My Disney experience began back in 2014, when I decided I was going to sign up for the Tower of Terror 10 miler, which would be my first double digit event. I was so excited to get to run through Disney, as I had always been a Disney lover and the chance to run in the parks after dark (ToT was a night race) was an exhilarating experience! I loved every minute of that race and forgot how long I was running since there were so many character stops. I miss that event so much!
Following this, I signed up for the 2015 runDisney Princess half marathon, which I intended to be my first half marathon. However, I suffered a hip labral tear at the end of 2014 and was forced to defer the race to 2016. 2015 was a year devoid of Disney races for me, but I did end up completing my first half marathon, just not at Disney.
The Princess half marathon was my second half marathon and the beginning of a several years long love affair with Disney races. I dressed up in a Little Mermaid themed costume and loved every minute of that event! My only regret is that I passed up taking a picture with Belle and the Beast due to the line being astronomically long. But every mile was truly a magical experience.
Back in August of 2015, when runDisney had announced the first Star Wars Dark Side race on the east coast, I knew I had to sign up. I basically ate Ramen noodles and PB & J for a month to be able to afford the race. But before I knew it, I was signed up for my first Disney challenge. I remember being so excited that I ran into work on registration day screaming, "Wookiees, wookiees, wookiees I got in!!"
So in April of 2016 I finished my first Star Wars Dark Side challenge event. 19.3 miles. I was so proud of myself! That was the most I had ever run in one weekend. This was coming from a certified couch potato who never worked out before 2014. It was amazing to me that I'd stuck with running as long as I had. That was one of my proudest runDisney moments!
After my first challenge, I was incredibly hooked. I finished off my 2016 year with the Wine n Dine inaugural 10k. I actually ran that with an achilles tendon injury, so I ended up taking a month off of running after that. I flew to California in January of 2017 and ran the Star Wars Light Side 1/2 marathon, which remains to this day one of my favorite races. I'm very lucky I had the chance to do that race when I did because 2017 was the last year they had that event before cancelling it! I was able to get my Kessel Run Challenge medal and Coast to Coast medal when I ran the Star Wars Dark Side half marathon in April of that same year.
2018 was THE 'year of Disney' for me. It was the first year I became an Annual Passholder (shocker right?) and I completed all of the runDisney race weekends. I did two challenges (2018 Princess Fairy Tale Challenge and the 2018 Lumiere's Two Course Challenge at Wine n Dine) and the Star Wars half marathon as a pacer with the runDisney Galloway pacing crew (I'm a certified Galloway running coach).
Now as we enter into 2019, I'm currently registered as a charity runner with Give Kids the World for the Disney Princess Fairy Tale Challenge (my second year doing this challenge!) and am planning on also participating in the Star Wars Rival Run weekend as well. As of now there are no plans to run Wine n Dine again, but you never know what will happen...I seem to say every year that I'm going to cut back on running Disney, but that never happens.
Thanks for reading a bit about my runDisney history! I hope to make the runDisney experience more informative and seamless for new runners and maybe provide inspiration for some regular runDisney runners as well :-)
How many Disney races have you done? What's your favorite race weekend?
