• Controversial Topics
    Several months ago, I added a private sub-forum to allow members to discuss these topics without fear of infractions or banning. It's opt-in, opt-out. Corey Click Here

The Running Thread - 2016

I'm a serious lurker/researcher who was never a runner. In fact I failed 9th grade gym one 9 weeks for my inability to run a mile. During my chemotherapy for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2001, I dreamed of running. I had recurring, beautiful dreams where I was effortlessly running through the woods, parks, EPCOT, etc. I've kept this 'head running' to myself until January when we were in WDW during the Marathon. We got up and watched much of the race, and I was struck that these were regular people, not super athletes, going by me. Chatting with a wonderful woman in MK who had trained and run the Half with her mom, she said 'You could totally do it.' So I looked into the rD site, saw the Jeff Galloway plan, and thought 'Wow, I feel like maybe I can actually do this.' I was unaware that running meant a gradual learning to run; I thought everyone knew how to run and just did it! I started running in February, signed my husband and me up for the W&D Challenge, and have been working hard to prepare. I've lost 30 lbs and last weekend ran 10 miles at a 12 min pace! I'll never be a fast runner but already I feel such a reward from putting in the effort!

ATTQOTD: Dis Forums, FB, Strava. LOVE the camaraderie and knowledge on this board. It really helps to keep me motivated!

Welcome. And I will tell you that you can do the marathon and it will be one of the hardest, but most rewarding experiences of your life. Be prepared! Congratulations on losing 30 lbs, and your current pace. Most importantly, congratulations on realizing your potential and giving this running thing a go. I hope you stick around so we can all see how your journey turns out!


ATTQOTD: Mostly frequent just the Dis boards and have trouble keeping up with the threads sometimes, but I really do appreciate all of the sharing on this board!! I also listen to lots of podcasts during my long commute to work including Mickey Miles and More and the Let's Run Disney Podcast, and sometimes visit their Facebook pages. I also like when some advice from Jeff Galloway's blog pops up on my Facebook feed. Mom and I met him in January at the expo for marathon weekend, and he is such a lovely, motivational person.

Jeff is so awesome!

QOTD: I have a Facebook account, Twitter, and Instagram. I post on none of them. It's all for the purpose of following people who provide me inspiration. I have another thread in the W.I.S.H section that I post on but it has died down so this pretty much my only regular posting I do anywhere.
 
Like others I'm in Facebook Run Disney groups, I post sometimes if I can help on a question, and then random running pages I follow including Galloway & Runner's World, but I don't post on stuff. I follow a few running things on Instagram & twitter too. I'll read running discussion forums elsewhere but again I don't post, but get ideas or inspiration or how to help a problem I'm having. I love social media, but good golly it can get scary quick!
 
I went back to Disney as an adult in 2008. That's when I found the Disboards. I was googling and reading up on WDW, and found this site. I joined a couple of years ago but didn't post much, only read. I've been off and on UNTIL I started following @Ariel484 a couple of years ago... her trip reports got me hooked. The shopping, the cute dog, the running, the outfits, the DISNEY! @Dis5150 you know what I'm talking about, apparently. It took so much nerve to finally post. But after reading her trip reports, I was inspired to do more Disney races! I wanted her to keep journaling, so I finally posted "I'm reading your TR's and they are very entertaining". Lurkdom is weird, ain't it?

It seems a lot of people credit @Ariel484 for their start here. I have to admit, it was reading some of her trip reports that got me started participating as well. Too bad she's too cool for this thread. :)
 


ATTQOTD: Most of what I read is here on the disboards. Aside from my family my favorite things are running and Disney, so this just makes sense. I follow some running related pages on Facebook and twitter, though I am only on twitter rarely. I rarely post anywhere else. I have answered questions in Facebook groups when I thought I could be helpful. I read the runnersworld.com boards occasionally as well, but I did not find them particularly helpful, so I haven't been there in a while. I always get so much great help here I don't feel I need to go looking for another board for advice. When I think of my first real involvement with the boards, it was the PHM/GSC 2014 threads and @PrincessV was incredibly helpful and answered my never ending questions about running at Disney:)
 


Hi everybody! Lurker here just popping up to introduce myself. I've only been running since last January when I started training for my first race (Tink 10K). I found the DISboards and all the runDisney facebook race-specific groups which have really made this whole "running thing" possible for me. The support and advice have kept me going. I'm hooked and already signed up for Dumbo Double Dare (um, it was on sale ;-) and Avengers 10K (before I thought I might make it through a Half) and Princess Glass Slipper (just because :-). So anyway, thanks all for unknowingly helping me and all the other insecure newbie lurkers out there!
 
I don't usually write about my training, but I'm so disappointed in myself today. I'm on vacation and was able to put in most of my runs this week and was super excited to do my easy 5 mile run this morning along the beach. I had everything timed perfectly and got my gear prepared last night and even went to bed early, but alas, I didn't hear my alarm go off. Oh well. I'm surprised I was able to do my strength training, so that's good!

ATTQOTD: saltyrunning.com : written by women who run for women who run. It's pretty awesome and inspiring; most of these women are very very very fast. A few have gone to the Olympic marathon trials. One qualified by running around with her double stroller everywhere! A few are ultras. Reading a recount of her trip to Badwater and the Western States 100 was really amazing. Oops, that's a website (blog site)! I'm not really on social media (thinking about deactivating my Facebook since I don't use it). So otherwise I only use strava to continue to connect to this forum!
 
Last edited:
Hi everyone! I'm trying this running thing AGAIN... I started Couch 2 5k back in March and got a good bit in, and had signed up for my first 5K here in Atlanta, but then a whole lot of unforeseeable financial issues popped up, I bought a house, my ankle was bothering me, etc etc etc. Basically, my excuses snowballed into something that I couldn't figure out how to battle. :sad2: So a few weeks ago, my wife told me I had to go back to the gym or she was going to stop paying for it, and I really like my gym, so I've been going several times a week. Two days ago I decided I really really wanted to do a rundisney race, and have been trying to figure out how to pay for it. I had my heart set on princess weekend, but the timing just isn't good for us. So this morning I got the thumbs up that we can do the Dark Side weekend in April! And that's pretty much all the motivation I need. Immediately upon deciding that, I hit the gym for the first official C25K workout... and it totally killed me. I had to give up halfway through. That's how incredibly out of shape I am! I know that April is a while away, so I definitely want to make sure I get a few 5Ks in before then, but right now I just wanted to find a place where I could get some kind of support! My friends and family are excellent, but they have NO idea why I would subject myself to running :rolleyes2 So here I am! I'm really excited to find this little community here on the Disboards. And if you're in Atlanta and know of a good 5K for a beginner sometime in October or November, I'm all ears!
 
QOTD: To build off of yesterdays QOTD, what other forms of social media (Forums, Facebook, twitter, ect) do you use to read and discuss running related topics?

Happy Friday to all and good luck to those who are racing this weekend!

I am in several Facebook groups, and I follow a lot of runners on Twitter and Instagram. No other forums though.

This forum, strava, and Garmin Connect are the only places I post. I do read a few other places including letsrun.com.



This x1000. If this board is seen as welcoming and all inclusive (which it is), then that board is the polar opposite. They can be SO vicious on there. I've gotten the feeling that unless you run in the 2:45 or less range for a marathon, then you're just wasting their time. I much prefer this board. However, their inactive thread (here) is one of the GREATEST running resources I have EVER found. So many extremely intelligent coaches and runners posted way back when in lets run's heyday. You have a question it's probably been answered there.

Interesting! I've never been to that site. I will keep that in mind. There is a small, but vocal percentage of the running community that can be pretty nasty.

I'm a serious lurker/researcher who was never a runner. In fact I failed 9th grade gym one 9 weeks for my inability to run a mile. During my chemotherapy for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2001, I dreamed of running. I had recurring, beautiful dreams where I was effortlessly running through the woods, parks, EPCOT, etc. I've kept this 'head running' to myself until January when we were in WDW during the Marathon. We got up and watched much of the race, and I was struck that these were regular people, not super athletes, going by me. Chatting with a wonderful woman in MK who had trained and run the Half with her mom, she said 'You could totally do it.' So I looked into the rD site, saw the Jeff Galloway plan, and thought 'Wow, I feel like maybe I can actually do this.' I was unaware that running meant a gradual learning to run; I thought everyone knew how to run and just did it! I started running in February, signed my husband and me up for the W&D Challenge, and have been working hard to prepare. I've lost 30 lbs and last weekend ran 10 miles at a 12 min pace! I'll never be a fast runner but already I feel such a reward from putting in the effort!

ATTQOTD: Dis Forums, FB, Strava. LOVE the camaraderie and knowledge on this board. It really helps to keep me motivated!

What a beautiful story! Thank you for sharing. I never failed gym, but I always tried to get out of running. It's pretty funny

ATTQOTD: Facebook. And Facebook. Also, Facebook. :rotfl:I have a Twitter account, but I haven't even opened it in ages. I do pop in to the Runner's World forums occasionally to lurk, and ditto for Let's Run's forums. But mostly Facebook. :surfweb:

I've never been to those forums. How are they?
 
Last minute race. I am going to be running the Turtle Run 5k for the Michigan Nature Society tomorrow with my daughter for our summer race. We run four races a year, one for each season. It is pretty awesome to be able to share my love of running with her. She wants to try a longer race, but I am going to wait until she is at least 10 to consider a 10k. Should probably do some research on appropriate ages for longer distances. She does want to run the Mickey Marathon one day.

Tomorrow's race is awesome in that she loves turtles, and we have been looking for a summer season 5k, so we decided last night and signed up. It is so fun to see her get all excited for races, getting her race bag set and ready to go for the morning. Should be a great day! Good luck to all the runners with races this weekend!

QOTD: To build off of yesterdays QOTD, what other forms of social media (Forums, Facebook, twitter, ect) do you use to read and discuss running related topics?

I am not big on social media, at all. I do have a Facebook page that I rarely post to, otherwise it is just the forums here on DISBoards.
 
Hi everybody! Lurker here just popping up to introduce myself. I've only been running since last January when I started training for my first race (Tink 10K). I found the DISboards and all the runDisney facebook race-specific groups which have really made this whole "running thing" possible for me. The support and advice have kept me going. I'm hooked and already signed up for Dumbo Double Dare (um, it was on sale ;-) and Avengers 10K (before I thought I might make it through a Half) and Princess Glass Slipper (just because :-). So anyway, thanks all for unknowingly helping me and all the other insecure newbie lurkers out there!

Welcome. I am glad so many people have decided to come out of hiding. But I have a question for you or any other lurker. I get being insecure about running. Why insecure about posting on this thread though? We can't see you and we are here to help? I am just curious. I am not trying to make anyone feel stupid for feeling insecure, I am just wondering. Hopefully I don't offend anyone with that question?


Hi everyone! I'm trying this running thing AGAIN... I started Couch 2 5k back in March and got a good bit in, and had signed up for my first 5K here in Atlanta, but then a whole lot of unforeseeable financial issues popped up, I bought a house, my ankle was bothering me, etc etc etc. Basically, my excuses snowballed into something that I couldn't figure out how to battle. :sad2: So a few weeks ago, my wife told me I had to go back to the gym or she was going to stop paying for it, and I really like my gym, so I've been going several times a week. Two days ago I decided I really really wanted to do a rundisney race, and have been trying to figure out how to pay for it. I had my heart set on princess weekend, but the timing just isn't good for us. So this morning I got the thumbs up that we can do the Dark Side weekend in April! And that's pretty much all the motivation I need. Immediately upon deciding that, I hit the gym for the first official C25K workout... and it totally killed me. I had to give up halfway through. That's how incredibly out of shape I am! I know that April is a while away, so I definitely want to make sure I get a few 5Ks in before then, but right now I just wanted to find a place where I could get some kind of support! My friends and family are excellent, but they have NO idea why I would subject myself to running :rolleyes2 So here I am! I'm really excited to find this little community here on the Disboards. And if you're in Atlanta and know of a good 5K for a beginner sometime in October or November, I'm all ears!

Ummm, because it's awesome. That's why! In all seriousness, your story is similar to many here. Many of us were in terrible shape. We got sick of it. We used our love for Disney as motivation to make change. Many of us did and then we turned it into so much more and it is now a lifestyle. So, it doesn't matter what you did last year or 10 years ago. It matters that you decided to make a change and you are here now. It will be a lot of work and there will be times you question why you are doing it. Don't quit. You will be happy you didn't when you cross that finish line and feel that sense of pride and accomplishment. Before you know it you will be signing up for races all over the place and you will become addicted just like us all. I asked a million questions when I first started running, on the 2014 Tower of Terror thread. If @PrincessV, and the others who answered my questions, ever got frustrated they never made me feel that way. So, ask away and accept the support when it comes, because there is a lot of it here.
 
Welcome. I am glad so many people have decided to come out of hiding. But I have a question for you or any other lurker. I get being insecure about running. Why insecure about posting on this thread though? We can't see you and we are here to help? I am just curious. I am not trying to make anyone feel stupid for feeling insecure, I am just wondering. Hopefully I don't offend anyone with that question?

I'm not a lurker and I've been running in a while, but I know at the beginning, there is a tendency to think you're not a "real runner." Especially if you are slower or you run/walk, you can feel like you don't belong in a running group. There are a select few runners who make people feel that way, but it has been my experience that they are very few and far between.
 
Welcome. I am glad so many people have decided to come out of hiding. But I have a question for you or any other lurker. I get being insecure about running. Why insecure about posting on this thread though? We can't see you and we are here to help? I am just curious. I am not trying to make anyone feel stupid for feeling insecure, I am just wondering. Hopefully I don't offend anyone with that question?

Good question. For me it's mainly that as someone very new to running, I've learned so much from reading the posts but haven't had anything very insightful to add. I've been more active on the Facebook pages where I could throw my 2 cents in for what it's worth, but this forum seemed a little more intimidating - probably due partly to my tech-illiteracy. Right now I'm not even sure if I'm quoting you and replying correctly :-) But everyone has always seemed very kind (one of the things I've found to be true about runDisney folks all over and even the running community in general) so I figured I'd chime in at the Calling-Of-The-Lurkers[/QUOTE]

See I did that wrong... going back to fix quote... ☺️
 
Last edited:
It seems a lot of people credit @Ariel484 for their start here. I have to admit, it was reading some of her trip reports that got me started participating as well. Too bad she's too cool for this thread. :)


She seriously has a gift for TRs. They are visually organized and fun.

Good question. For me it's mainly that as someone very new to running, I've learned so much from reading the posts but haven't had anything very insightful to add. I've been more active on the Facebook pages where I could throw my 2 cents in for what it's worth, but this forum seemed a little more intimidating - probably due partly to my tech-illiteracy. Right now I'm not even sure if I'm quoting you and replying correctly :-) But everyone has always seemed very kind (one of the things I've found to be true about runDisney folks all over and even the running community in general) so I figured I'd chime in at the Calling-Of-The-Lurkers

See I did that wrong... going back to fix quote... ☺️[/QUOTE]

Well, welcome to this thread!

The fear of posting for me is akin to walking up to a group at a reception or party and stepping into a spot to join the conversation. Not one of my skills in person either, LOL. Or here's the big one: What if they don't like me? It takes a little nerve to overcome shyness for me even on the web. It's silly, I know. But I've seen people be very mean on forums, and when you post, you put yourself out there as a target.

It took WAY more tech skill before they updated the site to quote and reply and insert pics, too. Once the site was updated, I could participate more. I'm still learning. And look, I misquoted your quote. Oops.
 
QOTD: To build off of yesterdays QOTD, what other forms of social media (Forums, Facebook, twitter, ect) do you use to read and discuss running related topics?
I only really post on this thread but now and then I'll venture out and check some other runD threads sometimes DVC. I am pretty active on Strava as well, and our Triathlon Club have a Facebook page we use...I'll post running/tri stuff there as well.
DIS is the most fun though!
 
I don't usually write about my training, but I'm so disappointed in myself today. I'm on vacation and was able to put in most of my runs this week and was super excited to do my easy 5 mile run this morning along the beach. I had everything timed perfectly and got my gear prepared last night and even went to bed early, but alas, I didn't hear my alarm go off. Oh well. I'm surprised I was able to do my strength training, so that's good!

You're on vacation so you get a pass. Don't let it happen again though. :)

Yesterday's question - pretty much just here and I do the Strava thing. I have started participating in runchat on Twitter. Every Sunday they ask 6 questions and it's a fun way to interact with total strangers. And believe me that's way out of my comfort zone. :)
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Latest posts







facebook twitter
Top