January 11, 2012 - Disney 5K

I know that I owe all of you some "background" blog posts to get you caught up on the first year of my journey, as well as a little bit of my personal history; but I have to interrupt that scheduled programming to let you know that, just last week, my nine-year-old daughter (Mary) and I ran in the Walt Disney World 5K down in Orlando.

This race was part of the 20th Anniversary Marathon Weekend at Walt Disney World, which includes Kid Races on Thursday, a 5K on Friday, a Half Marathon on Saturday, as well as a Full Marathon on Sunday. While I have run a few road races in my life (more about that in the background posts), I can tell you that Disney does a great job treating all runners like Boston Marathon qualifiers. I mean, in how many 5Ks do you get the chance to start the race with fireworks and then finish with a run through a marathon finishing chute with Katy Perry blaring in the background? By the way, to close the circle, the song was Firework, so we started and ended with fireworks!

I took some video of the race and will be getting that up on YouTube, as well as this blog, but I need some time to edit out some of the wobbly footage. In the interim, here are some photos from the race...

Running through EPCOT

Just a Half Mile to go, Mary!

Hello, Camera Person!

Just a Couple More Feet!

Crossing the Finish Line!

We did it!

As a final note (and a teaser for future posts), I signed us up for this race quite a while ago (I think it was in August), and at the time I was really nervous about whether I could actually be in good enough shape to make it (at the time, I was run/walking about 1.5 miles and hurting every time)...but as you'll find out in the upcoming posts, our bodies can certainly surprise us.

Until next time, enjoy your journey...