So I am very excited to announce that I will be running my FIRST half marathon with Team Up with Autism Speaks in celebration of my younger brother CJ. 
When my younger brother CJ was 18 months old, he was diagnosed with Austim, chrone’s, colitis and autoimmune disease. My step mother, Tamara has dedicated her life to finding a cure for him and thankfully through organizations like Autsim Speaks and the start of her own company Real Food Real Life, CJ has made tremendous progress. Today CJ is 15 years old and much healthier. He is continuing to grow and heal more everyday.
With my new love for running, I wanted to run for a reason (anything over 6 miles should be for a reason or a purpose in my mind), so when I saw that Autism Speaks was participating in the Inaugural Tinker Bell 1/2 Marathon, I decided that this would be the perfect race. I will be raising money in celebration of my brother CJ, my goal for this race is to raise $2,500. This will be my first half marathon ever, right after my 25th Birthday and at one of my brother’s favorite amusement parks, Disney Land in California!
I am doing a 17 week training program that starts on Monday, I am slightly nervous but very excited. I will be using the Run Less, Run Faster FIRST training plan. I am very excited to be using this plan, I got the recommendation from some of my biggest running inspirations, Gina from Walk to the Mailbox and Katie, from Katie RUNS This. I will be updating you on my progress here on my blog and on my twitter @kymarie13.
If you feel like giving me an early birthday gifts 
please feel free to donate now, you can check out my race page here. But honestly I am just happy I can share my journey with all of you and I hope to inspire other new runners. This is bound to be interesting considering I have never considered myself a runner. Below are some more pictures of my brother CJ, so excited to be running this race and it looks like CJ may be running the last half of the race with me!
Filed under: Running Tagged: | Autism Speaks, Disney Land, Disney Races, Erica Sara Designs, FIRST Training program, Half Marathon, Katie RUNS This, race, Race Training, Run, Run Less Run Faster, Running, Team Up, Tinker Bell 1/2 Marathon, TinkerBell Half Marathon, Walk to the Mailbox
Hello! My name is Kristine and I live and work in New York City. Since I have been here I have realized how hard it is to maintain a healthy balance while living in the City. Work starts to consume your life and you can get lost in everything around you.
This is amazing! I didn’t know about your brother, so great you are running this for him.
I just heard about this race. It sounds like so much fun and you’re going to do great things!
That is awesome! I love the idea of doing a Disney Race. You will have a blast
[...] weekend I will be running my first half marathon, the Tinker Bell Half in Disney Land. I am very excited and I will make sure to write all about it. I have a feeling 2012 [...]
[...] my race I knew I wanted to do more, so I searched the web and I saw that Run Disney was having a Tinker Bell Half Marathon in January. It was right after my 25th Birthday and Autism Speaks was one of the participating [...]