The 2017 WDW Marathon Weekend is Underway!

By the time this blog post goes live, the 2017 Walt Disney World 5K will be in the books. Those who are running the Dopey Challenge will have finished their first 3.1 miles out of 48.8 miles. Those unofficial “Bashful Challenge” runners (WDW 10K and WDW Half Marathon) are ready for their turn. The Goofy Challenge runners might not even be in Florida yet. No matter what anyone is running, the largest weekend on the runDisney calendar is up and going.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 3 years since I headed back to Walt Disney World to run in my very first full marathon. I love this photo above. I love it for what it symbolizes…I can do really hard things. It’s good for me to look back and remember what it was like to get to that race. As my training for my 4th full marathon suffered in December, I need to remember what it takes to get to that magical finish line at the end of 26.2 miles.

Getting to this point in the last 0.2 miles and seeing my wife is one of my all time favorite memories. I think the only reason I wasn’t crying tears of joy at the end of the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon was because seeing Brooke pumped me up.

So, instead of tears of joy, I was just all smiles as I high-fived Minnie Mouse right before crossing that finish line. It was a truly magical moment at a place that specializes in magical moments. I don’t feel the need to go back and give the recap again of this race. I have a tab above that chronicles my whole Walt Disney World Marathon trip.

I still can’t believe that I was able to spend more than 12 hours at the Magic Kingdom one day after my first full marathon! Honestly, the Walt Disney World Marathon was my best full marathon of the three I’ve run. It’s the only one I’ve finished without any blisters. My feet didn’t even hurt at the end. I remember how happy I was when I saw that 25 mile marker as we entered EPCOT and realizing that my feet didn’t hurt. In all of my training runs, the last few miles were finished in a little bit of foot pain. Not so on the day of the marathon. I was free of any foot pain and it felt amazing! I was still pretty tired. The last 3.2 miles featured runs only when someone was shouting “To Infinity and Beyond!” Or “Go Buzz!” Especially, if a child was the one yelling that. My runs in those last 3.2 miles didn’t go very long. But, I did what I could.

For the third consecutive year, I’ll be sitting on the sidelines cheering on my running friends who are running from home. It’s hard to watch so many running friends do the runDisney weekends I’m not running in. Especially the ones I’ve been to before. So, how will I survive? First off, I’ll remember that next weekend is the Star Wars Rebel Challenge for me at Disneyland! Nothing makes it more okay to miss out than knowing you’re less than a week away from your own runDisney fun! Plus, next weekend is my favorite runDisney weekend on the calendar…Star Wars Light Side Half Marathon Weekend.

Secondly, I’ll continue my training for the 2017 Sketchers Performance Los Angeles Marathon. While friends will be running the Walt Disney World Marathon, I’ve got to remember that I have a marathon of my own I’m training for. I’ll be running 15 miles Saturday in preparation for my marathon. Anyone that’s run that far knows 15 miles is no joke. So, I can’t be so worried with what’s going on in Florida that I forget my own training. Due to missing so many runs in December, I’m in cram session training time. I can still get in all the long run distances before the Los Angeles Marathon. However, I cannot miss a single one anymore. There’s less than 2 and a half months left to get ready.