Run, Karla, Run!

2012 Disney Princess Start

Cinderella and Prince Charming are ready to run

The castle before dawn

Cinderella's Fairy Godmother

Runners leap at Cinderella Castle

Pausing for a castle pic

The real Cinderella and Prince Charming

Princess Minnie strikes a pose

Running through the castle

The cast of Sleeping Beauty

Inspiration from a gospel choir

Running Leap

To Epcot

Through Epcot

Charging past Spaceship Earth

Princess Minnie and Mickey

Rachel Booth wins

Daisy Duck waves runners in

Minnie high-fives runners

The finish is in sight

Last stop before the finish

Mickey waves me in

Victory

Earning a medal

Disney's Princess Half Marathon Medals

Runners show off their medals

Coast to Coast Race Challenge medals

We model our bling

My hero

And they lived happily ever after

Tangled Royal Family 5K Start

Rapunzel and Flynn

Disney girls

Runners pose with Belle and the Beast

We say hi to Pocahontas

Runners charge through Epcot

With Jasmine and Aladdin in Morocco

Tangled Royal Family 5K finish

Dressed to impress

Disney 5K's are stroller friendly

Tangled Royal Family 5K medals

Royal Family Kids' Races Medals

Royal Family Kids' Races Start

Kids love to run

My nephew admires his sister's medal

Royal Family Kids' Races Runners

Crossing the finish line

My nephew runs his heart out

And he won!

The pride of accomplishment

Disney’s Princess Half Marathon Weekend was a fairy tale tour of Walt Disney World in Florida. Runners tackled the Tangled Royal Family 5K, Disney’s Royal Family Kids’ Races and Disney’s Princess Half Marathon. Races took runners through Epcot and Magic Kingdom, where Disney characters cheered them on to victory.

I ran the half-marathon with my fiance dressed as Cinderella and Prince Charming. My sister and I ran the 5K, and my niece and nephew ran the kids’ races. Photos courtesy of runDisney.

Karla (left) and her sister with Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse at Disney’s Royal Family 5K. (Photo: Karla Bruning)

We came. We ran. We conquered. The Bruning family stormed Disney’s Princess Half Marathon Weekend from Feb. 24-26 at Walt Disney World with the aim of turning our annual family Disney vacation into a fitness fiesta.

My sister, brother-in-law, nephew, niece, fiancé and I participated in every event runDisney had to offer, from the Pasta in the Park party to the Tangled Royal Family 5K, the Royal Family Kids’ Races and Disney’s Princess Half Marathon. We did it all and then some—enjoying lunch at Cinderella’s Castle with a bevy of princesses and taking in a luau at the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show. But the highlight had to be watching the Royal Family Kids’ Races. Seeing a whole new generation of runners embrace the sport was a heartening sight. Read the rest of this entry →

Letting kids race teaches them that fitness is fun. (Photo: runDisney)

When Disney puts on a race, they don’t just plan one running event. As the world’s largest media empire—Disney sits at No. 1 on the Fortune 500 list of entertainment companies—they orchestrate an entire weekend of festivities that everyone in the family can enjoy, from first-time runners to marathon masters, kids to adults, and even spectators. That’s one of the best parts of Disney race weekends: there is something for everyone.

At Disney’s Princess Half Marathon Weekend from Feb. 24-26, my family is putting the Disney races to the test. At least one family member will be participating in every race distance offered during the weekend, including the Princess Half Marathon, Tangled Royal Family 5K and Disney Royal Family Kids’ Races. We’ll also hit the Pasta in the Park Party at Epcot and Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo. This is my third Disney race weekend, but the first with my nephew and niece. It makes me happy to pass along my love of running to another generation. But more than that, I think it’s important to include kids in fitness events from an early age. Read the rest of this entry →

As runDisney’s training consutlant, Jeff Galloway designed a series of training programs for runners tackling Disney races. (Photo: runDisney)

Jeff Galloway knows running. He’s been an Olympian, a U.S. record holder, a coach and a running innovator. Galloway developed the RUN-WALK-RUN method to help runners train injury-free. He has coached more than 250,000 runners, and his books on running have sold over 1 million copies. As runDisney’s official training consultant, Galloway designed a series of training programs, videos and tips for runners tackling Disney races like the upcoming Disney Princess Half Marathon on Feb. 26. Galloway has a long history with Disney—he’s run the Walt Disney World Marathon every year since its inception in 1994.

“Run, Karla, Run!” caught up with Galloway at the Tinker Bell Half Marathon social media meet-up on Jan. 28, where he led a group of 45 runners on a two-mile morning jaunt though Disneyland and California Adventure parks. Participants were chosen through Disney’s social media channels like the Disney Parks Blog, Disney Sports’ Twitter handle and the runDisney Facebook page. Having a chance to run with Galloway is a once in a lifetime opportunity for most runners. Getting him to tackle your burning running questions? Even better. After the run, Galloway sat down with the meet-up to answer the group’s training questions. Here are the highlights from all of the runners’ questions: Read the rest of this entry →

The author and her soon-to-be-fiance after the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon. He proposed just a few moments later.

I met this guy. After chatting a while, he mentioned that he was registered to run the ING New York City Marathon. He’d never run a marathon before. Heck, he’d never been on a single run, he said. He belonged to an Ultimate Disc league, a sport that requires a lot of running. But he was no runner. His sister had talked him into it, he said. The race was nine months away and he had no idea how to train for it.

As luck would have it, I was a runner. I ran the New York City Marathon just three months before, and was registered to run it again as well. So I offered to show him the ropes of marathon training, and take him on his very first run.

It was an unseasonably warm February day. We headed out to Central Park, where we’d met for a casual walk just a week before. We ran up to Belvedere Castle overlooking Turtle Pond and the Great Lawn, then jogged through the Ramble and back to the southern entrance to the park. He’d never visited those parts of Central Park before, he said. Stick with me, I said. As a runner, you see a lot of things you don’t notice otherwise.

Well, he stuck with me. Four years later, that guy is my fiancé, and running has played a large part in our courtship. Read the rest of this entry →

Kelly Lews (left) and Carrie Lundell (right) pose with Minnie Mouse in their do-it-yourself Team Sparkle costumes. (Photo: runDisney)

If you’re running Disney’s Princess Half Marathon or Bay to Breakers in San Francisco, or any other themed race, wearing a running costume is awfully tempting. Wearing a super hero cape for a Spartan race or fairy wings for a Disney run can be a fun way to get into the spirit. But for the women behind Team Sparkle, it’s more than fun. It’s a way of life.

Kelly Lewis, Carrie Lundell and Elise Wallace are spreading the power of sparkle with their line of sparkle skirts, sleeves and racing legs for runners. They encourage runners to put together do-it-yourself running costumes made of running-friendly fabrics so they can spread the sparkle spirit at races nationwide.

“You can wear something fun, you can wear something technical and still run fast,” Lewis says of the Team Sparkle spirit. Read the rest of this entry →

Runners cross the starting line of the Tinker Bell Half Marathon. Photo courtesy of runDisney.

With a little bit of faith, trust and pixie dust, the inaugural Tinker Bell Half Marathon got off to a flying start on Sunday, Jan. 29 at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. More than 10,200 runners finished the debut event aimed at celebrating women and fitness.

Tinker Bell Half Marathon

The race marked my first trip to Disneyland, unless you count the time my mother says I went as a 4-month-old. So I decided to do it right. I willed my 5-foot-8-inch frame into a child’s XL Tinker Bell costume, wings and all, and lined up in the all-women’s corral A for the 5:45 a.m. start.

As I shivered in the 50-degree air waiting for the race to begin, I noticed I wasn’t the only one doing as the Romans do. A sea of fairies, princesses and tutus surrounded me. I saw runners dressed as Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, Alice, Tiger Lily, Peter Pan, and, of course, Tinker Bell. It’s safe to say that half the runners wore something other than regular running gear, be it fairy wings, a sparkle skirt, or a full-fledged costume. Read the rest of this entry →

Kellie Nickerson of Albuquerque, N.M., won the inaugural Tinker Bell Half Marathon in 1:27:52. Photo courtesy runDisney.

The half-marathon is the fastest growing distance in the U.S. It’s also runners’ favorite distance to race according to Running USA’s National Runner Survey. Who is driving this phenomenon? Women.

It’s no wonder that when runDisney decided to add another flagship race to their series, they opted for a women-focused half-marathon. The Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend enjoyed its inaugural run at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., on Sunday, Jan. 29. More 17,000 runners participated in three major running events over the course of the weekend: 12,000 runners tackled the Tinker Bell Half Marathon, 4,000 jogged the Never Land Family Fun Run 5K, and 1,300 tykes tried the runDisney Kid’s Races.

Women-only or women-focused races are a growing segment of the running industry, fuelled largely by an influx of women into the sport. And while races welcome men as well—920 men lined up at the start of the Tinker Bell Half along with 11,080 women—race directors are luring women with extra perks like preferred placement at the start, ladies cut race T-shirts, and expanded awards for women only. Read the rest of this entry →