Disneyland Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Anaheim, CA
Sunday, September 4
Half Marathon #42
State #34
Weather - Overcast, low 60s

If you missed the recap of the 5k that A and I ran the day before, you can read about it here. I registered for the Disneyland half marathon the day registration opened. So yeah, back in January. Heather had spent the night at our hotel so we could all walk over together. We had to get up pretty early, at 4:10. (Although I looked at Disney Princess recap and we were up over an HOUR earlier for that one). I had hoped to be out the door and to the starting area by 5:00 to get our picture taken with the Half Fanatics. Turned out we just missed the picture by a few minutes. Dang it! But we *did* run into Fruit Fly and Biker Boy on our walk to the start. Which is pretty strange considering HOW MANY PEOPLE are at Disney. We ran into her a LOT without planning it. We also ran into Dave, which meant... picture!!

L, Me, Dave, Fruit Fly, Heather

Heather and Fruit Fly left to meet up with Rose in Corral C (or D) and L and I made a quick stop at the port-o-potty before heading to Corral A. Don't even ask, I have NO idea how I ended up waaaay up there in the front. Our costumes must have been pretty awesome because we had more than one person stop to take our picture. Thanks! In addition to Brightroom, one of the Running Skirts husbands took our picture too.

It was PURE CHAOS getting to where we needed to go. By the time we got to our corral, there was only about 15 minutes until the start. This is the way to do a race... walk there and don't sit around for hours. View from the start line:

We crossed the line only a minute or two after the gun went off. Clearly I was not in the right corral. L had decided to run with me (we WERE dressed as a "set"), and we got SMOKED in that first mile. The nice thing was that we didn't experience the congestion issue that we did with Princess. I was a bit distracted because my little blue ribbon on my collar kept coming untied! At least I had it pinned down. I also had a bit of cramping in my left calf, but it luckily worked itself out before it got too annoying. The first mile was outside the park, but LOTS of crowd support already out, even though it wasn't even 7:00 yet. Then we entered the park. I'm glad L agreed to do character pictures with me!

The park is obviously the best part of the race. Being in the "fast" corral, not that many people were stopping for pictures, so the lines were NOT long at all. Usually we only had to wait for one or two people before we were up. I was a bit bummed that there weren't more characters out. There were TONS out at Princess. And quite a few of the floats/characters weren't even allowing pictures. What's up with that??

By mile 4 we are already outside the park and by then we are running right into the sun. It's starting to warm up! I was really surprised by all the support on the course. I have been struggling so much during races lately, it was nice to have that. There were dancers, cheerleaders, it was awesome!

Around mile 6 I have to stop to use the bathroom, but I was still feeling pretty great. My awesome Tweedledee name tag I had pinned to my back fell off somewhere between mile 6 and 7. Bummer :(

I didn't know what else was on the course except running through Angels stadium. We came up on the Honda Center, and I guess I thought THAT was the stadium. So imagine my disappointment when we do this weird run through the parking lot. Heh. But that WAS where a TON of crowd support was. I especially enjoyed the teenage boys doing the can-can. Hilarious.

Then we leave the lot and continue the run on a dirt trail by this super creepy and dirty canal. On the other side? Barbed wire. Clearly not the best part of town... but I can see the "A" in the distance, and I'm pretty excited. I want to see myself on the jumbo tron!

Check out all the fans!!

Heading into the stadium, look, there's L to the right!

I will admit, I was PUMPED to enter the stadium. I felt famous or something. So many people screaming and cheering. It was AWESOME!!

I had hoped to get a picture of us on the jumbo tron but by the time I figured out where the photographer was, I missed it :( Oh, well. Then we headed out and then I knew, 4 miles (roughly) to go, and then we are done. I'm really glad that L is running with me. I am pacing better and I am more motivated to not walk. I mean, she IS running slower to hang out with me.

The next few miles I feel AWESOME. There is a slight downhill and we are moving a bit faster. I finally start to struggle a bit as we get closer to Disney, around mile 12. I had a few "rabbits" in my sights that I really wanted to beat. By then, my legs were toast. I managed to NOT walk (thanks, L), but I really didn't have anything left to pass them. Boo. Here is one of the only race pictures... (L is saying "NO MAN LEFT BEHIND!!)

Obviously no where near a PR, but compared to how I have run/felt the last few months, I am SUPER HAPPY with this race. I got to run with L (did you know this is the FIRST half we have EVER run together?) and it was great. I felt good, I liked how many compliments we got on our costumes, and I had FUN. Which has NOT been the case lately.

Chip time - 2:16:37
5k - 35:08
10k - 1:08:02
15k - 1:38:55
Overall Place - 3409/12785
Gender Place - 1557/8368
Division Place - 280/1410
Garmin time - 2:16:37
Garmin distance - 13.24 miles
Garmin pace - 10:19
Mile 1 - 10:04
Mile 2 - 10:38
Mile 3 - 12:40
Mile 4 - 10:17
Mile 5 - 10:07
Mile 6 - 11:04
Mile 7 - 9:48
Mile 8 - 10:04
Mile 9 - 10:04
Mile 10 - 10:02
Mile 11 - 9:44
Mile 12 - 9:45
Mile 13 - 9:53
Mile 13.1 - 8:55

HUGE.

Coast to Coast Medal - AWESOME

FINISHED!

Of Note:

• I think my lowest average HR *ever* in a race - 160 bpm? I'm usually mid 170s or even higher
• This might be the only time ever I have had negative splits!
• No walking other than photo ops, 1 bathroom stop and water stations. Been MONTHS since that happened.
• Fruit Fly's boyfriend, Biker Boy, is AWESOME. We saw him 3 or 4 times on the course. Thanks for cheering for us!!

After we leave the finisher area, we grab some food and sit down to eat while we wait for Rose and Fruit Fly and Heather. We get kicked OUT of the finisher area because we need to "keep it clear for those people finishing." Thanks, RunDisney.

We decide to hustle over to Downtown Disney to buy our Tweedledee & Tweedledum pins and figure by the time we get back they should be close to finishing. We find some open fence just past the mile 13 marker and watch the rest of the race. We saw Dave!

Love the red dot skirt!

We are starting to get worried... we would have thought they would have been done. I was JUST getting ready to text Heather to find out what was going on, when they crossed. I missed getting the picture :(

Walked over to the family reunion area and chatted a few minutes before heading back to the hotel.

Me, Heather, Rose, Fruit Fly, L

Fruit Fly and Biker Boy (who was the pack mule and carried all our stuff while we were racing, THANKS!!) headed back to their hotel, Rose headed back to her car, and the rest of us walked to our hotel. Quick showers and then Heather's husband picked us up and headed back to her place for PIZZA and SWIMMING. Well. The KIDS went swimming. The rest of us were smart enough to know the water was FREEZING and decided to stay on dry land.

We let the kids exert some energy for a while, then we drove down to the coast where we met up with a friend of ours to meet her new baby! However... everyone fell asleep in the car!

We woke up everyone but H (L stayed in the car with her), and the rest of us wandered around a park with an amazing ocean view.

A and Gabs found some dirt to play in. Almost as good as sand I think...

And while the adults watched some crazy acrobats in the trees (sorry no pictures, but this really DID happen), the kids played on this tree. According to A, it was the MOST AWESOME TREE EVAH!

I'd like to say we had a "quick" and "easy" dinner at In-n-Out... but it was neither.

Yep. That's the drive thru line.

Inside? Tiny.

Yep. That's all there was.

We stood outside and stared at people until they gave up their seating. Yes, we sure did. No need to sit around and socialize when there are a hundred people needing somewhere to eat. Seriously, whoever designed this location...

Heather was awesome enough to drop us at Downtown Disney for the kids to pick out their souvenirs. I had invited #2 over for a slumber party (her and A are BFFs), so she came too. We took them to "World of Disney" and I figured A would want ears:

I *loved* the Donald ears

But... she didn't. And it was VERY chaotic in the store. The kids both decided that they would rather have something from Build-a-Bear. I let A get an Ursula costume for one of her existing animals, and then she got this outfit for her favorite stuffed animal, Bunny:

First, I thought Bunny was a boy. Maybe not? Second, the first outfit she chose was a bikini. This one was much simpler to put on and take off. We walked back to the hotel just in time to make the firework show. Did I mention it is like a foot away from our hotel?

A kept saying she was going to stay up all night. She made it until 10:30... I didn't make it much longer.

I'm not going to do a separate blog for Monday. Kids actually stayed in bed until 7. By the time we gave the kids baths, packed, and got breakfast, my super awesome friend Heather was back picking us up to take us to the airport. Seriously, the chick is AWESOME.

So. Thoughts on California? SO FUN. I think I'll do it again. January, maybe :D

Disneyland Star Tours 5K (Race Recap)

Star Tours 5K
A's second race
September 3, 2011
Weather - PERFECT

"Dreams really DO come true!" - A

I had mentioned to A that she was going to be racing again soon, and even though we were in California, she never put two and two together that it was going to be another Disney race! I somehow didn't get the memo that it was a Star Wars themed race. So. Our outfits were matchy matchy (ish), but not correctly themed. Oops.

So the race started at 6:45, but since we were able to walk to the start line we didn't need to get up SUPER early. Heather and #1 were meeting us at the hotel at 5:45, so A and I got up and got ready at 5:15. She was a bit tired, but super excited.

We were leisurely walking to the start line and all these people are speed walking past us to the starting area. Clearly they have never run a Disney race. No sense in getting there super early unless you just want to stand around FOREVER. We pretty much ran into Fruit Fly right away. Biker Boy was with her... wearing Rose's bib?! Poor Rose was not feeling well so Biker Boy was going to walk the race with Fruit Fly to not waste the number. Few minutes of chatting and looking around for coffee (NONE?!) and a quick stop to at the port-o-potty and with 15 minutes to the start, we head to the corral, with a quick stop to get a pictured on stage:

Enter the starting area! A just looks so cute, and I want to get a picture of her before the race starts (while she is still ALL smiles).

Thumbs Up!

We immediately find Fruit Fly and "Rose" again, and talk with them until the start. When who should come up behind me, but Dave!

Biker Boy ("Rose"), Me, Dave, Fruit Fly, and A of course

A is a big Paul Frank fan so of course she loved his shirt! Before we know it, the race is starting! We weren't able to line up according to the pace we were running and got stuck just where we entered the starting area. Kinda sucked because we really couldn't run the first 3-4 minutes after I started my watch because it was too congested. A didn't mind, she thought it was super fun trying to find Fruit Fly and "Rose" and Dave on the course. Thanks for the following two pictures, Dave!!

The race thinned out once we actually got into the park area. She just LOVES seeing Disneyland!

Surprisingly, she didn't especially want to stop with any of the characters (I think the long lines intimidated her a bit), but I did get her to stop at some photo ops along the course:

Toon Town - Still Thumbs Up!

The picture in front of the castle probably wasted about 2 minutes, but the woman at least got a great picture of us with no one else in it. Priceless!

And by far, my favorite race picture (until I see the official ones I'm sure):

She is doing AWESOME. The brief stops are helping and she stops at the water stations and takes drinks. We see Heather at one of the cheer stations and she asks if we have seen #1... Um, we figured she was WAY ahead of us. Strange.

2.25 miles in and STILL SMILING!!

Once we get out of the park area, there is a downhill, quick run through a tunnel, and she says she is getting tired. I set the goal of running until we get to the big hill on the other side of the tunnel. She gets there and decides, nope, I'll just keep running!

Yep. Everyone else is walking.

All of a sudden, #1 comes up behind us. I get a few pictures of the, because they are SO CUTE. :D

I announce that we only have about a half mile to go. #1 says, "OK, I'm going to run now" and she takes off. So does A. Not just at a normal A run pace, but a FAST pace. I look at my watch, and the kid is running a 9 minute pace chasing down #1. SO INCREDIBLY AWESOME!! I am actually working to keep up with them. It is so cool to hear what people say when she runs by "look at that little girl dressed like Ariel, she is so cute!" and "that little girl is so fast!" Yep!

Loved the characters dressed in Star Wars costumes!

#1 stops to walk for a brief minute and we are able to catch up to her. We get close to the finish line and of course A wants to catch up again. I have to work to cross the finish line with her! She absolutely ROCKED this race, and the last mile that she did is her fastest pace EVER. What a rock star!! My garmin claims we weren't moving about 4 minutes of the time (seems about right) so technically this was faster than her first one, but eh, circumstances has it a bit slower.

Time - 46:16

Distance - 3.13 miles

Pace - 14:48

Mile 1 - 16:19 (congestion)

Mile 2 - 15:29 (pictures)

Mile 3 - 12:45 (AWESOME)

Mile 3.1 - 11:57 (Rock Star!!)

She earned this one!

I think the best part about this race is that we both had fun the entire time. During her first 5K she was pretty unhappy the last mile. She paced herself better this time and enjoyed herself!! She never wanted to quit and she was smiling and saying "this is the best race ever." So great.

Courtesy of Brightroom.... here are some of our race pics. LOVE.THEM.

We headed to get a finisher picture and then walked about a quarter mile to Downtown Disney to meet everyone. (Weird that there was no spectators at the finish?)

#1, Me, A

Next up on the agenda was our super awesome bloggy breakfast! We were starved of course. Most of us had french toast. Kid size.

I finally got to meet the super awesome RAD RUNNER - who also brought gifts of GU. So... rad! We were planning on spending the day in the park, so after a quick group picture, we parted ways.

Heather, #1, Fruit Fly, #2, Me, A, Rad, H

Have I mentioned that I was obsessing about sparkle skirts? So. Yeah. We made a SUPER QUICK trip back to the expo to get sparkle skirts (L and I got silver, A got teal), and then me, A, L and H headed to the Magic Kingdom! This was H's first trip to Disney. Does she look properly excited??

Heading into the park, A wanted to give just ONE more reminder of how awesome her race was earlier!

Immediately we see Pluto! This would turn out to be the only character picture the kids did all day. They wanted Minnie but a cast member cut off the line right before we got there. Bummer.

Heading into the castle!

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride!

Me and A on the Storybook Cruise. I don't even remember seeing this ride before. It was actually a really cool little boat ride where they had little replicas of different scenes in various Disney movies. One of my favorites!

We did a quick trip over to "It's a Small World" - which I will admit is STILL one of my favorite rides. Then we decided we needed a quick bite to eat. We had been texting with Fruit Fly (who was planning on meeting up with us in the afternoon) and oddly enough ran into her by the carousel while we were getting food. We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon with her and "Rose." FUN! The other rides we felt we HAD to go on were the Star Tours and Pirates. Heading over there we saw that the line for the Matterhorn was short, so we did that one again:

Me and Fruit Fly

A got this awesome picture, but H was too scared:

The line for the Toy Story experience wasn't very long, so we headed there. I bet with a little practice, A could TOTALLY smoke "Rose."

We had bloggy dinner at Cheesecake Factory planned so we did a quick few rides on our way out. Pirates of the Carribean (of course), and one of A's favorites, the Jungle Cruise:

A wanted ONE more picture before heading out of the park...

So we make the walk to the Cheesecake Factory, which is a bit further away than any of us really thought. The kids are a bit tired and whiny, but we get there only a few minutes late. Of course we are the last people there (sorry!) and all the REAL excitement started.

I adore the Cheesecake Factory. L and I of course ordered our "Dairy Trifecta" - grilled cheese, mac n' cheese, and a slice of cheesecake (Hershey this time). YUM!!

Of course there was awesome conversation, we had a GREAT time. It is so nice to finally put a face to the names! Quick bloggy people pic, then we had to head out to get the kids ready for their slumber party with Heather's husband. (Have I mentioned how RAD he is yet??)

Heather with Gabs, Rose behind me, Elisabeth, Fruit Fly, #2 in red, A with "Rose" and #1 down front

L and I speed walked back to the hotel. After passing the kids off to her husband, we got everything ready for race day. I got my beer:

Which once again was too big for me to drink. Damn. I'm such a light weight now. Fireworks right on time at 9:30, but I think we were all in bed by 10:15ish. (PS, Heather, I checked, we got up at 3 in Florida, so we got over an HOUR more sleep here!)