Tag: rundisney

50 States Half Marathon, adventure, fitness and nutrition

Halloween Half Marathon

2chicksandapen

I wrote a post a while back about my cross-country adventure to Disneyland. I loved exploring those parks and wish I had a few more days there. But, it was time to run my September race, the inaugural Disneyland Halloween Half Marathon.

Unlike several of my friends, I am not really a Halloween person. I did this race because it fit my schedule, I would get a special “Coast to Coast” medal for completing long races at each U.S. Disney in the same calendar year, and because it seemed like fun.

I learned that Disneyland races are different than the Disney World races in Florida for many reasons. The main ones draw from the fact that Disneyland is SO much smaller. In Disney World, you can run a whole marathon and never leave Disney property. For Disneyland, the Half Marathon was more off-property than on.

The walk to the start line was a breeze. No fireworks at the start though, since we were outside of park property and Anaheim has a noise ordinance. It didn’t take us long to run through both Disneyland and California Adventure. I LOVED being able to run through the little (comparatively speaking) castle. They had a lot more “at a distance” photo opportunities with characters, which was fine since Disney is more aggressive with pulling people off the course if they don’t keep pace. I knew I wouldn’t get my challenge medal if I didn’t finish, so I was not going to get swept.

I did stop at a character or two and many of the other photo opps along the way. Inside the parks it is fun and scenic.

Once we hit mile 5, we were outside the parks and it was all Anaheim roads. This mostly felt like other large races, just with lots of runners in costumes. Some fans came out to support and held signs. Local groups helped at water stops. A fun highlight was running through the Angels stadium and having our names announced over the PA system.

One memorable thing was this race happened to be during an exceptionally awful heat wave. We were warned repeatedly about hydration, electrolytes, and so on. This can be hard to do when you’re in the parks! The days leading up were filled with speculation of whether or not the race would be canceled or shortened due to heat. It was a long way to go for that to happen, so I was glad to finish all the miles and finish safely. I will say I was unbelievably hot by the time I crossed the finish and did not stop for the after party. I got my medals and slowly walked all the way back to the hotel and laid in the air conditioning before taking a cold shower and flying home. The race went under black flag conditions shortly after I finished. It was rough. But, I finished safely and managed to make it to the airport and back home.

This was a long trip for a weekend. I would probably do a Disneyland race again but only if it fell on a school break!

fitness and nutrition, travel

Same. Same (But Different)

2chicksandapen

Racecation Season kicked back into full swing with the Disneyland Halloween Half Marathon. If you’ve been following along my year of amazing races, you know I did a 10 mile race in Disney World in April. The Halloween Half took me across the country to California, to run at the original Disney. Like my Florida race, I also spent a day at the parks so I’ll break this story into two posts…one, the parks / resort and two, the race.

I’ve been to Disney World in Florida many times. I’ve taken my kids at numerous stages, and now I’ve also had the fun of going solo as an adult. This trip would be my very first time at Disneyland in California. I decided to spring for the park hopper, Lightning Lanes, etc. since it was just for one day. Who knows when I will make it back again, if ever. I wanted to cram in as much as I could.

I studied park maps, touring plans, watched videos and read posts, but still didn’t feel prepared enough to have much confidence in my rough outline of the day. Add to that an unseasonal heat wave and I was feeling a little wary that I would accomplish much.

I made the four-and-a-half hour flight on a Friday. I landed around noon and took an uber to my hotel. Friday was my day to pick up my bib and visit the race expo. I made my way to the Disneyland hotel. The scope of Disneyland is so much smaller. Everything is in about a dozen blocks. You aren’t catching buses from resorts to the parks. For the most part, you can walk places. (But to be fair, I did use uber a number of times to preserve my legs and avoid the heat.)

I spent the first afternoon walking through the three resort hotels. I grabbed my race gear, walked the expo, then enjoyed all the Disney magic in the hotels and Downtown Disney. Much of it was decked out for the race and Halloween. (For Disney, Halloween starts in late August. I am not really into Halloween as a holiday, so it amazed me how over-the-top the decorations were. Especially in 100+ degree heat!)

Each hotel had its own vibe. From classic Disneyland at the Disneyland hotel, to woodsy opulence at the Grand Californian, to quirky cartoon chic at Pixar Place, they were fun to explore. I ended up eating a steak salad at the Grand Californian which was simply gorgeous inside. The 5 story lobby was full of people, a live pianist, and a gingerbread display of the wicked witch from Snow White. The restaurant there had one of the best sugar cookies I had ever eaten in my life.

After a short night’s sleep (at a local non-Disney hotel), I was up and off to the parks. I waited in line for park open with a group that was clearly more experienced than me. They were in town for the race from Oregon, but they knew tons of secrets I had no idea about. They were racing to a pickle cart in the middle of the park…apparently you get some sort of special prize if you get the first pickle of the day. I love this kind of trivia and little Disney secrets. I was sort of sad that I didn’t even know about this…again with the feeling of being unprepared.

After open and a short walk down Main Street, I waited to get on Space Mountain. This familiar ride from Disney in Florida turned out to be dramatically different (and better!) in California. Yes, it was still a dark roller coaster, but the California version was smoother, had better cars, and had a good soundtrack. Thus, my day of tracking the Florida v. California Disney began.

Disneyland’s comparatively tiny Sleeping Beauty Castle was no match for Florida’s Cinderella Castle. (Still, I was grateful that California routed our race through the castle! Something that most Florida races don’t do.) Pirates of the Caribbean was much longer and more dramatic on the west coast. Big Thunder Mountain broke down on the ride before us so I never got to experience that.

Haunted Mansion really couldn’t compare because it had a special Nightmare Before Christmas overlay in California. It was wonderful but strange. I hopped over to California Adventure for some other rides. The Indiana Jones and Monsters., Inc. rides are unique to California, as is the awesome Incredicoaster and the amazing Radiator Springs Racers. I loved all these attractions and the delicious meals and snacks I enjoyed between them in Avengers Campus and San Fransokyo Square. The theming of each land in California Adventure was so well done. Cars Land was spectacular!

What was missing? Well, lots of things…no Animal Kingdom. No Epcot countries or Moana or Living with the Land. Fewer resorts, fewer snacks to try. The Mickey waffles I found were terrible but the Mickey ice cream bar still hit the spot on a blazing day.

Downtown Disney was a fraction of Florida’s Disney Springs. I did love the holiday decorations that were there, and enjoyed some ice cream at Salt and Straw.

But the biggest difference…honestly, it didn’t feel as “magical” from cast members. This seems kind of intangible, but many of the cast members just didn’t seem very happy. Granted it was hot, but even the cast members indoors seemed flat at best. There weren’t many character stops, either. Characters seemed to roam around more. Daisy Duck and Genie and Aladdin were just randomly walking around. Mary Poppins was riding the carousel! They would stop at times but then move on. No line for photos. If you wanted to meet them, you just had to hope they picked you from the crowd. Given my enchantment from the characters earlier this year in Florida, this took away a bit of the magic.

I went back to the Grand Californian for that Mickey bar and another sugar cookie. I was in bed pretty early for race day. All in all, Florida still wins for parks and resorts, but I’m glad I got to see the California version. There are some things here that you don’t get in Florida!

fitness and nutrition, travel

Hakuna Matata 10 Miler

2chicksandapen

And now for the April installment of my year of races. (For previous posts in this series, check out this, this, and this!)

I hadn’t really even considered including a runDisney race in my year until a friend at work told me she was signed up for a 10 miler in April of this year. Shockingly, registration was still open when I went to check. (Little did I know that most Disney races sell out in the first few hours.) I thought about it, loved the significance of a race celebrating the 30th year of the Lion King, and dove in.

One of the runners in our CrossFit friend group has done several runDisney races, including races from the Princess weekend and the Dopey challenge, which is four days of back-to-back runs, culminating in a full marathon on the last day. Her pics always looked so fun, filled wish costumes and glitter and runs through the iconic parks.

Little did I know what a wild, thriving subculture the runDisney community is. There are tons of online groups to discuss training and strategies for registration, entire companies devoted to specialized costuming for runners, podcasts all about the runDisney season, speculation about themes, medals, and on and on.

By the time I arrived at Walt Disney World in April 2024, my friend from work had decided not to run for family reasons. I was at Disney, alone, as an adult. Thanks to our generous extended family that lives nearby, I had brought our kids to the parks many, many times. Still, it had been many years since I stayed on the Disney property. I was so excited to be there I was about to burst. Armed with all my research on runDisney, I checked in to the Pop Century resort, ready to go.

This post is mainly to discuss the race. I will share a separate post about my time at Disney in the near future. After I left my luggage at the resort, I made my way over to the expo on the Disney bus.

The expo and swag pickup was as dazzling as you might imagine. A whole crew was waiting for runners with signs and cheers. All the signs were up for photo ops, not to mention characters. There were tons of great vendors at the expo. I bought my new racedots (bib magnets) and some scented cooling towels. I grabbed the bus back to the resort and checked into my room. I spent the rest of the afternoon resort hopping on the skyliner. I had some great food at Riviera and the Caribbean Beach resort, then went back to my room to get my race gear ready.

The first thing to know about a Disney race day is that it starts VERY early. The first bus left my resort at 2:45 am. Thankfully, I am an early early riser by nature. I was also super nervous and excited. I had read sad stories about people sleeping through their alarm and missing races. I set a Disney official wakeup call as well as multiple alarms. I get up around 2 and was on the bus by 3.

The ride to the start line dropoff is about 20 minutes. Then, you join thousands of other runners for the half a mile or so walk to the corrals. In the holding area, there are more characters to get photos with. There is also prerace entertainment. It’s an energetic atmosphere. Finally, you make your way to the corrals.

One of the challenges of these races for me is that they are not as “back of the pack” friendly as I would like. Unlike most of the other races this year, the runDisney races have a hard cutoff for pace and will sweep you off the course if you are too slow. There is all sorts of anxiety about falling behind, getting put onto the sweep bus, and so on. There are an infamous group of people known as the “Balloon Ladies” who are runners carrying literal balloons at the very back of the race. They maintain a 16 minute mile pace. Once they start, you cannot fall behind them or you will be swept.

There are a couple of other things to keep in mind: the 16 minute pace clock starts once the Balloon Ladies cross the start line, so if you are quite a bit ahead of them, you have a buffer. Normally, I wouldn’t worry too much about keeping that pace, but the other cool thing about Disney races is, of course, Disney being Disney, there are character stops on the course. These are mainly photo ops with little interaction. Each stop has official photographers as well as a couple of cast members whose whole job is to keep the photos moving as fast as they can.

I found an online source that leaked all the characters and their spots on the course, so I knew where I was going to stop. My goal was to stop for at least a couple of characters. I also had a chat that let me know where the Balloon Ladies were as well as my watch pacing. And, with the fireworks and a bit of fanfare, I was off.

This race wasn’t much about the pace (aside from not getting pulled onto a bus.) There was so much energy. I was running through Epcot World Showcase. Hollywood Studios. I stopped for photos. There was Disney music piped in. Video screens gave you hints of characters on the course. Cast members from the countries in World Showcase came out to wave hello as the sun rose. It was pretty surreal, actually. We ran through cast member areas, resorts, and parking lots. The course was sometimes packed, sometimes not.

The first character I stopped for was actually someone super new that I didn’t even know. But, the line was short so I just ran through the queue, stop, smile, snap and go. There were characters from old old films like the Rescuers (which had a long line early in the race so I didn’t stop, sadly.), and new characters I didn’t even know. I stopped for a few: Tigger, beloved by one of my running friends, Meeko the raccoon that we took as the name for one of our family cats, Abu from my daughter’s favorite princess movie, and my favorite Disney princess Mulan. I took side photos of other characters since I didn’t think I could wait in line. But I was proud to have stopped for those handful and stayed in front of my pace goal. Maybe the happiest moment was seeing Mickey himself, waving at the runners from a platform over the finish line. I totally felt like a little kid when I stopped for a pic with Mickey waving. I did it!

I will say, this race was hot and humid. I took my cooling towel and medal and snack then skipped all the other photo opps to go to the bus back to my resort for a desperately needed cold shower.

All I can say is I am such a fan of these races. To sum it up, it was totally overstimulating but I loved it. The vibe is positive. It’s a totally different group of people than other races. Many of these people are just casual runners or doing it as Disney fans. There are lots of walkers and run / walk / runners. People get excited about medals, themes, and registration. It’s a lot of fun! I plan to do this one again in future years, and hopefully even do a multi-race challenge for the Springtime Surprise weekend someday.