Disneyland Half Marathon Sept 2012

Once upon a time, in a land far away called Anaheim...

The Disneyland Half Marathon is my favorite race. (Although Tinkerbell may climb into the first place slot since the weather is so much better and the park is 100 times less crowded.)

In 2010, I ran my very first half marathon at this race. I had wanted to PR at the 2011 race, but I got really, really sick in the middle of the race and literally walked the entire second half. (No way I wasn't getting my medal or my Coast to Coast!). Also, I was distracted by a lot of real life stuff at that time, so my training was, well, pretty lacking.

Anyway, I really wanted to PR this year. Then I had some more life drama and didn't run for the two weeks right before the race. Oopsy. But all of my marathon training before that saved my ass. And I got my PR!!! Happy 3 year runniversary to me!

So, there's not a lot of pictures for this recap. Sorry about that. The course has been different during the park portion all 3 years that I have run this race because Disney California has been under construction for several years. I think I like this year's course the best.

And for some reason, I didn't even take pictures of anything at the start line. Maybe it was because I was cutting it close, time wise, and I was trying to find a friend of mine that was assigned the same corral. By the time I finally pushed and shoved my way over to her, it was almost time to start.

I don't remember all of the course differences, but I do remember that we ran through the castle going the other direction. It also seemed like we spent more time on Disney property this year and the back stage route was different.

My favorite part of the back stage section is running by the horses, of course. There was a pair of draft horses playing together in the turnout and cast members had brought a couple of horses up to a gate for pictures and it was really tempting to stop for a pic with them, but I was on a mission!!

I won't bore you with all of the mile by mile details. Plus, I don't remember them. I do remember that the really long stretch of boringness on the streets of Anaheim was different this year because people had brought out a bunch a fancy classic cars to line the roads. Miles 5-9 are incredibly boring and the cars gave me something to look at.

Traditional Mile 10 pic

Running through Angel Stadium is great, too. It's almost as cool as the park portion of the run. And then back to Disney we go! I knew at about mile 10 it would be easy to PR. But now I wanted to break into the 2:30s and I did it by the skin of my teeth. Seven seconds, to be exact. But who cares, right?

My sister has come down to see me cross the finish line, which was cool of her!



I ran in my first Sparkle Skirt!

We also went to Rain Forest Cafe in Downtown Disney so I could inhale some breakfast. And wow, did I inhale it. Also, they kept bringing us more and more toast. Which was weird and would have been awesome if I could eat toast...

After breakfast, I went back to the hotel and tried to nap, but I couldn't sleep, so I went down to the Magic Kingdom to hang out with my sister and her husband, Adam.



Melissa and me. Not sure why my hair looks like that.

I also discovered that Disney is really accommodating to people with food allergies. So I had some gluten free pizza at Pizza Port in Tomorrowland. It's probably the best gluten free pizza that I have had.

I tore off a chunk before I remembered to take a picture..

We mostly took it easy and wandered around. I have to say, that the iPhone 4S has a pretty damn good camera (until something requires a flash.)

My next Disney race will be the Goofy Challenge in January so I couldn't resist the Goofy statue pic!

So excited to finally have a new PR. It's about time...

Also check out my recaps of the Cars Land 5K Rally and The Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend Expo.