It's So On

Yesterday I went on the Run Disney site to see if the dates for the 2012 race had been set yet. Lo and behold, they were. (Race weekend is February 24-26, 2012. Woohoo!) Thanks to the handy dandy clock they have on the site, that means I now officially have 342 days to get my butt--and the rest of this pathetic body--ready to run.

But then, to make matters worse, I decided to check out some of the pictures, videos and times from this year's race. Big mistake. As I perused the times, I wasn't bothered so much by the insanely short times of the race winners. These are obviously hardcore runners/athletes after all. Looking at their times in relation to what I'm capable of was apples to oranges.

And then I saw it--the drop box in the upper left hand corner titled "Age Groups and Divisions." Stupidly, I clicked the drop down menu to discover age groups ranging from 13 and under to...wait for it...Women 80 and over. Yes, you read that correctly.

Surely they just have to have that age category for equal opportunity purposes, right? Um, no. Turns out there was an entrant in that category and at the age of 82 she finished the race with a chip time of 3:21:59.

Oh, and just FYI, there were 12 finishers in the 70-74 category and 2 in the 75-79 category.

Sooo....if I had any thoughts of being able to talk my way out of this one, those old ladies just squashed them. Thanks. Now I'm stuck. There's no turning back. I have to do this now. I refuse to be outrun by someone more than twice my age.

I'm only kidding, of course. I am amazed and in awe of these women's accomplishments. I pray that one day I'll be the one that the young whippersnappers are grumbling about because I just kicked their butts. No, those women whom I have never met, have given me inspiration that even this horribly out of shape, mostly unmotivated, fountain Pepsi addicted, brain-lesioned 38 year old can do this. I think.

What to Wear, What to Wear?

So apparently A LOT of people in the Princess Half marathon dress up as their favorite Disney characters for the race. Duh, makes sense, right? Problem is, my favorite Disney character is Piglet. But I don't see that costume as being very conducive to running 13.1 miles, do you?

So here's a video of some of the costumes from this year. What do you think? Should I go for a costume? If so, which character?

Musical Inspiration

As I mentioned in a previous post, my goal is to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon next February. So now it's time to get down to business--important business. Like what music should I put on my IPod for such an endeavor?

Of course, being a girl of the '80s, I've got my fair share of MC Hammer, TLC, Beastie Boys and Rob Base on there. I've also got some AC/DC and Van Halen.

But it's certainly not enough music to carry me for half a marathon. Any suggestions for some really good running/workout/get you revved up songs?

Off and Running

In two weeks, women are going to be lining up very early in Magic Kingdom getting ready to run--mothers and daughters, sisters, friends. They're not going to be running to be the first on Haunted Mansion. They're going to be running in the Disney Princess Half Marathon. God willing, next year I will be one of them.

I know, I know. I'm not a runner. In fact I don't do much of any type of exercising these days. I am one of the people for who those couch-to-marathon programs were invented. So what do I know about running a half marathon? To answer that question, "Absolutely nothing." But I need this.

In the next couple weeks I will be starting my Copaxone shots in the next step toward battling my MS. And while I know it is the right thing to do to treat my disease, it's still scary as hell. To say I've been a little bit bummed is an understatement. And then I found this link when I was researching this year's summer vacation to Disney.

I LOVE Disney. I've loved it since the first time I saw my kid's eyes light up when they saw Cinderella's castle. I wrote about that experience here. So what better place than the Most Magical Place on Earth, I thought, than to take on this challenge that will probably leave me broken and vomiting at the end? But I can wear Mickey ears or a Tinkerbelle costume while I'm doing it. How cool it that?

That is if I even make it that far. I'm just hoping I don't get picked up on the first mile by the running police who determine I'm not keeping up my promise of a 16 minute mile and whisk me off to the finish line. Still, would that be so bad? I'll still be in Disney. But I digress.

I'm going to be blogging about this journey to keep myself accountable--and, quite frankly, to make you all feel better about yourselves when you read how horribly out of shape and unfit I am. I hope you'll all come along for the run.