So about 10 pages back, cyndiloveswalt posted the question about why we run and I love, love reading about everyone's running journeys/reasons.
I'll share mine: I started out hating to run! My DH and DS20 have run for many years. Six years ago my family started a team for a charity for the WDW Marathon Weekend (Run For Our Sons/Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy) for my nephew who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. We've done it every year since and have done others as well (DL, Avenger's). It's really hard to be around all the fun energy and not want to be a part of it, so a friend and I decided to start with 5ks, then 10ks, and 1/2 marathons. Disney races are pretty addicting as you all may well know.

We've done a lot of the races and my goal is to do all of them eventually.

Now my whole family runs, this January, DS20 is running Dopey, DD18 is running the 1/2 and DD13 is running the 10k. About a year ago I had to put everything on hold while I recovered from major emergency surgery. I was so sick and not even able to walk around the block. Since then, I've done a few 5 and 10ks, but this is my "come back" 1/2. (Ugh, I've trained so hard, almost too hard, DS thinks I have runner's knee, so I don't care if I have to drag myself across the finish line...) As my kids say, I'm slow af (their words, lol) but I totally can go the distance. (And so excited to start in Corral I, I'll take it!)
Like I said, my nephew has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, my mom passed away from Parkinson's Disease, my way too young brother has Atypical Parkinsonism, and I am a part time caretaker for a friend who has ALS. It's almost surreal for me that so many I love are robbed of their ability to even walk. Their amazing courage has inspired me to run...because I can... I know it's kinda cheesy but true and pretty inspirational in my life. Also for me, it's a great part of my life for staying healthy, both physically and mentally. Eventually, I aspire to be one of the little older ladies that whiz by everyone on the race course and make everyone smile and say "what the heck~ if she can do it, I can too!"
Also~ @Ariel484~ the "Richard Simmons" you have in your Osborne Lights pic earlier in the thread is a Run For Our Sons runner and he is a hoot! He runs so many of the races and cheers EVERYONE on! So much fun!