Disneyland Half Marathon

In May, my sister Rachael ran the Ogden Marathon. I went and watched her cross the finish line and I was amazed at the hard work and determination it must take to train for such a huge undertaking. I told her that she had inspired me to get back into shape and that I wanted to start running. I wasn't quite ready to commit to a marathon since I could barely run a mile. We started looking around for events in the fall and came across the Disneyland Half Marathon -- Perfect! My sister Karli and Rachael's husband Tyler also thought it sounded fun, so we all signed up. Pretty soon, almost the entire Gelter family had made plans for a week long marathon/Disneyland vacation (upcoming post)!

The first couple of weeks of training I must admit I didn't think I would ever make it, I could barely run a mile! But I knew that if I didn't work hard I would embarrass myself when the four of us got together on Saturdays to do our long runs, so I kept at it. It was awesome to see Karli, Tyler, and me go from barely being able to run a 6-miler one week to doing the full half marathon a couple months later.

Well, I'm sure you're getting bored, so I'll cut to the point. The race was this last week and it was awesome! The lower elevation totally helped. We ran through Disneyland and California Adventure, and then through Angel's Stadium! SO COOL! My goal was 2 hours and I was able to finish in 1:48! To my wife's dismay, running a half marathon only made me want to keep going! I'll be signing up for the Ogden Marathon next month! I'm excited but scared at the same time!

{Super blurry, but this is the only pic of me during the race. Yep, I'm on the field at Angel's Stadium!}

{Me, Tyler, Rachael, and Karli after the race. Good job everyone! (And yes, I look like a dork with that towel around my neck, I forgot it was there!)}

Thanks Rach, Tyler, and Karli for being my training buddies! It's been super fun!