#WhyirunDisney: A Valentine’s Day Celebration of runDisney SOLEmates!

Valentine, you make our hearts race. Here at run Disney, love is in the air with Valentine’s Day right around the corner! The magical miles of race weekends create special memories for thousands of participants each year, from accomplishing goals, making new friends to even finding ROMANCE. Through meeting in a run Disney training group or at the run Disney Health & Fitness Expo to building a relationship via virtual racing, these couples are together for the long run. Because as they say, for better or for worse… even on the run Disney course. In celebration of the season of love, we’re highlighting a few submitted #WhyirunDisney stories from couples sharing their very own run Disney romance. Read them below:

Allie & Neil Rightmeyer

Allie and Neil met in person for the first time, merely by chance! The two knew of each other, thanks to active participation in the run Disney social media community, but Allie happened to spot Neil’s familiar face while they were each waiting to pick up pre-purchased merchandise at the 2020 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend.

“When I saw him at the run Disney Health & Fitness Expo, I was pretty sure I recognized him from online,” Allie says. “I decided to say hello and we talked for a few minutes about how training went, and how nervous and excited we were for the Dopey Challenge.”

Neil lived in West Virginia and Allie lived in New York, so the two exchanged phone numbers. And though the pandemic interrupted their plans to meet in person later that year, they stayed in touch during quarantine and officially started dating long distance by summer 2021.

“We used run Disney weekends as a lot of our official "dates" and became the best running partners,” Allie says.

In January 2022, Neil took Allie by surprise and proposed on the beach of Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort—just days before the 2022 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend kicked off.

“After I said yes, there was a big and very surprising cheer!” Allie says. Neil had invited friends they’d made through the run Disney community to celebrate with them. “It was the perfect night, surrounded by love and the people who have seen our journey together firsthand…almost exactly 3 years from the first day we met at the Expo!”

“run Disney brought us together,” she says, “and it is absolutely our favorite thing to do as a couple. There is no one I would rather share these [moments] with than Neil. We definitely will be running with run Disney for many, many years to come!"

Lindsey & Jarryd Guerrero

When Lindsey began participating in run Disney races in 2016, her favorite way to combat the “post-race weekend blues” was to watch YouTube videos of the races she had just run. However, her YouTube search after the 2019 Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon produced some unexpected results.

After watching a recap video from a YouTube creator named Jar Oxandspoon, Lindsey found herself captivated by the funny, heartwarming content that she says, “captured the absolute joy of participating in a run Disney event.” After commenting on a few of Jar’s videos, the pair connected on Instagram and instantly bonded over their shared love of run Disney. “Even though I lived in California and he lived in Texas,” Lindsey says, “it turned out that we had both participated in several of the same run Disney race weekends (on both coasts) since 2017.”

Lindsey and Jarryd met in person during the 2020 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend and enjoyed a unique first date of park hopping—one that, as an avid content creator, Jarryd conveniently captured on film and posted to his YouTube channel. “It’s not often that you get to watch and re-watch your first date with your husband on YouTube!” Lindsey says.

“Thinking about how run Disney brought us together—two people who lived over 1,300 miles apart, still leaves me in awe,” Lindsey says. “Jar and I have participated in every run Disney race weekend since we got married and rejoice at how our run Disney family continues to grow. We have met some of our closest friends through these races—people who cheer us on, commiserate with us about Dopey training, wear ridiculous costumes with us during the races, and celebrate with us at every finish line. I will be forever grateful to run Disney for being the backdrop of our love story, and for continuing to build our community ever since.”

Despite pandemic-related travel restrictions, the couple continued daily video chats to strengthen their relationship, culminating in a wedding where they both wore their running shoes in honor of how they met.

Nikki & Patricia Graves

Picture it: The Orlando Airport, the Monday after the 2020 Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend. Nikki—who had just completed her first run Disney event—was huddled in a ball, experiencing sadness at the thought of returning home after an inspiring and uplifting race weekend. In need of a pick-me-up, she did something which she describes as “completely out of character”: she opened her Facebook app, found a group of run Disney fans and posted seeking connection with fellow enthusiasts in her local community.

One of the first responses came from a woman in Portsmouth, NH—an area an hour from Nikki’s home in Boston. Patricia, whom she says was also stepping outside her comfort zone responding to Nikki’s post, was training for her first Half Marathon, and her travel agent had suggested she connect with other run Disney runners to prepare for the big day. “She gave off very ‘run Disney’ vibes,” Nikki says, “and her profile picture included a dog that looked exactly like Pluto if he came to life...so I obviously went for it.”

Nikki and Patricia met shortly thereafter and connected over their shared lifelong love of Disney, and their newfound love of running. And even though the pandemic hit just a few days after their “Starbucks meet cute,” as Nikki calls it, the two continued to text, video chat, and even “run together” from their respective locations.

When the 2021 Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon Weekend, which they had planned to run together, was cancelled, they still completed 13.1 miles together on race day, sporting some of their Disney best. “I crafted a homemade bib and a yogurt-lid medal (if you have ever seen the episode of The Office where Pam does this for Jim),” Nikki says, “which are still hanging on the race wall of our home today.”

The pair completed their goal of running an in-person race together during the 2022 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, and since then they’ve run 5 other run Disney races hand-in-hand.

“We can't thank run Disney enough for the normalization that your inclusivity provides us,” Nikki says. “We have met some amazing friends at run Disney events! And perhaps most importantly, training for and completing run Disney races is a constant reminder that hard work pays off and fairytales can come true.”

If you’ve been to an onsite run Disney event, you’ll probably recognize the face of Carissa Galloway—one of our longtime race weekend announcers. But what you might not know is that Carissa, a runner herself, met her now-husband, Westin, through run Disney, and more specifically, through run Disney’s official training consultant and Olympian Jeff Galloway!

Carissa and Westin met casually when the two were in college, living across the country from one another. But once they began dating, Westin became one of Carissa’s biggest chEARleaders, coming to Walt Disney World Resort whenever she was signed up for a race. In 2018, during what Carissa expected to be a standard Disney Princess 10K, Westin surprised her with a truly magical finish line surprise.

“John Pelkey (another run Disney announcer) started interviewing me at the finish line, which wasn’t odd,” Carissa says. “But then he let Westin have the microphone, which was VERY odd. Westin started talking and it took me a few moments to fully grasp what he was doing. Eventually I realized that he was proposing!”

Carissa and Westin’s parents looked on as he read her a personalized poem about their Disney experiences, while the race weekend DJ serenaded the pair with Carissa’s favorite song. And, of course, she said yes!

“run Disney truly is the reason that I’m able to spend every day with my Prince Charming, and run Disney weekends are the highlights of our year,” Carissa says. “To be able to run through Disney having grown up a Disney fan and to take in the magic, the music, the joy of the other athletes... There’s nothing in the world like it.”