I. AM. MARATHONER!

 I have been trying to write this for a month now, but am still waiting on Marathonfoto to finish marking all my photos so I can buy them!  Luckily I ran with a great group of friends who have been sharing their photos, so I can start the blog going again with this brief update.

On January 13, 2013 I checked a super-awesome item off my bucket list - run my first marathon at the 20th Anniversary Walt Disney World Marathon!!  This running thing has been an amazing journey and if you'd asked me even just a year ago if I would run a marathon, I would have said no.  But nothing motivates me more than Disney and my 9 newest BRFs (Best Running Friends).

Over the Christmas break, while I was dealing with sickness and the disappointment of not being able to get in one last loooong run before the event, I spent a lot of time on Twitter.  There is a Facebook group for fans of all things runDisney - the #TeamRunDisney group - and I had connected with some of these folks over on twitter as well.  We began talking about our excitement for the weekend and earning that gorgeous medal - but some of us were a little apprehensive of the 26.2 miles we were about to conquer.  Some of us had NEVER attempted this distance before.  Some were coming off injury.  And some were crazy enough to conquer Goofy that weekend - running the half on Saturday and the full on Sunday.  We began talking about creating a group to run together with in Corral G.  Being twitter, we added a hashtag for our group, #CorralG, and even a group name - the Gladiators.  It started out as a small group, just sort of goofing around - and then became a movement!  We even got @runDisneytv in on the action when we started talking about doing a #CongaLineFinishLine!  And we made the final cut of the weekend recap (check it out here)!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. While this is just a quick post to share my excitement, I plan on putting together a great recap of the event and the awesomeness of #CorralG.  But for now, I just want to say how much I love my BRFs - Captain Linz, Coach Marcia, Joe, Jill, Jen, Jeannie, Cindy, Adam and Kara - and how grateful I was to share the weekend with my original BRF, Jason, who conquered his first half that Saturday and went on a week later to beat me to the 2013 Coast to Coast after completing the Tinkerbell Half in Disneyland.  If you love running, and you love Disney, I highly recommend runDisney and all the awesomeness it has to offer!

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Why is it so hard to post pictures on here?  I am trying to use my dusty old blog to figure out how to help my mom with her super awesome blog about their retirement travels.  Mainly because I want to be able to see the pictures they are taking on the boat.  So, why is this so hard?

Welcome Discovery

This is quite possibly my favorite shot of the whole day.  When I realized that I was going to be able to get this shot, I set myself up to try to get the best possible vantage point.  I tried focusing in on the sign, but then the shuttle carrier just looks like a white blur in the sky and not the awesomeness that it really is.  I wish they had been closer so it would have been even more apparent.  

After the fly-in, I visited the sites around DC and hung out with my big, Mere.  On Thursday I headed out to the Udvay-Hazy center for the official transfer ceremony of Discovery.  It was super cool to see the shuttle up close.