Awesome Upcoming Races

Happy Saturday, everyone!  For a lot of us that means a long run this morning... Mine got pushed back to tomorrow because I'm going canoeing today!  Just enough time for a quick post this morning.

In my last post I mentioned that I was signed up for four upcoming races that I am REALLY excited about so I want to share a little about them!

In addition to being a HUGE Disney fan, I'm also a really big NFL fan.  More specifically, I'm a really big Indianapolis Colts fan!  I've been going to Colts games every year for over 10 years and it's become a family affair with at least 10 family members joining us every year.

The Colts' Stadium all opened up (window and roof) during the Jacksonville game last year!

So how does this relate to running?  Well this year the NFL is hosting a run series called the "Back to Football" runs and I, along with about 15 of my family members, signed up for the Indianapolis Colts 5k!  This run is so exciting for me because the finish line is the 50-yard line of the stadium.  This makes me super excited for August!

The other three races I'm currently signed up for are, in some way, related to runDisney! I first became obsessed with runDisney on our most recent Disney World trip (May 2013) when two of my cousins ran the Expedition Everest Challenge.  By the time I even looked into the run it was already sold out... but I was determined to run in a runDisney race in the near future.  My parents decided that they wanted to take a trip to Disney later this year and I convinced them that the best time to visit would be during the Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend.  I've heard SO many good things about this weekend... It seems to be so many people's favorite race weekend so I thought it would be a good first runDisney experience.  At this point, I never thought I'd want to run anything more than a 5k so we signed up for Mickey's Jingle Jungle 5k.  I am completely obsessed with Disney, Animals AND Christmas, so I think this will be an awesome race for me!  And who wouldn't want a medal like this?!

Photo from according-to-kelly.com

Signing up for the 5k was an awesome decision but it didn't completely fulfill my runDisney obsession... So when registration opened for the Princess Half Marathon, I basically begged my husband to register with me.  It is a lot of money for a race (registration fees plus travel expenses, lodging, tickets, etc.) but we decided to do it!  I am SO excited for this race and, of course, the (even better) bling!

Photo from disneymanners.blogspot.com

As most of you know, runDisney puts runners in starting corrals based on anticipated finish times.  In order to verify those times, the races require qualifying times from other races (at least a 10k for half marathon races) so I had to find a 10k to run!  Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of 10k's in my area... But I did find a Labor Day 10k (the Kentucky One Health Four De Lis Classic 10k).  I'm not super excited about this race itself because I have to work on Labor Day... which means I'll be doing the race at 8 am and hopefully get to work by 10:30ish.  But this race feels like a runDisney stepping stone so I'm still pretty excited about it!

Do you have any upcoming races that you're excited about?  Any tips for my 10k training would also be appreciated!

Fitness and Blogging Newbie!

Let me start with this... I NEVER in a million years thought that I would be a "runner."  I still don't really think of myself as a runner and I probably never will!  I played sports (basketball, volleyball, track) in high school but running was never my thing!  Yeah, yeah... I know you're thinking "you just said you ran track!"  That is true, but I was a sprinter, which meant my longest race was 400 meters (1/4 mile) and the mere thought of running even a mile was ridiculous to me.

With that being said, my husband and I wanted to start exercising early this spring and we didn't want to join a gym (yep... we're cheap!) so running was the only thing we could think of.  So in early April, we half-heartedly started running using a C25K (couch to 5k) app we downloaded for free.  We also happened to be planning a Disney World trip at the same time for early May (my husband's first visit EVER!).  As coincidence would have it, my cousin and his wife were going to be visiting WDW at the same time and they were going to be participating in the Expedition Everest Challenge and the Kids Races that weekend.  By the time we looked into it, the race was completely full but that was it... I became completely obsessed with runDisney!

I was completely obsessed with the idea of eventually participating in a runDisney event and that was the motivation I needed to jump start my running journey.  Before we even left for our trip we signed up for our first 5k (a mud/obstacle race).  Looking back, a mud run was definitely NOT a good decision for our first race!  We had never even ran 3 miles before and we tried to do 3.1 miles with about 25 obstacles along the way.  There ended up being a LOT of walking, but we did finish the race and got our first taste of race bling!

My dad, me and my husband after the finish!

After that first taste of racing, we signed up for another 5k (a very small but regular road race) a month later and vowed that we would actually train to run before that race came around.  Over that next month we ran faithfully three times a week gradually increasing our distance (we added about 1/2 a mile per week) and we got to 2.5 miles before that race and were feeling pretty confident that we could add that extra .6 miles without a problem.  The race ended up being a LOT harder than we expected (we train on city streets and on a walking track around a little league field which is VERY flat, but the race was on a cross country course that was hilly and uneven).  I ended up walking several times throughout the race and finished in about 33 minutes but since the race was so small I actually ended up being the female winner of my age division... It was such a shock and was awesome motivation to keep running even after a race I felt went pretty badly.

My dad ran with us again and he and my husband also won their age divisions...and yes, my eyes are closed in the picture :-)

So this is brings us to today... I'm still running three times a week and trying to build up my distance as the summer goes on.  I'm currently signed up for four upcoming races that I am REALLY excited about.  But you'll have to come back to find out why those races are so exciting and how I've discovered to make building distance easier! :-)

How did your running journey begin?  Any tips for us newbies?  I'm looking for all the tips I can find!