When I ran the Disneyland Rebel Challenge back in January, I knew I wanted to run a second half marathon in Walt Disney World to complete the Coast to Coast Challenge. With my schedule, the only one that was available to me was the Wine and Dine Half Marathon, which was run at night the final weekend of the Epcot Food and Wine Festival, but little did I know to expect how it turned out.
For the past two years, I’ve headed down to Walt Disney World to run during the Marathon Weekend. In 2011, I ran my first half marathon (the Donald) and in 2012, I ran the full marathon around Walt Disney World (the Mickey), but having completed both, there was one other possible goal to achieve during the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, and that’s the Goofy – running both the half and full marathons in a single weekend.
I started running after a brunch in February 2010 then ran my first half marathon in January 2011 at Disney World. A year later to the day, I ran my second marathon around Walt Disney World and through its theme parks for another 26.2 miles.
On January 8, 2011, I came down to Florida to embark on my most ambitious run to date. For 13.1 miles, I ran around Walt Disney World and through the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT to complete my first half marathon. It was an amazing experience that drove me to run three more half marathons over the course of the year and the NYC marathon. Now I’ve returned to Florida to run the full Walt Disney World marathon.
In February 2010, a fateful brunch occurred where I was challenged to train to run the Bronx Zoo Run for the Wild 5K. Not only did I successfully do it, but I continued training beyond it. Although I only ran one other 5K last year at Yankee Stadium, I trained beyond the 3 mile race and drove myself to prepare for the annual Walt Disney World Half Marathon.
I am currently sitting in the Sunshine State, counting down the hours to my longest run to date. This Saturday, January 8, 2011, I will be running the Walt Disney World Half Marathon in Orlando, Florida, where I will be joining thousands of others in running through the Disney parks in an effort to run 13.1 miles.