Though it’s still a little surreal, one week ago today my mom and I wrapped the races of Running for Nana: Round Two with the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon! 

There honestly isn’t a sufficient way to capture the feeling of crossing the finish line together. Suffice it to say – it was a moment neither of us will ever forget. 

We are both so deeply grateful for your love and support throughout this adventure, and truly couldn’t have crossed the finish line without you. And, thanks to your incredible generosity, we are thrilled to share that we’re now over 80% of the way to our $10,000 goal for Running for Nana: Round Two in support of Achieving Cures Together. We are absolutely blown away and so honored and humbled to be fighting against C. difficile with all of you. You are making an immense difference in the lives of folks who are facing or will face this awful infection, and we are so grateful to be traveling that journey together.

If you would still like to join us in this adventure, we would simply love it! Either click the “How Can I Help?” tab above to learn more or click the link below to be directly routed to the fundraising tab of Achieving Cures Together: https://www.achievingcures.com/marathondonation.

We’ll post a final update soon of our overall fundraising efforts, and we can’t wait to see where we’re able to go together. In the meantime, just wanted to share a few highlights from the race itself.

We boarded the bus around 3:45 am, and the first corral stepped off at 5:30. Lucky for us, daylight savings had just happened, so not only did we get an extra hour of sleep, but there was also some daylight by the time we really got going (fewer opportunities to trip in the dark – score!).

Also lucky for us, it was cloudy for the whole race. This was huge, because although we trained at high altitude (thank you, Colorado), the humidity was over 90%, and added sunshine would have been pretty tough. 

The course was really neat – it runs through the Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot, and several characters line the route as well.

We knew Nan was right there with us the whole day and around Mile 9, we had one of our best signs yet. As we got closer, we could hear the music from Mary Poppins, and then saw the penguins from the Jolly Holiday scene – Nana loved that movie, and we knew she was cheering us right on. 

By the time we got to Mile 13, we could hardly wait to see that finish line. As soon as it came into view, some awesome level of additional adrenaline kicked in and boosted us all the way through to the end. And, lucky for us, we had Cheerleader Extraordinaire #1 (aka dad/Tom/husband) waiting for us at the finish line! We are truly the luckiest.

We could write a lot more, but we’ll leave it there for now – the next adventure is on the horizon, so stay tuned!

Thank you so very much for all of the support, love, grace, and joy you’ve sent our way in Running for Nana: Round Two – we are so deeply grateful for you. We are also so blessed to know and be able to support the work of the incredible people fighting hard against C. difficile – Peter and Jon Westerhaus, Dr. Alex Khoruts, and everyone else on the University of Minnesota and Achieving Cures Together teams – thank you for making it possible for us to run to fight C. diff. 

Because of your research, we truly believe there will be a day when no one will fight against C. difficile the way Nana did. What an extraordinary day that will be. 

As always, this one’s for you, Nan. We love you more!