I had a great time this past weekend! This was the first time I've ever stayed in a Disney Hotel at Disneyland, and it was so awesome! We stayed at Paradise Pier, and even though we'd only booked a standard room, we ended up with a view of the parks, on the 10k floor, right overlooking California Adventure! We could actual see World of Color from our room, and the hotel had the audio playing on one of their tv channels, so it was the perfect viewing spot! We also had fun hanging by the pool on Saturday afternoon, trying out the water slide, having a few drinks, and just relaxing.
I ran the half only this year because I was originally flying in Saturday morning, but changed my schedule a few months ago to arrive Friday. I'll admit, it was really hard on Friday watching everyone (including my running buddy) pick up their DDD stuff, especially since the DDD shirt itself is so cute and the half shirt just wasn't too my taste. Plus, that tikiStitch 10k medal is do cute, and that's one of my favorite Disney movies, so it was a bummer to miss out it.
I'll be honest, though, I had a blast on Saturday morning, watching the race and cheering on the runners, and don't regret not getting to run anymore. I was standing right after mile 6 with a sign that said "you're totally winning!", and it was fun to see all the laughs and smiles it provoked. AND AND AND!! I ended up chatting with Sean Astin for about 15 minutes, which was both random and awesome!
As for the half marathon, I have to admit, I undertrained for the race this time. I've been running for 3 years now and done dozens of halfs, and I convinced myself that even if I wasn't doing all my miles and all the runs I had scheduled, I'll be fine. In the end, I had no problem finishing, but with a time considerable slower than I am capable of, when I have trained properly. So, in the end, I only have myself to blame for being slower than I'd like.
Other than having to walk too much, I had a good time. The weather was humid, but overcast, which is better than I expected. The sun didn't come out until I was headed back to Disneyland from Angels stadium, and by then it was thankfully at my back. I started in Corral G, like a few before me have mentioned, and was surprised to see people with I and J bibs next to me, as usually Disney is much tighter with their corral checks. That's probably why there wasn't room in the corral for all the actual G people, and they ended up sending a lot of those folks to the back of H.
I also had fun wearing my "I believe in the Blerch" running shirt, and getting comments from other runners on the course.
Normally after a race, I'll stay until Monday so I can relax more post-race on Sunday, but this weekend was different -- I had to fly home to Seattle Sunday night so I could run in the Seahawks NFL kickoff 5K on Monday morning! it was totally worth it, because we got to finish on the field sidelines and got an awesome medal!
Of course, after I got home last night, I went to be early and slept 11 hours. Getting up 4 mornings at 4-5 am (day 1: flight to CA, day 2: 10K spectating, day 3: half, day 4: 5k) almost felt like I was doing Dopey again!
I probably won't do this particular race again in the future, as August in California is really just too hot and sunny for this Seattle girl, but I'm already signed up for Avengers, Star Wars, and Tinker Bell, so I'm sure I'll see you guys in the future at other races!