RunDisney 5k
After what seemed like about 5 minutes, my alarm went off at 3:30am. Id actually had a good 5 hours sleep, but I was nowhere near ready to wake up! I quietly dragged myself out of bed, trying not to wake DH, and got dressed in the bathroom. Wed made plans to meet DH at the finish area if he was up early enough, otherwise just back at the hotel. I finished the final touches in my parents room. My Piglet ears werent cooperating very well, and it took me quite a while to get them to stay put. When we were all ready, we grabbed our Up N Gos and Up N Went!
There were already a handful of athletic looking people heading our way, and there were plenty of people heading through DTD. We pretty much just followed the crowds past the
Disneyland Hotel and to the corrals. Having not submitted an expected finish time for this run, we were at the back in corral C. We were early enough to be towards the front of the corral though.
There was a LOT of standing around once we got there. At about 5am, the announcers made an appearance on stage, then disappeared again for a while. We continued to just mill around, talking and taking photos. There was a bit of a buzz in the corrals with all the excited runners and looking at all the costumes - there were plenty of Lilos and Stitches around! The various groups all seemed to stick to themselves, and I thought it must be a very long and boring wait for runners on their own.
At about 5:15am the announcers came back and started the pre-race hoopla. The announcers were supposed to be celebrities, but we had no idea who they were lol! It was pretty cheesy we all had to say Aloha about a dozen times, and they had a random guy dressed in Hawaiian clothing join them and make some corny jokes. Im not really sure what the point of him was lol! Stitch joined them briefly, but didnt stay for the start of the race. They had a guy perform the national anthem in Hawaiian style with a ukulele, which was really beautiful.
Finally the countdown was on, and the announcers focused their attention on corral A. They asked for a show of hands of who was running with their spouse, running solo, from interstate etc, generally trying to build the excitement. They counted down the last few seconds, then corral A were off! They showed all the runners on the big screen, and the announcers were pointing out a few costumes and shirts as runners went past. As that was all happening, we were shepherded forward.
It was pretty much the same deal for each corral. We were all asked the same questions, and we were forced to say Aloha another few times lol! By the time we reached our starting position, we were well and truly ready to go. And of course, it finally was our turn!
We were expecting not to be able to start running for a while, but we were all actually running as we went through the start line. I checked out the stage area on the way through, but didnt manage to get a high 5 or a shout out from the announcers. We all remembered to turn on our Garmins as we officially started the race, and many a beep could be heard as everyone else did the same.
The very first part of the run was downhill, as we passed under the DTD bridge, then of course it was uphill for a while. We were pleasantly surprised at how well the crowd spaced out so quickly, but of course we still had to duck and dive a little to get around all the walkers and slower people. The course took a left on Katella, and we entered Disney property around the back of Carsland. This first part of the course was pretty boring, and I was happy to run straight through. I was doing pretty well, but starting to notice the heat.
We entered DCA from the gate between Carsland and the Wharf area. We turned right and immediately entered Carsland. It was really beautiful and I allowed myself some brief walking and stopping breaks to take photos.
I believe Mater was out for photos, but being among the last runners meant that the lines for photo opportunities were too long by the time we got there (even for the mile markers).
From Carsland we headed to the Paradise Pier area, where the WOC fountains were on. There was another photo stop there, but it was also pretty crowded. We stopped off a bit to the side for a photo, but it didnt turn out that well. We didnt actually enter Paradise Pier, but turned right in front of the Little Mermaid and headed towards Grizzly River Run.
We passed the first water stop in front of Soarin. It was a pretty welcome sight by then, and it was about here that I realised one of my ears had fallen off. I took the other one off too and chucked in the next bin I went past. We turned left on Buena Vista Street and headed out of the park, over the central plaza area, and into Disneyland! I allowed myself a decent walking break down Main Street, so that I could take it all in properly.
I was also really feeling the heat by then and starting to feel a little sick to the stomach. Thinking of the next days run, I allowed myself to walk a little more.
We headed right at the hub and past the Matterhorn to the teacups, where Mum and I stopped for another photo opportunity.
We continued to head through Fantastyland, past the carousel (where there was a photo opportunity with Chip, Dale and Clarice) and into Frontierland.
We passed BTM and entered the Rivers of America area, where there was a photo opportunity with Lilo near the Mark Twain.
By this stage, Dad was getting frustrated with how slow I was going. I was definitely doing more running than walking, but I was also conscious of saving myself for the 10k, and also conscious of the heat, so I did need to take a few walk breaks. In the end Mum and I kept him happy by getting him to run ahead and get photos of us. The major photo opportunities were behind us, and I was happy to have someone take my camera for a while.
We continued running through Critter Country, and exited Disneyland through a back gate into the behind the scenes area. There was another water stop around here which was pretty welcome again!
They had some of the main street vehicles parked on the last corner before we entered DTD. The CMs in the vehicles were yelling out words of encouragement to us. I slowed down to a walk to take a photo and one of them yelled Keep running, youre nearly there!.
That last section through DTD was tough! I had to have another walk break, or I was concerned I wouldnt be able to run through the finish line! The spectators were great, encouraging everyone, not just their own family members. Mum got lots of Keep bouncin Tigger! type comments. We turned the corner at the Disneyland Hotel, and I could see the finish line in the distance!
I managed to pick up the pace a little, and kept to the left of the track. I managed to high 5 Minnie on the way through, then I was done!
The time on the clock is from when the first person crossed the start line. Our actual time was about 42 minutes according to our Garmins, which I was pretty happy with given the circumstances.
We were given our medals and headed through the finishers chute where we got our bottles of water, bananas and snack packs. The path separated into Photo and No photo. We wanted a photo of us all with our medals on, so we entered the Photo path. We couldnt immediately see what the difference was, and just found someone to take our photo for us.
When we turned the corner we saw all the official background props with official photographers lol! They all had big lines though so we decided not to bother.
Next we went through the bag pick up area, and arrived at the finisher area where we did our stretches and investigated the contents of our snack boxes. Then we started the tedious walk back to the hotel.
People were still finishing off the run (they dont tend to sweep in the 5k), so to get through DTD we had to wait patiently with about 100 other people at each course crossing. It probably took us half an hour. There was heaps of support for those people though (who were pretty much all walkers by that time), with heaps of people yelling out words of encouragement.
We grabbed a light brekky on the way back up the hotel room, and found DH still sound asleep.
To be continued
Being on your feet all day is an entirely different thing!
