Big news! Tina and Julia finally made it back to the parks together...as in, at the same time!! Ok, so maybe it's not that newsworthy, but we were excited about it.
What brought us to the parks you ask? The Disneyland Half Marathon weekend, of course. It seems like all we do lately is talk about RunDisney, but between the two of us we have you covered course to course and step by step as one of us participated in each race morning. This means that we had a string of very early mornings hitting the pavement and the parks hard. This always proves a fun challenge.
Julia went all in for the Dumbo Double Dare and successfully completed the 10K and the half marathon on back to back mornings. Tina also doubled up and created her own challenge, that we believe should also entitle athletes to a special medal, and raced in the 5K and the 10K. What is fun about the Disneyland Half Marathon races is that you never know what characters you will encounter on the courses. Rather than drawing from a specific movie or universe, any and all characters can be used - which is great.
First up was the 5K. The theme for the 5K was none other than the Country Bear Jamboree. This theme alone was a deciding factor for Tina to sign up for this race. As always, the race started with the playing of our National Anthem; however, this time we were treated to a live band - a Country Bear Band and it was amazing!
All three races started and ended at the same location, right outside of Disneyland Hotel. Our first mile was located in California Adventure and then we went underground to meet up with Disneyland before heading down the home stretch through Downtown Disney. Some of the photo ops for the 5K included Big Al and Liver Lips but sadly no Trixie.
A pleasant change for the 5k was that all medals are actually metal and not the usual rubber medallions. Look for these new metal medals with the Super Heroes 5k and Star Wars 5k as well. Of course, with the new medals, Disney decided to no longer print the Event Guide; however, you could receive an electronic version of the Guide and then a printed version of the course maps.
On to the 10K, which we both enjoyed...mostly. The course was great with a lot of time in the parks and behind the scenes (it was kind of fun to run by the piles of dirt that will soon enough become Star Wars Land). An eclectic smattering of character photo ops tempted us as we passed. We do not usually elect to stop for pictures during the races, but with the addition of Photopass photographers to the course these decisions have become a little harder to make.
The theme this race was Dynamic Duos and Aladdin and Genie were the mascots. Both characters were represented along the course with photos ops along with Aladdin’s sidekick Abu and favorite princess Jasmine. This theme also inspired us to Disneybound as a Dynamic Trio (we were a group of three this time) in the park.
Finally, the half marathon. Julia will be the first to admit that she was not well trained for this event, however, she laced up her shoes and put on her bib and ran (while Tina finally had a chance to “sleep in”). She ran 13.1 miles in perfect weather and a cheerful atmosphere. There was a diverse group of performers placed along the route. In addition to marching bands and cheerleaders (which are a familiar sight for racers) there was also a Folklorico group and a Polynesian group dancing, singing, and high fiving racers with such energy that it was infectious.
These added touches help to make the miles outside of the parks entertaining and are a nice distraction from the running. As mentioned in a previous blog post, each half marathon course has its own special feature. Going in, we heard that there was going to be a spot where vintage and classic car owners lined up to cheer on the runners, but there must have been at least a mile and a half of cars lined up on the streets of Anaheim that provided a much needed energy boost on the last half of the run.
This boost was shortly followed by a run through Angels stadium (and even though we are Bay Area baseball fans we can appreciate how cool it is to run through an MLB stadium). Inside the ballpark, Julia was pleased to high-five the cheering Girl Scouts who came out and served as spectators for the runners. All of these different parts put together made for an enjoyable half marathon...the medals at the end also helped.
Once we were showered, dressed, and somewhat revived, we headed back to the parks to take advantage of the last couple days of Disneyland’s Diamond Celebration. While we never did win the Diamond Sweepstakes, we completely enjoyed the spectacle that was the 60th anniversary of the Happiest Place on Earth. So much so that we made the fatal error of sitting..in one spot...on the hard cement...for hours...waiting for the second to last performance of the Paint the Night parade. Luckily we had the cutest family sitting next to us help past the time…oh, and of course, Pokemon Go.
The stiff muscles and sore backs were all worth it to see this spectacle of lights make its way down Main Street, USA for the last time in the foreseeable future. As the catchy parade song ponders, when can we do this again? We say, see you in November friends...will you be assembling?
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