I ran my second half marathon in a running skirt & wings and still managed to accomplish a personal best!
Here is my Disney half marathon experience. But first, a bit of a back story. I didn’t really have this race on my radar until I saw friends from a run group in Toronto tackle the Dopey Challenge which means that they ran a 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon in 4 days in 2014. Run Disney has created a great challenge to attract runners down to Florida to tackle this event. Not only do they get a medal for each individual race but on Sunday they get a medal for the Goofy Challenge which is to run the half & marathon in 2 days and then the full Dopey Challenge medal is for all 4 days. I loved seeing my friends pictures in fun costumes so I put it out on social media that I’d love to do just the half marathon race and another girl from the run club volunteered to head down with me the following year.
I registered for the race in 2015 but after being diagnosed a month before with MS in Dec of 2014 and undergoing steroid treatment that rocked my body I had to defer the race registration until 2016. So I had known about the race all of last year but never really knew what I was getting myself into. I reached out to a friend who had run Disney before and hired their travel agent who helped me book a hotel (I stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort), airport transportation, a ticket to see Cirque & a spa appointment. I didn’t read any blog posts other than to get a costume idea and where to purchase it and just headed down last Thursday for the race.
