Meet the newest Princesses in Training

My name is Janie and I am a huge Disney geek! I am a mommy to three awesome kids and I have been married to my Prince Charming for 12 years. I have been overweight most of my life, except for a few years during college when I lost about 60 pounds without even trying.  Well, 12 years and 3 babies later, I had gained most of that weight back.  It never seemed to really bother me, because I knew I was still smaller than my original weight.

July 2011

Back in January of this year, I was looking through my Facebook newsfeed and saw something about a Tinkerbell Half Marathon in Disneyland and I thought to myself, I would love to do something like that.  I have never been real athletic. I played volleyball in Jr. High and High School, but I hated all the running in practice.  Not sure what it was that made me think I could run 13.1 miles, I think it was just an excuse to plan a Disney trip.  I did some research on Run Disney and found out they hosted a Princess Half Marathon at Walt Disney World.  I started looking into training plans for running, like the Couch to 5k plan and the Galloway plan, and decided I really wanted to do this.  I asked my husband, "if I can train for a half marathon, can I go to Disney and run?"  He looked at me confused, and said "sure".  He was certain it was one of my crazy ideas that would pass as quickly as it came.
Around the same time I found the PHM, I came to terms with the fact that I was addicted to Mt Dew.  On January 25, 2012, I decided to cut back on the amount of Mt. Dew I was drinking and started tracking my calories with My Fitness Pal.  I laced up my dusty Nike, and hit the treadmill at my parent's house.  After about 5 minutes on the treadmill, I decided I was crazy and there was no way I could run for 30 seconds let alone 13.1 miles.

August 2012

Well, 8 months later I have completed five 5k races, given up pop (soda) altogether, and have lost 41 pounds!  I feel great and I am addicted to running.  Unfortunately, I have an IT Band injury right now and am getting super antsy to hit the pavement again!!

On Easter, I told my brother and sister-in-law my plan to run a half marathon at Walt Disney World.  I am so excited I won't be running alone,  my mom and my sister-in-law, Sindi, will be running with me.  Stay tuned to our blog for Sindi's introduction.