Registration for the 2024 RunDisney Princess Weekend was a few weeks ago. After successfully getting in to all the prior 5ks and virtual races for the year, I was confident I would get into this race. But as registration day approached I started to feel like there could be a good chance that I wouldn’t get a spot and ultimately mess up my “perfect” year. Everyone loves Princess weekend and some people have never been able to get in. On the bright side there is a way to guarantee that you are able to get a bib for RunDisney and that is by raising money for a charity. RunDisney works with specific charity partners. (There are other ways to guarantee that you are able to get a bib, but I’m not eligible for those at the moment.)

To lower my anxiety level and help a cause that is close to my heart, I decided to raise funds for the American Cancer Society. If you’ve read any of my other posts you know that my father has brain cancer. The charities fill up quickly so I wasn’t sure I would get the one I wanted. But, I was lucky enough to get the last 5k spot that they had. On registration day, I didn’t have to worry about getting into a race, I focused on getting a spot in yoga. (Which I did!)

My charity plan was to hit my minimum fundraising requirement by donating $1 per mile that I run during my training. I went through my training schedule and added up all the planned miles to make sure I would hit the minimum. I bought a glass jar to hold the money and as a visual reminder. (I need to get an American Cancer Society sticker to place on the jar). I set up my fundraising page and was ready to go!

What I didn’t expect was how generous people would be. I shared my fundraiser on Facebook and then my sister shared it to her Facebook friends. What happened from there is truly amazing. I hit my fundraising goal within 24 hours! Seriously! So much for thinking I would only raise the money through my training miles.

Thank you to everyone that donated! And thank you to everyone that read the story on my fundraising page. Even if you are/were unable to donate, I appreciate the good vibes just as much!

I’m still going to donate for each training mile, but now it is just icing on the cake.