Hello Liner Community! Many of you are already familiar with my story. I’m going on an epic first trip to WDW over Halloween with DW, DS5, DS3, DD1, and both sets of grandparents to celebrate DS3’s Cancer victory from last year. You can read the whole story here:
2019 May 1 – Part 5 – ADRs
2019 Feb 27 - Part 4 – The Grandparent Parlay
2019 Feb 4 - Part 3 – Plan 2.0
2019 Jan 17 - Part 2 – “Perfect” Plan(s)
2019 Jan 10 - Part 1 – Proposal
2019 Jan 4 - Paul’s Dream is Renewed
2018 Oct 11 - A Dream Delayed
It’s been a while since I’ve shared anything substantial about this trip (thanks to the “180-60 day dead zone”), but don’t worry, Part 6 - FP+ is coming in just a few weeks.
Today, I’m doing something different. I’ll begin with a personal story. My real name is Jordan. Soon after Carson’s (DS3) Cancer diagnosis last year, my older brother encouraged me to “run off” my stress and anger. I am tremendously grateful for his advice. Running helped to ease the pain I was carrying with me. It gave me future goals to focus on instead of reliving the past.
I had never run more than a few miles before, but I ran my first 5k in November and my first 10k in April. In the beginning, my biggest goal was to run the Wine & Dine two-course challenge at Disney World on the last two days of our big family trip. Then I found out that St Judes is one of the charity sponsors, and immediately joined their team. I committed to raising $2,000 for them. To my disbelief, we met this goal within 24 hours! So, I thought “Great! Let’s do it again!”
After mentioning the St Jude fundraiser at my office, I learned that one of my colleagues is a huge RunDisney fan, and almost as obsessed with WDW as me. We now talk about it every day, calling it our “Disney Break”, haha! He eventually planted the seed in my head to try the Dopey Challenge with him. This is a 5k, 10k, half, and full marathon (through all four WDW parks!) on four consecutive days. Sounds crazy… But then I discovered that Autism Speaks is a charity partner for the event, and I decided to go for it.
My brother’s DS6, Jonah, is on the autism spectrum, and I’m going to run the 48.6 miles in honor of him. I’m running “Four Jogs for Jonah”. Their journey has shown me some of the specific hardships faced by those affected by autism. It has also shown me how autism is poorly understood by many people, myself included. This is why I’m supporting Autism Speaks. I’ve joined their team and have committed to raising $2,000 for them as well.
So, why am I sharing this here? I want you all to join me! If I meet my fundraising goal, I will do a detailed live trip report all five days I’m in the World. I know how much you all like trip reports! If you think this is worth a few bucks, please consider supporting me here. You can also follow along on my website RunJordanRun.com.
Post script: So ironic - there was a similar charity-related post already today, thanks @bbailey1021. I really like her “bucket list fundraiser” concept, and I’m thinking about how I could do something similar for my trip. Stay tuned…