I took the day off of work to celebrate my birthday at Disneyland with my friends from Las Vegas. They were in town for the race and allowed me to hang out with them for a day in the park. I bought a park hopper pass and was finally going to do a proper tour of Disney California Adventure. The gates opened at 9:30 am for those without the Extra Magic. When it was my turn, they scanned my electronic ticket on my phone app and gave me a paper ticket to use for the rest of the day. She also took a picture of me so that I don't give the ticket to someone else to use. We stopped in the Emporium on Main Street to pick up my very first birthday pin. Outside of running through the park during a race, I've never visited the park on my birthday.
Waiting for the gates to open
My park hopper pass
My very first birthday pin!
Since my friend was in charge for today's itinerary, we headed straight to It's a Small World for our first ride. It's her sentimental favorite ride. After that, we headed to Tomorrowland to ride Star Tours, my favorite ride at Disneyland. Thank goodness our flight didn't take us to Hoth. It seemed like more often than not, I would end up in Hoth. :)
Hello Walt and Mickey!
Sleeping Beauty castle
Ariel!
Lilo & Stitch
Through one of my friend's connections, she was able to get us into Club 33 for lunch! I cannot thank her enough for making it happen on my birthday! My goodness that was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. If you call yourself a big Disney fan and have the opportunity to go, go! I was pretty afraid of doing something wrong or wandering into a forbidden place. So I didn't move or say anything unless somebody directed me on what to do, where to go, or asked me what I wanted to eat. The whole experience was more like eating at a house where the host had chefs on hand instead of a restaurant. They had some pretty neat souvenirs for sale. I wanted to buy everything, but ended up buying only the Club 33 cap.
Old entrance to Club 33
Doorbell for Club 33!
Ready to go in!
Guest book
Place setting
Regular drink menu
Temperance drink menu
Bill of Fare
Lunch menu
Tropical Storm
Appetizer: Lobster Rockefeller with Crispy Oysters and Lemon Hollendaise
Salad: Lafayette Garden Salad with Shaved Radish, Cucumbers and Vinaigrette Maison
Entrée: Smoked Duck Breast Salad, Baby Kale, Frisee, Pecan and Orange Cherry Vinaigrette
Finalé: Finely Selected Cheeses, Fig Mustardo, Pickled White Peach and Lemon Poppy Seed Madeleine
Birthday card and macaroons
After lunch, we headed over to the lockers for my friends to change into more comfortable clothes. We then headed back into the park for the Star Wars Launch Bay. There were some pretty cool movie props on display. It was pretty much a Star Wars museum. There were meet and greet opportunities with some Star Wars characters. We took pictures with Boba Fett and Chewbacca. Boba Fett was a man of few words, but Chewbacca was a bit of a handful. He really wanted my friend's lanyard of trading pins. Also he didn't like the fact that I tried to sneak a peak inside his satchel. :)
Boba Fett
Chewbacca
Afterwards we stopped by Hyperspace Mountain to grab some fast passes. We then went to the Matterhorn Bobsleds where we got in the single rider line so that we didn't have to wait so long in the regular line. We then headed over to ride Big Thunder Mountain and Indiana Jones Adventures. We rode Star Tours again before heading over to Hyperspace Mountain to use our fast passes before they expired, but the ride was down. They told us that we could still use those passes once the ride comes back up.
We then hopped on over to Disney California Adventure. This was pretty much my first actual visit to this park. My first time was during the Club 33 Oktoberfest party, but I barely got to see anything. The friends that I was with that time didn't want to do anything. We even left early. Fortunately this time, I was with actual Disney fans. The first ride we went on was The Little Mermaid - Ariel's Undersea Adventure. Then we went on California Screamin'. Now that had to be my new favorite ride among all of the rides in Southern California Disney Parks. It was fast and exhilarating, but not too crazy. I like it! We then headed over to the Pacific Wharf Cafe to get something to eat. I got their broccoli and cheese sourdough bread bowl. I don't eat sourdough bread all that often, so I pretty much had forgotten just how good it was!
Pacific Wharf Cafe
Bread bowl
We then went back to Disneyland to catch a few more rides before calling it a day. We returned to Hyperspace Mountain and it was open this time. I'm a pretty big Star Wars fan, so I loved the Star Wars version of Space Mountain. The ride pretty much stayed the same throughout the years. It reminded me of my junior high and high school days when I used to come here with my church group. Along the way to our next ride, we stopped in the Westward Ho Trading Company where I bought a sheriff badge that said, dude. I'm planning to wear it at work since The Big Lebowski is a favorite movie with some of my coworkers. We then went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, another one of my favorites. The ride seemed a bit more foggier than I had remembered. We followed that with a final ride on the Big Thunder Mountain again. Hang on to your hats and glasses, 'cause this here's the wildest ride in the wilderness!
pew pew pew!
Dude!
Friday 9/2
After only a couple of hours of sleep, I woke up super early to go volunteer for the 5k. I drove down to the mouse house and entered the Simba parking lot through the cast member entrance off of Katella to park my car. They had put some signs up that directed us to the volunteer check-in spot. It was just upstairs from Goofy''s Kitchen inside the Sleeping Beauty Pavilion. Instructions said to be there no later than 2:30 am. I was there about 15 minutes early and there were a lot of kids there waiting already. When it came time, we all got in line and got checked in. I was given an orange volunteer t-shirt and was assigned to the finish line team. We would be the ones preparing the medals and handing them out to the finishers. We were given coffee or tea as we waited for everyone to show up and get checked-in.
Volunteer shirt and credentials
Coffee
Assigned to the finish line group
Once we were ready, our team leader walked our group over to the finisher chute where the medals would be handed out. We had to open up boxes of medals, unwrap the bubble wrap, remove each medal from their individual bags, and hang them on the rack. This race was the first time that the medals for a runDisney 5k was made of metal instead of plastic. That might be great for the participants, but man they got heavy!
All unpacked and ready for the runners!
Metal medals this year for the 5k
It was pretty cool to present a finisher medal to some of my friends! Once the middle of the pack runners started coming through, it did get pretty hectic. We had a rotation going and we were passing them out as fast as possible. Sometimes we rotated out almost as soon as we rotated in. Near the end there were some interesting costumes. There were even a pair dressed up as magic brooms! Somebody thought they were a couple of churros! :)
Giving my friend her 5k medal!
Magic brooms!
After the last runner came through and our volunteer shift was over, we went back to the Sleeping Beauty Pavilion room to check-out. I was then headed to my car to go into work. My good friend, who was one of the race announcers, texted me to see if I was still there. Traffic would still be pretty heavy going into work, so I turned around and went back to the Disneyland hotel to meet up with her. We talked and caught up a bit, before she had to go take care of work.
One of my best friends!
I put in a half day and boy was I dead tired! Still before I could go home and rest, I first had to stop by Disneyland again to pick up my race packet. It was the usual procedure that have become all too familiar. I parked at the Downtown Disney parking lot and made my way to the Disneyland Hotel Convention Center. I went down the ramp to first pick up my bib. I don't remember them cheering in years prior, but they did this time when they saw that I was a legacy runner. They took a picture of me and my bib to make sure that I am the one that runs the half marathon on Sunday. I then went up the ramp to go to the expo and to pick up my race shirts. I went through the expo pretty quickly and then headed home to get some rest.
runDisney's Honda Fit
Saturday 9/3
I guess I was pretty dang tired as I slept through the alarm and got about an extra hour of sleep, so I didn't get to the parking lot as early as I normally would. I parked and went down to the restroom where I bumped into a few of my friends.
I had my own pre-race routine to take care of, so we parted ways. I always try to make my final portapotty visit about 30 - 45 mins before the start of the race. As I was entering corral A, my bib was closely scrutinized by a volunteer. He was very friendly, but still he took extra time with me to make sure that I wasn't trying to run the 10k with a 5k bib. The colors of the 5k bib and the legacy Double Double Dare bibs were quite similar this year. It also didn't help them that they were checking bibs in the dark. I made my way closer to the front, but not too close as my legs were definitely not 100%.
10k start
While waiting for the start of the race, lo and behold, my fellow legacy runner and friend was up on the screen. He was supposed to be in corral A, but they refused to change his corral placement at the expo. It looked like he decided to make the most of it in the later corrals by getting some screen time.
Latino Heat getting on the screen!
Jessica Rabbit!
I ran the first 5k at a harder effort to check out my current fitness as well as to see how my ailing left foot and right hip would feel with a quicker pace. Everything felt pretty good during the first mile and I ran next to a girl that was dressed up as Captain EO. She was pretty happy that somebody recognized her costume. She said it was worth the 10 hrs that she spent on making it because someone actually recognized who she was. :) Unfortunately I ran that first mile in about 7:40 which I knew that I currently could not hold even for a 5k. So I back off a bit.
First 5k: 25:08 (8:06)
I felt pretty winded from the first 5k, so I took my foot off of the accelerator and took a walk break. Man, I remember when 10k's were a bit easier! I took another walk break after reaching mile 5. I really had nothing left during the 6th mile which was my slowest mile.
Second 5k: 28:18 (9:08)
Finished: 53:26 (8:37)
Click here for my Garmin data.
I executed my plan and finished right where I figured that I would end up which would be around an average of 8:30 mins per mile. I came in on the slower side, so I still have a ways to go in my recovery. Man, I didn't realize how hard it would feel to be this out of shape. The good thing was that both the left foot and the right hip wasn't too sore or bothering me. I just felt really out of shape. I can still remember mailing in a sub 50 min 10k rather easily.
10k
Friends
10k finish with my almost birthday twin
I went home to shower and relax before returning for my afternoon volunteer shift. My volunteer shift at the expo would start at 12:30 pm. When it came time, I drove in and tried to park at Mickey and Friends again, but the entrance was blocked off coming in from Ball Rd. All of the signs directed me to the Toy Story parking lot where the gate attendant rejected me after making a phone call. He told me to go back and try again. This time I drove up further north and entered via the Manchester ramp. Although from the ramp, I could see that they had reopened the entrance from Ball Rd. Perhaps my visit to the Toy Story lot had prompted them to reopen that entrance. I had to park on the top uncovered floor which kind of sucked since the car would end up baking in the hot sun.
I'm always early to my appointments. I was early even with the little detour with the parking. Since I had some time on my hands, I passed the time in the expo. I picked up a pretty nice free American Tourister luggage tag from one of the vendors that sells Disney vacation packages. I also checked out what was left in the official merchandise section. The place was starting to look like it had been picked pretty clean by all of the Disney fanatics and folks looking to resell popular merchandise on eBay. One item in particular that stood out to me was the 5th year anniversary Tinker Bell banner that they were trying to sell for $350 where discounts cannot be used.
Trouble parking for expo volunteer shift
Banner for sale!
The spot for the volunteer check-in was down the ramp in the bib pick up area. However it was not marked at all. You just had to know to enter through the black curtains. When we were finally checked-in, I was assigned to pass out race shirts. There turned out to be too many volunteers for this task, so at first I was an extra just answering questions out on the expo floor. Then when a fellow volunteer went on her meal break, I got assigned to the size XXL station where I saw very little traffic. After I took my 20 minute meal break, I came back and was put in one of the size S stations where I finally got to see a lot more participants.
Expo volunteer lunch break
Sunday 9/4
I think getting free parking will be a thing of the past... unless you're fine with lying and can convince them that you're a volunteer. Apparently I got into the wrong lane and when I told them that I was a race participant, they made me exit the parking structure and enter again and get into the correct lane where there were already a bunch of cars lined up. While waiting, everybody had their engines shut off. A few moments later, they were open and ready to collect money from the runners. This year the cost for parking was $18. It seems that they're just going to increase it by a $1 every other year. I parked on the 2nd floor (Daisy) where I ate my breakfast which consisted of a banana and the Clif Bar that was in our expo bag. I filled up my hand held bottle with Powerade and got ready to go to the staging area. Again I bumped into the same friends just outside of the parking garage restrooms. Everybody has their pre-race routines. :)
Breakfast
I went to the staging area and found a seat in the bleachers to pass some time. At about an hour before the start of the race, I started making my way to the starting corrals. Again I waited at the same cache of portapotties just past the first bib checkpoint. It was right in front of corral F, where I talked to a couple of fellow legacy runners. I liked that one of them did their own personal update to the legacy shirt that we received last year. While waiting, the same friend that saw me at this spot yesterday saw me again at about the same time. After I was done with my final pre-race portapotty visit, we started heading for our corrals. As we were headed to corral B, I was chased down and stopped by one of the security guys. He seemed very eager to bust me for using an illegal bib. Again, it was dark and the color was very similar to the color of the 5k bibs. I understand that they're just doing their job and that there are only a few of the remaining 371 legacy runners taking on the Dumbo Double Dare, but the race organizer should probably educate their race crew on what bibs are out there!
Continuing the legacy!
I started in the back of corral A with one of my Disney buddies. We weren't going for any speed records today, so we didn't want to impede any of the faster runners. Things must be getting better as my right hip wasn't hurting all too much, however it did feel as if I had ankle weights on. The best that I could do from the get go was about a 9:30 min mile. Coming into this race, I knew that it would be a long day for me. I had to rely on my familiarity with the course to help get me through it mentally. The first four miles would be split among the two parks which varies almost every year since there's always construction in the parks. There's usually enough entertainment inside the parks to distract me from my lousy performance. The next mile would take us out onto the streets of Anaheim. While heading over to the Honda Center and Angel Stadium, I would be passed by some of my friends. They know me to be a faster runner, so they were kind to check up on how I was doing. From about mile 7.5 to 8.5, the course was lined with classic cars as well as some iconic cars from television shows. After getting to mile 9, the course took us into Angel Stadium to run around the warning track. Before entering, they passed out gels. I actually took a walk break, but the screaming kids in the seats forced me to run.
Angel Stadium
My friend and his son who were forced to start in a later corral caught me at the aid station. I was glad to see that he had fun even though the deck was stacked against him. :) Hopefully runDisney will be more reasonable the next time one of us is assigned an incorrect corral.
I knew he would catch me!
Coming up to the corner of Santa Cruz and Stanford Ct, I was hoping to see my friend Dennis, but he wasn't there this year! They always had clever signs at that corner as they cheered on the runners. As I was headed to about mile 12, I noticed that 3 of the green aliens were running near me. I made my way over to that side of the road and ran up ahead of them so I could take a picture of them. I always like to see creative ideas from other runners. While I had zero speed for this year's half marathon, I was pretty pleased that I held a steady pace for about 11 miles. It sure was mentally exhausting.
The green aliens!
Finished: 2:23:37
Click here for my Garmin data.
After crossing the finish line, my good friend who was one of the race announcers came down to give me a birthday hug! That was mighty nice of her!
My friend, the race announcer!
As I slowly made my way through the finisher chute, I saw my coworker as one of the medical volunteers. I had no idea that she would be there. I then was instructed by one of the volunteers that legacy medals were given out in the back row. I had to later adjust the extra legacy lanyard so that the word legacy actually showed up. It was kind of printed in a bad spot. I then went through the challenge tent for them to check my identity and to pick up my Dumbo Double Dare medal. I know they revealed their medal early, but they sure did a great job keeping it a secret that both of Dumbo's ears move!
Half Marathon with legacy lanyard
Dumbo's ears move!
I'm thankful that most of my friends stuck around at the finish area. My friends that run these Disney races with me are among the funnest people that I know. After hearing how each other did and taking a few photos, I headed on out back to my car to go home knowing that my legacy will go on for at least 1 more year! :)
My fellow Disney fanatics!
2015: 1:58:27
2014: 1:49:20
2013: 2:09:10
2012: 1:59:22
2011: 1:58:03
2010: 1:52:28
2009: 1:54:40
2008: 1:55:07
2007: 2:06:38
2006: 2:02:37
My goodness, that was my slowest time out of the 11 years that I've run this race. It didn't hurt too much during the race, although the right IT band was a bit sore after the race. I just couldn't push off much with the right leg. The left foot was still sore, so I couldn't push much with that leg either. Even with the sore body parts, it was definitely a struggle more with being out of shape. I was huffing and puffing quite a bit even with the slow pace. All of my good miles were spent on the 10k the day before. I'm hoping to have all of my injuries taken care of by next year and to be back under 2 hrs for the 12th edition of the Disneyland Half Marathon!
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