Wabash Trace Marathon 2015

Friday 9/11
I'm always a bit wary flying these days on 9/11. Anyways I took an early flight with American Airlines out of LAX. I landed in DFW at terminal A for a layover. I took the Skylink over to terminal C for my next flight. However there was nothing around terminal C that I'd like eating, so I took the Skylink back to terminal A to eat at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen. You had to either take the elevator or the escalator down to the restaurant. I started things off with a Karbach Hopadillo. Nothing like a nice refreshing beer to pass time during a layover. For my meal I ordered the Shrimp Etoufee with dirty rice. That was a mighty tasty meal!

Early morning flight out of LAX

Karbach Hopadillo

Shrimp Etouffee with dirty rice

After landing in Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, I headed over to the Thrifty car rental counter to pick up my car. It was a counter shared with Dollar car rental. After filling out the paperwork, I went into the parking structure to pick up the keys at the booth. I was given a "purple" Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback. It was more of a fuchsia color. I guess that's the car that they give to people that reserve the economical car. It took about an hour and a half to drive down to Shenandoah, Iowa. It was a pretty uneventful drive. I saw and drove by a lot of cornfields.

Once I arrived in Shenandoah, I drove to my motel, the Tall Corn Inn to check in. After checking in and picking up my room key, I drove the car over to my room. It was a decent clean room. It had a bit of rustic feel to it. I waited until it was about 5 pm before driving over to the Shenandoah Chamber Office over on Maple to pick up my race packet. I parked in the small parking lot next to the Chamber Office. The pick up process was quick and simple. The volunteers found it interesting that I came all the way over from California to run a marathon in Iowa. For the race shirt, I had a choice between a green or beige color. I went with beige.

On the way back to my motel, I drove over to the nearby Hy-Vee to pick up some drinks, snacks, and bananas. Then for dinner, I had drive-thru at McDonald's. It turned out that they were giving free medium fries and drinks for ordering the Buttermilk Crispy Chicken sandwich. I got that and the usual pre-race Big Mac.

McDonald's!

Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Sandwich

Rental car

Drinks and snacks

I went through the race packet and laid out Mr. Flat Runner. The only thing that I saw useful was a sample pack of KT tape which I don't use. I will have to give that out to one of my friends. The drawstring bag was for gear check if you plan to check in any gear at the starting line.

Expo stuff

Flat runner

Saturday 9/12
I got ready, checked out of my room, and drove on over to the bus pick up spot. On my way over the front windshield fogged up to the point where I could not see a thing. There was a car behind me, so I turned on the emergency lights and moved slowly over to the side to let him by and clear up the windshield. The pickup spot was in front of the Depot Restaurant which was the location of the finish line. The bus was scheduled to leave at 6:30 am for the marathon. I was fortunate enough to find a parking spot right in front of the restaurant. The bus drove us out to the starting line located at the East Mills High School in Malvern, Iowa.

East Mills High School (Malvern, IA)

Marathon Maniacs Legends

After some last minute instructions, we were sent on our way. The weather started off in the high 40's, but it would warm up throughout the day. The first mile and half was run through the city of Malvern to the Wabash Trace Trail. We would be on that trail for most of the race until about mile 24. The first two miles felt okay, then by mile 3 I was feeling quite sluggish. I had been losing weight and most likely had not fully recovered from the Dumbo Double Dare last weekend. My energy level always feel low when I'm trying to lose a few pounds. I was struggling running when there was barely an incline.

Wabash Trace Trail

The rollers during the last two miles or so really wore me out! It was pretty sunny and I was reduced to a walk a couple of times. During the final mile, a special needs guy on an official race bike comes riding next to me. He rode next to me and talked to me until I reached the finishing the chute. That really made me feel like the race winner!
1: 8:31
2: 8:39
3: 9:10
4: 9:13
5: 9:42
6: 9:53
7: 11:04
8: 10:37
9: 10:25
10: 10:43
11: 10:51
12: 11:54
13: 11:14
14: 11:27
15: 10:59
16: 11:35
17: 12:17
18: 12:47
19: 13:04
20: 13:44
21: 12:39
22: 10:56
23: 12:11
24: 12:11
25: 14:06
26.2: 13:57
Finish: 4:53:48

I finished about where I had expected to finish, somewhere just below 5 hrs. This was a small town race so I was not expecting much, but this turned out to be a great enjoyable race. The course was beautiful. About 90% of the course was under tree cover so it kept things pretty cool. If you're looking to run a marathon in the state of Iowa, I would not hesitate to recommend this race.

Finish line

After getting my medal and a printout of my results, I proceeded to get cleaned up a bit. I wiped off the salt and gunk off of my face and changed into dry clothes. I then used the restroom inside the Depot restaurant before I hopped into my car and headed back up to Eppley Airfield in Omaha to catch my flight home.

Medal and results

I gassed up the rental car at the Kick's 66 gas station off of Ave H before dropping it off at the airport. The flight into DFW was slightly ahead of schedule. Since it was supposed to be a very short layover, I hurried and caught the Skylink over to terminal C. Just moments before we were supposed to start boarding our plane, they announced that they needed to do maintenance work on the plane. I think the captain's chair needed to be replaced. They kept pushing back the time 30 minutes at a time. Eventually it was delayed about 2 hours as we needed to wait for another plane. Since we had to wait, I went to get some food at McDonald's for dinner. Everything was fine once we boarded the plane.

Dinner at McDonald's

With the delay in DFW, I had gotten home later than I had anticipated. I unpacked, showered, and quickly went to sleep since I had a 10k and 5k to run tomorrow at Dodger Stadium!

Dumbo Double Dare 2015 - 10th Anniversary Disneyland Half Marathon

Thursday 9/3
Since I was going to the 10th Anniversary Party later that evening, I decided to go to the expo as soon as I got off of work to pick up my race packet for the Dumbo Double Dare. I was advised by my coworker to park in the Toy Story lot as the Mickey and Friends parking structure can get hairy at times. Heeding his advice, that's where I parked for $17. I picked up my race bib and commemorative pin at the usual spot by the Disneyland Hotel. This year they made the bib a different color for legacy runners taking on the Dumbo Double Dare. I then saw the nearby legacy banner. That was pretty cool! I didn't think that I would get to 10 consecutive years. They gave us a black legacy drawstring bag, a luggage tag, and a pretty plain looking powder blue legacy tech shirt.

As with all Disney challenges these days, they had to take a photo of you and your bib. They want to make sure that the actual person that registered has completed at least the final (and longest) race instead of somebody else before they are given the challenge medal. I guess I was a bit naive to think that all runners were honest.

Legacy banner at packet pick up

There's my name!

Bib and commemorative pin

I then got in line to pick up my anniversary party stuff. So it would turn out that I had to go to the expo anyways to pick up the park ticket and party bracelet. I was surprised that they gave us a nice sling bag for the party. Included in the party packet was a park ticket that was valid starting at 4 pm and ending at midnight. It also included a free parking pass. I wish that I had known about the parking pass before parking my car. I then went upstairs for the expo.

Sling bag for the 10th anniversary party

Entrance to expo

Before picking up my race shirts, I went to get in line for the New Balance shoes. Per their online virtual queue it was actually my turn at around 2 pm, but I couldn't leave work that early! When I signed up for the virtual queue in the morning, I wasn't able to select the Donald Duck shoes. So I just selected the Steamboat Mickey retro shoes just to get in line. Once they paired me up with a shoe guy, I asked about the Donald Duck shoes. They happened to have a pair in my size. He brought both pairs out for me to try. We were allowed to buy 4 pairs so I asked for another pair of the Donald Duck shoes for my friend. He didn't want to take a chance on them being sold out when he got to the expo. I paid for both pairs before finally going through the expo. It came out to be $151.15 after taxes per pair.

Donald Duck shoes

I picked up my three shirts and walked through the very familiar expo. The same booths are at the same locations. I did the usual... I picked up a complimentary bookmark at Lasting Commemoratives. I took a green screen photo at the runDisney booth. I even bumped into my friend who was doing the product and expo announcements at the expo. It was a bit troublesome to get into the official merchandise area, so I skipped that part. I took a photo with my bib in front of the castle backdrop before taking the shuttle back to the Toy Story lot to drop off my goodies at my car. There was no way that I could carry everything with me while going through the park. However I had to have my bags searched as I went through the esplanade to get to the shuttles.

runDisney green screen photo

I finally entered Disneyland at about 6:15 pm. I was supposed to meet up with my friend at about 7 pm, so I decided to sneak in a few rides before we met up. The first ride I went to was Star Tours. The line was very short. That was a fun ride. After all of these years, it's still the ride that I usually go to first.

Finally back at Disneyland!

Walt and Mickey

I then got in line for Space Mountain. The line for this ride was long. I guess somethings never change. While in line on the outside, I had fond memories of when there used to be a lot of coin-op video games next door. The ride broke down as I was nearing the boarding area. After they did what they needed to do and reset the ride, the line moved fairly quickly.

I was not impressed :)

After I was done with Space Mountain, I met up with my friend. We went on Star Tours, Matterhorn Bobsleds, It's a Small World, Mad Tea Party, Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, and Indiana Jones. There were pretty much no lines once they closed down the West side for those wearing the anniversary party bands. The only ride that we didn't go on was Splash Mountain as we both didn't feel like getting wet when it was already nighttime. We ate dinner at the Harbour Galley, where I had a lobster roll. It was not bad. I didn't know they had this kind of food in the park these days.

Lobster Roll

The Haunted Mansion

10th Anniversary Party

It was getting pretty late for me and we were both tired, but we hung tough and stayed for the Paint the Night Parade. We sat at the curb on Main Street and it was pretty cool. I thought it was a very nice upgrade to the Electrical Parade of yesteryear. It was just your good ol' Disney magical entertainment that appeals to the kid inside all of us.

Tinker Bell

Aladdin and Lumiere

Mike Wazowski

Lightning McQueen

Mack

King Triton, Ariel, and Sebastian

Belle

Anna and Elsa

Olaf

I learned something new with this park visit. The last shuttle for the Toy Story lot ran at 11 pm. Too bad the party ended at midnight. I was just about to start walking to the parking lot when the ART driver that told me that helpful info, told me to hop on. I guess he felt bad for me and decided to dropped me off at the lot. There was maybe 1 or 2 other cars there besides mine at the lot. So I wasn't the only numbskull! :)

I finally cut off the party bracelet when I got home. I hope to make it to the 20th year party!

10th Anniversary party bracelet

Saturday 9/5
I got ready and rolled up to the Mickey and Friends parking structure at about 3:30 am. Without saying anything, they gave me a free volunteer parking pass and directed me to the bottom floor parking area just next to the volunteer tent. I'm not going to say no to free parking! I broke in the new sling bag to carry my race stuff. After using the restroom at the parking structure, I started walking towards the starting area.

Free parking for the 10k

At about 4:45 am, I headed into the corrals. From running past Disneyland races, I knew that there was a smaller collection of portapotties just inside. While I was sitting down at a curb and waiting until 5 am to use one, I spotted my friend as she was walking towards corral A. She waited for me before we headed into corral A.

10k starting line

As with the usual cheesy yet amusing Disney pre-race show... it looked like for this year, the Disney villains have stolen the show. Cruella Deville started us off.

Cruella Deville

For the first two miles, I was running way over my head. This pace used to feel easier, but I knew that I was red lining it. By mile 3 as I ran through Disney California Adventure, I had to start slowing it down to a more manageable pace.
1-2: 14:52 (7:26)
3: 8:11
5k: 23:54

Mile 4 took us to and around It's a Small World before we ran through the castle. During mile 5, I rolled my right ankle when I took a corner a little too close. It was still kind of dark and I stepped on half of a curb. There were Disney employees standing there so I didn't see the curb. It was my fault for trying to cut it so close. It wasn't as if I was running for a PR. I hobbled a bit in quite a bit of pain until it felt a little better. During the last mile, I was passed by a little girl that I would later find out to be 10 years old. She was barely above half my height and running at a sub 8 min pace. My ankle was numb enough that I used her as a motivation to speed up. I followed her for a little bit until I couldn't keep up. She beat me by 10 seconds. :)
4: 8:26
5: 8:40
6: 8:12
6.2: 1:28
Finish: 49:49

10k finish line

10k medal

After getting my medal, I grabbed a water, Powerade, a snack box, and a banana as I exited the finishing chute. I didn't stick around too long since I had to go a church function out in Pasadena. My ankle was really achy wearing dress shoes, but thankfully it was not swollen. The discomfort had me hobbling around and a bit worried about the half marathon tomorrow.

Later that evening, I made sure to elevate my ankle when I went to sleep.

Sunday 9/6
The ankle felt better wearing running shoes. Thank goodness it felt pretty normal walking around. Once again I got ready and arrived at the Mickey and Friends parking structure at about 3:30 am. The lady at the booth asked if I was a volunteer or a runner. I said runner and she gave me a complimentary parking pass. I'm still not sure how that works because I've had to pay before arriving at the same time. I think the best bet for free parking is to show up as early as possible.

Free parking for the half marathon

Per the usual, I headed to the starting area after using the restroom at the parking structure. There was a post on the Disneyland Legacy Facebook group that there would be a pre-race photo at the stage at about 4:30 am. So I waited in the bleachers while watching some of the entertainment up on the stage. While waiting, I saw a few familiar faces. I was able to catch up a little with some people that I pretty much only see at Disneyland races. Since it was quite busy on the stage at the designated time, we instead gathered in front of the legacy banner at the side of the stage for our photo.

Legacy pre-race photo

After the legacy photo, my friends and I made our way into corral A. I found a spot at the curb to sit down while we waited for the start of the race. I wanted to stay off of my feet as much as I could. After the usual pre-race fanfare, ready or not, it was time to run a half marathon!

Half marathon starting line

I took off a little bit too fast, but the right ankle felt pretty good so I went with it. I had checked out the course map before the race and noticed that this year we were not going to run down to Katella during the first mile. Instead we went into the back lots right off of Disneyland Dr. The course went through the castle a little after mile 3. I was starting to feel the lack of fitness.
1: 7:26
2: 7:57
3: 8:25
5k: 24:48

We leave the park at about mile 4. I could not power up the freeway overpass on Ball Rd. As I came down the other side of the overpass, I started to look for my friend who I normally see at or just after that aid station. It was still dark and I was not able to spot her. I motored along as fast as I could, but I was definitely struggling. There was a small uphill at an underpass as we approached mile 6.
4: 8:55
5: 9:15
6: 9:21
10k: 52:43

After 3 slow miles, I tried to pick things up when we came up on the row of classic cars. The line of cars was a lot longer this year. As I came up to mile 8, I had to stop to take a walk break. I felt like I was overheating and needed to rest the right leg. I was starting to feel soreness in the right hip. The rollers along the Santa Ana River Trail slowed me down.

Classic cars near the Honda Center

7: 9:19
8: 8:37
9: 9:47
15k: 1:22:11

Then we headed towards Angels Stadium. I could not muster up any speed running along the warning track. Then we ran through the section where the course was lined with cheerleaders before running through the tunnel running underneath the freeway. My friend caught me around here as we were approaching mile 12 on Disney Way. I tried to keep her in sight, but I just could not get a whole lot of power out of my legs. The last mile was a grind, but I knew that I had to keep grinding to keep it under 2 hrs.
10: 9:54
11: 9:45
12: 9:27
13: 9:27
13.1: 0:52
Finish: 1:58:27

Woohoo! That's 10 years in a row completing this half marathon! I was reminded this weekend how difficult it was to maintain the legacy status. One rolled ankle could've been the end of my streak. My hip was a bit sore, probably because I was compensating with my stride. The volunteers that were handing out the medals spotted my legacy bib and directed me to the ones that were handing out the medals with the extra legacy lanyard. After that I walked slowly over to the Dumbo Double Dare tent to pick up my DDD medal. Before giving me the medal they first had to verify that I looked like the photo that was taken when I picked up the bib at the expo.

Half marathon finish line

I caught up with my faster friends and we hung out a bit taking a bunch of photos. We took photos in front of the legacy banner now that there was a lot of sunlight. A couple of them had to leave. My friend who didn't have to leave was up for hanging out, so we walked over to the parking structure to drop things off in our cars before heading over to Downtown Disney to get some breakfast at Earl of Sandwich.

Dumbo Double Dare completed!

Legacy!

I ordered the Bacon, Egg n' Cheddar Sandwich and two Stellas. It was cool hanging out with my friend. I think I talked her ear off. While we were finishing, I noticed that two "famous" legacy runners were sitting at a nearby table. Dr Alan Young has also run all 22 years of the Walt Disney World Marathon! I took a picture of them like I was a paparazzi. :)

Breakfast celebration at Earl of Sandwich

Dr Alan and Grace Young

We then walked over to the World of Disney store so I could buy a 60th year anniversary Disneyland polo. As an impulse purchase, I also bought a Yoda backpack. I will probably have to run with him during the Star Wars Rebel Challenge weekend. We then started walking back to our cars. We bumped into a bunch of her friends along the way. The weather was pretty nice. If I had an annual pass, we would've gone into the park to get some Dole Whip. Maybe next year.

Yoda followed me home!

When we got back to the parking structure, none of the cars were moving. All of the cars were at a standstill. We waited a while, but the traffic was not moving at all. Everybody that were in their cars had all shut off their cars. That was not a good sign. What we were hearing was that the roads were not fully opened yet. So I dropped off the stuff that I'd bought at my car and we walked back to Downtown Disney to pass some time.

Lock down at Mickey and Friends

We decided to get a drink at the bar at ESPN Zone. It was pretty crowded in the bar, but we were able to find a small table just as people were leaving. I had a Firestone Pale 31. After that, it was time to head on out. Thank goodness my friend didn't have to go anywhere and was able to keep me company. The parking structure was cleared out when we got back to our car.

Beer at ESPN Zone

I headed down to the Mitsuwa food court down in Costa Mesa to meet up with my friend to give him his Donald Duck shoes. It was a pain in the butt, but I was able to find a parking spot after circling the parking lot a few times. I ended up eating a chicken katsu curry plate from Miyabi. We talked a bit about our races this morning. Apparently he had trouble getting his finisher medal with the legacy lanyard because he read in the official event guide that there was a special legacy tent in the finisher chute. That was not the case. I advised my friend next time to just look for the special medals among the volunteers that are passing out the medals.