ch-ch-ch-changes

We're not sure how it happened. How it started. Maybe it was because we saw an ad for it in Runners World. Who knows.

But we started talking about it. And thinking about it. And in the course of 48 hours we made a momentous decision.

We're going to run the 2009 Walt Disney World Marathon.

See, originally, we planned to run the Seattle Marathon. Regular readers will have seen our stated intention in the header of this blog. Keen-eyed readers will notice that it no longer says Seattle. We're going to run with the Mouse.

But I'm getting ahead in the story. We'd decided on Seattle -- why not run your hometown marathon? It was the right time of year for us, training-wise, if not weather-wise. But the weather had been perfect in 2007 so we were decided.

Then on New Year's Eve, at a party with relative strangers (our new neighbors), we were talked out of Seattle, and talked in to Portland. Hmmm.... much more attractive, in a way. A really nice course, a really nice city, earlier in the year (early October rather than late November) so the weather isn't as likely to play a factor. MP3 friendly. Green. Lovely. So we settled on Portland as our marathon of choice.

And then our dearest friends, Rebecca and Eric, decided to get married. We couldn't be happier. Even *if* they picked the day before the Portland Marathon as their wedding day... So it was back to the drawing board. We were still soured on the idea of the Seattle Marathon, but then I saw an ad for the Las Vegas Marathon. First week of December! Race starts to fireworks on the Strip! Running as Elvis! A run-through wedding chapel! We were IN!!!!

However, neither of us was super excited about it. We figured we'd go down, have a long weekend, and then feel funny about telling people we ran the Las Vegas Marathon. And everyone says the course gets really, really boring out in the subdivisions...

Then this weekend, seeing the Mickey Medal, thinking about it, and then looking at the dates... hmm, early January. That means not doing a marathon this year. And Florida is a long way away.

But then I looked at the course map. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was -- running in and around the parks in Disney World -- running through Cinderella's castle! Running "backstage" at Animal Kingdom! Running with characters and bands and lots of other first-timers...

We were sold. Completely obsessed. We needed to wait until today to make sure Wil could get the week off in January (9 months notice? shouldn't be a problem...). Within 10 minutes of hearing that Wil got his vacation request approved, I had registered us for the race.

Okay, so I won't run a marathon before I turn 40. But we're both ridiculously giddy at the idea of the WDW Marathon... and a jolly holiday in Florida in January.