I’m Going to Give Myself Something I Want, it’s Disney Princess-esque!

Dear Friends,

I feel like it has been forever we chatted. I’ve missed you. I have. I have thought about writing to you. I have started creating things in my notebooks that seemed sort of funny when I first sat down, but upon further inspection seemed kind of mean spirited, which isn’t what I want to put out into the world. I wrote other things, which upon further reflection, felt like I might regret telling the next day, if I were to publish them.

Having two small children and being a bit of a disorganized person to begin with, I haven’t written lately because I don’t seem to have the ability to follow through on finishing a piece. Sometimes I forget where I left off, as I have a few notebooks going at once. I have a regular size one, just one purse sized one right now (but I used to have two), a legal pad that I sometimes write in, and several google documents with ideas or beginnings of things.

Also sometimes I only have enough passion about a subject to write about it for one sitting and after the moment has passed I don’t truly have the interest in continuing with it.

In any case, I read a little bit today from the Joan Didion book Let Me Tell You What I Mean Today and she said that the only reason that she writes to find out what she is thinking. I haven’t finished anything lately because I am not truly in touch with what I am thinking about either. Nora Ephron also wrote a similar thing, so I decided to just sit down and start writing and see what came out.

The writing without thinking was fruitful. I figured out what I was thinking about.

It turns out what I am thinking about is costumed running.

Probably not what you guessed right?

It seems so silly to me but I have been fixating on it for a while.

Specifically, what I am thinking about is runDisney. You see Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida has several organized running events a year where participants dress in Disney themed costumes and run. Picture a women wearing a short-ish Cinderella dress, her hair in an up-do with a very secure tiara in her hair, and running shoes and you might have an idea of the types of things that the runners wear. Maybe a male runner might dress as Buzz Light Year or Prince Charming. The costumes are fun but functional. They are something that a person could run 13.1 miles (the mileage of a half marathon while wearing).

Also, to provide something for everyone, Disney has several different series with different themes. For example, there is a Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon weekend in early November, the theme this year Wickedly Delicious, because it is a weekend that focuses on wine and food it features Disney Villians in the graphics. In January of 2022, runners can participate in the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend. I am not sure if it has a theme. Maybe the theme is finishing a marathon while wearing a costume.

I have been interested in runDisney for a few years now. I have never been to Walt Disney World and honestly I don’t know if I would want to participate in a distance run in Florida in a costume. The races are scheduled in cooler months, generally November- February and they take place before the park opens for the day, so much of the race happens before daylight, but still, I don’t like running in heat and humidity.

Also, I like Disney and Pixar movies but I would not call myself a huge Disney fan. Also I don’t think that the Disney princesses are the greatest role models, but still my interest persists. I find myself looking at google images of people dressed in Disney inspired costumes while I am in the bathtub. Months go by and I forget about runDisney but then my interest pops up again and I go on another jag of reading about it.

When I look at the pictures of the races online, I think it to myself that maybe running in one of their races is something that I can do when my boys are older and it feels like a long time away before that type of trip would be a possibility.

After some consideration, I decided that if running in a Disney costume is something that I am interested in doing, I am going to indulge myself a little right now. I don’t need to wait until some unidentified date to give myself what I want.

Instead of waiting until someday to achieve my dream of running in a Disney inspired outfit, I am going to run my upcoming half marathon in Disney inspired outfit.

I texted why four sisters with this idea and they were very supportive. I also asked them for suggestions on what female Disney characters they feel empowered by? They had great ideas including: Moana, Mulan, Mirada from Brave, and Elasti-Girl from The Incredibles.

I liked all those character ideas but I also don’t feel a special attachment to any of them. I am probably feel the most similar to Mirada from Brave, since I too have a number of siblings and Elasti-Girl from The Incredibles. But Mirada is a still a young girl and the non-superhero related life challenges of balancing parenting identify and personal identity that Elasti-Girl experiences feel a little too close to my current life for it to be fun for me to dress up as her.

My favorite Disney character is Ellie, from the Pixar movie Up because she is adventurous and imaginative and she reminds me of me. But she also dies in the first ten minutes of Up and every time I watch that part of the movie, I ugly cry. Even so, she is the my favorite so I looked for an Ellie costume online and I found very little that I wanted to wear for my race.

I then remembered that the theme for this fall’s runDisney Wine and Dine Half Marathon is Villains. Some of the artwork for this race features Ursula, the Sea Witch and main baddy in The Little Mermaid. I have always liked Ursula. She seems plucky and to be a good business woman. She doesn’t have the good looks and feminine singing voice of Ariel but she has good business acumen and a big brassy voice. Her type of female isn’t always celebrated in the Disney universe or the world we live in either.

I decided that I would partially model my outfit after Ursula from The Little Mermaid. I found some good Ursula running shirts on Etsy as the runDisney store isn’t as well stocked as you would think. It seems like there is really a big marketplace for Disney inspired running outfits on Etsy.

But I am not all Ursula, I have always had a soft spot for Ariel too. When I was 11 and I first saw The Little Mermaid, I feel in love with her and always sang her songs in the bathtub. I always thought she said “Strong Willed Daughters” in the reprise of the song Part of Your World, but it turns out she says “reprimand their daughters”, even so that was enough for me. I wanted to be bold and beautiful like Ariel and take my future into my own hands.

In my process of costuming for my run, I decided to check the Target app for The Little Mermaid inspired running wear and I found a great pair of Little Mermaid leggings. To be honest, I don’t know if the leggings are designed for running or for running errands. I couldn’t find enough information in the description, so I ordered them with the thought that if they don’t fit my needs, I will return them (or keep them any way?) and find other Ursula or Ariel-ish bottoms that fit my needs better.

So here is the top and the leggings that I ordered. I have not received either item yet, so these pictures are taken from the websites where I placed my orders.

Running in this type of outfit will inspire me to keep going. I will harness the female power of these two spunky* ladies to keep going when the running gets tough. Thinking about my outfit also gets me very excited to train for my race (thought I won’t wear my actual outfit until the day of the race).

In summation, I am glad that I probed myself for what I was feeling and I am glad that I have given myself something special in addition to the specialness of even running the race. It is not lost on me that privilege that I have to even run this race. I am thankful for my husband for all of this support and love and child care while I prepare for my half marathon.

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[Also, as an aside, why is the word spunky only ever used to describe women or girls? I have never heard a man referred to as spunky]