Today the school year starts for the kids in our area and the rest of the nation is following suit soon. This means another summer is ready for the history books even if the students are not. I’ve always loved summer but in my heart I consider myself an Autumn guy: school starts, Gator football season kicks off, Halloween is followed by Thanksgiving which is followed by Christmas which smells like cinnamon and presents and pine trees. I love the season we are starting soon.

Another exciting event on this autumn’s docket is my first official 5K race in more than 20 years, and Shannon’s first ever. She and I signed up for a 5K being hosted by Disney and we are both nervously excited. We have been walk-running for weeks now and this event seemed like a great motivator and reward for our hard work. Rewarding hard work with even more hard work may sound silly, but there is a t-shirt on the line.

The big day is going to be Saturday, September 29 on WDW property. The pressure comes from the minimum pace requirements. Disney asks that you maintain a 16 minute per mile pace or you run the risk of having to get on the pace bus to be driven to the end and then NOT receive a finisher medal. We are walk-running about 18-19 minute-miles right now so we are watching the 45 day countdown closely and pushing ourselves just a little bit more each day. T-shirts are awesome, but a finisher medal is something to hang in the cubical at work and brag about to passing co-workers… or to simply wear around as a conversation starter in case some co-workers start avoiding my work space for some reason.

As of this morning the 5K event was 70% full and the 10K event was at capacity. If there are any runners on Team Veganaut that want to join the fun, here is a registration link. If you do join us, you can run ahead and try to break your own records or you could hang back with the 15.9 minute pacers and enjoy the suspense of running seconds faster than the pacing bus. Either way, it promises to be an exciting weekend.

With 45 days left to train I expect there will be a lot of aspects of this race training to share with you. There is a lot to learn and try to remember as preparations move forward. In many ways, today is like back to school for us too. I bet all of our teachers are nice, we have early lunch block, and ALL the mean kids moved away. It is the beginning of a new school year and anything is possible.