Recently Disneyland got rid of free complimentary 2 hr parking without having to get validation at Downtown Disney. You now have to spend $20 in order to get validated for 2 hr parking at the Downtown Disney parking lot. Here's an article about it in the OC Register. So I decided to take the opportunity to avoid having to worry about paying for parking by buying their Signature Plus annual passport which includes parking.
After work, I rolled into the Mickey and Friends parking structure and parked with my new annual pass using the Disneyland app on my phone. The parking attendant had to check my ID as I needed to get my photo taken and have it linked with my pass. It was a nice feeling not having to shell out $20 for parking or having to worry about validation. After getting parked, I started walking towards the Disneyland Hotel. I was able to avoid the security check for entering Downtown Disney by heading down further on Magic Way and walking straight into Disneyland Hotel.
Expo at Disneyland Hotel
Per the usual, it was down the underground parking ramp for the bib pick-up. Besides the bib, I picked up a Double Dare luggage tag and the Double Dare pin that I had pre-ordered. They were also passing out free gifts for annual passholders. The gifts were a drawstring bag and a wrist band.
Bib pick-up
Bib, luggage tag, Double Dare pin
AP gift
AP gift
After I was done taking pictures and stuff, I walked up the ramp to go to the expo. There I would pick up my race shirts before perusing the official merchandise and most of the vendor booths. The "I Did It!" shirts looked pretty nice, but I didn't want to pay for another expensive t-shirt.
Expo
10k shirt
Half marathon shirt
Double Dare shirt
After I was done with the expo, I met up with my friends from Vegas. They were taking a break back at their hotel room and was headed back into the park. I joined them for a few rides in Disneyland. We rode Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, and Big Thunder Mountain. After that I parted ways and started heading home. On the way back to my car, I stopped by one of the ticket box offices to get my physical annual passport card.
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Annual pass
Friday 9/1
It's probably not ideal to eat a huge steak dinner the night before a race, but my friend and I went to our favorite steakhouse, Mastro's, to celebrate my birthday after work. For this go-around I ordered the Chef's cut New York steak, blackened Chilean sea bass, lobster bisque, and some steamed asparagus. I was pretty stuffed and eating a piece of the chocolate cake gave me a stomach ache. I guess that's what happens when you've retired from buffets and you're no longer used to stretching out the stomach.
Menu
Chef's cut New York steak
Blackened Chilean Sea Bass
Birthday cake
Once I got home from dinner, I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's 10k. I was not looking forward to the race as the weather forecast was predicting temperatures in the near 90's with high humidity.
10k flat runner
Saturday 9/2
I was afraid that last night's dinner would sit like a brick. Fortunately it didn't and my stomach felt much better when I woke up. I got ready and rolled up to the Mickey and Friends parking structure at about 3 am. They weren't opened yet, so I shut the engine and waited in line with the few cars that were also there that early.
Annual pass parking
After using the restroom at the parking structure, my friend and I walked over to the staging area. It was pretty cool to see the Pizza Planet truck parked there. Apparently not too many people are fans of Toy Story as they did not recognize the truck. In the passenger seat was Buzz Lightyear!
Pizza Planet truck
Buzz Lightyear
Finally I was able to visit the AP lounge! My friend and I took a few photos before making our way to the starting corrals. Along the way we bumped into our friends.
AP lounge
Heading to the corrals
10k start
The first two miles went pretty well. However after I reached the first aid station and poured water on my neck, I knew I had to shut the hard running down as I could tell that I was overheating. I took the next mile pretty slow. I ran into @gojorunner while running through Mickey's Toontown. I couldn't keep up with her as I had to pull over to take another walk break. Once I got the overheating under control, I cruised through the rest of the course while taking a walk break here and there to cool down. I had to take off my visor as my head felt like it was going to explode at times. During the final stretch a little 11 year old girl came running by, I kept up with her but she had an extra gear right before we crossed the finish line.
10k running
10k finish
10k: 55:26
Click here for my Garmin data.
I thought the 10k medal was one of the better ones that I've seen. I do love Monsters Inc. While it wasn't a great race, I liked how my legs are starting to move faster now. After taking some official finisher photos, I met up with my fellow runDisney fanatics, the usual suspects, to take a post race photo. We all had places to be, so we all started heading our separate ways. I went home to get cleaned up before returning to the park.
10k medal
The usual suspects
After getting cleaned up at home, I went back to Disneyland to meet up with my friends from work. They wanted to give me a Mickey pie pop from Hello Sweetie Pies. They had me choose between apple pie and blueberry pie. I went with the blueberry one. It was pretty good, but I'm not a very big dessert person. We got in line to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean.
Mickey blueberry pie pop
After that, we went our separate ways and I went into Disney California Adventure. They were already starting to decorate the park with Halloween decorations. It was super hot and I was mostly walking around to familiarize myself with the layout as I hardly ever visit this park.
Disney California Adventure
At first I thought about riding Soarin' Around the World, but the line was too long. So I then made my way over to Radiator Springs to ride the Radiator Springs Racers. I was fortunate to see Lightning McQueen drive by. I got in the single rider line and there was practically no wait. For some reason the ride felt slower which was probably why our car lost. :)
Lightning McQueen
Radiator Springs Racers
I then made my way to the Summer of Heroes section. There was a sign for an exclusive Disney Visa card member character experience. They hid the the character around the corner so nobody can tell which character it is unless you happen to catch them swapping out. I saw Daisy leaving and Stitch coming in. That's great for me since Stitch is one of favorites!
Disney Visa Cardmember Character Experience
Stitch
After meeting Stitch, I started heading over to the Guardians of the Galaxy ride. I figured that I would just get in the regular line as my Fast Pass for it was much later in the day. Along the way I bumped in Black Widow. Man, it must have been tough for her to be wearing all black in that weather!
Black Widow
Guardians of the Galaxy
The line wasn't that long. It was pretty cool that they did so much improvement on the pre-ride entertainment. There was plenty to look at including a looped video up on the screen. The ride in my opinion was vastly improved from the Tower of Terror. I think it's such a fun ride. The little boy sitting next to me might disagree with me as he was flung all over the place!
Ultron
I bumped into a few of my friends in the gift shop, so we all got in line to ride Guardians again. While waiting in line, I spotted another friend that was with her daughter, so they also joined us in line. After that it was time for me to head home.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Man, I was pooped when it came time to eat dinner. I went out with my folks to eat at NOODLEMii. I ate their Hainan chicken. It wasn't that good, but I was definitely craving some meat! I pretty much crashed into my bed as soon as I got home.
Hainan chicken
Sunday 9/3
I guess I was pretty tired as I had slept through all of my alarms. I woke up in time that I was still able to get to the Mickey and Friends parking structure at about 3:30 am. After my usual routine of using the restroom and gathering my stuff, I headed over to the staging area to meet up with some of my fellow legacy runners. After the group photo, I didn't stick around and headed for the corrals.
Half marathon legacy runners
@blingwhore as Pirate Russell!
My friend's goal for the race was to finish just under 2 hrs, so I tried to see if I could hang with him for at least the first 10k. Unfortunately I was overheating by the time we got to mile 2, so I told him to go ahead. I would spend the next several miles taking numerous walk breaks to try and cool myself down. I saw my friend, Mitch, cheering around mile 5. I was able to get some ice from him to put on my neck. That helped out a lot. My friend, Casey, caught up to me around here. I tried my best to follow her, but lost sight of her at the next aid station at around mile 6. My friend, Dana, was cheering at the corner of State College Blvd and Cerritos Ave. I was able to get some ice from her. Casey caught me just outside of the Honda Center. We ran together for the next mile or so. Along that stretch through Angel Stadium and the parking lot we also ran into a couple of our friends.
Running through Angels Stadium
After leaving Angel Stadium, we came up to an aid station. I had to take another walk break, so my friend went on up ahead. I would catch up to her on the freeway overpass as we approached mile 11. At that point, we decided to just run the rest in together. Misery loves company. :)
Belle
Half marathon finish
Half marathon: 2:21:44
Click here for my Garmin data.
Per the usual, getting both my half marathon and Double Dare medals with the legacy lanyard was a little bit of a chore. From looking at the bib for the legacy marker, they first gave me the half marathon finisher medal with the extra legacy lanyard. Then they verified that I was the same person that had picked up the bib at the expo before they gave me the Double Dare medal also with the legacy lanyard. Good thing I wasn't doing any other challenge because that's usually where the confusion happens with the temp workers.
Half marathon finish with Pizza Planet truck
My friends and I took the usual post race picture in front of the Pizza Planet truck. After we were done with the picture, we started going our separate ways. My friend and I went back to our cars at Mickey and Friends to drop off some of our running stuff and to change out of the wet clothes. We then headed over to Earl of Sandwich to eat some breakfast. On this visit, I got their Full Montagu and a frozen lemonade. The sandwich had roasted beef, turkey, Swiss, cheddar, lettuce, Roma tomato, and mustard sauce. The lemonade was nice for the warm weather, but it was irritating my throat. I wonder if I'm allergic to one of the ingredients.
Post race breakfast at Earl of Sandwich
The Full Montagu and frozen lemonade
After our meal, my friend headed home and I headed for the park to make use of my annual pass. I went on 2 of my usual favorite rides: Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Then I went over to the Star Wars Launch Bay and met with Chewbacca. I told him that we did it, but sorry, as usual, there's no medal for the Wookie! :)
No medal for Chewie!
I then rode Autopia. They've updated everything including the cars since the last time that I went on this ride decades ago. Even with the update, it felt like I was riding a very slow lawnmower, mowing someone's yard.
Autopia
Before going home, I stopped by the Tiki Juice Bar and got in line to get a Dole whip float. A trip to Disneyland just doesn't feel complete unless I have one and I don't even like sweets!
Dole whip float
Tuesday 9/5
Today I received an email from runDisney to fill out a survey. One of the questions asked how likely it would be for me to return for the Disneyland Half Marathon in 2018. Of course, I'll be back! There have been tons of speculation for the future of Disneyland races leading up to the race this year and none of it has been good. I've heard everything from the race management company having done a poor job managing the races to the city of Anaheim not wanting runDisney to have these races. The common outcome of every speculation that I've heard has been the same... that there will be no races at Disneyland in 2018. I have run every single Disneyland race except for that one and done Disneyland Marathon back in 1995. I have felt that they had expanded their schedule way too quickly, so I'm actually fine with all of the races going away except for the Disneyland Half Marathon that takes place every Labor Day. I certainly hope that they keep at least that one!
Post race survey
