runDisney Disneyland Half Marathon Recap 2013

I ran the inaugural runDisney Dumbo Double Dare Challenge, 2013.  This consists of running the Disneyland 10K Saturday and the Disneyland Half Marathon Sunday.  You can read my Disneyland 10k recap here.

I set my alarm for 4:00am.  The race starts at 5:30am and I like to allow enough time to walk from hotel to bag check and than make my way to the corrals.

My 3 year old had asked me to dress up as her ultimate favorite, Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty for you non-savvy Disney Princess folks).  Thank you to Sparkle Athletic for the race skirt, visor and pink sleeves.

Look at all those people!   I was in corral B and I think it went all the way to H?

It was almost 80 degrees again at the race start and quite humid, but not as bad as the 10k the day before.  Carissa and Rudy are the announcers with Mickey and Minnie getting us started.

We start out our run through the streets around Disneyland and first make our way into California Adventure.  The World of Color lights and fountains were on, so I stopped for a quick selfie.

We headed into Cars Land where I got a picture with Lightening McQueen and Mater.

Shortly after that I stopped for a picture with everyone’s favorite monsters.

We made our way over to Disneyland.  A selfie with the iconic Mickey and train station at the entrance.

At the beginning of Main Street I found Aladdin, Jasmine and Genie.

One of my favorites, at the end of Main Street I got a picture with Mary Poppins and Bert.

In Fantasyland I found Peter Pan and Wendy.

Now comes everyone’s favorite part about running Disney, the Castle!

In front of the Castle I found my costume muse, Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip.

On our way to Small World was Cinderella.

And Snow White!

With that we ran through the back stage and headed out to the streets of Anaheim.  A lot of  the race is actually off Disney property, but there are a tons of dance troops, bands, cheerleaders and awesome classic cars to keep us occupied along the way.

We than pass Honda Center and make our way to Angel’s Stadium.  Another highlight of the course, we get to run around the field of the stadium.  There are spectators in the stands cheering us on which is awesome.

After Angel’s Stadium we pass mile 10 just outside of the parking lot and make our way back to Disneyland.  The finish line is between ESPN Zone and the Disneyland Hotel.  Here is my finish line face from the Marathon Foto photographer.

I had been a little worried because my sister came with me to watch my 3 year old while I ran since my husband had a business trip.  My sister is a great aunt, but doesn’t baby sit on her own often (other than the 10K the day before).  My daughter is pretty self sufficient since she is obviously potty trained and can say what she wants.  I hadn’t heard a peep from my sister the whole race.  During the 10k they were up and at the finish line at by 7am, so I was a surprised.  I walked back to the hotel after I finished running and they were both totally asleep!  That is a good thing though.   A sleeping, child is a happy child 🙂

Here is my medal pic of me and my sleepy Princess Lily.

My daughter ran the runDisney Kids Races and you can read my recap of that here.

On a side note, out of allllll the runDisney races I have ran, I have yet to take a decent picture while running. How does one practice this? haha I can’t believe I am sharing these, but these are my best yet. LOL

As far as time goes: I paid attention for a change to how much time taking pics adds on to your time.  I get asked that question a lot.  I ran between a 10:30- 11 min pace (my hot weather pace haha) I finished in 2:48 and stopped 13 times.  Some lines were longer than others.  Obviously you can pick and choose based on your pace how often you want to stop.  So 13 pictures added roughly 30 minutes on to my time.  Just FYI 🙂

What is your favorite part about running Disney?