The alarm clock went off at 4:45 am, giving me just enough time to change into my race gear and have a banana and a couple of bites of a croissant for breakfast.
We stayed at the Best Western Plus Anaheim Inn, which I found to be extremely convenient. It is within walking distance to the theme parks, Downtown Disney and the Disneyland hotels. I headed out of the hotel room by 5:25 to walk to the staging area, which was located near the Lilo Parking Lot on the west side of Downtown Disney.
 |
| Ready for the 10K! |
I stopped for one last bathroom break in Downtown Disney because I didn't want to use the port-o-potties by the starting line. The bathroom by Wetzel's Pretzels was already open and with only a short line.
The 5K was just starting when I arrived at the staging area, and even though our race instructions told us to be in our corrals by 5:45 am, they weren't even open yet. This caused a huge amount of congestion! runDisney is usually so well organized that I was surprised that something like this would happen.
 |
| Stuck outside our corrals! |
I finally made it into corral D and had a few minutes to stretch. The race started at 6:15 and my corral was off by 6:30.
 |
| Bye, bye starting line! |
Since I had a half marathon to run the next day, I decided to take it easy on this one and not try to PR. This gave me a chance to enjoy the sights.
The first two miles took us on the streets of Anaheim and led us into California Adventure through Cars Land. This was my first time seeing Cars Land and I thought it was too cute!
 |
| Running through Cars Land |
 |
| Photo stop for me at Mater's Petting Zoo! |
Next, we ran past Pacific Wharf and along Paradise Pier. There's California Screamin' and Mickey's Fun Wheel.
 |
| Running through Paradise Pier |
At Mile 3, we made it to Grizzly Peak and we continued past Condor Flats, down Buena Vista Street and out of the park through Hollywood Land.
We entered Disneyland through the main gates and ran down Main Street USA.
We went through Tomorrowland and then out of the park briefly before re-entering Disneyland through Toon Town.
 |
| In front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle |
And then we continued through Frontierland where I ran into Chip and Dale!
Next, we finished up Disneyland by running through New Orleans Square and out of the park through Critter Country.
The race ended with a run through Downtown Disney to the finish line!
 |
| Me at the Finish Line |
I picked up my 10k medal and Dumbo Double Dare wristband and got my refreshments before walking back to the hotel to shower and nap.
 |
| Bling #1 of 4 |
 |
| Two wristbands for the weekend! |
I knew I hadn't PR'ed on this race but I was actually surprised that I wasn't much slower. My net time was only 6 minutes off of my PR.
I finished 2910th out of 7828 total finishers and 1509th out of 5133 women.
| Place | Name | Bib | Age | Div Place | Gender Place | 5k Split | Clock Time | Net Time | Hometown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2910 | IRENE STIRLING | 23247 | 33 | 296 | 1509 | 38:27 | 1:28:01 | 1:16:47 | ARLINGTON, VA |
Spilt times from Polar watch:
Mile 1: 11:00
Mile 2: 10:45 *fastest mile
Mile 3: 12:20
Mile 4: 12:05
Mile 5: 12:30
Mile 6: 13:20
Disney races are always so much fun and make me want to sign up for more and more races! I must admit that these races are pretty hard to PR in because there is so much to see and many "non-serious" runners and walkers to try to get around.
No complaints here though! Disney sure is good at creating a memorable experience!
This looks like such a fun race. Hope I'll get out there for it some day!
ReplyDeleteSo many races, so little time (and funds for me)! There's always next year.
Delete