Two years ago, I ran my first half-marathon in Disney World. It was so meaningful to me because I had formed so many happy memories in Disney as a child, so it was the perfect place to begin my obsession with long-distance running.

Next weekend, I’ll be heading back there to run my 10th half marathon–as a guest of Disney!

Well, okay!

Please Join us for The Princess Half Marathon Weekend

February 23-26, 2012

We want to offer you a unique opportunity to both run the race and get a peek into some of the fun that makes a runDisney race weekend one to remember for children of all ages!

As part of your runDisney weekend experience, hotel accommodations, meals and theme park tickets will be taken care of for you. And in addition to running like a Princess, you will take part in a variety of special events throughout the weekend, including the Pasta in the Park Party, our exclusive “Meet Up” event, and pre-race pampering at the runners Race Retreat.

Well, okay! If you insist. I have to thank Kelly Olexa and FitFluential–and Disney!–for hooking this all up. I only had to pay for my airfare–and I was able to cash in some miles–which was more than worth it!

Let’s say you had a fairy godmother who would grant your wish to run whatever race you wanted–what race would it be?

Or which princess would you dress up as?

I’m certainly working out less these days as I settle into a new routine, but I don’t want you to think I’m not working out–my workouts just aren’t very inspiring as I just fit in what I can, where I can.

My nights have been really busy with working late or other commitments (thank god Bailey is in NJ this week), so I’ve been having to squeeze workouts in in the morning.

I had a lovely run the other day just before it started to rain. At my old job in D.C., I remember one of our freelance reporters telling us that he was usually in a worse mood when he didn’t run. My boss, a runner herself, told me that she completely understood what he was talking about. I nodded along, pretending I understood, too, but I really just thought they were both a little crazy.

I get it now, too. The short runs before work are never the amazing ones, but I am in a much better mood when I get to work because of them. Especially on days where I’m at the office for 12 hours, it makes me feel like work’s not the only thing in my life.

Yesterday, I got in an awesome workout before work. New Balance is one of my clients, and we had a launch event for trainer Harley Pasternak’s new shoe, the New Balance 997.

It’s a lightweight training shoe meant for boot-camp type classes that involve agility drills and quick movements. Which is what we did yesterday morning.

The event was at Cedar Lake, home to the Cedar Lake Ballet, and a building previously owned by Annie Liebovitz.

I dragged my houseguest with me, which ended up being a poor move on my part. Her Crossfitting, buff self put me to shame in the workout.

We did a few circuits of lower body, upper body and core exercises, all using body weight.

These are the first New Balance shoes I’ve tried out, and I really liked them. I remember hearing in the past that you’re supposed to have different shoes for lifting, etc., but thinking it was all clever marketing to get people to buy more shoes, but feeling closer to the ground for things like jumps and lunges made a huge difference with my balance. We also did these fancy grapevine exercises, where I could really feel how the lower-to-the-ground, flat shoe helped with balance.

We did sprints at the end, and while Tina’s trying to talk a big game up over on her blog…he just high-fived her as a consolation prize to me kicking her butt in the sprints.

I went to the gym to shower and went to work with maybe not the cleanest hair, but it was worth it.

Do you work out in the morning? Do you ever go to work a bit sweaty after doing so? Nope, me neither.