Sep 10, 2013

Dumbo Double Dare Part 2: Disneyland Half Marathon 2013 - Race Recap

It was another early start for me on the morning of the Disneyland Half Marathon. This time, however, I was joined by Raisin Bread for his first half marathon! 

If you missed my race recap of the Disneyland 10K, you can check it out here:

We woke up around 4 am to get changed, eat and head to our corral by 5 am. Only we were rejected once we got there. We were told that corral D was full. How can that be possible if you know how many people are in each corral? That was pretty frustrating, and we were relegated to corral E. Poo. 

Corral A started at 5:30 am and we weren't off until 35 minutes later, partly because we were in the wrong corral. 

We were off none the less. 

Image credit: Cruising Goddess


We started going south on Disneyland Drive to Katella Avenue and entered California Adventure after about a mile and a half. Along the way, we saw some cool floats for The Incredibles and Toy Story


The route through the parks was similar to the 10K, only in a different order. For this reason, I didn't wind up taking very many photographs, but we did stop for a couples shot at Mickey's Fun Wheel.


There's the Tower of Terror! We also ran through Cars Land again. This time it was so early that the lights were still on, which I loved! I also loved running down Main Street again towards Sleeping Beauty's Castle.


We exited Disneyland through the Castle and hit the streets of Anaheim. We would be out on the streets for a while, but we still had plenty to look at and there was tons of spectator support. There must have been at least 10 different high school bands and cheerleading squads out there to keep us pumped up. It was much appreciated! I couldn't believe it when I saw the cheerleaders from my high school alma mater, West High School, near mile 12!

There was a stretch of the route with tons of vintage and muscle cars out on display and with their owners honking their horns and cheering us on (sometimes jeering us on all in good fun).

After mile 8, we ran around the Honda Center, the home of the Mighty Ducks.

Image credit: Cruising Goddess

Then we arrived at Angels Stadium. This was one of the parts of the course I was really looking forward to.


It was so cool to run through the tunnel, around the field and past the dugout. There was also a TON of spectators sitting in the stands. Pretty cool!


The rest of the course wasn't too exciting. Both Raisin Bread and I were getting a little uncomfortable from the heat and feeling some pain, so we walked a bunch at this point.

Somehow we were still in good spirits by mile 10.



We picked up the pace again around mile 12 and found it in ourselves to finish strong! 

Image credit: Cruising Goddess

We grabbed our refreshments and I claimed my Dumbo medal for completing the Dumbo Double Dare and my Coast to Coast medal for doing one runDisney half marathon in Anaheim and one in Orlando in the same calendar year.

Bling #2, #3 and #4 of 4

Sister was only about 20 minutes behind us, so we waited for her to get a snap together.


I achieved my goal of PR-ing by 5 minutes! Yay! Not bad for having just run a 10K the day before. 

PlaceNameBibAgeDiv PlaceGender Place5k Split10k Split15k SplitClock TimeNet TimeHometown
9791IRENE STIRLING23247331084543542:191:20:102:05:493:38:033:02:22ARLINGTON, VA

Here are the split times from my Polar watch:
Mile 1: 11:40
Mile 2: 12:05
Mile 3: 15:00
Mile 4: 12:20
Mile 5: 11:05 *fastest mile
Mile 6: 12:15
Mile 7: 13:15
Mile 8: 14:40
Mile 9: 14:45
Mile 10: 14:20
Mile 11: 17:00
Mile 12: 14:25
Mile 13: 13:10

It was a fun race, especially since I got to run alongside the hubster, and I can't wait to figure out what my next big race will be. 

Stay tuned for the non-race aspects of my Disneyland Half Marathon weekend! 

4 comments:

  1. So fun!! I've only done one Disney race but really liked it. That stinks about getting denied Corral entry :(

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    1. It was a blast even with the Corral ordeal. I can't wait to do another runDisney race.

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  2. So funny that you saw the cheer squad from your alma mater! And congrats on the PR!

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    1. I know! Seeing them was so funny and maybe gave me an extra burst of energy. Congrats on your Kauai Half Marathon finish, Karla!

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