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!)