After working a half day from home and eating lunch, I grabbed my bags and hopped in the car for the short drive down to Anaheim for the Disneyland Halloween Chills & Thrills Challenge this weekend. The onboard navigation had me arriving at the Mickey and Friends parking structure via Ball Rd. The lines weren't too bad. Once I reached the gate attendant, I showed him my race check-in pass which made it $10 for parking. For once, I wasn't routed up to the roof level. Instead I was directed to park on the 4th floor of Pixar & Pals.
Pixar & Pals parking structure
After I took a picture of where I had parked, I walked over to the Disneyland Hotel for the race expo. I think they always do a fantastic job with their decorations! Having been to these race expo for their other race in January, I knew that the entrance was near Goofy's Kitchen. I went through that entrance and up the stairs to first pick up my race bib.
Disneyland Hotel decorations
Disneyland Hotel 70th anniversary carpet
Race expo
Bib pick up
Once I had received my race bib, I went downstairs and headed over to the exhibition hall to get my race shirts and to check out all of the vendor booths. Per the usual, the shirt designs were good, but the graphics were the same heat transfer vinyl that they had used for years. I would much prefer that they use sublimation for the graphics. There's definitely less chance of chafing with sublimated graphics.
10k race shirt
Half marathon race shirt
Chills & Thrills Challenge shirt
In the Center Ballroom, they had the usual nice backdrop on the stage for photos. In the very center, they had a large circular information desk. While waiting to speak to a runDisney rep, I saw that they were selling a Dole Whip Lime which was served in a Disneyland Halloween Half Marathon weekend novelty souvenir cup. For once, it was an easy pass for me. My question for the rep was to see if they had an estimated timeframe for when the races would be brought back. The guy wasn't able to provide me with anything definitive. Knowing Disney, they would probably want to announce it at a D23 convention. I'm just hoping that this hiatus doesn't last another 7 years!
Race expo stage
Huluween Dole Whip
I then went through all of the vendor booths. Most of the booths seemed to be geared towards female runners. I did like the free samples that were being passed out at the Bauducco booth. Next, I checked out the official runDisney merchandise. Per the usual, I was mainly interested in seeing the Magic Key items. While the shirt looked okay, it was orange and black. Those are the colors of the hated San Francisco Giants! Thank goodness, there just wasn't anything there that looked tempting enough for me to buy.
Magic Key shirt
Expo freebies
Before heading out, I got in line to get a picture with my bib in front of one of the backdrops in the lounge area. Once I exited, I crossed the street to check out the Brooks footwear village. I thought that it was smart for them to move that outside into the parking lot. Unfortunately, the lines were insanely long. I didn't need another pair of runDisney shoes, so I bailed. I headed back to my car to drop off my race packet before heading inside the parks.
Picture with my race bib
Heading over to the Brooks footwear village
I grabbed my Yoda backpack and headed towards the security screening to get into the Downtown Disney District. Originally, I was planning to walk through Downtown Disney to get to the main entrance of Disneyland Park. However, I decided to take the Monorail instead since I haven't done that in a while.
Powered by Bitch Dust :)
Downtown Disney Monorail
Disneyland Park
- Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, car#56 had a decent blaster, but I was not good enough to hit the maximum score.
- Haunted Mansion Holiday, my favorite version of this ride!
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, had a great crew and hit a personal best!
- Pirates of the Caribbean, man the kids behind me were talkative!
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, rushed over here because I saw a 15 minute wait time. I guess so did everyone else as it was updated to 75 minutes! Needless to say, I bailed.
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster
Haunted Mansion Holiday
Sandy Claws
Oogie Boogie
Smugglers Run
Good crew!
Disney California Adventure Park
- Guardians of the Galaxy Monsters After Dark, my favorite version of the ride.
- Toy Story Midway Mania, the wait time was 75 minutes. Normally, I would wait, but I was hungry, tired, and I had an early race tomorrow!
Monsters After Dark
Coming soon, Infinity Defense!
DVC Mickey Mouse
After I exited the park, I started walking through Downtown Disney to get back to my car. Along the way, I met up with my out-of-town friends at Black Tap Craft Burgers & Shakes where they were having dinner. I only stopped long enough to say hi and wish everyone good luck in this weekend's races.
Downtown Disney
I hopped into my car and drove over to Soup Shop at State College and Lincoln to get dinner. Per the usual, nearby parking was a bit scarce and difficult if you want to back your car into the spot. I ended up parking a bit further away. Fortunately, I was there in time to get seated in a vacant booth. The place was pretty packed by the time I had put in my order for their pho combination. I must have been pretty tired as I had forgotten to tell them not to include cilantro!
Pho combination
After paying for my meal, it was time to drive over to WorldMark Dolphin's Cove to check into my unit. First, I was checked into unit #622. I was given a "free" upgrade to a 2 bedroom unit instead of the 1 bedroom that I had reserved. Next, it was a stop at the dreaded concierge station. I didn't want to attend yet another owner update, but I was too tired to resist. After agreeing to a 1 pm update tomorrow, she collected the $40 refundable deposit. The incentive was the usual $100 Tango gift card and $20 WorldMarket gift card. She tried to give me a drawstring bag full of junk food. When I told her that I didn't eat that stuff, she gave me other items. She gave me several tiny bottles of water and some Disney pens. I did keep the Oreo Minis for my coworker.
Check-in swag
I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race, hoping that they would have a Haunted Mansion photo op again like last year. Then I took a shower and watched some WWE Friday Night SmackDown before calling it a night.
10k flat runner
Saturday 9/6
I woke up early and got ready to leave my unit at about 3:15 am. There was a pretty strong odor of marijuana coming from the Denny's parking lot. I met up with my friends at the Ramada just around the corner so we could walk over to the start together. I had stayed here back in January of 2017 for the Star Wars Rebel Challenge when it was a Travelodge. I showed my friends the shortcut through the Toy Story parking lot where we could use a real restroom instead of a portapotty. Once we got through the metal detectors, we went our separate ways. They were in corral A and I was in corral B. Normally, I would be in corral A as well. However, during registration I had selected the option of not running a sub 8 min/mile pace. While waiting near the front of corral B, I bumped into a couple of Perfect Dopeys that I had met this past January!
Started out of corral B
A bunch of Perfect Dopeys!
10k course map
Thankfully, I was able to go out at a decent pace for that first mile, covering it in 7:42. I tried to maintain a sub 8 minute pace for the next mile. Once I saw that it was an 8:11, I decided to pull over for a walk break and to take it easy for the rest of the race. I ran the third mile in 8:47 as I made my way down Main St in Disneyland Park. Right before reaching the 4th mile marker, I pulled over to take a picture with Chip & Dale in front of The Golden Horseshoe. That 4th mile was an 8:38. My 5th mile was the slowest mile at 8:59. I had to slow things down as I was overheating. As I ran through Fantasyland, I finally caught up to one of my friends that had started in corral A. She jokingly asked me, "what took you so long?" :) The 6th mile was mostly on the dark backroads plus that underpass of the transportation roads coming from Harbor Blvd. After a short out and back, it was a run back to the finish line which was just beyond the start line. I covered that mile in 8:39. With .2 to go, I finally stepped on the gas to head for the finish line. It was cool that Carissa Galloway gave me a nice little shoutout at the finish line as she knows me as one of the legacy runners for the Disneyland Half Marathon and a frequent runDisney runner.
Chip & Dale
Finish line
10k Finish: 52:54
Click here for my Garmin data.
I was quite the sweaty mess after crossing the finish line. Per the usual, I received my finisher medal still wrapped in the plastic sleeve as I turned the corner. That must be nice as I remembered having to take out each medal from the plastic wrapper when I had volunteered in the past. Further down the finisher chute, I received a bottled water, Powerade, a banana, and a post race snack box. Before heading out, I got in line to get a breaking-the-tape backdrop photo.
10k finisher medal
Close up of 10k finisher medal
Back of finisher medal
Post race snack box
Post race photo
I got back to my room at just before 7 am. After I had gotten cleaned up, I vegged out for several hours to catch up on some rest. I did not feel like moving at all! I finally rolled out of bed to go attend that owner update. I decided to walk instead of taking a short complimentary Uber ride. I timed my walk to arrive at the Ono Hawaiian BBQ for lunch at about noon. I ordered the Hawaiian BBQ Mix and a can of Hawaiian Sun.
Hawaiian BBQ Mix
Before heading over to the WorldMark Anaheim property for my owner update, I stopped in at the Starbucks to get a cold drink. I ordered my usual grande salted caramel cream cold brew on the mobile app before going inside to wait for my drink. With my cold drink in hand, I walked over to get checked-in for that update. The waiting area was full of people there for the same thing.
Grande salted caramel cream cold brew
WorldMark Anaheim
When I was done with my one hour, I stopped by the gifting station to sign for my incentives. While I had received my Tango gift card via email, the girl had forgotten about the $20 WorldMarket gift card. Once that was taken care of, I stopped by that store to get a cold drink. I wanted some cold brew, but they were all out. I opted for a regular iced coffee. I made sure to use up some of it now since I think my other card from last year had already expired.
$20 gift card for use at the WorldMarket
Grande iced coffee
With the cold drink in hand, I decided to walk back to the Disneyland Hotel just to check out the race expo one last time. I went through the exhibition hall where I got a selfie with Jeff Galloway and briefly chatted with him. He's such a personable former elite athlete!
Jeff Galloway
After I was done, I decided to cut through Downtown Disney on my way over to Johnny Rockets for a very early dinner. After getting through security screening, I first checked out the Avengers Reserve. I thought that it was a nice, well designed store for fans to check out merchandise from the MCU without having to go into one of the Disney parks. Before exiting Downtown Disney, I did a quick walkthrough of the World of Disney just to see what they had to offer.
Avengers Reserve
World of Disney
I was a bit surprised to find that Johnny Rockets was pretty packed at about 4 pm! It turned out that Anime Days was taking place today at the GardenWalk. Fortunately, I was able to find a small vacant table. I don't drink soda these days, but a root beer float sounded really good on such a warm day. I got that to go with a Rocket Double. When I was done with my meal and was paying for it, the lady thought that I worked at that mall. I guess I do come here often enough for someone to think that. It's just a cheaper alternative to eating on Disney property and I also earned American Airlines miles.
Root beer float
Rocket Double
GardenWalk
I then headed back to my room to pretty much call it a day. Once I got back, I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's half marathon. Then I was able to catch the Dodgers vs. Orioles game where Yamamoto was pitching a spectacular no-hitter into the 9th inning. Unfortunately, he came up short and was just one out away from achieving that accomplishment before giving up a HR to Jackson Holliday. Blake Treinen came in to close it out. However, he ended up pitching a stinker. He gave up a double, hit a batter, threw a wild pitch and walked two forcing another run across the plate. Then Tanner Scott came in to promptly give up a walk-off single to Emmanuel Rivera. Somehow I just knew that that was going to happen. The Dodgers snatched defeat out of a sure victory :(
Half marathon flat runner
Came within an out of pitching a no-hitter
How did the Dodgers manage to lose that game?!
Sunday 9/7
I got ready and left my room at about the same time as yesterday. However, I didn't walk over with my friends today. Instead I headed over to the GardenWalk to meet up with my other friend to give him the race packets that I had picked up for them at AFC. We then headed over to the starting area. After using the portapotties, we headed into corral A. We said hi to our friend in corral B before heading up closer to the front of the corral. As the start of the race approached, we saw the usual suspects.
Corral B
Corral A
Carissa Galloway and Matt Starkey
Maleficent wants the smoke!
Tetsutomo as Minnie Mouse
Latino Heat and Paul
Anaheim mayor Ashleigh Aitken
Latino Heat and Luis
Half marathon course map
I started the race with the intent to run as many 8:30 miles as possible. I ran with Robert until about mile 2. I pulled over to take a pic with Lotso while he went on ahead. For the third mile, I made my way out of Disney California Adventure Park. Instead of running straight into Disneyland Park, the course veered off to the left towards the picnic area.
(8:30, 9:02, 8:50)
Latino Heat
Lotso
After entering Disneyland Park and running south along Main St, I pulled over to take a picture with Daisy and Donald. That brought me to mile 4 as I ran around the backside of Space Mountain. The course then headed north towards It's A Small World. After making a counter-clockwise loop on the backroads around that ride, I re-entered in Toontown and headed towards Sleeping Beauty's Castle to reach mile 5. For the 6th mile, I ran through Galaxy's Edge and onto the backroads to head out towards Ball Rd.
(9:16, 9:12, 9:02)
Daisy and Donald
Darkwing Duck!
I was hoping to get some faster miles once I got out onto the streets of Anaheim and possibly finish in under 2 hours. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I was actually slowing down, so I decided to continue taking walk breaks after reaching each new mile marker. As I came up to mile 9 and the right turn onto State College Blvd off of Ball Rd, I saw my friends out there cheering with signs.
(9:15, 9:54, 9:31)
I wasn't running very fast at this point. I was just dumping water on my head at every aid station. The short little out and back on Sunkist got me to mile 10, my slowest mile. As I got back up to the State College Blvd and Ball Rd intersection, I had to force myself to jog as I came back to my friends. I thought they would give me crap if they saw me walking. In hindsight, I probably should've just stopped to say hi. Their signs were funny. I tried to pick up the pace for the last 2 miles, but it wasn't much. With the final stretch to go, I got pretty misty-eyed knowing that I had reached my 300th finish line for a half marathon. Once again, Carissa gave me a nice shout out when I came through the finish line.
(10:05, 9:37, 9:44, 1:38)
My friends showed up at mile 11
Finish line
Half marathon finish: 2:03:20
Click here for my Garmin data.
While I was hoping to have run a bit better for my 300th half marathon, I'll take whatever I can get from this body since I don't run well when the weather is hot and humid! Honestly, I never thought that I would reach such a milestone when I ran my very first half marathon back in 2005!
I received my finisher medal and a wet towel shortly after turning the corner. Then further down the finisher chute, they had spotters looking for runners that were to receive a bonus medal for completing a challenge. After receiving my Chill & Thrills Challenge medal, I continued on where I received a bottled water, Powerade, a banana, and a post race snack box. I then met up with my friend before we got in line to get pictures in front of the backdrops. After that we started heading out.
Half marathon finisher medal
Close up of half marathon finisher medal
Chills & Thrills Challenge medal
Close up of Chills & Thrills Challenge medal
All 3 medals
I got back to my unit before 9 am. I was taking my time to get cleaned up. I was planning to relax a bit before I packed up my stuff ahead of the 11 am check-out time. At first, I thought they were joking, but my friends that I had come out to cheer were stranded. They had carpooled and their ride had somewhere to be. Uber and Lyft both had ridiculously high-demand pricing in effect. I had to hurry up and pack up my stuff to go get them. For my troubles, they treated me to lunch at Súp Noodle Bar out in Irvine.
Lunch at Súp Noodle Bar
Pho combination
Since it was a rather big meal, I decided to tag along with my friends as they needed to do their weekly grocery shopping at the Ralphs that was also in Heritage Plaza. I needed to walk off some of that meal before I hopped in the car for the drive home!
Bluey!
I would give Yo Mama's a try
Do dogs even like pumpkin spice?
Retired from football, but still need money
When I got home, I finally figured out why I wasn't seeing any of my Photo Pass pictures. I was following the old out-of-date instructions. The check-in pass actually had the single Photo Pass Claim ID that we were supposed to use. The old way had us entering several codes depending on how many events we had entered. Eventually, they would update the website with the new instructions.
Old Photo Pass instructions
