RunDisney!

You may or may not be aware that Disneyland and Walt Disney World host a number of Disney endurance events, including the Walt Disney World Marathon and the Princess Half Marathon. Marathon Weekend is in January and the Princess Half is now hosted in February. RunDisney just released Jeff Galloway's Run Disney Half Marathon Training Plan a few days ago. It seems NOW is the time to begin training for Marathon weekend!

My Disney vacation obsession actually began with an ad, much like this this one. As I researched and learned more, I discovered that the Disney runs take place IN the parks and there are Disney diversions along the way - character meet & greets, small shows, a trip through Cinderella's castle, etc. Unfortunately, my dreams of running a Disney half were cut short by a hip injury, but I still had to plan that first Disney trip!

When I received an email regarding the start of this year's training program, I jumped at the opportunity to follow Jeff Galloway's training program. I was familiar with the program through other runner friends and like that it only requires two 30 minute training runs during the week with long runs on weekends. Totally doable right? Except that it's not so doable for me, apparently.

Tuesday, the first training day for the Marathon weekend training plan, seemingly went well. I followed the walk run ratio outlined by Galloway for beginners - run 10 seconds, walk 50. I was actually pleased to find out I could do better than that - 20:40 or even 30:30. The next day, I was sore, but in a good way, especially my hips which are clearly weak from disuse. So, I was really looking forward to Thursday's training run.

On Thursday, I geared up for my 2nd Galloway run only to find out that I CAN'T DO THIS. My shins were screaming shortly after I got on the treadmill and as soon as I started the first run interval, my hips joined them. Either I am far too out of shape for this or my physical therapist and chiropractor are correct and running is just not something I can or should do. :(

But you, my friend, can, presumably and SHOULD because someone I know has to run this race in their most awesome princess attire! Please? I will come and cheer you from the sidelines!

It's hard to believe...

but it's been a week since we got back from our third annual Disney vacation. (Do we dare begin to call it that when we've been three times in three years??? I'm starting to believe this is, in fact, becoming a family vacation tradition!) I think we're all still exhausted from cramming too much into this latest trip. We visited Universal and Islands of Adventure in addition to the Disney World parks and spent eight days in seven parks, which is probably just too much for anyone during vacation! That said, we all had a great time re-visiting our favorite attractions and discovering new ones.

I'm finally going to do a trip report and will be working on uploading photos and videos to share this week. I can't wait to share and hope our trip report will help someone else with their Disney planning.