Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend : My First runDisney Event

I must start this post about my runDisney adventures by stating clearly that I am NOT a runner. In fact, on more than one occasion in the past I have joked with friends that if they ever see me running they should start running too because something or someone must be chasing me. That being said, I have been on a weight loss journey for over two years now and participating in the upcoming 2014 Never Land Family Fun Run 5K has become my latest personal fitness goal. 

My story might sound familiar to you. I am a busy "thirtysomething" housewife and mother to an inquisitive homeschooler. While I love spending my time taking care of my home and family, I knew that I also had to make my mental and physical health more of a top priority. Through hard work I managed to lose sixty pounds in a little under two years by eating healthier, working out more and finally being properly medicated for my hypothyroidism by a skilled endocrinologist for the first time since being diagnosed as a teen. I had several months of steady weight loss before I hit a plateau. What I was doing wasn't working anymore and the weight had stopped coming off. I knew that I needed to try something new so, after talking to a few of my runDisney friends, I started training to run the 5K.

Things were going well for me and my training for several weeks until an old knee injury cropped back up unexpectedly and began drastically restricting my workouts. That knee injury still keeps me from pushing myself like I had been and I also recently had a medical emergency that required medication that caused weight gain. I have put on about ten pounds over the last several months but I still plan on working hard to eventually reach my goals. I will not be able to run the 5K this year like I had hoped but I realize that a setback is in no way a defeat. I am so excited to be briskly walking my first 5K. I am also really happy that my son and I will be tackling the Never Land Family Fun Run 5K together. Neither of us have completed a 5K before but we are both pretty pumped up to try our best.

The 2014 Never Land Family Fun Run 5K kicks off the Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend at the Disneyland Resort on Friday January 17th at 5:45 a.m. and is perfect for runDisney beginners like myself. The 5K course runs through the Disneyland Resort and features Disney characters and on-course entertainment. Like the official runDisney website says, "Just follow the 'second star to the right and straight on till morning' for the Never Land Family Fun Run 5K - a magical course through Never Land and continuing throughout the Disneyland Resort. It's great fun on a great run and a perfect warm up for Sunday's Half Marathon."

My son and I with Donald during our last trip to Disneyland as Donald covers up my son's Mouseketeer hat.

Even though I am still far from my weight loss goal and have long been "plus sized", I already find the whole runDisney experience to be so inspiring. It takes something I love as much as visiting Disneyland and uses that love to encourage me to push myself to be healthy in a new and exciting way. The runDisney community is literally helping me become a better person by distracting me from all the hard work with fun things like adorable race outfits and on-course character interactions. I am confident that the experiences that my son and I will have during the upcoming 2014 Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend will help us both push on with our own fitness and health goals. While I know I am not ready to run a marathon, I am confident that the 5K Fun Run will be a challenge we will both complete with some hard work and maybe a little faith, trust and pixie dust.

To Be Continued...

Virtual Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend Blog Hop Directory 
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You can fly, you can read, you CAN run!