th, 2018, and also the Half Marathon on Sunday, February 25th, 2018.
Preparation for a Disney Challenge race is nothing to snub your nose at, however. Training for me started in the summer of 2017, and led me to signing up for/running the Disney Half Marathon Wine & Dine weekend Half Marathon, as an extension of my Princess race training. Plus, I wanted that Wine & Dine Half Marathon medal!
In all truth, I didn’t train for that race like I should’ve. I finished, but with a minor knee & foot injury, making it hard for me to walk (it was downright painful), and enjoy my last day at Disney World. I didn’t even stay for the after hours EPCOT party that was just for runners and their immediate family because I was in so much pain. What a bummer that was to leave EPCOT before that party even started! But, I learned a lot about how important it is to properly train your body for a race like that. Before that, I didn’t know what to expect really from a Half Marathon. Because-confession– I had never ran that long of a distance before. In all my training, about 5k was the most I’d run. Yep. I’m that crazy person, but please, love me anyway. If you’ve never run a distance like that before and you’re signed up for a race, get your butt out there and train. You’ll thank yourself later & you’ll have so much more fun if you do! Don’t be crazy like me.
Did I mention that my daughter is running with me? Well, I say running with me, but its more like I’m pushing her along. Or dragging her with me. She’s 15, and definitely not an athlete. I didn’t want to run alone, so I pulled her leg and got her to run with me. She loves Disney like I do, and I think that’s been a big incentive for that she gets to come along with me to Disney World. She 100 percent was down with helping pick out the Resort we’d be staying at for the Princess Half Marathon Weekend. When I asked her where she wanted to stay, she immediately responded with “Polynesian Village”. Well, OK then, no contest there because that happens to be my favorite resort as well!
As I write this, we are 38 days away from Princess Half Marathon fun. Bet that I have been putting in my training runs, thanks to following the Jeff Galloway method (more on this in a future post). I have 11 miles on the training program that I am going to run today, and I am actually looking forward to it! I ran my 10k yesterday & am very happy with my finish time of about 15 miles a minute. Can’t wait to share more about my race preparations as the days inch closer. Happy Running! 
