Disneyland Half Marathon 2013 Race Recap
I had not trained for a half marathon since May when I ran the OC Half Marathon. I wasn’t planning on doing the runDisney Disneyland Half Marathon but the opportunity came up at the last minute.
I immediately put myself on a training plan, and added in some longer routines to my casual running routine that I was already doing. And the best part, I was going to be on a week long vacation in Yosemite leading right up to the day before the race.
I got home the Friday night before the race, and made my way to the expo the next day.
Getting my bib for the race and seeing all the other runners made it real. I was a wee bit tired from being in Yosemite all week and surviving the drive home the night prior but I got my stuff.
I have worked on my costume for the race prior to leaving for Yosemite. Kelly helped me come up with the idea, and she also helped with a bit of the crafting.
I dressed up at Alice in Wonderland’s “White Rabbit” for the race. I wore a gunmetal Sparkle Athletic skirt and Sparkle Athletic Visor. I had bought a raglan style shirt and Kelly had sewn on a sparkly heart. She also made me a blue collar to attach to my shirt. She didn’t permanently attach the collar to the shirt, in case it bothered me when I was running. I bought a bunny tail and ears on Amazon. I actually sewed the ears to the interior of the visor, which caused lots of cursing on my part during the process. But it all worked out in the long run.
I stayed in a hotel the night before with The Alice in Wonderland crew! We had this fun photo taken prior to the start of the race in the early morning darkness. Elise was the Cheshire Cat, Carrie the Mad Hatter, and Kelly was Alice in Wonderland.
We then got into our corrals. runDisney places people into corrals for their races based on estimated finish times. Obviously my speedy friends were in corral “A” and I had gotten moved to corral “D”.
The best part of runDisney races is all of the photo opportunities with the characters. I got a picture of Hamm and me while running through Disney’s California Adventure.
I was running at a decent pace so far, but I knew that the heat would be coming soon. The lines were short for photographs with the characters so I thought I would stop and take some photos.
What a great view on my run! World of Color is so bright and cheerful. I love the rainbow of colors!
And I made have done this after passing the World of Color….
And then I kept running…
The last time I did a race at Disneyland was The Tinkerbell Half Marathon in January. I had a little post traumatic stress from that race because my knee went out while I was running through Disneyland. It seriously just locked up. After going to an awesome physical therapist after the races, I learned that I had problems with my psoas and worked on stretching more.
I made some new friends along the race course…a few of them are pictured below…
And then the sun came out. The sun was blazing. I already expected a hot day, but I wasn’t quite sure how hot it would be while I was running. I would say that the sun hit me full force around miles 6 or 7, and it never ever went away.
We made it through the streets, around The Honda Center, during the river trail and then through Anaheim Stadium. It was amazing to hear everyone cheering on the runners while running through Anaheim Stadium.
After running through the stadium, we headed back towards Disney’s California Adventure, well the path around the park actually. We were in the final stretch of the race, and it couldn’t come soon enough. I was dying from the heat!
But as we came through Downtown Disney, I knew that I was almost done. Of course, I was also watching the mileage on my Garmin too.
Even though I was slightly dying inside, I put on a happy face as I ran past all of the spectators cheering us on to the finish!
I waited in line for several minutes to take a post race photograph. I had a group of people before me whom were taking multiple photos (at least 20, it was ridiculous).
Rather than a White Rabbit, I look like a drowned rat in this photograph. My shirt was completely soaked with water. My hair and visor was a mess, but I finished.
This was definitely not a PR race. I’m just happy that I survived and finished! I’ve decided that summer races are not my thing. Too much heat, yikes!
I even got a photo with Alice in Wonderland post race. We were on our way back to the hotel, which seemed like a whole other race, because of the heat!
I seriously loved the race even with the heat, etc. and totally recommend it. You have just got to catch the registration when it comes up. It sells out quickly. I always recommend runDisney races for a first half marathon.
My next half marathon is actually another runDisney event. I’m doing the Wine and Dine Half Marathon which will also be my Coast to Coast Race.
Have you ever ran a runDisney race? Would you ever think of doing one? Would you run in costume?
Disclosure: I received an entry for this race free of charge. I was not compensated with any cash. All opinions and photographs are mine. I love runDisney events and Disney so anytime I get to go there, I have a blast!
