Running with Mickey Mouse at the 2011 Disney Marathon

During this freezing season of wintry mix of snow, sleet and ice, I just decided to start an actual fitness and running blog at www.runwithnoah.com. Please forward this link to all your friends and family to read about my exploits and get tips that I have learned over the course of my limited running career. Please sign up and subscribe to it to keep updated and get motivated to reach your fitness goals.

Also, I wanted to step up my running and take on the Historical Boston Marathon in 2012 by qualifying in the Steamtown Marathon located outside of Scranton, PA this October. My pace at Steamtown will be a heart attack time of 7:38 min/mile.

To prepare for this race, I am currently taking some time off from running and doing P90X, you might have seen it on TV. Even Oprah and Sheryl Crowe have gone through the program with awesome results. My friend Scott mentioned that he did P90X, and he looks awesomely in great shape. And even with a bad back, he's going to complete the Panama City Ironman in November. He never did any races before and he decides to tackle a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. Now if he does that, I could at least qualify for the Boston Marathon!

I will be posting my 30-day pictures next week. I am very happy with the progress and can't wait for the final picture at the end of 90 days. Irene is also doing the program with me and we both plan on donating all of our cloths and creating a whole new wardrobe!

In addition, my friend Marybeth, who is extremely busy and travels all over the county is finding time to work P90X into her schedule. It's great doing a program like this with friends, so please contact me if you want to start something or have any questions about fitness!

Another component to my success will be Shakeology. It's an awesome nutritional supplement that will reduce your weight and lower your cholesterol. With 70 healthy ingredients in 1 glass, it's the most nutritious meal you will ever put into your body, and it tastes fantastic. Again, please call me if you want at least one of your meals to be healthy!

Sunday morning I put on my running gear, took the bus, and headed toward the start in Epcot. Raymond and I waited for a little while in the started village, and then took a 15 minute walk to the start. Ray headed over to his corral for the fast runners and I waited in my slower people corral with a bunch of enthusiastic runners bouncing and stretching doing their best to stay warm. There was a big screen showing some highlights of the course near the starting line.

With each start, fireworks shot in the air to give all the runners a boost as Mickey and Minnie cheered each one of us a good run. As usually, immediately after the starting line, a bunch of runners head towards the side of the road to take a potty break. For whatever reason, my bladder seemed to be weak for this race, because I was pulling over very often. Maybe it was the constant sea of trees on the highways. By the way, this was the first time I saw a lot of girls also run to the side of the road. There was a lot of open highway between the parks. Disney did their best to keep us entertained with different and unknown Disney Characters on the side of the road, ready to take pictures and cheer us on.

In the parks, the crowds cheered, then there was a lull. You really need to dig down and keep your "why" in front of you. What kept me going was thinking about Elijah's big embrace with his tiny arms that do their best to wrap around me for a hug. That warmth from his heart makes me want to continue! I finished with a time a lot slower than expected, due to all the pit stops and picture taking. It was worth it. I think with each new marathon you want to take in the sights, and should you repeat a race it will be more serious and focused to best a PR.

While Disney is a unique experience, my favorite race so far will be the NYC Marathon! The crowds there are unparalleled and provide the support to carry you to the finish. I vote it as the race to do, if you only do one!

Next time we will do Disney, we will be doing the Goofy Challenge, which involves the Half Marathon and Full Marathon in the same weekend! Yikes! Then I think about Scott and his Ironman Medallion. Then doing a Half and a Full on 2 separate days should be easy, yeah right.

It's going to be fun running an entire marathon with the entire family. I have 13 more years to wait for Elijah to be old enough to race. Until then, we will be enjoying our shorter races. In fact, Emily has agreed to the Cow Harbor 10K in September!

Please visit www.runwithnoah.com and enjoy the updates! And let me know how I can help you with your fitness goals like so many of you have!