Good morning, runDisney all-stars!
For this week’s Sundays are for Disney, tell us what motivates you to run.
My wife! (but probably not the way you're thinking
)
One December many years ago now we had gone to WDW for our 10th anniv. and had a great time. Then the holidays came and we both caught bad colds. My throat was so sore the only thing that seemed to help was ice cream or milkshakes (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!). Needless to say, I gained weight - quick!
Plus, I really couldn't do much of anything so I just searched WDW videos on YouTube because of our awesome recent trip and wanting to relive the experience and plan our next visit! I ran across Lee Hoedl's (sp?) Disney marathon videos - WOW!!! Runners got to actually go into backstage areas!!! I didn't know that was even possible! I got super-excited. Then I saw the medals, too!
I wasn't even seriously considering running the marathon - at that time I played in a Senior (old man) baseball league and ran (jogged) a couple of miles regularly to stay in shape and every few years I would do the Arnold Pump-n-Run here...so I'm not too too out of shape but certainly not anything higher than a 10K was on my radar. I had run one half-marathon about ten years before this and that was it for long distance races for me. But I told my wife about how awesome the marathon seemed...
Her honest, immediate response was "you can't run a marathon". Ouch! I wasn't mad but - dang - the pure dismissive tone really hit hard. I know she wasn't saying it to be mean either, it was just a honest reaction in the moment. That was all I needed!!
I started with Jeff Galloway's plan and never looked back. I'd keep her posted - "I'm up to 4 miles", "6.6 miles - that's a quarter-marathon", "8 miles today", etc. I think she was skeptical until I ran a local half marathon in August of that year. After that she was all in. I ran the Detroit Marathon in October of that year, decided I could pull off the Goofy, and ended-up doing the "unofficial" Dopey that year.
We ended up doing WDW Marathon weekend 7 straight years plus 5 years at the
Disneyland half marathon weekend (completely on her insistence - honest!). She was always "Running's your thing. I hate running" but she loved the "buzz" at the parks during those events. Then a couple of years later she got FOMO. She ended up doing several 5Ks and 10Ks during our trips to both WDW and DL.
tl;dr:
Spite. That's what motivates me to run.