Saturday, September 7, 2013

Dreaming of Disney

Earlier this summer, I read a blog post about the Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon and I have been hooked ever since.  Mind you, I have yet to run my first 1/2 Marathon (it's in April, registration opened yesterday, eek), but I'm already dreaming of what I hope will be my second 1/2.  The 2014 Disney Princess race is already sold out, so that rules that out, but I have my sights set on February 2015.

I figure, not only will this be a really fun race for me, but it might also be a great family trip.  I have never been to Walt Disney World, nor have I ever been to Florida.  I spent a few years of my youth in Southern California and have many fond memories of Disneyland, so I'd love to see how WDW stacks up.  Nick would be 8 1/2 and Jack would be not quite 3 if we went in 2015 and it would be in the off-season, so it sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me.  

I also recently learned of a really neat program that would allow me to reach my goal of participating in the Princess 1/2, while also raising funds for a great cause, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  There are actually quite a few charity groups that run in conjunction with many of the RunDisney Races, but I am particularly drawn to St. Jude Heroes (http://fundraising.stjude.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Heroes_home). Their tagline is Run for a Reason and I love that while training for an intense race, I would not only be motivated to achieve my physical goals, but also to help raise funds to support a great cause. 

There are several different fundraising options ranging from $1,400 to $5,500 and while I would love to reach for the $5,500, I don't exactly know where to start.  I've done fundraising for other events with a modicum of success, but this obviously takes it to another level.  I suppose I am sharing this now, almost 1 1/2 years in advance, to see if anyone has any advice on raising this much money (particularly if you have participated in this program or something similar) and to let you know that you will probably be hearing about this on the blog over the course of the next year or so.  

I took somewhat of a rest day today, although I did get a bit of walking in while running errands.  I'm planning on a run tomorrow, hopefully a 4 miler without any residual dizziness!

"We all have dreams, in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort." 

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