2016 marked the second year for this race and the one thing that is certain, Linda and her crew put together a phenominal weekend, celebrating, motivating and inspiring women! The expo, although smaller, is packed full of anything and everything that the woman runner needs (whether she realizes it or not!)

The course itself is reletivily the flat - they did change up the course a bit this year to add one small, but mighty, hill, but other than that, it is all downhill or flat, travleing mostly along the Wisconsin shoreline!

Amazing course support and water stations! Several of the local radio stations send out DJ's to provide music and entertainment along the route!

Post race food and and beverages are awesome! Plus free massages available to wake up those sore muscles!

Oh yeah! Almsot forgot - FREE RACE PICS!! yes this is one of the best perks in my mind!

Love this race and look forward to running it every year!

For my fill race recap, check out the Crazy Hamster Blog: http://crazyhamster.run/2017/02/bellin-womens-half-marathon-better-every-year.html

This was the 1st year for this race and we decided that we HAD to do it! We gathered up the girls and headed out for a weekend of fun, running, laughs and challenges. We already decided that we will be back again next year! Now that we know what to expect, we can plan better and enjoy the weekend even more!

For my full review, check out the recap and photos on my blog: http://crazyhamster.run/2016/09/runningtheroadlesstraveled.html

2016 marked the 5th year of Warior Dash for me! Please keep in mind, for this year, the moved the race to Franklin WI, at The Rock Sports Complex, instead of the Milford Hills Hunt Club in Johnson Creek (where it's been all the other years I have run it!).

The change of venue was awesome! When we arrived at the complex we quickly realized that this was a busy place! Aside from the Warrior Dash, there was also a baseball tournament going on, so parkign was at a premium. They did have a seperate area for WD parking tho, so that made it much easier.

Now, we were really not sure what to sepect with the course this year for a few reasons. 1. It was a new location. 2nd. It rained. I should say it POURED the night before, so the mud level jumped to extreme!

Once we arrived, we were quickly able to pick up race packets, have some fun and take a few grouup photos before and then drop our bags and gear check and head to teh start line! With our group, half of us were planning on walking the course, while the other half was goign to try and run as much as they could.

That plan lasted until the 1st obstacle. Those of us walking caught up to the crew that was running and they had already decided that with the extra mud and slipperiness this year, they too were walking. So we stuck together and had some fun!

Because of the location of this course on a tubing/ski hill (yes you read that right), it was a lot hillier than the old location. But we were not complaining! It added to the challenge. The most challenging "obstacle" of the course was the clumb UP the side of the ski hill. There was no running up that beast... in fact most of us wondered how we actually made it to the top! Challenge faced head on and beaten!

Overall I really liked the new locations!

For my full race recap, head on over and check out it out at the Crazy Hamster! http://crazyhamster.run/2016/12/warrior-dash-2016-a-family-affair.html

After running the Light side Challenge in January, I was excited to head to Florida with my family for the Dark Side Challenge in April! For the first time, they were offering the Star Wars series in both parks, complete with a special Kessel Run Challenge medal for completing both Star wars Half marathons. Why would I NOT want to take on this epic adventure!

There were some major differences between CA and FL! We had a blast, we ran Disney... would we do it again? The jury is still out on that one!

For all the details, I had to break it out into 3 blog posts...

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly: Summary of the 3 days spent for runDisney the Dark Side Challenge can be found here: http://crazyhamster.run/2016/05/disney-star-wars-weekend-part-3-good.html

More on the expo and 5k here: http://crazyhamster.run/2016/04/disney-star-wars-dark-side-challenge.html

10k and Half Marathon full story here: http://crazyhamster.run/2016/04/disney-dark-side-challenge-weekend-par.html

I'm no longer a Disney race wanna be! And what better way to experience runDisney for the first time than the Disney Star Wars Half marathon in sunny California! When it's a balmy 12 degrees in Wisconsin, you are glad to hop a plane to run in warmer weather!

First stop - Packet pickup and the expo!  I was really glad to make this stop on Thursday, before most people arrived for the weekend.  There were virtually no other people in line and I was in and out in a matter of a few minutes with my race bib. I then headed over to pick up my race jacket that I preorder and was disappointed to realize that I should have ordered the XL, instead of the large. I was told that I would potentially be able to exchange it for a bigger size tomorrow. (Went back the next day and was told that exchanging them was never an option, so not sure why I was told that originally). No worries, I still love the jacket! With all my goodies in hand, it was time to head up stairs then for the expo!
 
I probably could have spent 5 hours wandering round the expo, checking out all the goodies, shiney things and apparel, but I really did need to find some food!  So that won out over shopping for the evening!

I spend the next 2 days taking in the festivities of the 5k and 10k races, running my own miles through Downtown disney during both of those races, exploring Downtown Disney's shops and restaurants and catching up with an old college friend who lived right down the road.

Finally, Sunday and race day was here! When you wake up at 3am to get to the start line and look at your weather app in California, you don’t expect to see 38 degrees! I had been on the fence about what to wear it was time to make a decision! Temps were not supposed to get much over 50, so I opted to go with the (heatgear) capri’s and lightweight long sleeve shirt under my costume.

After spending Friday walking through the parks all day, it was completely different to see them in the dark! The entire park was lit up and there were awesome photo ops throughout the entire park. Of course, the best ones were with the Star Wars Characters!

Course support was awesome, both in the parks and on the streets of Anaheim! I actually think I had more fun once I got out of the parks and onto the streets! Don't get me wrong, there is nothing like running through Radiator Springs at sunrise, but the way that the community comes out to support the runners is amazing! I actually stopped for more photo opps outside the park than inside!

What an experience! Traveling across the country to run a half marathon, explore new cities, meeting so many new people was so worth the adventure! I couldn’t have asked for a better race to kick of my 2016 race season!

For my full review of the weekend and half marathon, you can read it all here!
http://crazyhamster.run/2016/04/destination-disneyland.html