Yes, that’s right, one month from today the first ever 10K race at a runDisney event will happen at the theme park where it all began…Disneyland! By this time, one month from today, the first half of the Dumbo Double Dare will be over. Are you excited? Are you nervous? I can’t wait!

The above song is another from one of my playlists that I use while training. This song is good for both running and any cross-training activities. I love to play it towards the start of an activity. The beat is a little slower than some of my other songs. However, it always seems to wake me up and get those endorphins going no matter how tired or unmotivated I am. If you couldn’t tell by now, I’m a huge Toby Mac fan. He puts together some amazing music that fuels my training. He’s also got some great slower songs. I used to intern at the record label he owns called Gotee Records in the suburbs of Nashville. That was a really great year! From my experience with him, Toby is a really energetic guy who always seems to be talking with people. His music can best be described as hip-hop fusion as he fuses many different styles with hip-hop.

Anyways, to see the 10K course at Disneyland this week was exciting! It’s going to be a fun 10K for sure! As I’ve been absorbing all of the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend information this week, it’s really starting to hit me how close these races are. Training is going well for me at the moment. With 4 1/2 weeks to go, I still am holding on to the hope of finishing in 2 hours, 40 minutes (or quicker). If I do, it will take 31 minutes off my finish from Tinker Bell. That would be absolutely amazing! However, I am reminding myself that anything under the Tinker Bell Half Marathon time will still represent a PR for the Half Marathon and should be celebrated.

It’s been just over 3 months since I started training for these two races. What a three months it has been! As I enter this last month, I’m trying to take a few moments to reflect on the journey thus far. There have been some amazing training runs and a few disasters as well. What I find amazing about this, though, is that all of my training runs have been finished with a quicker pace than my pace for Tinker Bell…even the disasters…even the runs in San Francisco with the crazy hills that I had to walk. All of them have been run with a quicker pace than what I did in January. If I keep this up, I should enter the Disneyland Half Marathon with absolute confidence that I will go faster than I did in January. At the end of it, I will have two of the following medals to add to my collection…

I know that some of you will have three. That’s okay. I didn’t get signed up in time to be an official Dumbo finisher…next year. However, I will cover the same distance as those of you that get that third medal. Good luck to those of you who are coming out West to Disneyland in a month. I hope to see some of you sometime during Labor Day Weekend. May your final month of preparation be LEGENDARY! As Toby Mac says…Let’s Get this Party Started! Remember…