This past weekend, I had the opportunity to watch the latest Walt Disney Animation feature film Frozen. This film was pure awesomeness in so many ways! I loved the characters, the storyline, the world the animators created and, of course, the music. While the soundtrack will most certainly be on my Christmas wish list, this song…

…Let it Go, will be a song that is on my playlist for the Walt Disney World Marathon. I’m still trying to figure out song order and how I’m going to deal with the music for the Walt Disney World Marathon, I know this will be either the last song or the one right before the last song. Ever since Mandisa released Overcomer it has been a special song to have in my ears while running. Until seeing Frozen, I was convinced that Overcomer would be the song I listened to at the end of the marathon. However, Let it Go has come in to cause me to reconsider. Check out some of these lyrics…

It’s funny how some distance makes everything seem small / and the fears that once controlled me can’t get to me at all / It’s time to see what I can do / to test the limits and break through

I know that there are some lyrics that are more female focused because it is a female singing the song. However, in my mind, I just change the lyrics to make it work for a guy. Maybe I’m weird that way. However, I loved this song and it will be either the last song or the one before it for the marathon.

Declaration by David Cook has become such a great running buddy. Some songs I like running with because of lyric content. This song, I just like the feel. The beat is fast enough to keep me running well and focused. During the verses, I like the intensity of the guitar. However, when the song gets to the chorus, it’s as if everything is so free. It’s like you go from something intense to freedom. That’s why I’m paring these two songs together for this post. From Elsa in Frozen and her freedom celebration song Let it Go to David Cook’s intense verses to a freeing chorus, they have that connection. For so many weeks, I’ve wanted to highlight this David Cook song because I’ve absolutely loved running with it.

That brings me to my next point. On Monday, runDisney put up a video that said an announcement was coming on Tuesday. Well, the above video is that announcement. Over the course of Monday, speculation over what that announcement was going to be grew. It was fun to read some of the ideas swirling about. My absolute favorite was reading Karen of Run, Knit, Travel. You can read her guesses here. Karen is not alone in this level of analysis over a video that lasted less than a minute. Her post is a great representative of what makes runDisney fans so awesome! We are a pretty involved group of people and I love it! As for the actual announcement…it didn’t live up to the hype. They’ve moved the Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend to Mother’s Day weekend beginning in 2015. The Tinker Bell Half Marathon will always hold a special place in my heart because it was the race where I caught this running bug. You can read about it here. Sadly, with the race being one week after the Walt Disney World Marathon, I will not be participating. Both the timing of the race and cost were too much to overcome. As a guy, this race is not marketed towards me. I’ve read several mothers who have voiced their opinions on the change. Patty from Margaritas, Miles & the Mouse posted this on her blog. Again, like Karen’s analysis over what the announcement could have been, I link Patty’s post because it seems to be a good representation of things I’ve read.

What do I think about the move? Well, being a Southern California native and a guy who has no kids yet, it doesn’t affect me very much. I completely understand where the moms who don’t like the move are coming from and wonder the same things as they do. Clearly, runDisney thought this would be a good thing…and it could turn out to be just that. However, you’ve got to wonder how many moms out there think that running a half marathon on Mother’s Day is exactly what they want to do. I read posts of running moms who do just that. So, it’s not like no mom out there wants to run a half marathon on their day. However, I’ll be interested in seeing how this plays out next year. Some of the pro’s of doing this race in May vs. January include…

• No competition from the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend. Many in the runDisney community have felt like the Tinker Bell Half Marathon was the overlooked runDisney event. So much goes into the Walt Disney World Marathon that Tinker Bell often gets overlooked. So, by moving this event away from the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend could give Tinker Bell the treatment so many think it should have been given all along.
• The weather in May is warmer in Southern California. I’m sure that many will think that it gets too hot here in May. However, May is a great month, weather wise, to be in Southern California. While the temps will probably be warmer than they are in January, it’s nowhere near as hot as the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend.

While the initial reactions varied, I’m confident that those initial emotions will die down somewhat over time. People will have to choose whether or not the Tinker Bell Half Marathon works for them in May. Some changes end up being good ones, others end up being bad ones. While I’m surprised that runDisney would announce this so far in advance, we won’t know how well this works out until 2015. If you wish to voice your complaints to runDisney, I say go for it. However, the biggest way to voice your displeasure over the changed weekend is simply to not go. If sales for the race are slow, I’m very confident that Disney will be quick to make a change. So, in my humble opinion the best way to voice your displeasure is to declare that you will let this race go. See how this all ties in?