One year ago today, I began blogging on a regular basis. If you look at my archives, you’ll notice that there were entries from September of 2012. However, after a couple of entries, I took a long hiatus from blogging until February 28, 2013 where I posted my first blog entitled Starting Fresh in 2013. This was the first post under the “Why I runDisney” blog title. Before that, I can’t really remember what I called this blog. However, by the time I posted 1 year ago today, I knew a different name needed to be associated with this blog. So, today is the day I consider my blogiversary.

 What a year it has been! In that first blog post, I mentioned that “Since completing the Tinker Bell Half Marathon (a runDisney event) in January, I’ve felt like a changed person. After reflecting on this accomplishment, I realize that this is what I want to become…a runner.” I ended that post with “Along the way, I hope to provide some insight as to how I transform from couch potato to a marathon runner.” In all honesty, I wasn’t thinking that I would be a marathon finisher one year later. Part of that journey was chronicled in the post Why I runDisney back in May 2013. I updated the journey in September 2013 with a post entitled A Runner at Last! When I wrote the last post, I had finished the Dumbo Double Dare at Disneyland (even if I was an unofficial Dumbo Double Dare finisher). The journey from couch potato to marathon runner was complete when I ran and finished the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon. It still blows my mind to say that I’m a marathon finisher. But, I am!

 I have the bling to prove it! Along the way, since my blogging journey began, I’ve been quite the active racer. I’ve finished…

• One Full Marathon
• Three Half Marathons (the Tinker Bell Half Marathon was completed before I became a regular blogger)
• Three 10K races
• Three 5K races

Of course, there are recaps in the Races and Results tab. You can also view the finishers medals I’ve received in the Race Bling tab of this page.

I’ve run through Disneyland…

I’ve run through Disney California Adventure…

I’ve run through the Magic Kingdom…

I’ve run through EPCOT…

I’ve run through Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

I ran around the Rose Bowl…

I ran around the Los Angles Memorial Coliseum.

I ran through Angels Stadium twice.

And I ran at the beach…for the Surf City USA Half Marathon and in several training runs. Huntington Beach represented some great moments, like my last long run before the Disneyland Half Marathon that I blogged about here. It also represented some difficult runs like my 20 mile training run.

The Santa Monica Beach training runs seemed to have worked out a little bit better for me. Check out this post entitled Legendary Finish to Week 12. I did so well with that 11 mile training run for the Disneyland Half Marathon training cycle, that I decided to repeat it in training for the Walt Disney World Marathon. I got even better results the second time around!

Not all of my training run repeats from the Disneyland Half Marathon training cycle went as well as the Santa Monica training runs. Not too long before the Disneyland Half Marathon, I had an amazing 12.5 miles that I talked about here. When I repeated the training run (with some additional miles because it was part of simulating the full marathon), disaster struck.

I didn’t just blog about racing. My favorite non-running blogs were these two on the Walt Disney Family Museum (part 1 and part 2).

I also turned 40 this year right before the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend. A few weeks before that, my wife threw me a surprise party. This blog talks about how I spent my actual 40th Birthday.

Lastly, I spent some time to thank some of the bloggers who have inspired me to continue running on Thanksgiving. While I didn’t get to mention each blogger who inspires me, it was fun to give back to those who have inspired me. In closing out this reminiscing about the past year, I also want to thank every one of you for going on this journey with me. Whether you’re someone who has been with me from the beginning or someone who has just found your way to this blog recently, I’m thankful that anyone wants to read my ramblings. Speaking of you readers…one year ago, I didn’t have any regular followers. Now, I’ve got 84 registered followers.  I’d really like to see the blog readership grow even more in the next year. So, I’m working on a poll to ask for your opinions on this blog and how I can improve it. It should be up later this evening or tomorrow morning. So, please come back over the weekend prepared to give me some feedback.