Earlier this month, I was lucky enough to cross two bucket list items off, in one weekend: complete a half marathon and visit Walt Disney World. I’m still coming down from a runner’s high, and I have Misfit Wearables to thank! I grew up playing football and running track & field ~ so when it comes to running I’m mostly a short distance guy. I enjoy cardio, but 2-3miles is typically more than enough for me. I don’t have much interest in running a marathon, but for the past few years, I’ve been toying with the idea of running a half marathon. I was asked to participate in the annual Disney Wine & Dine Half-Marathon with MISFIT wearables — and I was so excited. Not only was I going to get to run a ‘half,’ but I was also going to finally experience Disney World. Growing up, I feel like friends were always coming back from family trips to the epic Florida theme park. I did go to Disneyland when I was 10, but even at the time, I knew that was child’s play compared to the mega-kingdoms that were Disneyworld. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve dreamt of going to Disney World and figured I’d have to wait until I have kids to do so.
Maybe I was in my head about it but I honestly didn’t get to train as consistently as I had gone into the half wanting to – mostly due to my travels & scheduling. My buddy Dave over at The Healthy Camper has run quite a few half marathons and wrote a really great guide to training for your half marathon. I referred to his post throughout my training. Running gear, what you’re consuming throughout your day and the amount of sleep you’re getting are all equally important as you ramp-up your training for the half marathon. I loved getting to train and run the half marathon with the Misfit Vapor. I’m a little old-school, and I had never really experienced a true smartwatch yet. I was impressed with all its capabilities: the touchscreen has on-display emails and texts, it’s swim-proof, connected to GPS and my favorite feature has to be that it’s also a music storage/player. This was great because it meant that I could leave my phone at home and just go for a run with the watch.
The race was so entertaining. There were Disney characters strung throughout the race that you could hop off the course and take photos with. The route went through three different Disney Parks (Pandora at the Animal Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Epcot) and it was such a fun way to see the parks. As it was an early race (5:30am!) it was a great way to experience the different parks with no people in them. Epcot might have been my favorite to run through – all the cute country build-outs and park workers dressed up in their respective cultures cheering on the runners at the end was definitely the push I needed! For the race, I was aiming for around 2-hours for my first half marathon and got 2:12! I was so excited and already know that I’m going to run another in the near future to try and beat my time! 
And of course, I had to indulge the day before the race with a little bit of cotton candy. While sporting my Mickey ears at the Magic Kingdom! 😀 Thank you so much, Misfit Wearables for the opportunity to run my first half marathon!
Stay Risky,
– John
Photography by Wes Taylor
