Disneyland Half Expo and Race recap

Sorry, this didn't get to you yesterday, Monday was well, a Monday.

On with the show!  I forgot to say that at the meetup, we were given our shirts (which were HUGE! I wore it for the first time yesterday and it was WAY too big, who'd have known I would need a SMALL?!) and bibs ahead of time but were urged to visit the expo anyways.  I knew I'd still need to go to the expo to get hubby's bib and get some official merchandise.  So, we went to the expo Friday afternoon and picked up his stuff and then I picked up a Coast to Coast shirt, a "I'm only Half Crazy" Disneyland Half long sleeved shirt and a race pin since I hadn't been able to get one since I was late registering.

Then, I walked over to the runDisney booth and finally got to see this bad boy in person and in action! Here is some video of the 20th Mickey Medal I took!  Can't believe I'm willing to run 26.2 miles to get it, but I totally am!

Coast to Coast wristband, shirt, Expo carpet and Tower of Terror medal

I walked around the expo for quite a while, looking at the booths, getting my free Lasting Commemoratives poster, trying stuff out, it was a good expo.  We ended up going back Saturday after talking to Katie & her husband at lunch and hearing good reviews on the Yurbuds.  Jason & I both ended up getting a pair, his blue, and mine, unbeknownst to me until we got back to the room IRONMAN branded.  What the heck?  I guess I'll have to add IronMan events to my list of athletic to-do's so I don't seem like an impostor! (Oh my word did I even just say that?!)

Anyways, at that point, we were all set for the race!

Sunday morning, we woke up and hit the road to walk over to the Disneyland Hotel to queue up for the start.  It was early and there was a tiny nip in the air but not enough to make me excited.  We waited in the staging area for awhile for my friend Susan but she was running behind, so we got a quick picture snapped:

Sorry for the crummy quality

and then we walked over to the corrals.  I was hoping for cooler conditions but oh well.  We waited and waited and finally heard the first corral, then the others begin to go.  On the long walk to the starting line, we ended up seeing Katie and her husband again!  What are the odds?! Random but fun!

So finally, we got to the starting line, I started MapMyRun and we were off!  We passed our hotel before mile 1 and shortly after I tossed the tutu.  Note to self, if running in a tutu, make it short!  Mine was too long and kept going between my legs.  So, stripped of the tutu, I was more free to run and we rounded into the backstage area behind California adventure and that's where I took these photos:

Incredibles float backstage

Ham Float backstage

Coming out of the backstage area into Paradise Pier

Then we rounded our way into Paradise Pier, the first part of the race on Disney parks proper!

Paradise Pier

World of Color

In the shot above, you can see World of Color going.  I don't think I even caught that, EatSleepRunDisney told me about it later at the TouringPlans meetup and after looking at these photos I realized she was right! Then, we ran through CarsLand!

Carsland/Route 66!

Right at this point, Jason needed to take a potty break so we ran into the bathrooms behind Sarge's Supply.  He didn't see me follow him so there was a little freakout when we couldn't find each other, but all was well within a few seconds.  (I realize now that if 1-I hadn't taken some of these pictures and 2-we hadn't stopped for this potty break, I would've PRed, but oh well, it was fun and I'm glad to have these shots!)

Blurry photo, but Red was out, I like him :)

Hollywood Studios Area

As far as running goes, I was already feeling hot and gross.  It was really fun to be running in the parks and with Jason though, so we just kept on running!  We were running 1 minute:walking 30 seconds I think?  It's been too far back now for me to be sure!

My favorite ride!!! Wish it had been open!

I don't watch this show, but I know a lot of people like it, so here ya go!

After this point, I can't remember exactly which route we took to get into Disneyland, but somehow, we got over there and we ran through the backstage area which had all of the Mainstreet Vehicles lined up!

It's partly blocked, but they had all of the Main Street Vehicles out!

Then, we rounded our way onto Main Street USA!  In the picture below, you can see the Princess & The Frog Riverboat Float (LOVE that movie!!)

Main Street USA

I see the Castle!!!

At this point, we were right by the riverboat and we snapped this shot

Mile 3!

We kept on through the Frontierland area and then rounded our way into Fantasyland.

See the Pirates riding the Carousel?! Love that!!

The castle corridor was so small & congested, we had to WALK through it. Boo.

Manny The Monorail is saying hi!

Merida!!

Daisy & I'm not sure the name of the female chipmunk?

After this, we left Toontown and went backstage.  That was it for the parks, it covered more ground than the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom portion, but it still felt short (running through Disney parks always do) I wish they could get every square inch of a half into the parks, how awesome would that be?  I mean it's totally  not feasible, but... That's the advantage of a Walt Disney World race, more property means more Disney themed entertainment throughout the course.  But we weren't off property yet.  They had the horses out!

My sister rides horses so I thought of her when I saw this :) Love ya Katie!

After this, we left Disneyland Property and began running the streets of Anaheim!  My biggest gripe: we ran INTO the sun a majority of the way.  It was pretty blinding.  I wish they had designed the course backwards, with the sun at our backs, but I trust there was some unknown reason for the way it was designed, but it gave me slight raccoon eye sunburn.

I love this shot. So much.

The above shot shows the intensity of the early morning sun.  It made for a great shot, but not great running conditions!  But, we soldiered on!

Runners behind me (I wasn't last yay!)

Entertainment along the course!

I loved this sign along the course!

We just kept running and walking, and running and walking, for what felt like miles!  Oh wait, it WAS!  It was sunny, it was hot, but we were getting closer and closer little by little!  My least favorite part of the route was the path along the "river" (it was a drainage ditch ok Californians?!) that was dirt.  It was dry and dusty and I got gravel in my shoes, which isn't so fun when you have to run a few more miles.  But, we got to the stadium and there were Boy and Girl Scouts lining the path cheering us on! They were so cute!

Angel Stadium! You can see the Boy Scouts along the side!

Then, we went down through the tunnel and out onto the field!!! I'm pretty sure it was my favorite part of the whole race, even more-so than running through the Disneyland Parks.  Rounding that corner, hearing the cheers, it was magical and I shed one tear.  Just one.  I had too much salt on my face from sweating, I didn't need anymore!!

High Fives from the Girl Scouts!

The crowd cheering us on at Angel Stadium

Jason & I-take 1

I took 2 pictures of us here, one with the home plate in the background, and one with the marquee with the Disneyland Half Logo on it:

Disneyland Half Logo on the Marquee

Jason & I-take 2 :)

and with that, Jason was tired of me taking pictures and I just wanted to focus on finishing.  Also, by this point, it was the farthest Jason had ever run!  We only trained up to about 8.5 miles before the race and so the last few miles wasn't as smooth-sailing as it could have been if we had trained farther, distance-wise.  We passed quite a few more cheerleaders, a dude with a cowbell, and a school band or two.   When we got to mile 12 we were on Disney property again, running through the backstage area, I told Jason I might need to walk more than run.  But, I didn't really end up doing that.  I knew it was his first race and I had held him up with picture taking and so I pushed myself to just keep going.  Jason even said later that he was proud of me for keeping on running even after I said I wanted to slow down :)

As we neared the Disneyland Hotel, I could hear the announcers at the finish line and the spectators cheering the runners on and we just kept running and running until finally, Jason and I crossed that finish line together, hand-in-hand.  Yay!!!  Jason got his first ever medal and his first PR 3:00:59, haha (he can totally run faster than me, but he was a gentleman and ran with me)!  Then I got my medal and went and picked up my Coast to Coast medal too!  I love that medal!  It's so pretty!!

I can't remember if I cried at the finish line, but I know I did for a bit while we were standing in line to get our picture taken.  Just knowing that I had major abdominal surgery 12.5 weeks earlier, only having 6 weeks to train for a half marathon, and getting to run it with my husband, it was a great experience.  Here's my post-race pic with all 3 medals:  The WDW Donald Half and the DL Half which earned me the third, Coast to Coast race challenge medal!

I finished!

So, there you have it, another race in the books!  Plus, this weekend, we're racing AGAIN!  We're headed back to Walt Disney World to run the Tower of Terror 10 mile race!  I can't wait to see my friends and get a new medal.  I hope you enjoyed all the pictures and hopefully next week I can recap that race and not wait 3 weeks like this one!