An Ambitious Pursuit

Okay I have an announcement to make.....(drum roll please)

        I have decided to run a half marathon!!!

I'll give you guys a few minutes to close your mouths and stop laughing. Please let me know when your finished.

Great thanks, now as I was saying I have decided to run a half marathon, in February in Florida.  It is an ambitious pursuit for me to say the least, but a challenge that I think will be very beneficial to me.  I have some weight to lose, according to my lovely OB I need to shed about 35 lbs, not a small number.  While pregnant with this little cutie .... 

I gained 45lbs, but I breast fed and didn't get to eat much and lost it all pretty quickly.  In the three years after she was born I gained a bit back, but nothing horrible, still when I got pregnant with this little cutie...

I was already behind the curve by a few pounds.  Still I did good during my pregnancy and only put on 30lbs, and lost 20 of that pretty quickly.  So when I went back to work I decided to use most lunch breaks to workout and cut my caloric intake by a ton.  I will not ever horrify you with the amount of calories in a Double Cheeseburger, McDonald and Wendy's would go out of business, but lets just say its BAD.  Now since I have been back to work I am pleased to say that I have lost 5 more pounds which makes me insanely happy, and makes some of my pre-pregnancy clothes fit again.  Yay!! The exercise is kicking my butt, but I feel great.

 So where did this crazy half marathon idea come from?

Well we are planning Boogie's first trip to Disney World for her birthday, and I happen to be looking at all the goings on that they have through out the year, and low and behold Disney does Marathons.  SERIOUSLY!  Now I am not a runner at all, so I am not even going to consider trying to run for 26 miles, I am not, but....

Disney also sponsors a half marathon, and not just any half marathon a Disney Princess half marathon.  Now we're cooking with Crisco, I mean extra virgin olive oil.  The Disney Princess Half Marathon is at the end of February 2011 and is sponsored by Ladies Footlocker, it is a woman's only half marathon. Yay!

I was still skeptical that I could pull off something like this, did I mention that I am not a runner, a fast walker yes, a 5K walk/runner yes, a run for the sake of running runner, NO!!  Still I have 30lbs to lose and running is great exercise, and this is at Disney World, so I watched the video from last years race, and people I am soooooooo doing this race.  This isn't a race (well obviously it is) this is a party, a celebration of being a woman, of being your best, of strength and courage and accomplishment, this is a testament to the amazingness of women.  Don't believe me watch the video....

http://espnwwos.disney.go.com/events/endurance/princess-half-marathon/

There are princesses and Minnie and Mickey, the Fairy Godmother and trumpeters.  There is even a Princess Ball at the end of the weekend. This is a weekend for women and a weekend for families and a weekend for kids, its an awesome event, so I AM DOING IT! 

I found a friend that was also inspired, she is also a novice runner, and we start training together on June 1st.  We are going to do it and we are going to wear our tiara's and our pearls and our tutus and make our families proud.  This is Jen and I, we will affectionately be called Belle and Cinderella from here on out.....

We went to college together, her wonderful mom watches my girls for me, our girls are friends and we obviously both have a love of Rhee over at The Pioneer Woman. :D  She is joining me in our half marathon challenge, we are going to be training buddies so that we make this work.  We are going to do this for hard working non-running mommies everywhere!

Today I am a mild mannered non-running mommy of two, but by the end of the summer I hope to be well on my way to becoming a finely honed princess running machine.  Stick around and see what transpires as we train for the race.  I'll keep you updated about out triumphs, sore muscles, bumps and bruises. 

 I also welcome any advice about training from runners, or cheers of encouragement.  If you would like to join us check out the link posted above and let me know that you're a training princess too, and we can be virtual running partners and meet up to run together at Disney.

Wish us luck!!!