Sometime after making it official that we were going to move to be closer to Disney World, we decided to pick a date to use as a placeholder as we started making plans. Obviously we don’t know the exact date we’re going to move. But in starting to consider things like how far in advance we should put our house on the market or how long it will take us to establish residency for tuition purposes, it became handy to have an actual date to use in those calculations. We chose June 15, 2022. We decided on that date because it would be about one month after our son’s high school graduation. That should give us time to celebrate his milestone properly without having to immediately move out. (Don’t misunderstand — I’m sure we’ll be up to our ears in getting ready to move well before then. But the month leeway means we won’t have to be rushing to get in the car and head south as soon as he gets handed his diploma!)
A side benefit to having a provisional date is we can count down to it! And you better believe we’ve been doing that since we chose it. As of today, we only have 1,000 days until we move to Disney! I can’t describe how exciting that sounds! I’ve put a countdown on the sidebar of the blog, and knowing it’s going down to triple digits tomorrow is almost unbelievable.
RUNDISNEY UPDATES
I’m happy to report that we’re making great progress in our new exercise regimen mentioned in a previous entry. In February we started walking a 5K every weekend. In May we decided it was finally time to start adding a running component. runDisney held three virtual events over the summer. So we decided to incorporate them into our plan. Our goal was to run a half mile of the just over three miles that make up a 5K by the end of June (walking the remainder of it). By the end of July, we hoped to be up to a mile run. And by August’s end we’d raise that goal to 1.5 miles — running about half the total 5K.
I’m not going to lie. The first few weeks were rough! But (just as we discovered when we started walking) it felt good knowing we had done it, which in turn made us want to do more. By the end of June we were running three quarters of a mile. At the end of July, we’d already reached our total goal of a mile and a half. In our last virtual run in August we’d surpassed two miles. And on the first weekend of September — 29 weeks after we walked our very first 5K — we ran the entire distance! I know this isn’t a big deal for a lot of people, but it was huge for us.
So what’s next? We signed up for the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend! No, no… we’re not attempting 26 miles! This will be our first running event ever, so we’re being realistic. My wife and I are both signed up for the 5K, and I signed up for the 10K. Now that we can run an entire 5K, we’ll keep doing that every Saturday morning. But now I need to start adding to that to prepare for the 10K. Can I run the whole thing? I don’t know! Even if I just ran half of it and walked the rest I should be under the 16 minute mile requirement, so I’m not worried about not finishing.
Hopefully this isn’t too much of a bore to read about, but I am very proud of myself and my wife so you’ll have to excuse the bragging! We have never been that active so what we’ve accomplished this year is so surprising to me. Not just the fact that we’re doing it, but the fact that we have continued doing it without eventually giving up! Bringing it back to the point of this blog: Disney has been the major motivator for us. Wanting to be healthy and active when we get there is what gets us up each weekend and pushes us to keep moving forward.
LINKS
Thanks to Chris who sent me a link to an interesting website titled “The Coolest Perks of Living in Orlando: Tips, Fun Things to Do and Florida Resident Deals“. It’s got a lot of varied information all in one place — from what you’ll need to get theme park passes to tips for your move and much more.
I also have a few other links I’ve found since my last post. I may need to make a new links page or the sidebar list is going to get unwieldy!
The Neighborhoods.com blog has a list of the “Best Places to Live Around Disney World“.
I’ve also added some articles to the growing list of “Moving Stories”. Tori Tucker tells us “What it is Really Like to Live Near Disney“. And LiveByLucy has two pieces: “Let’s talk Florida: Do I like living here?” and “What is it like to live next to Disney World?“.
