Welcome to Team WDW Parkhoppers – Read First

Let’s start with who we are.

1. First and foremost we are friends.  We may not have met yet, but we are all friends who love Disney, love spending time with each other and have discovered the joys of running at Disney.
2. We encourage one another in training, starting, and celebrating our accomplishments.
3. We invite anyone to join us, no matter your athletic ability.

Let’s clarify who we are not.

1. We are not professional athletes.
2. We are not trainers.
3. We are not running to win races.

A little history on how we got started.

Parkhopper John and I volunteered at Disney World Marathon Weekend in 2010.  We worked a water stop at mile 25 filling cups, making Gatorade and that year, breaking ice in the cups.  We watched as thin, fast, runners flew past.  How intimidating!  But as the time and racers went by, we started to see people that looked more like us.  Here was the big difference.  They had seen a challenge, trained as much as they could, and joyfully crossed a starting line with one goal in mind.  Along the way they pushed themselves and had a great time.

Needless to say we were inspired.  By the end of the day, we had decided to run the next 5K that Disney was holding.  It was about 2 months away so we trained.  We followed the Jeff Galloway training plan to run/walk and signed up for the Disney Royal Family 5K.  We arrived almost 2 hours before the race to photo ops with characters, a DJ leading cheers and dances and 7 thousand of our closest friends.  The atmosphere was electrifying.  The countdown started and at “0” the sky filled with fireworks.  FIREWORKS!! – gotta love Disney!  We all headed down the route behind Epcot and eventually emerged in the World Showcase by Mexico.  The look of the morning mist over The World Showcase Lagoon was amazing.

We finished and were handed the most beautiful tacky plastic medals we had ever seen.  We followed the crowd as we were handed water, Gatorade and snacks.  We weaved out to the parking lot as the morning started to sink in.  We had finished our first 5K.  If you knew us, that was huge!  Not ready to leave it all behind yet, we blasted the radio and danced in the parking lot with about a dozen of our new friends.

And that is it.  Now the question is, will you join us?

Use this from to join Team WDW Parkhoppers!

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