This Magic Moment 2022

Today, I make this vow. On this blog. Very public. Cause I need you to hold me to this.

I promise that every even numbered year, I will travel to Disney with friends, and I will run a Disney race.

Did you think I was going to reveal something more serious?

Well, this is serious! 

A seriously important self-care decision.

I love LOVE traveling to Disney. An I love LOVE running at Disney. I need NEED this in my life.

So with 2024 on my mind, I'm here to report about my 2022 trip to run the Disney Princess 10K!

This year, I traveled to Walt Disney World, and seven other ladies and I ran the 10K. 

When I started planning this trip, word quickly got around within my church Connect Group, and multiple ladies expressed an interested in joining the adventure. My perspective concerning this turn of events was simple: more females, more fun. So with the help of Ellen at Magic on Main travel company, we started planning our experience.

After securing our rooms, we had to secure our individual race entries. This may not seem like a big deal, but Disney races are notorious for rapidly selling out. That being said, I'm happy to report that each lady was able to snag an entry into the Princess 10K!

After traveling down from North Georgia, visiting the runDisney running expo, checking into the Art of Animation hotel, shopping at Disney Springs, the Princess 10K experience was quickly next on our agenda.

You wake up early to run these races before the parks open. I'm talking like 2am or 3am early. And while that initial wake up alarm is a bit... um... alarming, you quickly get past that. Cause you are about to RUN DISNEY!

Nothing else matters as you run through this magical place. You are with friends. You are having fun - yes, even though you are running at the break of dawn. For the 10K, you run out of the Epcot parking lot, through Hollywood Studios (which was a surprise to us), and back through Epcot to finish.

All the while, you keep your eyes open for the runDisney photographers. Gotta get those pics!

Traveling to run a Disney race is magical. But the magic does not end there. You are AT DISNEY! And if you are a mom on a ladies' trip, you are at Disney WITHOUT CHILDREN! You must - MUST - capitalize on this.

At least, my friend Jaimee and I share this perspective. And so because of this shared view, and the difficulty of navigating a Disney park with a large group of ladies, she and I split from the other chicas to DO Disney. Specifically, Magic Kingdom. It was awesome!

And again, you have to keep an eye out for the Disney photographers. Capture those magical moments!

Like they do on the rides, hehe...

When all is said and done, you leave when the park is close to closing. That is how you DO Disney. 

You leave exhausted. But exhilarated.

In short, it's magical.

America's Sweetest Race

Hello, friends! Long time, no blog post.

What's that you ask? Have I been running in 2022? Well, yes! And today, I'm here to report what my first race of the year was... drumroll, please....

The Atlanta Hot Chocolate 5K - America's Sweetest Race!

And I ran it with my sweetest running buddy - Jaimee!

This race is a fun February favorite of ours. It's always a great time.

The best part about this race is the end - where the chocolate awaits and they bring you your bling!

These are a few of my favorite things (cue the song) about this race. It is truly why you run America's Sweetest Race.

They time the event, but it really isn't about how fast your run it. That being said, Ms. Jaimee and I are averaging a 15 minute mile. Our plan this year is to focus on the 5Ks and try to improve that running time a bit. 

That being said, my second race this year was a 10K at the most magical place on Earth. More to come on that very soon... Keep an eye out for that report. You don't want to miss it!

LOCOMOTIVE SERIES 5K - The Final Race

I finally accomplished what I set out to do back in May: complete the 2021 Locomotive Race Series Challenge.

I ran the four 5Ks in this series and secured each of their race medals which then joined together to form the above train. 

Bling! I'm in love!

I signed up for this challenge as a way to keep me running. I have not been running as consistently as I would like to be running, and I knew I would need this - the desire to secure all four medals - to keep me motivated to get out there an MOVE!

And I was right to assume I would need this motivation. I had not run regularly in a month before this race. I thought my time for this event would be pretty pathetic, but it turned out to be comparable to my other most recent 5Ks. Just a couple minutes slower.

At the end of the day, I'm glad I got out there in the cold and ran the race set before me.

I woke that morning, warm in my bed, and really REALLY did not want to get out and run in the cold. But I pushed through that mental road block and got my lazy butt to the race.

Sometimes, that's how you have to do it. Some days, that's how you make it through.

Just move! You won't regret it!

And there is my word for 2022 - MOVE!