I don't really have anyone I can talk to about running stuff, so excuse the upcoming ramble/splurge of information!
I'm running the W&D in November, and just signed up for the Princess in Feb. I'd ultimately LOVE to do a Dopey, but I work with a college/university, and there are 2 weeks I absolutely can't take off work: the first week of school in August and in January. And the WDW Marathon weekend seems to always coincide with the first week of school. So, I think I'm going to do the Memphis TN St Jude Marathon in December as a sort of placeholder. It will be my first full marathon, if I can manage it.
I've done the
Disneyland Heroes Half (RIP) and the Star Wars half in Nov 2017 and April 2018. In April of 2017 I was at about 220 lbs and decided to use RunDisney as a goal to help me lose weight. I ended up getting down to 160. I stopped running after the Star Wars half, and saw the scale creep back up to 185. So, I started running again in March with the same tactic: W&D to motivate me to lose weight. I'm back down to 170, and hopeful that I'll hit 160 by August.
I started reading "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" by Haruki Murakami and was really enamored with the idea of running every day. I tried to start last week, but probably overloaded myself, as my calves and shins started to hurt in what I can only guess was a warning that shin splints would soon follow. I backed off and didn't run Wednesday through Sunday, and then picked it back up this week. I ran 4 miles this morning to cap off my 5 day streak, and I feel great. I ordered a Hypervolt massager, and was VERY skeptical (so much so that I was ready to return it in a week if I didn't see results), but I'm shocked to say that it has definitely helped. Still trying to figure out the best way to use it, but Wednesday I was feeling a fair amount of tension in my calves post-run, and I used the thing and was almost immediately 100% relieved.
Anyway, ultimate goal is to be running a 10k every weekday morning, with a long run on Saturdays leading up to my first marathon in December. No real time goal, but my current stats are fastest mile 7:30, fastest 5k 27:01, fastest 10k 59:50.
Back to Haruki Murakami... in the book, he mentions interviewing an Olympic marathoner and asking what he assumes has to be the dumbest question the Olympian had ever been asked: "Do you still struggle with the desire to get up in the mornings and go running." The Olympian scoffed and said something along the lines of "every day."