Friday Five: Star Wars Half Marathon Favorites

For those of you running the second Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend, I can not stress enough just how jealous I am and I feel sort of bitter and hateful. Just keepin' it real.

 

Star Wars Half 2015

 

I ran the inaugural Star Wars Half last year and it was amazeballs. I skipped the challenge because at the time I was so over the challenges. I was a wee bit sad about not having the awesome 10K medal, though. The challenge medal was just meh in my opinion.

Side note: Star Wars is the last half marathon I have run, can you believe it? I was there for Wine & Dine in November, but as you all know already, that course was shortened into a 6.72 miler. I guess I needed a break from racing.

So here are my top 5 favorite things about the Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend.

1. The Expo

The Star Wars expo is like any other runDisney expo, except you have runDisney nerds and Star Wars nerds in one location. I really wish I had taken more pictures at the expo because I saw some funny shit.

 

There were plenty of opportunities for photo opps, though, and I'm not good at taking advantage of them!! I need to get better at doing this.

2. Everything is in close proximity

One thing I love about races at Disneyland is the ease of getting around. No waiting for buses or monorails (although, technically, you can take the monorail at Disneyland, but it's not all that useful for the most part as transportation.)

This is excellent for pre-race hydrating

The expo is at the Disneyland Hotel and it's a short walk to Downtown Disney and one of my favorite places: House of Blues. When you're at the House of Blues, you must wear sunglasses inside. Or you've had several glasses of champagne and you think it makes you look cool. Which, in this case, it totally does.

Gotta rest those legs!

It's also close to the movie theater, which is where we spent our afternoon before the race. I'm fairly certain we saw Into The Woods.

3. The Weather

January in Anaheim is usually gorgeous. It's not too cold and not too hot. Basically, it's the perfect race for Goldilocks. This year is an El Niño year, meaning the southwest (AZ included) is having a pretty wet winter, so hopefully, the weather will be good this weekend.

Last year, we got to see the most perfect sunset you could imagine during the race. It almost caused a collision on the course in DCA coming through the tunnel in Carsland because everyone came to a screeching halt, it was that stunning. These pictures don't do it justice.

Back lot of DCA behind Screamin'

 

The sunrise with the neon signs was just so cool

4. Course Entertainment

I know a lot of people don't like the fact that a big portion of the courses at Disneyland are off property, but I like it for the additional course support. Apparently, Disney hired cosplay people for the course (I don't exactly know what cosplay is or what they do, but that's what I was told.) Anyway, lots of fun stuff happening on the course.

5. Everything

That's sort of a cop out answer for number five, but this race was absolutely awesome last year. I loved every minute of it. I really should have signed up this year, but I spent a week at WDW for Wine & Dine, so I thought I should give my wallet a break. Sadly, I doubt I'll be able to do it next year, either, since I have big plans to tackle the WDW Marathon for the second time.

I strongly recommend this race. If you want to do it, DO IT!!

I'm linking this post with girls from Friday Five.

 

Posted with Blogsy