Run, Karla, Run!

Rachel Booth wins the 2011 Disneyland Half Marathon. (Photo: runDisney)

The Disneyland Half Marathon on Sunday, Sept. 2 will put more than 17,000 runners to the test on the streets of Anaheim, Calif., as they charge through Angels Stadium, Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure theme park in an attempt to run Disney. Among those runners will be a mix of Disney fans, celebrities like Sean Astin, and former Olympians like Suzy Favor-Hamilton and Jeff Galloway.

But when it comes to winning Disney races, no one knows better than Rachel Booth. She won the 2010 and 2011 Disneyland Half Marathon and 2012 Disney Princess Half Marathon in February, becoming the first woman to win events at both Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida. Her fastest time on a runDisney half-marathon course? 1:15:19.

Like many Disney runners, Booth juggles raising two children, a part-time job and training. Read the rest of this entry →

Oscar Pistorius

As the Paralympic Games got underway in London Wednesday night, the 4,200 athletes competing took center stage. Perhaps most famous among them is South African Oscar Pistorius, 25, known as the “Blade Runner.” Read the rest of this entry →

Karla runs beside the beach in Fiji.

In years past, I’ve written about my running adventures while on vacation--beachfront runs in Australia, stumbling upon a marathon in Argentina and treadmill workouts in India. Running on vacation, or sight-running, as I like to call it, is one of my favorite ways to see a new place. There’s no better way to get to know a new city or patch of countryside than to run it.

So what do you do when your vacation seems to be in an anti-running destination? What do you do when there’s nowhere to run? Read the rest of this entry →

The women’s marathon Olympic medals are up for grabs on Sunday morning. (Photo: London 2012)

The 2012 London Olympic Women’s Marathon just might be the greatest race women’s marathon in the history of the sport. Team USA has put together arguably its deepest women’s marathon team in the history of the event: Shalane Flanagan, Desiree Davila and Kara Goucher, all of whom are top-of-the-world runners that have stood on the podium at World Marathon Majors events, a two-year racing series that includes the Olympic Games.

The good news is any one of these women could medal, likely in the bronze position with a long-shot chance at gold. The bad news is it won’t be easy. The 2012 Olympic women’s marathon has the fastest field of runners in the history of the event. Seven women in the race have broken the sub-2:20 mark, and none of them are American. Read the rest of this entry →