The Miles I Did Anyway
My watch lied to me this morning. In my favor.
The first mile buzzed early. So did the next two—by the end of that stretch my watch had me six-tenths of a mile ahead of where I should have been. GPS drift, tree cover—whatever it was, my Garmin had decided that I’d run farther than I had and was ready to hand me the end of my run early. And if you know Garmin, you know it doesn’t just throw around kindnesses.
For half a second, if I’m being totally honest, I almost took it.
But then I took a beat and thought—why? I’m not doing this run for anybody but myself. Why cut it short for a tech error?
So I ran the full five miles anyway. Tacked the “extra” on at the end, in the heat, to make up the gifted distance I hadn’t actually covered.
I know I’m probably overthinking this, but this little act stayed with me. I’m coming back to a strict running schedule after many months of downtime with my head buried in writing and publishing my book. And it’s amazing how fast I’ve switched back to this version of myself that would finish the actual mileage without a second thought.
No one was auditing my tracking data. The only person who would ever know whether those miles were real was me—and I ran them anyway. My legs decided before my brain had the chance to weigh in with all of the practical reasons why it made sense to take the gifted mileage. My inner negotiator didn’t even get to start talking.
I should be clear that this wasn’t willpower. Willpower is exhausting and sometimes I don’t have that much of it. It’s something quieter that training builds in you over time: the habit of keeping a promise that you made only to yourself.
You practice it in small, almost silly ways—four-tenths of a mile in the Florida heat. Doing laps in front of your house because it has to end at an even 3.1 or 6.2 or 10 or 20. And then one day you notice it’s followed you home. You stand up a little taller because you’re somebody worth keeping promises to. Even when there’s an easier way. And you start doing the other, non-running things. The work you kept saying you’d do. The version of your life you kept promising yourself you’d build. It’s sort of my original story, I guess—harnessing running like this—but it’s very much still happening now and it’s hardly unique to me.
I start to feel it happening every time I lock in. How the runs bleed into the rest of my life.
If any of this sounds familiar, or appealing, it’s the thread running through Chapter 17 of The runDisney Companion. That chapter was always the seed of something bigger, and that’s one of the things I’m working on now.
p.s. – You can pry my em-dash from my cold, dead hands.
Looking for more help planning your runDisney race weekend?
My book, The runDisney Companion, brings together everything I’ve learned from more than 100 runDisney races, from registration and training to trip planning, race-morning logistics, pacing, recovery, and everything that happens in between. You can learn more and find the book right here.
And now the book has a voice. The Castle Run Podcast is a limited series that walks through The runDisney Companion one chapter at a time: runDisney history, choosing a race, registration, training, trip planning, race weekend, recovery, and all the good stuff in between. Watch on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Some episodes come with a free one-page printable, and you can sign up for the whole library on the podcast page.
I’ve also built out the Companion Hub as the growing ecosystem around the book: a collection of people, brands, and companies I already knew, trusted, and often used myself before ever asking them to be part of this project. Together, they help fill in the pieces that no single book can, from gear, recovery, and transportation to dining, childcare, groceries, celebration, and the rest of race weekend. You can explore all of those trusted resources right here.
And a special shout-out to MEI / Mouse Fan Travel, my exclusive travel partner for The runDisney Companion. If you’d rather have someone else handle the Disney trip-planning side of race weekend, their team can help with the resort, tickets, dining, logistics, and the million little details that come with putting a runDisney trip together—and it’s all at no added cost to you. We’ve used them ourselves for years and I couldn’t be more confident in sharing them with you.
Please join me on Instagram at @thecastlerunner for my day-to-day adventures living a mile from the magic, along with race-weekend updates, course coverage, and plenty of running and Disney in between.
Planning a run while you’re here? You can find my complete collection of guides to running trails on Walt Disney World property RIGHT HERE.
And if you’re missing home—or love someone who is—I’d love for you to visit Thousand Circles Images, where you’ll find my Walt Disney World photography prints, books, and calendars. I’m also available for portrait sessions for families, couples, and individuals, and I especially love post-race celebration sessions with runners, which bring together two of my favorite things.
