The 2011 Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend is this weekend – September 2-4. Events this weekend include the Health and Fitness Expo on Friday and Saturday, the Star Tours 5K and Kids’ Races on Saturday, and the Half Marathon on Sunday. There will be a record number of people in the half marathon this year – over 15,000 are registered!

I will be participating in the 5K on Saturday and the Half Marathon (my fourth Disneyland Half Marathon) on Sunday. Disney recently released a photo of the newly-designed half marathon medal for this year.

Ooooh…pretty!!! I really like this one.

I’ll be doing something a little different this time – instead of running the 13.1 miles I will be walking it with my friend Kristine. We’ve been training to walk fast (ok, those of you who know me know that I don’t have to train to walk fast, but I’m not used to walking fast continuously for 13 miles!), and it’s been an interesting experience – it takes longer, but I enjoy it a WHOLE lot more than running and I’m not nearly as hot and tired at the end. Of course part of that is walking with Kristine – we have a great time chatting as we’re walking. We just did our final training walk – 8.3 miles in 1:55:04 – that’s a 13:52 minute/mile pace. We were very happy with that!

Of course the disadvantage of walking is that I will have to be more conscious of the 3.5 hour time limit, so I won’t have time to stop and have my photo taken with all the characters like I am used to doing. I hope we can still find time for a few character photos, though.

Assuming I finish as planned not only will I be taking a Disneyland Half Marathon medal home, but a Coast-to-Coast medal as well. In addition to Lee and me there are about 2750 other people who are doing Coast-to-Coast, including a number of my fellow Team AllEars members!

You might remember that Lee and I were part of Team AllEars 2011 when we did the Goofy Challenge earlier this year – I’m pleased to say that we are also part of Team AllEars 2012, along with 98 fellow Disney runners. For those of you who might not know about Team AllEars, you can read about us here:
Team AllEars 2012

But the main thing to know is that we support the incredible Deb Wills and her dedication to fighting breast cancer and raising money for the Avon Foundation. We have all pledged to raise at least $500 each and that’s where we could really use your help. No donation is too small, and I would ask you to please consider supporting us in this.

If you would like to contribute, please visit Deb’s Avon Breast Cancer page and click on the pink “Donate Now” box. On the “Personal Note”, please put “Team AllEars Laura and Lee” so they can track our fundraising efforts. If you wish to remain anonymous, just put “Team AllEars Laura and Lee” in the “How would you like your name to appear” box.

Thank you for all of your support – I’ll be blogging this weekend and will let you know how we do.