Kim has been an on-again / off-again runner ever since high school when she ran 8-minute miles for Civil Air Patrol. In college, it was 1.5 miles for Air Force ROTC. After she moved to Phoenix, she participated in 5-K runs with friends, never breaking the 35-minute mark.
It wasn’t until Kim reached her heaviest weight ever (165 pounds on a 5’2″ frame!) that she suddenly decided it was time to get serious about running. In mid-2005, she signed up for the P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon to be run in January 2006. About a month after she began training (losing several pounds of weight in the process), Dean decided to get on the bandwagon, too.
Dean and Kim ran the first eight miles of the 2006 P.F. Chang’s Half Marathon together, then Dean sprinted ahead to come in five minutes before Kim. In 2007, they ran PF Chang’s again and Dean took nearly a half hour off of his time!
Having trimmed nearly 80 pounds off through his running regimen, Dean decided to sign up for a greater challenge — the 2008 Walt Disney World Marathon! Nearly 30 pounds trimmer, Kim took Dean up on the challenge, and we began training shortly after having run the PF Chang’s Half. We ran a few local 10-K races during the training, and then in June our training got derailed. Kim took about six weeks off after a treadmill training incident messed up her ankles, and Dean began experiencing knee pain. He found out two weeks before we were to run the Disneyland Half Marathon in September 2007 that he had a torn meniscus. Scheduled for surgery a week after the Disney Half, and with new orthodics, Dean decided to try a jog/walk method to finish the Half. Kim stayed with him, and we crossed the finish line together at 2:43:48 with little knee pain.
Since those early days, Dean and Kim have become accomplished runners. Dean has qualified for the Boston Marathon several times, and ran it twice (2012 and 2014). Both have finished several full marathons, although in recent years Kim has stepped down to half marathons due to a persistent hamstring injury. The pair has run marathons/half marathons on four continents (as of June 2017) and seven U.S. states. They qualified as Marathon Maniacs (bronze level) in 2012-2013 by completing four marathons in 120 days (requirement was three in 90 days).
The Rosenlofs particularly enjoy running Disney races, including multi-race challenges such as the Goofy Challenge (2013), and inaugural Star Wars Rebel (2015) and Dark Side Challenges (2016). They also completed the Castle to Chateau Challenge by running half marathons at Disney races both in the U.S. and at the inaugural Disneyland Paris Semi-Marathon (2016).
Dean has also embraced trail running, becoming an ultramarathon runner by completing races of more than 26 miles. His longest was the 55-mile Whiskey Basin Ultramarathon in Prescott, AZ in May 2017, which took more than 12 hours to finish.
Kim, on the other hand, only completes such distances when she has a team to help. She has captained several Ragnar Relay races, including road races in Arizona and Florida (soon to include Kentucky), and one Raganar Trail relay. She even served as a Ragnar Ambassador for one year.