Coming to you live from the west coast today, so it’s still Wednesday despite the WordPress date & time!  I had to get out of the vortex, so I’m on a business trip out in San Jose, meanwhile the Boston area is getting tons of snow.  Well, I have not been living up to my resolution to blog weekly, but making good progress on my other goals!  It’s been a cold January. I am told that statistically January is not in the top 10 coldest on record.  All I know:  it’s pretty cold for winter running.  I’ve been running on my treadmill much of January and had a great “first time out” on Feb. 1st when we had a warm(er) day!  I also ran the Disney Marathon on Jan. 12th, and had as much fun as you can probably have while still running 26.2 miles.  I ran it with my husband and the good news is we are still speaking to each other!  We don’t often run together; he loves running with a group or running buddy; I’m more of a solitary runner. Some highlights from the race weekend (in no particular order):

• Relaxing at the Cigna tent (race sponsors) before and after the race.  Nice folks, ice and medical help if you needed it.
• Best t-shirt spotted on the run: “Stay back 100 meters”
• Most inspiring:  Man running with a t-shirt that said he had survived cancer and double hip replacement and he was getting it done, amazing!
• Funny moment.  Several folks were sporting Disney shirts that read “every mile is magical”.  As we passed the waste water treatment plant out on the ‘back lots’ of Disney–a few guys and I decided that particular mile was too smelly to be magical.
• Best moment:  At about mile 13, we were running through the Animal Kingdom.  They were just getting ready to open the park and the Disney cast members let runner’s ride Expedition Everest (roller coaster)!  So we took a ride mid-race which was a nice diversion; then back on the road!
• Best food:  Burgers and caprese salad post-race at the Hilton Bonnet Creek.  We ended up walking across the entire parking lot at Epcot to catch a cab back to the Hilton.  We were so glad to sit down and have food brought to us!  Honorable mention: Beer at the finish line received excellent review from the husband.

This was my second Disney marathon and I do like this race.  The support is phenomenal and tons of Disney cast members, families and people cheering at every turn.  Even out on the highway (between parks) there are people out there cheering;  I had to think how did these people get out here?  My only real complaint would be the 5:30am start time and catching the bus at 3am!  That is just way too early for me!
As for my other goals, my January race was the Disney Marathon.  Coming up this month is the Half a the Hamptons in Hampton, New Hampshire.   I’ve signed up for races through May.  I’ll post a race schedule soon, but I’m planning to do one race a month in 2014.  My fundraising for Dana-Farber is also going well in January as well.   I’m nearing $8,000 raised of my goal of $10,000.   I’m planning two fundraisers in March but also would love your donation to my cause.  You can make a donation on my DFMC page: http://www.rundfmc.org/2014/jenniferh  Thank you for reading! – Jenn

At Expedition Everest (mile 13) Disney marathon 2014

First Winter Run of 2014!