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:

- Dumbo Double Dare Part 1: Inaugural Disneyland 10K - Race Recap

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. 

Place	Name	Bib	Age	Div Place	Gender Place	5k Split	10k Split	15k Split	Clock Time	Net Time	Hometown
9791	IRENE STIRLING	23247	33	1084	5435	42:19	1:20:10	2:05:49	3:38:03	3:02:22	ARLINGTON, 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! 

Dumbo Double Dare Part 1: Inaugural Disneyland 10K - Race Recap

I'm skipping ahead to my recap of the Disneyland 10K because I am waiting on some photos from our first day in California.

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. 

Next, we ran through Fantasyland and through Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

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!

Disneyland Half Marathon: Sneak Peek

We did it! And with half marathon PRs all around! Since I'm so excited about sharing all the fun that was had this weekend, I can't resist giving you a little sneak peek at our half marathon finish! 

Raisin Bread, me and sister (as Chip) after the half marathon