I have always run off and on my entire life. Mostly just because I enjoyed it and for the exercise. I did a few 5K's and 10K's as a kid with my mom and also ran track for a few years in high school. A big goal of mine was to run a marathon one day. About 4 years back or so, I was really getting up there in my distance and was planning on doing that marathon. I was having some sort of knee problems and took a break and never got back on track. Well, quickly after that me and James got engaged, married, then had our 2 boys. Kind of nonstop life changing events for a while! Finally, about a month after having baby Jack I started running again. It was rough for a while, my body was out of shape from the pregnancies and also with having c-sections with both the boys, it was just uncomfortable for a while. Once I got into a routine and realized I was back on track, I decided to sign up for a half marathon. It might not have been a full marathon yet, but it would be a really good start!
I signed up for the Disney Princess half Marathon on March 7, 2010. The registration closed at 13,500 runners for the race. It was a little overwhelming being in such a large race for my first real running event since being a kid. Since I had no previous proof of finishing time, I was placed in the last starting corral. Big mistake, I was in the very back! I should have run a 10K or something, so they had proof of time and could put me further up. I spent so much energy trying to pass people and getting stuck behind groups of people, it made my finish time a lot more than it should have been. But hey, I finished and ran the whole time. That was my ultimate goal. I finished in 2 hours, 17 minutes (should have been around 2 hours) and finished 2,976 overall.
James was supportive of me running and training for this, but he just kind of had a whatever attitude about it. He didn't really care either way. My feelings were a little hurt he wasn't that excited for me, but I just kept going. When we were at Disney and he saw what a big deal it was for people and the overall excitement at theses events, he actually got into it. That whole next week, I think he told me every day how good I did and that he was proud of me. That made me very happy!
James decided that the whole thing was so great, that he wanted to run a half marathon too! Disney does a few big races every year and we happened to notice that they were doing a brand new event this October called the Wine and Dine half marathon. It is part of their annual food festival at Epcot. It is on our exact anniversary, October 2nd and it is run at night through the parks. How cool is that! Well, we plan on running this on our 4th anniversary and also taking our first ever mini trip away from our kids for a night or two!
Below are a few pictures of me with my medal from the Half Marathon. I can't believe we didn't get any good pictures of me after the race with my medal, so we took one once we got home. Oh well!
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