By Jessica

I never grew up with much athletic talent and despised running. Remember in high school gym class where you had to run the mile? Yeah, I hated it. Running always intimidated me. I tried many times to try and get into running but kept failing.

After grad school, I moved to Florida and worked from home. After spending so much time inside, I craved to be outside at the end of each work day. So, I started going for a walk each day after work while listening to a podcast. After a while, I thought I’d give that running thing a try again. I downloaded the Couch to 5K app and started a running program with the hopes of someday doing a Disney race.

Fast forward to six months later and I participated in my first-ever 5k in a local race. I gained more and more confidence to the point where I worked up enough courage to sign up for my first Disney half marathon – the 2015 Wine and Dine Half Marathon.

Tyler signed up with me and from there we were hooked.

One of the things I love most about running is that it’s something Tyler and I can do together. It’s relatively inexpensive (aside from Disney), fun, healthy and we’ve met some really great friends along the way.

Looking to get started? I suggest signing up for a local race. You don’t have to run the whole time – take walk breaks and just finish.

If that’s too intimidating for you, try a virtual race. Virtual races are awesome because you have all the benefits of a road-race 5k but without the stress of running with a couple hundred other people. You can choose whatever distance you want and you pick the time, date and place to run. You even still get a medal and t-shirt for it!

Virtual races are also a good way to keep a competitive spirit with your runs while training for bigger races. We’ve recently partnered with the Run With Character Garfield Virtual Run to keep our fitness up outside of race season.

Run with Character sponsored both our virtual runs and our entries into the Halloween run, but our thoughts are all our own.