Ready, Ready, Ready, Ready to Run

Ever since my dancing days were over I had to do something to keep me moving. I would go for runs here and there but nothing serious. I always wanted to complete a Half Marathon (The idea of completing a marathon scares the crap out of me.). In 2008 my sister called me up at work and told me about this new Half Marathon race at Disney World called The Princess Half Marathon. Naturally, I hyperventilated at the thought of actually completing a Half Marathon, but then again I thought it would be neat to do one. So I said why not? (I seem to say that a lot don't I?) And I registered for The Princess Half Marathon.

I began training for the half marathon while my sister trained for it up in Colorado. I ran in hot temperatures (like in the 100s), rain, snow, sleet, and just plain cold running conditions. I have found running in the rain to be just as amazing as walking or playing in the rain. Before I knew it, it was race day. I was nervous as hell. Was I going to finish the race? Was I going to get injured? A friend of mine told me to remember my training and don't start off too fast. I hit a huge mental wall about the 10th mile. My sister kept me going though. All that hard work and dedication paid off. I completed my very first Half Marathon-at Disney World no less! What a wonderful feeling it was. I wore my really awesome medal around Disney World for several days. Many people, including myself, were congratulating everyone who was wearing the medal. This was a very amazing feeling.

And that was all it took. I caught the racing bug. Soon I signed up to complete the Disney Land Half Marathon (because it would be neat to get the Coast to Coast Challenge medal), and before I knew it I had completed three other Princess Half Marathons throughout the years. I also completed the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 13k race, as well as the Houston Half Marathon. I also have completed the Red, White, and Blue 10k race (which benefited wounded veterans), and I have completed a sprinkle of 5k's here and there throughout the years that benefited several different causes such as Colon Cancer research and Brain Cancer research (the one cause closest to my heart). I am by no means a fast runner. I just get out there and actually do enjoy myself.

My sister and I noticed that the last Princess Half Marathon we completed we didn't really have to train for. We kind of lost some motivation there. Probably because we knew we could complete it with no problems. So she began throwing out the idea of completing a full marathon. I did the most natural thing in this situation-I curled up in a ball and began rocking back and forth while sucking my thumb crying for my mommy and then signed up to complete the Disney World Marathon in January 2013. I'm still having panic attacks just thinking about it. I've done pretraining for the pretraining for the training I will complete to get ready for the marathon (I'm that freaked out!). This should be a very fun adventure! :o)