Texan Don Muchow recently made history when he decided to run from Disneyland to Disney World. Muchow ran 2,761 miles over 88 days and was the first person to walk from the California theme park to his companion property in Orlando.
It should come as no surprise that in his spare time serving as the director of marketing in Dallas, Texas, Muchow is an ultra-marathon runner and Iron Man enthusiast. But even races over 50 or 100 miles cannot prepare a person to run from California to Florida. But Muchow did just that, and he did it for a good cause – to prove that his type 1 diabetes wasn’t holding him back and in the hopes of inspiring others too.
According to his website, Muchow has lived with type 1 diabetes since 1972 but didn’t start exercising until 2004. After “sneaking in” “like a boogeyman of diabetes complications”, he signed up for his first 5km. “”[That] was a defining moment for me, “Muchow told Good Morning America. He fell in love with running after that first race and made it a part of his life.
He never thought he’d be the first to run from Disneyland to Disney World. This idea came from the son of a friend who also suffers from type 1 diabetes, and “it clicked immediately” for him. “Disney’s slogan,” If you can dream it, you can do it, “doubles for anyone like me with serious lifelong illness,” Muchow told Good Morning America.
Dealing with such a long period, especially with a lifelong illness, took a lot of planning, but even the best plans didn’t involve a pandemic. According to the Dallas subsidiary of CBS News, Muchow had to put his run on hold in March 2020 and couldn’t restart until September. Then he hit the road again and ran to the Texas-Arkansas border before the run was interrupted again due to virus spikes in October. The last leg of his journey began on March 2nd, 2021 and this time it reached Disney World. On April 5th he finished his “mouse to mouse” adventure.
“If this run is an example of only one person making a difference to raise awareness, then it has served its purpose,” he told GMA. “I’m very happy with the results because when people are inspired, I’ve paid it up.”
