I didn't train at all and pretty much didn't think about the race again until it was time to pack. I managed to sign up, found a cheap tutu on Amazon and a Tink-themed tank top. I popped in here and discovered you could WALK the 3 miles - that was just a park day! So, I figured why not do one of the few Disney things I had never done before? Plus COSTUMES?! Okay, I'm in. A few months later, I discovered that the last full day of our trip was going to coincide with the 2016 Princess 5K. We decided we liked visiting that time of year, so when our 11 month DVC window opened we booked that same week. Fast forward to spring of 2015, wandering around MK and seeing all these women (mostly) with race shirts and medals getting photos all over the place. I vaguely knew about the rD races as we visited WDW over the years, but I wasn't a runner so I never bothered to find out any details. I was active, played softball, did dance and cheerleading, but never had any interest in running. I was one of those kids who avoided running and hated that time of year in PE when we had to do track. Tl dr I saw the bling in 2015, got FOMO, did the 2016 Princess 5K cluelessly, and was hooked! (Stealing this from my training journal intro.) I'm sure many of you know my origin story, but I'll share again for the new folks. Now 35 marathons later, I really like long distances as long as I don’t have to run them hard! I ran my first half marathon in the fall of 2014, my first runDisney Half during Marathon Weekend 2015, and my first Marathon in the fall of 2015. When I learned to slow down, I realized that I could run, and that I didn’t hate it! Every time I tried to run before, it was pretty much an all out (or at least really hard effort). That spring I found another app, that would tell me to ‘Slow Down’ with audio cues (based on info that I had put in the app), and that was a game changer!!! This would have been spring of 2014. I think I ran a 5k and did one of the run/walk sessions (way before I ever heard of anyone actually using run/walk as a running method). Probably 6 months later before the next half marathon/5k race in town, I found a couch to 5k app, and used it, but as the running intervals got longer, I really struggled and repeated some weeks. So I would occasionally go outside and try to run, and always came to the conclusion after a couple times, that I hated it, and wondered why was I doing it!?!? So, I would stop. So fast forward until about 10 years after college, a friend of mine was training for a half marathon. I pretty much hated running unless it was a part of another sport. I wasn’t fast enough to run short distances, and nobody wanted to run the mile, so that’s what I did and I still always came in last! I decided after 8th grade, I was done with track. But track was what you did in the off season of basketball. I though track meets were fun, but in general I hated running. The stress relief and time to myself help immensely even if I don’t end up losing one pound. I didn’t start running to lose weight specifically, but to feel better about myself and my body. Why running? I had a baby in 2019 and the stress of a newborn, pandemic, and then switching jobs in 2021 caught up to me. I’m also doing a 5k at the end of September and am aiming for a PR with a plan! I signed up for the Marathon Weekend 10k since I’ll be training for Princess. And I had so much fun at the race, even running by myself! (My friend was feeling nauseous during the race so we ran our own paces.) I kept it up afterward and decided to do the Princess half in 2024 (already signed up through a charity). I knew I actually had to train to complete the race without dying and/or getting swept, so I started the Galloway method. My friend and I decided to try for the 10k at Marathon Weekend 2023 for Chip and Dale, but we got shut out, so went for Princess instead. In 2022 my friends asked me to do the Princess 5k with them, so I said yes, because I was a new-ish mom and having non-kid time is always appreciated. I did the first Star Wars 5k because Star Wars, but that was that. I went to the gym on and off with my ex, did home exercises, but nothing really stuck. I kept it up for 3 years until I moved and couldn’t find new classes near me. When I started working, the building had jazzercise classes so I started that. (Hitting lefty also helped.) I did soccer and track my freshman year of high school (100m and 4 x 100 relay starter), but then quit sports to focus on drama club. As in, hit the ball back to the pitcher and still make it safe on base. I did sports as a kid (dance, then soccer, basketball, and softball) and was FAST.
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