Disneyland 1/2 marathon

On Sunday Sept 5th I ran the Disneyland 1/2 marathon. It was the second time I have run this race. We flew to California on the 1st. We wanted time to hang out in the parks before the race. We stayed at the Grand Californian. Wow, what a fabulous hotel. Spent lots of time in Disneyland & California Adventure.


On Saturday the 4th we attended a Team AllEars meetup at the the Paradise Pier hotel. Got to meet and talk with Deb Wills, the founder of AllEars.net and some other team AllEars teammates.

Race day we got up at 4:30AM got dressed & ate some breakfast. Once we were ready to go we walked from the hotel to the starting corrals. There were runners & walkers every where. I went to my corral & Pam went to her corral. The race started at 6am. By about 6:15 I was crossing the start line. First couple of miles I ran at an easy warm up pace as we ran through backstage California adventure. One we crossed over to Disneyland I was good and loose and picked up my speed some. My goal was to run miles 3 through 9 at 9:00 to 9:30 pace.

Miles 1 through 4 took you through both theme parks and then it was on to the streets of Anaheim. We ran through the industrial area of the city. At mile 8 we ran by the Honda center (where the Mighty Ducks play) and then on to the Sana Anna trail headed towards the big "A" where the Angels play. It was a blast getting to run in the ballpark. Once out of the ballpark, we got to mile 10. I wanted to run the last 4 miles sub 9:00. Near the finish we went ran back into the California adventure (backstage) headed for the finish line. We left DCA, ran around the Paradise Pier hotel turned up Disneyland drive and I could see the finish line. I crossed the line with a time of 2:02:39. This was a 12 minute PR for me. I was pretty jazzed & pumped up over how well the run went. I crossed the line got my medal & then found the Coast to Coast medal stop, picked that up and went back to the finish area to wait for Pam to complete her first 1/2 marathon.

It was real neat seeing her come aroound the corner after she finished knowing she had completed the race with time to spare. We walked to the medal stop & Pam got her medal.

We got in line to have our picture taken together with our medals and then headed for the food line. We found a spot where we could take our pictures with the 5th anniversary backdrop and snapped a couple of pictures with our bling.

This is the 2nd time I have gone to Disneyland for the Coast to Coast medal. Will I do it a 3rd time, absolutely. We had just as much fun this year as last and we are already looking forward to doing it again next year.

Thanks for reading.

Til next time, run strong & enjoy the moment

Running at Disneyland Part 3

Day three was an easy day, as it was the day before the race. We went to DCA and rode some rides, watched the Aladdin live show and pretty much took it easy. We ate dinner in Downtown Disney at a bakery which was serving a special pasta meal meal for the race. The lasagna was outstanding. It was off to bed early.

Day four, Race Day. We got up at 4:45 to eat some breakfast. The night before we bought some breakfast items at White Water snacks. I got dressed, ate breakfast and about 5:30 we walked outside. The weather was perfect for running. The sky was overcast and it was not to terribly hot yet. I said good bye to Pam and walked with a crowd of runners to where my start corral was on Disneyland Drive. At 6am straight up the start gun went off. It took me about 12 minutes to get to the start line. Mickey & Minnie we there. Just after the start line, Goofy was waving to us from the monorail which was parked on the track above the drive


We ran down Disneyland drive turned left onto Katella Ave, then left onto Harbor Blvd. We then went into the backstage of DCA. We wound our way through DCA across the esplanade and into Disneyland going directly backstage.

It was neat getting to see what it looks like backstage. We ran through fantasy land, through the Castle, around New Orleans square, pass the Haunted Mansion and left Disneyland through Critter Country. We ran the streets of Anaheim until we got to Angel stadium. Man was that cool getting to run inside there

There was huge crowd of people in the stands cheering us on. We left the stadium and only had about 3 miles left to finish. When we got back to Disney, we ran again backstage at DCA coming out near the front entrance of the Grand Californian. Pam snapped a picture of me as I exited DCA heading for the finish.
We ran down and around the Paradise Hotel and finished the race on a service drive near the Disneyland Hotel.
I ran it in 2:21:08. I got my finishers medal, the castle medal, then got in line to get my C to C medal. I was able to keep the wristband as a souvenir. Next I got my picture taken by the Disney folks and then began looking for Pam in the family reunion area. Once we found each other, we made our way back to the Grand Californian. We both put on clothes we did not care about getting wet and went directly to the Grizzly River ride in DCA. It was really neat that we could get into DCA from the Grand Californian. We rode the ride, went back to the room, I showered then we were off to the park again. We spent most of the rest of the day going between the 2 parks riding rides and shopping. We finished our trip by watching Magical again at Disneyland. We had an 8am flight the next morning home.

We both had great time on this trip. It had been 8 years since our previous visit to Disneyland. A lot had changed and there are many changes in the works at DCA. Before leaving to go to Disneyland I told Pam I only wanted to do this one time. On our flight home I expressed to her that I wanted to do it again next year. The picture below says it all!!!

In just a couple of weeks, I will start my training for the 2010 WDW 1/2 marathon. I can't wait.

Thanks for reading.

Til next time, run strong & enjoy the moment.