This run was my first half marathon in my life and it was so FUN!! I felt great the whole run, had a ton of fun, met some amazing inspiring women, and best of all I got to spend some time in my fave place with my family. Lets start from the beginning :)
We left on thur the 17 for our long 5 hour drive down to Anaheim. The weather was nice the roads clear (even in LA if you can believe that). We got to our hotel about 8:30pm (loved our room by the way, Best Western Stovall's Inn) Then we cleaned up from the drive and headed down to the ESPN Zone in Downtown Disney for dinner
Got to love the big screen.
With our hotel stay we got free breakfast. Pancakes, eggs, sausage and fruit, cereal and juice, milk and coffee. This by far was the best free breakfast we have ever had with a hotel stay.
On friday 1/19 Justin and sky finishing their food so we could go play at the park.
Mick and I are ready to go
We got a Magic morning with our vacation pack and we got to use it for California Adventure, which was awesome, cause we got 1 hour in the park before it opened to the public. The first place we headed was CARS LAND!!!
Can I just tell you how impressed I was with it, it looked just like the movie, I mean Radiator springs is real its that crazy impressive. So the Racers where our first ride...
Super cute cars :)
Me and Justin getting ready
One of the shops, Looks just like in the movie right?
After RS, we walked around the new Buenavista street and I was so excited to find Oswald's!! I love Oswald the luck rabbit
So does Sky
After playing in the park for a wile I had to leave the fam to hit the Health expo and go pick up my race packet. The expo was in the Disneyland Hotel so I had a bit of a walk but when I got to the end of Downtown Disney I saw this....
Instantly PUMPED!!!!
It took about 30 min of waiting in line for me to get in to get my packet, but once in the building the energy was amazing.
I got to see and listen to Jeff Galloway who is an Olympic runner and who is a RunDisney official run trainer. I used his running program for my training for the Tinkerbell. So it was neat to see him and hear what he had to say about running strong and injury free.
Then the shopping began :) I didn't go crazy though, although it would have been VERY easy too. I got a rundisney mickey Vinalmation with the little Tinkerbell medal to go with it (displayed in my living room as we speak) and this awesome cup! I am hooked on these cups.
After shopping I walked around and checked out some of the booths. One booth I hit was the Diva Run stand. So cute all pink and black and totally girly. Here I got to sign up for the Diva 5K on May 5th in San Francisco (if you want to join me reg is only $30). Im so excited to have a run to look forward to again.
After that I hit the corner and ran right in the Run Disney booth (literally I ran in to it like a dork) but it was so worth it cause sitting there was Sean Astin!!!
He is a very cool guy, he only laughted at me for a sec when I hit the booth :p. No one was around so I walked up to him and said hi and we started chatting about the run. I asked him about the Walt Disney World marathon (he was supposed to run it the weekend before the tinkerbell) Sadly he had something come up and couldn't run it, but said he was looking forward to doing it next year and maybe the Goofy. He's so cool and down to earth and it was neat to talk about our family's (His wife is amazing and they have 3 cute kids) we both agree the best way to get our spouses to let us do Disney Runs is to get our kids on our side first :P
After the expo I met back up with Mick and the kids and we hit some rides and spent all day in the park.
I found the Club 33 Door, have no idea why I think this is so cool I cant get in :(, but it was funny having people look at me and trying to figure out why I was so excited I found this sign hehe.
Me and my girl getting ready for our fave ride, Splash Mountain!
We get creative in these pics :)
Then I got to hit my fave candy shop "Poohs Corner" and I got the yummy Cheshire Cat apple (the purple one).
That night we hit the Mad T Party which is FUN FUN FUN!!! The band playing was so cool, Tweetel Dee and Dum where amazing and so funny, then this dance crew came out and me and sky were glued to the side of the stage watching....I should probably mention the drinks are off the hook too. The kids got this lemonade thing that was really good and my Mad-T-hito was good, a little strong but good.
The next day was Sat and I only got to play in the park till about 5pm. So at dinner time Mick took the kids to hit more rides wile I left to go eat and Carbo load at Napels, got to get in the good fuel for a long run. My spaghetti with chicken (get that protein in too) was really good.
Then it was to the hotel for a shower and the joy of getting all my run stuff set out and ready for the morn. I was so excited and I think that was the most fun packing I ever had hehe. I went to bed early (about 9pm) cause let me tell you, that 2am wake up call comes FAST!
I slept really well and was ready to go out the door by 3:30am, only Disney could get me up this early and put a smile on my face.
The walk to the bag check and corrals was easy (we stayed right across the street from it hehe). It wasn't to cold and everyone out was about as happy as could be. In the bag check area was this huge stage and we got to do the cha cha slide to warm up.
I was in Corral D, here's a good pic of the sea of runners. FYI that little white light on the Right side right above all the peoples heads....yeah that was the start line.
Running threw Disneyland was so cool. They had parade floats out and it was still dark so everything was all lit up.
Mary Poppins float
Mary and Burt
Main Street and the castle in the back
Its a small world (still decorated for xmas)
Rapunzel and Flynn Rider
Clarabelle Cow and Lola
Just about Half way
Finish time 2 Hours and 53 min, not to bad since I stopped for pics. Check out that medal can we say AWESOME!!
After the run we went to Disneyland to hit some more rides and just enjoy our last day in the parks.
Autotopia, I got to drive alone cause Justin was tall enough to go alone this time. The car in front was Mick and Skyla (she is one crazy driver)
Nothing like Mickey Ice creams on a hot 80' day (yes I said 80, it was 80 in jan) and check out Justins awesome R2D2 mickey ears :)
Then it was off to the Animation station to play. I love this place there is so much fun creative things to do. My fave the Beast library :)
After playing and hitting CA screaming and Tower of terror, we headed back to Disneyland so I could meet up with a friend. Roberta has been a WW friend of mine for some time now. She is one amazing and strong lady, and is a huge support to me. She lives down by Disneyland so it was so nice to finally be able to meet her in person. She is the best and I cant say Thank you enough for all the support she has given me, especially coming to see us at Disneyland on race day that meant alot. Cant wait to go back down and see her again :)
The trip and run was amazing (even being up for 20 hours on sunday was fun) and I cant wait to do it again next year. So if your up for it let me know cause I'm making a girls weekend out of it next year.
FYI: The crowds were CRAZY for the weekend.....
1) it was a weekend with nice weather
2) school bands where preforming and a gymnastics thing was going on the same weekend
3) add all 20,000 runners and their friends and family
Yes a very crowed time at the park. The lines were long, but it was still fun. These 3 things are why Im making it a girls weekend next year, Mick has already said he doesn't want to deal with the crowds next year, but Im more then welcome to go hehe.
