Disneyland

I went to Disneyland last week! I haven't been in many years. I think I've ran through the park more times than I've actually spent the day. Okay, maybe that statement isn't all true but it has been quite some time since I've been here.

It was my niece's first trip to Disneyland. It was a treat to get to share this special day with her. She LOVED it and was so thrilled to meet her favorite characters...Mickey and Minnie! I would love to show you a photo of her being thrilled to meet her favorite characters but when she finally met them she was so mesmerized by their presence that she could not stop staring at them so the photos are mostly of the back of her head.

Mickey!

We spent some time riding some of the rides near the King Arthur Carrousel. I've been to Disneyland many times but have never rode on these rides (Mister Toad's Wild Ride, Snow White's Scary Adventure, etc.). There was something nostalgic about the rides themselves even though I've never rode on them before.

An oldie but a goodie...the revamped Pirates of the Caribbeans ride. I really liked the new additions. They were really life-like.

I even spent some time in Toon Town which I've also never done before. I can't drive there either. ;0)

A bug's view.

I played this game for the first time and as you can see, I'm not very good. Luckily, no one sat next to me to emphasis my lack of skills.

This was also my first time at California Adventures.

Of course I went to Cars Land. The ride was really fun.

And I ate all the things! No, not really. I was trying hard not to. I noticed that Disneyland now offers lots of healthy snack options like whole and cut fruit, trail snacks and other goodies that make it easier to not eat all the unhealthy things. It was a really fun day!

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

2011 Disneyland Half Marathon - Race Recap

Date: September 4, 2011
Location: Anaheim, CA
Start: 6:00am
Finish: 1:51:23
Elevation: flat!










I woke up at 3:30am this morning to get ready for the Disneyland Half Marathon. A very early wake up time even for me. I had to get up early because I was planning to wear a costume to run and needed to make sure that I had everything with me. I got to Disneyland in a timely manner but had no idea where the entrance into the parking lot was so I circled around a bit until I finally found it 15 minutes later. Good thing I left home early.

$15 for parking, ouch! I found a space in the Goofy lot! I put on my costume in the parking structure...

and headed into Corral A where I waited for an entire hour for the race to start. Luckily the weather was nice this morning so it wasn't too chilly. There is a very small window of prime event arrival time. I was late to a race a couple of weeks ago and early to the one today. I guess better early than late. I just hate waiting around. Not too many people dressed in costumes in Corral A. I felt a little girly standing around in my tutu amongst all the serious runners. You know who else is running this race, Drew Carey! Who knew?

Fireworks went off at the conclusion of the Star Spangled Banner. The race started promptly at 5:59am with the wheel chairs participants and then at exactly 6am Corral A took off.

Running through Main Street USA.

So you can probably guess from the following photos that I decided to run this race for fun and not time. I decided that I was in no condition to PR at this race so I took the opportunity to run in a costume, something that I've always wanted to do and it was great! It was just so much fun running dressed as a fairy! Bringing my camera and taking it all in was the way to go because Disneyland is just too cute a place to speed through. 

At the castle but I can't remember what mile this was.

Joking around with a couple of pals!

Toon town!

This was around mile 5 or 6 when the sun was about to rise. Blurry!

Then I didn't take any photos for a while because we were just running around the streets surrounding Disneyland. I did run into Emil out on the course somewhere, can't remember what mile that was. He always says the same thing to me...something about needing medical assistance at the end. He did pretty good today and no medical assistance was needed!

These next couple of photos are of when we entered Angels Stadium.

 Really fun and cool to run around the field and see yourself on the big mega-tron screen!

Wow, this is what happens when you don't pay attention. I think this was me taking a photo of the finish line. Let's never do this again!

This is me at the final sprint. My face is jacked up in this photo, not to mention the awful heel strike but it does show my wings in use...haha! They did not help me one bit. In fact, I got a terrible big cut from them some how. 

I am so out of running shape as this race felt hard to me, just like the previous race even though this course is mostly flat. I think I need to concentrate more on my running and less on my spinning for the next month if I want to do well at Long Beach. I was so happy to see the finish line so that I could stop running. So happy! Just as I crossed the finished line, I heard the announcer say that Drew Carey had finished a couple of minutes prior. Drew Carey beat me! How do you like that?

Not as much post race food variety as I had imagined for a Disney race but it was really organized. Let's see, there was bagels, bananas, oranges, mini Clif bars, Powerade and water. Oh and they handed out these packaged moist cotton towels at the end but they were moistened with menthol which I had not known until I wiped by face with it and it sting a bit. Lesson learned, read the package first dummy!

They had bagels and that is all that matters to me.

I walked around the finish area for a bit to cool down before I high-tailed it out of there. I got out of that parking structure with ease as runners were still loitering around the finish area. I had not wanted to be stuck in a traffic jam getting out later. Plus, I was on a time schedule to leave for my trip. 

Fun, fun, fun! Thanks Disney, you sure know how to put on a race. And yes you are really expensive but I really enjoyed it and maybe sometimes that is all that matters. I am looking forward to coming back next year!

Plus the medal is pretty sweet!

Teddy: Heavy too! Momma this thing weighs a ton!

Pre-race Commentary: I've wanted to run this race for a couple of years now but the high registration fee has held me back until this year. I want to see what the hype is all about and why this race warrants the high reg price.