Running?!?

I never thought that I would be a runner- NEVER! 

But being a family with 2 young kids, we have fallen in love with Disney. In Love! 

We took Lucas to Disney Land for his 5 birthday- Gianna was 18 months- and from then on, we couldn't get enough.  

Since then, we have gone to Disney every 6 months.  We even went, just Dustin and I, for our our big 1-0 anniversary. 

So a co-worker was in my office for a mentoring session and she saw my Mickey snow globe and she told me she had just gotten back from the Tinker Bell Half Marathon .  What What!? 

I had to know more.  I went to the site, looked up blogs, looked on Pinterest, and read everything I could. Jeff Galloway, former Olympian, is the "official" trainer for runDisney and he created a training schedule for all the races runDisney does. I studied those. Looked up costume ideas. Fell in love with the bling. 

Inaugural 2011 Medal

That night, I looked at Dustin and said "I think I want to run a half marathon." Words that have never even crossed my mind. 

I told Dustin all about it, and he simply said "Ok! Let's do it!" 

Thus begins our journey to 13.1 miles!! After posting about in on Facebook, my cousin texted me and told me she wanted to do it to!! Bonus! Now there's no turning back.

We had already joined a gym- WITH babysitting. So we quickly started adding more time to our Elliptical runs.  A little bit later, I started insisting that we needed to cross over to the treadmill. Elliptical and treadmill are SO different. You cannot train for any type of run on an Elliptical.  Sorry... 

20 minutes, mostly walking, turned into 20 minutes of run/walk intervals, and now we are running, barely walking, for 60 minutes, at least three times a week.  I can no longer say that I am not a runner. I AM a runner.  

So July came around and it was time to commit to the race- registering.  Even though I dropped more money then I care to admit, I signed all of our fab four up for the races that weekend. Dustin and I for the half marathon; Lucas and Gianna for the Kids Races. I did it the day they opened registration- and a good thing too! The race sold out within 48 hours. 

I don't know what fate has in store for me, but I swear, the second I registered us, the cosmos were out to get me. Lucas starts a new school, and from that moment on- we are all sick for never ending weeks! You know how it goes. Luke comes home, is the first to come down with something, and we all pass it around 10 times over. This is STILL happening! You can't take sick kids to the gym. So Dustin and I tried to stagger our runs. But that doesn't work out so hot when you get sick, too. 

At one point, in October, I came down with walking pneumonia and slept for an entire week. It took me another week to recover before I kicked my trash and got back to the gym.  Then Dustin got sick. All the while, the kids are passing something back and forth too. Poor G has a horrid cough that keeps me up at nigh most nights. 

So we are finally feeling good and healthy (with exception to G's cough). And we are back to our routine of running 3 or 4 days a week, and up to 4-5 miles each time. Saturday we have to push ourselves and get over 6 miles. As far as our training is concerned, that's practically out the window. We were supposed to run 11.5 miles last Saturday. Eeek! My goal is to do at least 10 miles before the race. And THAT is doable, right?!

Another problem on my mind, I don't have my running costume finalized. I know I'm going to be a fairy- duh. I have devoted a Pinterest board specifically for gathering costume ideas. My problem: I can't decide on a color. Tink green? Videa purple? Periwinkle blue? Rosetta pink? Ugh...
And my other problem: I'm shopping for capris and tanks in WINTER! I should have bought my stuff in the summer, but apparently I was thinking I had plenty of time. 

Here are pieces that I'm using as my muse: 

Yeah... I'm leaning towards green as you can tell. I want it to POP! 

So stay tuned and find out how the next 35 days go! I want to use this space to journal how it goes for us, and possibly influence someone else to take the plunge. :) 

Run safe! 

Here are some favorite photos that have helped my journey. 

July 2013 

July 2013 

July 2013

First 5K!! June 2013