Random Ramblings of a Running Princess: January 2015

After a longer than expected hiatus, I’m back! First off, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I realize my last post was about my upcoming Run Disney Tower of Terror 10-Miler race and I know I am LONG OVERDUE in writing a race recap! It was my intention to have that done before Halloween, but life got hectic and before I knew it the holiday season was in full swing. The holidays came and went in a whoosh and now here we are at the start of the new year! It’s absolutely crazy! How is it already 2015!? Is it just me or did 2014 zoom right by?

Team Villains!
Gaston, Queen of Hearts, Maleficent & Darth Vader!!!

I know I will still be writing/typing 2014 on stuff until June lol. I am happy to report that the husband and I did indeed make it through the Twilight Zone and finished the Tower of Terror 10-Miler strong! Along with perfect race conditions, it was clear that our training paid off as we both felt fantastic during the race. We felt strong and I think we could have gone even faster, but hey it’s Run Disney and we did have to stop for just a couple quick pictures along the course. I mean you don’t always see the Old Hag from Snow White or the Haunted Mansion grave diggers out and about in the Disney Parks! Other than those two photos, we were feeling so good that we didn’t really stop during the race like I’ve done for past Run Disney events. I just wanted to keep going and was really enjoying the course and race experience itself. I promise a full recap is coming soon, but I will close with saying that the Tower of Terror 10-Miler was by far my favorite Run Disney event so far!

October also was time for vacation! The Tower of Terror 10-Miler marked the start of our fall Disney World vacation. We had a great time enjoying Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. Our race companions, Cailyn and Josh, also spent the week in Disney with us. One of my favorite aspects of Disney is the food, and along with eating our way around the world with the Food and Wine Festival we also had some great sit-down dinners. We went to Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge for the first time and it was delicious. The Animal Kingdom Lodge was amazing too. Someday I will stay there! We also enjoyed a wonderful meal at the Contemporary’s California Grill. Following our dinner, we were treated to an amazing view of Wishes from the Contemporary’s observation deck. It was a great new way to watch Wishes, especially without having to deal with large crowds like you get when seeing the show at Magic Kingdom.

We had an Incredible time at Disney!

Other highlights: meeting Anna and Elsa from Frozen, The Frozen Sing-Along, and the Festival of Fantasy Parade. I didn’t think anything could top the Boo to You Parade, but I was so wrong. The Festival of Fantasy Parade was spectacular. We were lucky to have prime seating for it thanks to our fastpasses! It was an overall wonderful trip and I’m already looking forward to seeing Mickey and the gang real soon next month when I return to the House of Mouse for my annual girls trip!

After Halloween, it seemed like Thanksgiving came immediately and before we knew it, Christmas was here! Christmas is my favorite time of the year, and really I consider the months of November and December as the entire holiday season. We are always super busy during the holidays, but that’s fine because I love it all. On the running front, we started our Thanksgiving Day right with the Turkey Trot, our first race since the Tower of Terror-10 Miler!

Ready to Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving 2014!

Also in December I went to my first ever hockey game and it was a blast! I can’t wait to go to another! As for Christmas, we had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends. We got some great presents and ate yummy food. Like usual, I was sad to see it all end, but hey it’s now less than a year until next Christmas, right?!

First hockey game! Let's Go Pens!!!

We brought in the New Year in quiet fashion with an evening at home with our furbaby, Winston. Quite the party animals we are right?! Seriously after the hustle and bustle of Christmas, it was nice to spend New Year’s Eve on the couch with the Blacklist on Netflix and some frozen pizzas! No Blacklist spoilers please!

I am not one for New Year’s resolutions really, as I am more of a GOAL oriented person and prefer to set goals and challenges for myself as I see fit. One goal for 2015 is to try and be more regular with this blog and at least post once a month. I’d like to post more than that, but we will see how things go first.

Best wishes to you all for a great new year!!!

In closing, below are some highlights from my October Disney Vacation! If you are in a cold winter climate like me, I hope these pictures can bring you some Florida sunshine!