This recap covers the marathon. Check out more 2019 WDW Marathon Weekend posts about spectating the half marathon, the Cigna Blogger Meet Up, and the expo!  Going into this year's marathon, I felt pretty good. I'd hit the majority of my training runs, had no major injuries, and didn't get sick in the days before the race. Woohoo! I was ready. Matthew and I got up early on marathon morning and got our bags packed and ready; mine with snacks, body, glide and flip flops for after the race, Matthew's with snacks, cow bells, and sunscreen. The weather forecast had changed dramatically from t ..read more

For 2019, Matthew and I each chose one race to run during the weekend. I chose the full, he chose the half. So a few Saturdays ago, we woke up at o'dark thirty and headed to Epcot for the start of the 2019 WDW Half Marathon.  Three Dopeys, a Donald, and a Mickey. We met up at the usual spot with our ohana (Jeff, Katherine, and Nathan) who were all doing the Dopey Challenge- in fact, they are all PERFECT FREAKING DOPEYS! How amazing are they? After we chatted for a while and planned where I would see everybody on the course, the runners headed back to the corrals and I headed f ..read more

This recap covers the Health & Fitness Expo. See the Cigna Blogger Meet Up recap here and even more runDisney recaps here! Y'all. This year's WDW Marathon Weekend was The. Best. It. Has. Ever. Been. Seriously, we typically spend less than an hour at the expo because it's usually insanely crowded with long lines everywhere. Last year, we didn't even go into the official merchandise area because the line to get in was so long it was outside the building- over a two hour wait time! 2018 WDW Marathon Weekend expo line- the one that almost convinced us not to come back to race wee ..read more

Earlier this month I was invited to the Cigna Blogger Meet Up at the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend. Each year, the wonderful folks at Cigna partner with the WDW Marathon Weekend to bring a whole host of activities to the race weekend, including an always-interesting blogger meet up. From a cook-off, to a scavenger hunt through the parks, to minute-to-win it games complete with karaoke, Cigna somehow manages to keep the meet ups uniquely creative year after year! What's happening here?? Read on for the details! Photo courtesy of Cigna. This year, the meet up was focused on one ..read more

THE WALT DISNEY WORLD MARATHON WEEKEND IS NEXT WEEK! This marathon has really crept up on me- it feels like yesterday Matthew and I were debating about which races we wanted to do this year. Despite feeling a little unprepared, I am so excited for all the fun that comes along with the WDW Marathon Weekend. Without any other fanfare, here's a quick Five Things Friday all about my favorite things at one of my favorite race weekends of the year! 1. The Expo 2018 Expo. For as crowded as the expo has been the last few years, I still absolutely love checking out all the boo ..read more

Hi, friends. It's been one hell of a semester. As you know, I changed jobs last March, we bought a house in June, and I started my doctorate in September. With the demands of a 40+ work week and taking two doctorate classes and training for the WDW Marathon, I have not had much time in my life for much else this semester, including updating this blog. In fact, this is the first non-academic thing I've written in about three months. In my absence from the blog, I realized something; marathon training has been surprisingly helpful in surviving graduate school. I've long held the belief that ..read more

Earlier this month, I ran the Harrisburg Half Marathon for the third time. I'd previously run this race in 2014 and 2017 but this year was a totally different experience because of the weather. It poured down rain before, during, and after this 13.1 mile journey through Pennsylvania's capital city. Not sprinkled, not lightly rained, it POURED. Let's rewind and start at the beginning, shall we? Some of our running ohana were in town to run this race. Nathan missed running this last year because of hurricane Irma (he lives in Orlando, FL) so he was able to defer to 2018. Steff and Joe (an ..read more

Hello, strangers! It's been nearly a month since I've posted here.. and I'm kinda ok with that. Oh, by the way, just listen to this song while you read this post and it'll all make sense. ? This summer has been pretty damn exhausting but in a really good way. I got a new job. We bought a house. I'm going back to school in less than 30 days. All great stuff. But all that good stuff doesn't come without a trade off. Work and the house have consumed much of my time. My running/working out has come close to a halt and my weight? Ha! I'm the heaviest I've been in about three years. Aft ..read more

Yesterday, this blog turned five. As in five years old. As in HALF A DECADE! What?!? Way back when I first had the inclination to start a blog, I don't think I ever imagined how positively my life would be impacted by sharing my running adventures with the internet. When I started writing in 2013, I was a relatively new runner on the verge of a huge life change. I had just moved two hours away from the only home I'd ever known to live with my boyfriend (now husband) and start a new job that was completely out of my comfort zone. I was 100+ miles from home in a small town that didn ..read more

A few months ago, I ran my fifth Steel Challenge in Pittsburgh, PA. While I've participated in Pittsburgh Marathon Weekend several times before, there's just something about this race that keeps me coming back for more- and 2018 was no different! Flat runner for a 13.1 mile tour of the steel city. This year, somehow, I ran a nine minute course PR and my second-fastest half marathon ever crossing in 2:30:01. In 26 half marathons, I've only run two of them in less than 2:31. Only two! So how did this happen?? I have no idea! Seriously! You might remember that somehow I al ..read more