I'm still working on a picture posting solution, so brief recaps will have to do for now. The only order here is chronological.
1. 2011
Disneyland Half Marathon. My first race ever. I would sometimes get through the long runs by reminding myself that the medal photos with Mickey in Disneyland after the race would be worth what I currently hated at that moment.
2. 2015 Star Wars Half Marathon. Finally the Star Wars race I dreamed of. Upon seeing the 2011 Disneyland 5K medal themed to Star Tours on that very first race weekend, I felt as if I had signed up for the wrong race. But this race a little over 3 years later eliminated whatever what might have been feelings I had. The fact that they themed it to the Medal of Bravery from the original Star Wars movie made it that much better.
3. 2015 Star Wars Rebel Challenge. Spinner medal with Yoda and Darth Vader. Favorite Light Side and favorite Dark Side.
4. 2016 Star Wars 10K The Light Side. X-Wing on a medal.
5. 2016 Star Wars Rebel Challenge. Spinner with R2-D2 and the Rebel Alliance logo.
6. 2017 Star Wars 10K The Light Side. BB-8.
7. 2017 Star Wars Half Marathon The Light Side. Spinner with Medal of Bravery on one side and Han and Leia on the other. As a huge Star Wars fan, Leia being featured on the spinner medal became more meaningful after Carrie Fisher passed away.
8. 2017 Star Wars Dark Side Challenge. The Death Star. And in the 40th anniversary of the original Star Wars film.
9. 2017 Kessel Run. It's the Millennium Falcon. And I earned my first in the 40th anniversary year of Star Wars.
10. 2017 Coast to Coast 10th Anniversary. Both U.S. Disney castles on medal.
11. 2019 Walt Disney World Marathon. My first marathon. When I started running, I told myself that if I ever ran a marathon, it would only be at Walt Disney World. I eventually came to believe that I could run the marathon if I trained for it, but I did not want to actually train for it. It wasn't until
@DopeyBadger helpfully, patiently, and frequently explained to me how I could train for the marathon without running 5-6 hours every other Saturday before I could see a path to the marathon.
Honorable Mention:
1. 2012 Wine & Dine Half. Running one race at the end of a normal Walt Disney World visit taught me that a multi race weekend was indeed within my ability and thus became the stepping stone for attempting the Rebel Challenge and eventually Dopey.
2. 2017 Avengers Half Marathon. Not wanting to miss what might be the final race ever at Disneyland I decided to go crazy and registered for this race 3 weeks before the race having not trained in 6 weeks. 6 days a week training for 3 weeks taught me that I could run every day and not despise it. This also spurred me into running all 3 2018 Star Wars Dark Side races, and that was the springboard to Dopey.
3. 2019 Kite Run 5K. I ran this race with my nephew and it was my responsibility to pace him properly and make sure he did not try to sprint the entire distance. I paced him to first in his age group and I won 2nd place in the Star Wars costume contest, so I got some prize money which I put to good use in Galaxy's Edge a couple of days later.
surprised me at the Expo, telling me, that she could not let me run the 5K alone and is going to join me. Note: She HATES running, though she secretly trained months before the run. We had such a great Weekend, in 2017 they had this Opening Party in the Studios after the 5K run and we also had this Pasta Party, met some nice Runners from USA and Canada at our table.
