For the first time in forever….I’m blogging. For the first time in forever…I signed up with a runDisney race! For the first time in forever….I’ll be running a half marathon! For the first time in forever… I’ll be running a 19.3 mile challenge! All of that to say, this past weekend, I signed up to run in the 2020 runDisney Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend races! Lord willing, I’ll be coming home with quite a collections of race medals to boot. I’m sure you’ve heard the mantra…”Go Big or Go Home.’ That’s what I’m doing. I’m signed up for the Kessel Run Challenge with the Rival Run Challenge. So, I’ll be putting in 13.1 miles of running between January 1st and March 31st of 2020 to complete the first part of the Kessel Run Challenge. The nice thing about this virtual half marathon is that I don’t have to do it all in one run. By combining this with completing the Star Wars Rival Run Half Marathon (fka Star Wars Half Marathon – Dark Side), I’ll ear something similar to this….

Y’all, I’ve wanted one of these medals since runDisney announced a Star Wars Half Marathon at Walt Disney World around 5 years ago. So, when I decided to head out East for this race, I knew I needed to throw in the virtual half marathon to make sure I got one.

In addition to the Kessel Run Challenge and running the Star Wars Rival Run Half Marathon, I decided that, since I’m heading out East, I should throw in the Rival Run Challenge and run the Star Wars Rival Run 10K as well. So, I should be earning the Star Wars Virtual Half Marathon medal early next year. Then, I’ll earn the Star Wars 10K medal, Star Wars Half Marathon Medal, the Rival Run Challenge Medal and the Kessel Run Challenge Medal. That’s 5 runDisney Star Wars medals by the time I leave Florida. To top this off, the 2020 races will mark the 5th Anniversary of this race weekend. So, I’m expecting the medals to be awesome!

The last time I ran more than 4 miles was at the 2017 TCS NYC Marathon. To be honest, signing up for this race does put a little fear in me. However, I’ve been intending to get serious with training since the start of 2018. When I began 2018, I did pretty good at getting out there and trying. However, I learned that running 5K’s doesn’t put the same fear in me that running more than 10 miles does. So, after nearly 2 years of false starts, I’m hoping that signing up for the Star Wars Half Marathon will motivate me to find better consistency again. After all, these races cost so much to enter and the trip to Walt Disney World is not inexpensive for any West Coaster, like me. So, I’m betting a good chunk of money that this will be what gets me moving towards goals I’ve mentioned before on this web site to happen. I have missed running and missed runDisney races more than I could express in words. It really sucks that runDisney hasn’t come back to Disneyland.

My plan for this race is pretty simple right now. I’m planning on lots of time at the gym for most of the rest of the year. I need to use this time to get active again and used to regular workouts. My training has been so spotty since the 2017 NYC Marathon that I can’t expect to have a great training cycle if I were to just to jump into a half marathon training program at the end of December. So, the goal for the rest of the year is to get active again and see if I can lose some weight along the way.

Race day is April 18 and 19 at Walt Disney World. I’m going to use Jeff Galloway’s training plan for a challenge race found here. So, week 1 of training will start on December 9, 2019. So, on December 6th or 7th, I’ll head to the track for one of Jeff Galloway’s Magic Miles. This weekend is also the Candlelight Processional at Disneyland (which I should be singing on December 7th). So, it might be tricky scheduling. But, I want to make my last workout before the Star Wars Half Marathon training cycle to be a Magic Mile. Why? It will give me a good idea as to what my goals at the start of training should be for this race weekend. According to Jeff’s plan, there will be 5 Magic Miles to complete. So, if I do this right, I’ll have a really good idea of my fitness level for this race and what to expect from myself.

As I go along in my training, I’m hoping to get back to blogging as well. My goal in blogging is at least 1 blog post per week. Feel free to subscribe to my Facebook page, here, to get updates. My plan is to be posting at least my workout recaps on this page. So, if you want to follow along in real time, follow me on Facebook or on Instagram. Feel free to post any encouragements as I go along in training for this race. I’m sure I’ll need those. Even though I’m a veteran of 20 half marathons, it’s still been around 2 years since I entered a half marathon training program. So, there will be some jitters along the way.

Either way, I’m so looking forward to adding to my runDisney Star Wars race medals! See you in Florida for the 2020 Star Wars Rival Run Half Marathon Weekend!