2012 Tinker Bell Half Marathon - Race Recap

Date: January 29, 2012

Location: Disneyland, Anaheim CA

Start: 5:45am <-- sleep running

Finish: 1:59:09

Elevation: Mostly flat!

This is the inaugural running of the Tinker Bell Half Marathon and my second Disney race. Sure Disney races are expensive as all heck but you get pixie dust, a huge medal at the finish line and a well organized race. Sometimes that is all it takes to suck me in. 

I got up this morning at 3am! I can't tell you how not normal this feels to me. I am not a morning person and I really dislike when races start so early that I have to get up at 3 am! I'm Asian and all but I was so sleepy that my eyes look "squint-ier" than usual. So here's my costume. I decided at the last minute to wear that black jacket. I was going to go with black arm sleeves but I was cold like I always am so I decided to wear the jacket.

This was taken at the starting line in corral A just minutes before GO time! There were ALOT of people there. Mostly women. Dressed in pretty costumes. It was like one giant pixie dust cloud.

So I didn't stop to take too many photos this time around. I skipped a lot of character photo ops because the lines were insanely long for some of them and mostly I was just trying to survive the race but this was taken around mile 3 or 4 on Main Street USA. The course was a little bit different from the Disneyland Half. Just different routing but pretty similar. I like this course better than the Disneyland Half. Just a personal preference.

The castle!

This was towards the end of the race. I decided to stop to take one photo with the cast of Toy Story when I realized how sucky my time already was. No use beating a dead horse. Mile splits are below. I negative split this race. Strange. I'm starting to feel a little bit better and hope that my upcoming race times will reflect this. One thing is for sure, I need to start running a whole lot more in the next upcoming weeks/month to regain my running endurance. I've lost a lot of fitness lately and racing is less fun when you are wheezing and huffing and puffing and not being able to enjoy the race.

My sweetie took this photo of me about half a mile away from the finish line.

 
Ah, I really like this medal! It is huge!

January 28, 2012: Expo

I decided to go get my bib today at the Disneyland Hotel since I am going to be busy tomorrow. Luckily I had just ran the Disneyland Half a couple of months ago so all the logistics were basically the same. I was able to get in and out of there in 30 minutes. The parking people only give you a 30 minute "grace" parking allotment if you decide to park in the hotel lot. So you need to be quick about things. If you loiter around too long they will charge you extra. You don't want to be charge extra because you know everything at Disney is expensive. So I did what I had to do and this included walking the entire expo floor in about 30 minutes. Yeah I'm skilled like that. Don't mess with me, I'm small and can slip in and out of places quick-style. Like a ninja.

There were tons of fairy accessories on display and even a booth with Disney hair stylists to turn you into a princess! For $39.95 of course. 

Team Sparkle booth and all their cute accessories. $10 wings people! If you need wings and who doesn't need wings, go and get them there!

I'm all set for race day! See you at the starting line!

Course:

Mile 1 - 9:37 <-- Very crowded in the beginning
Mile 2 - 11:05 <-- Potty break
Mile 3 - 9:57 <-- Struggling with shin splints for the next 2-3 miles
Mile 4 - 9:07
Mile 5 - 8:40
Mile 6 - 8:39
Mile 7 - 8:43
Mile 8 - 8:31 <-- Things starting to turn around for the better
Mile 9 - 8:23
Mile 10 - 8:24
Mile 11 - 8:15
Mile 12 - 7:07 <-- Went nuts
Mile 13 - 8:28