Last month I signed up for my first marathon, the Walt Disney World Marathon in Jan 2021. And then last week, I successfully signed up for the Princess Half Marathon weekend, again for all 3 races, the 5k, the 10k and the half back to back over 3 days. Since 2020 is basically cancelled, I figured I'd get a headstart on 2021 plans. The races were incredibly hard to register for this year, with all of them selling out within minutes, both the pre-sale and the general on-sale. I've never had this much difficulty in previous years but I also learned that they capped capacity for now due to the current situation of covid19. The introduction of club RunDisney didn't help either, further making it difficult to register when there are already limited spots. If you’re wondering what I mean by this club RunDisney thing, basically this year RunDisney, the organization behind the races opened up “club RunDisney,” a system where you can buy into the races through a premium membership. Depending on your level of membership, you get early access to race registration sales, a small race discount (since you’re already paying hundreds into the membership) and guaranteed entry into either certain races or every race you want. You also can pay into a better corral placement without having to submit time of proof. Trust me, I'm not happy about it either as a runner because not only is it unfair, it also makes it unsafe. It makes it harder for those who are actually taking this seriously, to run around those who are not correctly in their paced timed corrals. It’s sad that RunDisney did this but hey, I get it, anything to make more money, right? Especially with Disney races becoming so popular. It’s like an Annual Pass for RunDisney addicts, basically. I’m kind of annoyed because the year I decide to take on the Dopey Challenge, the Castaway Challenge and the Castle to Chateau Challenge, I’ll probably have to buy into club RunDisney to guarantee spots in all those challenges or risk not being able to sign up for the races to complete the challenges.

But enough about the downer side of RunDisney. I’m so relieved I was able to sign up for another round of the Princess race. This will be my second year doing all 3 races and and my third year doing Princess weekend. I love this event so much. I always have an amazing time. One of my sisters who ran the 5k this year is also running again, and this time, she’s decided to take on the 10k too! I’m so excited and proud of her. I’m so glad she enjoyed this year’s races enough to take on a bigger challenge. This is a great addiction I love sharing with my friends and family. I absolutely love seeing my personal cheerleaders during the half marathon at the Cinderella’s Castle mark. It’s what helps me get through the first half the race, and then seeing them again at the finish line really helps me complete it. I’m going to have to strategize how to motivate myself for the FULL marathon since that’s going to be a lot harder to plan out, especially being my first time.

Of course I’m already brainstorming ideas for costumes, but I’m holding off on picking characters for now because they haven’t released the themes of the medals yet. The past 2 years I’ve tried to coordinate my costumes with the medals. I was Sleeping Beauty for my first half marathon and this year I did all 3 version of Cinderella since I was running 3 races. I also might not be blonde by the races next year so that could possibly play into influencing my decision as well. I’m not hardcore enough to run in a wig; I’m not ashamed to admit that right there. Running is hard enough as is to get a good time, I can’t compromise my already slow time with a wardrobe malfunction in the middle of the race. I risked sheer minutes this year on the 10k and the half marathon just trying to take my hoodie off mid-race and that enough gave me anxiety.

Speaking of anxiety, last week was full of highs and lows. After successfully signing up for all the races I want for 2021, that same week, Disney World announced the cancellation of all Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Parties for this year. I understand completely why, but I’m still going to be sad about it. The limited capacity due to crowd restrictions, limited park hours to cleanse and reset every day, no park hopping, the lowered availability of cast member staff (due to international staff and college program students being sent home, etc), cutting down of park events in order to cut down on crowds and large gatherings (i.e. parades, fireworks, character meets) is all making the Disney park admission not worth it, sadly. I was planning on going in October for my birthday like usual but with the Halloween party cancelled, I might forgo this year. Especially since advance reservations are required to even get into the park, even if you have park admission. It might not be in the cards for me this fall due to the pandemic. I’m thinking it might be worth it to skip and save the money for the runcation trips in January and February since I’m anticipating those to cost a pretty penny. My travel agent already has rooms on hold for me as of today and yes, they're selling out for race weekend already quite quickly since reservations for 2021 just opened up for travel agents to book. If you're intending on going, I'd say at least put the room on hold so you're guaranteed a spot before it sells out.

This year we stayed at the Contemporary for Princess weekend. I purposely did that so we would be able to crash at the hotel nearby if we were too tired mid-day from being up so early from the races. I learned that I could handle it so it wasn’t exactly necessary but a nice convenience for our first time doing the Fairy Tale challenge. I was able to handle the whole day being up, but at a certain point my feet were definitely in no condition to keep walking so it was nice to be able to get back to our room right away to be off our feet. Unfortunately though, I’ve spoiled my friends and family, hahaha. Now they want to go back again and stay at the Contemporary because of this sheer convenience. It’s so expensive though and with my having two trips back to back early next year, it’s definitely going to hurt the bank account. But if I cancel the October trip, that might help just a little. Now I gotta figure out what I want my alternative October plans to be since the hubby has off that week regardless. I also am trying to figure out what my alternate Halloween costume this year will be since I had a different one in mind for castle pictures. If we’re going to be home, I have a different idea in mind to cross off my Halloween costume bucket list. Cue The Nightmare Before Christmas watching marathon 4 months early, hahaha!

Man. Can you believe it’s June already? Where has the year gone? We’ve had so much happen and accomplished so little. It’s a depressing year. Which is probably why I’m pretty much giving up on it and starting to plan 2021 instead, lol. I’m still running every day because I’m such a gym rat now but currently I’m running just to run. When I was training, I was more focused on a specific training schedule to make sure I could make progress in my endurance, stamina, and overall distance. I do have to start marathon training soon though. It’s just going to be hard because the weather is definitely heating up so my speed is going to be rather compromised until the fall since heat affects running performance due to the increased physical stress on the body. But it’ll be good training nonetheless. I’m excited for gyms to hopefully open up in 2 weeks as well! We head into phase 3 today so hopefully the next two weeks fly by so I can get back to work and reclaim my summer body. I don’t hate the way I look currently, but I can definitely tell there’s some pudge on my stomach and legs from quarantine since the workouts are not as hard as a good old fashioned gym workout. I miss how defined my stomach was pre-quarantine. The funny thing is back then I thought it wasn’t enough. That I was still ‘fat.’ Why are we like this? We’re never happy with what we had until it’s gone. I really miss hitting those weights hard too. I can’t wait to get back and hit the ground running. 2018 me is really wondering who the hell am I?! I used to think I would never do a full marathon. A half was scary enough for me. I thought I would stop at half. Then I did all 3 races at Princess weekend. Now I’m moving on to set out to conquer the full. And then next stop, Dopey! What happened?!?! I used to think these things were impossible, but here I am. I used to hate running too, but here I am, throwing myself into it every day.

Ah, to finally embracing this lifestyle change I finally truly adopted!

You’re sure to do impossible things
If you follow your heart!