Another Great Reason to Travel to Orlando

I love visiting Disney, I also love running. However, the combination of these two loves can admittedly cause some serious sticker shock. I have a happy solution for you that combines both Disney and running without breaking into the kids college funds.

I am talking about the Celebration Full and Half Marathon. This race takes place in and around the super cute community of Celebration. If you don’t know Celebration is a master planned community initially developed by Disney. It is about 15 ish minutes from the parks.

My husband and I have been lucky enough to run this race for the last two years. My husband has run the full marathon while I tackle the half. It is a great excuse for us to head to Orlando and run a few miles… then eat all the food in sight! No, this is not an ad, yes I have paid for each race entry.

As a runner let me tell you why this race is great. First the cost. This race is less than $100 for either race , unless you wait until the last minute. Compare that to a Disney Race at around $188 for a Disney Half Marathon or Full Marathon. The other perk of a non-Disney race is the wake up time. In order to get all settled and at the start of a Disney race you have to be out the door by 3-3:30 AM! The race start is usually 5:30 am, this makes sense since we get to run though the parks and the majority of runners will pass through before it opens to the masses. The Celebration half/full starts at a normal race time 7 am. A few more hours of sleep is a welcome bonus for me! More on Disney races to come in the future.

The Celebration race has great support and wonderful swag. Last year we received the most fluffy blankets, this year we each got a hat, and cooler that is perfect for taking snacks to the parks. The weather in January is usually perfect for running. This year it was actually miserable. However, even in the rain and cold, Celebration put on a great race with lots of support, tons and volunteers and many locals cheering along the way. The town of Celebration is idyllic with wide streets, a picture perfect downtown and beautiful houses. It is a great race for any level of experience or speed of runner.(Disclaimer: I have lived in Florida for over 11 years. So cold for me may be laughable to you. It was 52 degrees and a drizzle rain during this race.)

This is a wonderful destination race, that can bring you to Disney World, take in a great run and visit a town that you may otherwise skip over. More on where we like to stay when taking in this run in a later post!

Let me know what you think? Would you consider a non-Disney race in Orlando? Let me know in the comments. Thanks to the Celebration Half and Full Marathon for the use of their picture as the featured image.