Tinkerbell Half Marathon Expo

Last week, I spent five days with some awesome people in Disneyland for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon. I don't usually recap expos anymore, but Tinkerbell's expo was the best runDisney expo I have experienced for awhile.

I was the first of our trio of awesome to arrive in Anaheim, so I quickly checked into our room, took a weirdly angled selfie for no good reason, put on my iPod, and began the trek across the universe to a land far, far away (a.k.a. The Disneyland Hotel) to participate in the Tinkerbell Half Marathon Expo Hunger Games.

Narcissistic Selfie.

I have to say, I'm really disappointed in the lack of bloodshed at the expo. I was totally ready to represent my district in mortal combat if tiaras and glitter started flying.

Actual picture of me.

But it was so civilized. Can you believe it? I mean, wasn't there an actual fist fight or something at the Princess Half Marathon expo? When I was at the Wine & Dine expo, it was a shit show.

Front doors to the ESPN building at W&D

 

I arrived at the expo at about noon, so it had already been open for awhile. It was still packed, of course, but the CMs at Disneyland have gotten their shit together since the Inaugural Dumbo Double Dare weekend, when all shit broke loose and small children were devoured by merchandise crazed people.

Dumbo Double Dare 2013

When I first walked into the hotel, the merch line seemed incredibly short. I felt a wave of euphoria pass over me as I thought, now I can BUY ALL THE THINGS AND NOT HAVE TO WAIT!!! But no. That was not the case. I was directed to go down to the lower level of the parking structure where the end of the line was.

The Disney Dungeon

 

So yeah. There was a huge line down there. But. It totally didn't suck. It was calm and quiet and organized. No one got punched in the kidneys or stabbed with a shiv.

Wait, what? We can behave like civilized beasts?! Who knew? I'm across the way in another huge group of people.

This is where I think Disneyland won the expo war. Each taped off line had probably 30-40 people in it. Rather than have a really long line creeping along and wrecking your back for the rest of the weekend, they just moved the groups upstairs by section.

 

I seriously suck at selfies.

The benefit to this format was that we could sit down and be off of our feet. I was in line for probably an hour, listening to my iPod, and I wasn't in a horrible, cranky mood when we were moved upstairs. That constant creeping along makes me insane. I was perfectly happy to sit down until it was our group's turn to move upstairs.

Finally, it was our turn to head up, and there was another line to get into the merch booth, but it was relatively short.

Once we were finally in the booth, I was expecting a scene similar to one from the Walking Dead, with carnage and weapons.

 

 

But again, it was like a normal shopping experience. They were already out of wine glasses, but everything else seemed to be in decent supply.

 

I bought more than I probably should have. I didn't take pictures of my loot, but I got the jacket, a half marathon tech shirt, a pin and a mug. Here's a picture that Abby took of me wearing the jacket after I got picked "randomly" for the hundredth time for extra security screening to get into the parks.

The other parts of the expo were fine, too. We had some fun photo opportunities.

Me, Abby and Adrienne

 

Pandora had a booth where they printed pictures with wings

 

And, of course, the area for the race itself. The lighting is always terrible here.

 

Adrienne, Abby and Moi

 

I also took a couple of photos of the WDW Marathon Medal from this year for motivation for 2017. Eeeek!

 

 

Crazy hair don't care.

 

All in all, I actually enjoyed my time at the expo for this race. I didn't feel all ragey and murdery. I did spend more than I planned, but since I have backed way off on my racing, I have a renewed compulsion to buy everything in sight.

 

Did anyone else have a pleasant experience at the Tink expo or did I just get super lucky with my timing?

 

 

Posted with Blogsy