"Run Disney" Barefoot

Thought I'd send you all a few pictures on the eve of my Disney 5K.

But while you're looking at the photos, just a few words about why I "run Disney."  I have some catching up to do here at Disney.  My mom has run the Disney 1/2 and the Disney marathon.  My dad has run the Disney 1/2 and the Disney marathon. (They both did it in their 60s for the first time). "Little" sister number 1 has run both of them multiple times, and has done the "Goofy Challenge" (run the 1/2 on Saturday and the full on the next day).  "Little" sister number 2 has done it a couple of times.  And "little" sister number three has done both of them multiple times.  This weekend sister #1 and sister #3 are here and #1 is running the marathon and #3 is doing the Goofy challenge for her second year in a row (and I think has done it in the past.)

Well, I think you kind of get it.  I'm the only one in the family who doesn't have a Mickey, Goofy, or Donald medal.  It kind of seems like I have to run one of these races some day to complete the family picture, but I'm starting with the 5k

Around the turn of the millennium, my mom told us that for her 70th birthday she wanted our entire family to run the Disney marathon together. At the time, I thought it over but decided it was too much to ask. At the time I weighed about 275 pounds and knew that I would have to devote a LOT of time to the goal, and I just couldn't see myself doing it. At the time I was devoting a great amount of  time on my singing as I couldn't add the time to train for a marathon. I sadly told my mom that it was too much time and I would not be able to participate in her 70th birthday wish,

But I thought it over and decided it didn't have to be all or nothing.  Five years ago, I decided to come down here and show my kids what athletic aunts and grandparents they had.  I guess they knew my family ran a lot, but they never had seen it, so I decided that it would be really good for them to not only see their extended family run, but also to be around lots of people who did stuff like this.  I wanted them to be exposed to that world, that they might not ever realize existed.

We came down and walked.the 5K.  I planned to maybe run it the next year.  But I actually strained my hip joints during that walk. It took a long time to heal, and I decided to proceed more carefully next time I started moving again. I had planned to upload a photo of me crossing the finish line that year, but I forgot to upload it before I left for my trip, so I'll have to add it later.

My mom never got her 70th birthday wish. A couple months after I came down to walk that 5K, she was diagnosed with leukemia. She had to stop running and she had to go through chemotherapy and then she had a stem-cell transplant. Her 70th birthday passed. But soon after that everything looked like it was going to be just fine. The treatments were successful. She went into remission. She started training again. But one of the steroids she was on destroyed her knee. Now she can't run any more.

So, last year I decided to train for the Disney 1/2. As many of you know  it was during that training that I got plantar fasciitis and never finished my training (long run was up to about 6 miles by the time I had to call it quits).

When I started up this past spring again, I didn't know what would happen, but I signed up for both the 1/2 and the 5K. And you are up to date now, because you all know I started barefoot running, and because of how gradually I had to build barefoot -- well the 5K it is!  Maybe next year for the 1/2?

Everybody's down here except sister #2 (she ran it last year).  Mom and Dad work at Disney's Wide World of Sports, so they're always down here during the winter.  So, today we went over to Disney's Wide World of Sports and signed up and hung out at the expo:

Lots and lots of running shoes down there in that mob of people.  But I did not look at a one.  Oh, I did stop to look at this one:

Yes, that's Cinderella's famous slipper done up with running treads.  Maybe Cinderella needed that tread on the bottom of her shoe when she had to high tail it out of the Ball.  But do people forget that her other foot was barefoot?  As she ran away, why didn't she just kick off the other shoe and just run barefoot?

Ah, well, no time to worry about it now.  I have to get to sleep because we have to get up at 4:15 in the morning to get over to Epcot by about 6:30.  I'll see you all after the race.