2013 Disneyland Half Marathon

Before I begin this post, let me stop for a moment to pay my respects to the men and women who lost their lives on 9-11.

My heart continues to go out to their family and friends as we approach 12 years since the attacks. May we never forget. God Bless America.

------------------------------------------------------------

If you haven’t already, please check out my previous Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend posts:

• Expo Review
• Expo Vlog
• Disneyland 10K Review
• Disneyland 10K Vlog

One of my favorite things about the races of  Disneyland was the fact that I could wake up at a “decent” race morning time and walk right to the start line – it was perfect!

On the morning of the half, I met up with Scott at the Magic Ears (Disneyland Hotel) and we began the short trek to our corral. Thankfully, there were no mishaps in making it to our corral and we were able to squeeze into A before it filled up! 

We weren’t in our corral long before I heard my name…

It was Tweedle Mom and Tweedle Daughter aka the lovely ladies of We Run Disney! So glad I was able to see them before the race! Aren’t their outfits adorable?

Before the race, Carissa interviewed Joey about the VMA’s – she asked him which was harder, training for a marathon or keeping the VMA’s a secret. He definitely verified that keeping the VMA’s a secret was the harder of the two!

With a countdown start complete with fireworks, we were off!

Here we goooooo!

The route for the Half Marathon led us down a similar path as the 10K the day before – we ran near the Good Neighbor hotels before entering California Adventure park. As we neared the park, I heard someone running up behind us saying, “JOEY JOEY JOEY”! I turned around and it was Daniel and Jenn!

Of course I had to take a picture with Jenn!  We were super excited to see each other! Fun times! By the way, we were super sweaty and it wasn’t even mile 2 yet. Lovely.

Oh yeah, and about the Daniel/Joey thing…I soon realized that Joey Fatone was running just a few steps behind us! Craziness!

Before entering California Adventure, we noticed several parade floats lined up in the backstage area. Pretty nifty!

Loved seeing World of Color all lit up…and with hardly anyone around, too!

Yay for Mile 2!

I absolutely love this statue. It depicts Walt in the early part of his career, when he first moved to Hollywood. So much anticipation and excitement of things to come – and I was dressed as a Mousketeer! Perfect!

After leaving California Adventure park, we made our way to Disneyland.

Main Street!

We stopped for several characters during our journey through Disneyland Park.

Storm Troopers

Snow White

Merida! I was most excited about this one!

Captain Hook and Mr. Smee on the Carousel were cracking me up! I’ve seen characters on rides in commercials but never for myself!

Ok, pause for a second here – I have a funny story about Joey. Remember how I mentioned he was right near us earlier in the race? Well, after passing him outside of California Adventure, I noticed that he passed us as we were waiting in line for characters in California Adventure. This back and forth thing happened for several miles. Finally I told Scott, “I can’t take it anymore! I’m going to take a picture with him!” :0)

I ran up beside him and asked if I could snap a quick picture. He was super nice and agreed…and this was the outcome of picture #1…..

FAIL!

He saw the picture and told me he would get behind me instead….

…and that’s the story of how I was photo bombed by Joey Fatone. Ok, so maybe it wasn’t a TRUE photo bombing, but I’ll take it! This picture is all kind of amazingness wrapped in one. If I could go back and tell my 16 year old self everything that transpired during the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend, I would probably laugh in disbelief!

Ok, moving on! :0)

As we ran out of Disneyland and into Anaheim, the sun began to make its appearance.

Before we knew it, we were at Mile 5.

Disney had several bands, cheerleader groups, and dancers along the course to keep us motivated and they were GREAT!

Do you see what I mean? Back and forth for several miles! I do believe this was the last time we saw them, though! He ran this race Galloway style with his wife and his friend.

Halfway there!

This tent marked the official halfway point of the race. They were SO nice and gave out orange slices (a nice cool treat in the California heat) and twizzlers!

I was so excited about my twizzler, I wasn’t paying attention and I BUSTED my tail feathers. As in, the ground shifted out from underneath me and suddenly I was laying on it. I slipped on a very slippery puddle and couldn’t catch myself. Thankfully, my left arm/hip caught my fall and I didn’t hurt anything. Several runners were SO nice and stopped by to make sure I was ok and didn’t need anything. I think I was more shocked than anything, especially since I’ve only ever fallen while running once before (at my house in the dark). I felt like a complete moron but oh well. I was ok, still able to run, and my ears stayed in place (thank goodness for bobby pins) and that’s all that mattered! Yay!

Since I slipped and fell in a puddle, my entire left side was wet, including my shoes. Yuck. Squishy shoes and I aren’t friends nless I’m running in a downpour! Lucky for me, Scott was ahead and missed the entire thing.

As we continued our run, we soon met up with an entire road of classic cars!

The Mustang club was even out to cheer us on!

We passed the Honda Center on our route, too!

Loved this mock of Lightning McQueen!

I absolutely loved the classic car area. I think part of what made it even more special to me is the fact that the spectators knew who I was dressed as! Several of them were “excited” to see “me” aka Mousketeer Karen. One lady even gasped and said, “You were my favorite!”

Loved it!

We left the cars behind and made our way to Angel Stadium.

First, we ran along a deep ravine and Scott said, “I didn’t know a trail run was included in this!” Guess we missed out on Hill training workouts AND Trail run workouts! Ah well, we know for next time! (On a serious note, this really wasn’t a “trail”, it was more like a sandy/rocky area before we met up with pavement again.)

The above and below photos were taken by Scott….thanks for sharing! 

As we reached Mile 9 and Angel Stadium, the lifetime baseball fan inside of me screamed! Apart from running in the parks, this was the one moment I was looking forward to the most!

Angels Stadium of Anaheim…home of the Anaheim Angels (gee, did you guess that one already?)

As we ran into the park, we were greeted with hundreds of screaming spectators. I LOVED how this was set up! I almost felt as if we were running into a stadium full of adoring fans. I had a momentary day dream that I was a major league ball player, running onto the warning track before my first career appearance. Maybe it was the heat? I don’t know…but I laughed at myself as soon as I snapped out of it!

What I saw of this field was beautiful! I would love to go back and attend a game one day!

Our time in Angels stadium was far too short lived. I made sure to enjoy every moment, and I cracked up at the lady in front of me who was trying to take a piece of grass from the field with her. Not sure if she ever succeeded on that one or not!

I took this photo for one of my BRF’s, Heather. Yeah, she knows she loves the Pujoles!

The miles beyond Angel Stadium led us back towards Downtown Disney and the finish line.

We ran through this really long tunnel and I did NOT try to hold my breath (I probably would have passed out!).

Mice on the loose!

This sign cracked us up so we had to stop for a picture! TRUTH!!

I thought this guy’s costume was too funny! He was a monster from Monsters Inc, and he had a sock pinned to his back! (If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about!)

Made it to Mile 12! Almost there!

We ran past the backside of Racers on our way to Downtown Disney.

At this point, I began to feel really tired and my legs felt like lead. I didn’t want to continue running, I wanted to walk…but because Scott was still moving, so was I. I’m grateful for him being there, he helped me finish the race on a strong note.

Finish line!

With a time of 2:33, I officially gained a new runDisney PR! If you followed my previous runDisney race reports, you saw that I liked to stop and take pictures and goof off during runDisney races. Well, this race felt like it was half runDisney (fun) and half “real” (run hard)  to me…hence the reason for a faster race time! I really liked the layout of this race, it was definitely different from any runDisney race I had run in the past!

After crossing the finish line, I was given my Disneyland Half medal and a chill towel for cool down purposes – such a nice and unexpected treat!

We grabbed water, then walked over to the Dumbo Double Dare tent for our Dumbo medal, then to the Coast to Coast tent for our Coast to Coast medal! After a year of training, it felt amazing to finally have that Coast to Coast medal around my neck!

Scott and I posed for a few pictures after the race with our Coast to Coast, Disneyland Half, and Dumbo Double Dare Medals, then said our goodbyes! I had a great time running with Scott in Disney World for Goofy’s Challenge and again in Disneyland for Dumbo’s Double Dare. Thanks for being a great running buddy (and a good sport with photo taking), Scott!

After saying goodbye to Scott, Jason and I just happened to be near the stage during the awards ceremony, so we stopped to watch!

Top 3 male finishers

Top 3 female finishers! Cindy is in the middle – she was last year’s DL Half winner and she placed 2nd this year! Amazing!

This Mousketeer was excited about earning ALL of her medals over the Half Marathon Weekend. Receiving the Coast to Coast medal was like a dream come true! I never thought I would be in possession of one and I’m so grateful that everything worked out for us to go!

My reason for Coast to Coast….Goofy’s Challenge and Dumbo’s Double Dare!

A few thoughts on the Half:

• I loved this course – I loved how it was half Disney parks and half in Anaheim. I especially LOVED running through Angels Stadium. I have no complaints about this course at all!
• This course contained plenty of fluids and electrolytes. I’ll admit, I was slightly worried after the 10K the day before, but I had nothing to worry about! I never felt as if water or electrolytes were in short supply!
• There were plenty of characters out and about to see while in the parks!
• Loved the extra on-course entertainment (bands, cheerleaders, dancers, and classic cars)
• There’s just something about Disney races that other races don’t have – I guess it’s the atmosphere and excitement of it all, people dressed in costumes, and the pure magic of running down main street and through the castle.

Overall, this was a fantastic race and I had a great time! I would run this race again in a heartbeat! Thanks runDisney for another amazing experience!

Have you ever run the Disneyland Half? What were your thoughts on the race? Did you like the course?