When I was preparing for my first Disney race, I felt pretty clueless.  There seemed to be so much to know.  And while there was a ton of information out on the internet, I couldn’t find something that really summed it all up, including the basics.  But the good news is that there is a great book out there called the Runner’s Guide to Walt Disney World!

This is a really unique book – it’s part guide to running at Disney World, and part general guidebook.  So if you’ve been to Disney a lot before but don’t know much about Run Disney events it’s great – and if you’ve never been to Disney World they help you out with information about restaurants, resorts, etc.!  I imagine even if you’ve done a few Run Disney events, you’ll find some useful information here – especially if you’re going to be doing a race you haven’t done before.

The authors, Krista Albrecht and Megan Biller, are just the type of people you would want to write a book like this – according to them they have “participated in nearly every runDisney event, stayed at every Walt Disney World resort, dined at virtually every restaurant.”  They are experts, but they are also Disney lovers and fans, and that shows through in the way the book is written.  The know what fans will actually use and appreciate in the book.

There’s some great tips and information here, so I wanted to share some of my favorite things that this book offers.  Anything you might want to know about the race itself or expo is here, but it goes beyond that.  Recommendations of which places to eat at before the race, how transportation works during the weekend, and maps of the race courses are all in there.  One of my favorite sections was the chapter about Spectators.  Disney doesn’t tell you too much, but this book points out the locations that spectators can be, and how early they should plan to get there.  I definitely plan to have my husband read that chapter!

Really, the only thing this book doesn’t provide is race training, which is understandable – it can vary so much from person to person, and that’s not what the book is about!  I would have so loved this book before the Enchanted 10k, but I’m very glad to have gotten my hands on it before the Tower of Terror 10 miler.  Even after experiencing a Disney race there is still so much more I can learn from here.  All in all I highly recommend this book for everyone doing a Run Disney event that might have a question about anything.

If you plan to run a Disney Race you should buy Magical Miles: the Runner’s Guide to Walt Disney World (you can get it on their website or on Amazon!), but I’ll also be giving away a copy to one lucky reader!  All you have to do to enter is click on the link below to fill out the rafflecopter entry. Giveaway is open until 11:59pm next Tuesday, July 15th.  Good luck!

Click here to enter the giveaway

And don’t forget to check out our other items in the Disney Running Gear Guide: