80 Days to Train for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon

Wednesday was the day. After weeks of little exercise and a lot of Halloween candy, I finally started to run again.

I’m beginning to train for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon in January and I really want to do better than I did for the Disneyland Half Marathon (which was just slightly faster than walking).

Wednesday was the perfect day to start training because I had time and the weather was beautiful. I ran for 45 minutes and felt great. Iwas sure that I was ahead of the game as far as training.

But then I actually looked at the Tinkerbell online training manual from marathoner Jeff Galloway that’s on the Disney Wild World of Sports website. The training manual had runners start training in September. Uggh. I’m behind again.

But I am ahead on one way. The woman I always turn to when I have nutrition/dieting/weight loss questions, Amelia of Eating Made Easy, said that if I want to lose the weight I gained doing the LA Marathon earlier  I have to make a change. She said that after a woman turns 40, it’s crucial that she include strength training into her exercise routine.

So I started a weight routine this past weekend that is really challenging (I hope the kids don’t want anything from the high shelf in the pantry because I can’t lift my arms). I’m hoping that losing that 10 pounds will help my running time improve.Ten extra pounds is a lot for a 40-year-old woman to carry around while trying not to trip over Tinkerbell. And a lot to lose, but I have 80 days to do it!

Do you have a strength training routine you love? Bar classes, power lifting, yoga?

Disneyland Half Marathon

This past weekend I completed my first Disneyland Half Marathon. I was invited by runDisney to participate and signed up at the  last minute. I was a little worried that I hadn’t trained enough and because of that I would have a terrible race time.
All of those worries seemed silly as I ran past the starting line and saw Mickey and Minnie cheering on the crowd. Taking pictures soon took precedence over anything else. And there were so many pictures to take.

This was my race BFF.

We met coming out of our hotel rooms and soon realized that we were both running alone. This is what I love about races; you make friends in a minute. We ran together until mile 6 and then unfortunately I lost her. Hopefully she remembered my email address.

The first few miles were fantastic. There was so much to see it hardly felt like I was running.

Stopping for a picture

 

Running into California Adventure
Disneyland’s Main Street
Running into Tomorrowland
Frontierland where Winnie the Pooh and Friends posed for pictures
It was great running through the park. There were so many employees out cheering us on. And a lot of the Disney characters including Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh, and a few Princesses.
A folklorico group entertained the runners
Once we got out of the park the sun started beating down on us, but luckily it was not very hot. And there was a lot to see along the way. Folklorico dancers, cheerleading squads, and high school bands were all along the route plus the runners costumes were so much fun.

Near the end of the race I got very competitive. I sprinted the last three miles while I searched for my husband and kids. I didn’t see them until after the race, but was very happy to see this!

I took the above picture later. My actual time was 2 hours and 36 minutes. Not bad. Next stop, the Tinkerbell Half Marathon!