Disneyland Half Marathon part 2, the kids race, Drew Carey- Athelte's Plate

Before I get to the rest of my recap for the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend, I want to mention that I am featured on the Athlete by Athlete's Plate over at Jason's blog Cook Train Eat Race.  If you want to see what I eat every day go check his post!  I eat the same thing every single day.  If you are a long time reader you already know this about me now you get to see it in pictures!  Thank you Jason for featuring me on your great blog!
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Disneyland Kids Race

This was my boys 2nd year running this race.  This year they changed the location and had the race at Downtown Disney instead of at California Adventure.  Not quite the same for the kids but the one plus was that they crossed the Half Marathon finish line so that made it special for them.  Will was signed up for the 400m dash and Jonathan for the 200m.  I was a little mad because I had emailed Run Disney and asked if it will be possible to pick up the kids bib on race morning, they said no.  Sure enough they had a table for bib pick up at Downtown Disney.  In the final instructions it said to be there no later than 9 am.  Race was at 10 am.  My kids did not even start until almost 11 am! That is a LONG time to wait.  We decided that I would go to the Finish Line to wait for them and take pictures and Bill would line up with them at the start.  We also decided to have them both run the 400m to make things easier on Bill.  I got a good spot right at the Finish Line and I waited and waited and waited...One other lady was there as well.  It was about 9:30 am.  I never thought it would take 90 min before I see my kids!!!  When it got close to the start of the race a bunch of people started to stand in front of all the parents that were waiting for their kids like me.  Brightroom and Run Disney employees.  The parents were not happy.  We had been waiting for a while and now these people were blocking our view!    The photographers ended up sitting so it was OK.  The Run Disney people not so much.  I yelled at them several times "Excuse me, Excuse me!" they would not turn around!  Other parents started to yell at them as well "MOVE!"  They were standing there doing NOTHING! I was furious! Finally one turned and I said "Can you please move or sit so we can see our kids?" She said "We have to make sure they don't run into the photographers!!!!" What? Are you kidding me? from here???! I said "Well we are the parents, we have been waiting, we PAID and we want to see them!"  I had some parents cheering me on it was crazy.  They moved for a little while.  Of course not when MY KIDS wave finally showed up.  I was livid.  This huge Run Disney dude was blocking me right at that moment.   BOO HOOO.  The kids had a good time.  That is what matters the most.  Will came in first this time, he was not going to let his little brother beat him a second time!!!  Then Jonathan and Bill followed.  Jonathan was hilarious, he looked so angry, running with 2 fists and no smile.  The Angry Runner!!!  They got cute medals and they were happy!  Here are some race pictures.  Of course Brightroom is not offering family packages so it would cost a fortune to get pics for that weekend..(theirs and mine).  I do love these so much!!!

After that we went to the Expo for a little bit.  I wanted to get an official program and just take a look around.  We went by where I met Jeff Galloway on Friday and there we saw Drew Carey and Megan Price.  She is an actress on the sitcom Rules of Engagement.  We love that show.  (If you watch it, my husband is just like "Jeff" in the show...I know...poor me.)  There was a line for people to meet them and take pictures.  It was not long so we decide to get in line.  We waited about 10-15 min only.  When it got to be our turn, we started walking towards their table and then this guy put his arm in front of me to make me stop! He does not say anything like I don't know "Please wait a minute"..No;  arm in front of me, not Bill, ME the girl!!  So I look at him and guess who?  The same Run Disney dude that was blocking me at the kids race!!!!!!! Seriously!  We had to wait because they had a gal with them coming to meet Drew Carey.  She had ran across America so she earned the right to cut in!  I just did not like the way that guy made us wait.  He could have used his word...you know like we teach our toddlers to do?!!! Anyway, after this gal it was our turn, the guy waiting behind us offered to take pics with our camera and asked Bill to take his in exchange.  Drew Carey is so nice and he looks fantastic.  He was injured (separated his clavicle) and he explained all that to Will and he made him touch his bone so he can feel where is was broken. Will asked him how that happened to him and he said he was chasing bad guys like Batman!!! Safe to say Will loves Drew Carey now!!!  Megan Price was also very nice, she asked Jonathan about his race and she said she did it with her daughter and that she is running the Thinkerbelle half marathon in January.  We were lucky to meet them because they were there for just an hour.

Disneyland Half Marathon race report part 1

 DISNEYLAND HALF MARATHON!

Yep this will need more than one post.  We had the kids race on Saturday.  That will be for another post with hilarious pictures...well I think they are funny but I am bias...
here is one for sneak peak...
Jonathan in action looking really pissed off!!!

Also more on the Expo where we met these people....the very svelte Drew Carey and Megan Price (from Rules of Engagement, yes we do watch this show, that is Bill's favorite)

More on this in part 2.

Half Marathon.
We stayed in Anaheim on the Saturday night.  Because of the fireworks I did not get to sleep until after 10 pm.  I was in bed long before that but it was so loud I could not sleep through it.  I had to get up at 3 am to catch the shuttle to the race, last one was at 4:30 am.   I got down in the lobby and saw 3 women, 2 of them with huge wings.  One asked "Are you going to the race?"  It was 3:30 am, I was dressed in running gear and I had the Disney check bag...yeah..  Got to the race really early, there were a lot of people there already.  It was well organized for this part: bags checking area was great, people were super friendly and plenty of porta potty.  Huge area for people to wait before the start, but not as close to the start as most people thought  (they had no sign to direct people, if they did I did not see any).  If I had known I would have headed to the starting line a lot sooner.  
The start was be far the worst part of the race.  For corals A to C it looked fine.  Anything above C: a mess.  I was in D and lots of people from G and up were lined up in Coral D.   They had told a bunch of D people (maybe 50 of us) to stay in a certain spot so we did and then 10 minutes before the start some other race people came and said we needed to go all the way to the back and come down to Coral D!! There were over 14000 runners lined up! Luckily some nice guy saw my bib and let me and a couple other girls get in by opening the gate in Coral D!

They had fireworks for the National Anthem, that was nice.  5:55 am the Wheel chairs start, 6 am coral A and every 5 min the following coral would start.  I started at 6:15 am.  First few miles were CRAZY.  Lots of walkers in coral D, some walking 5 people wide...that was really annoying.  I know this is suppose to be a fun race because it is Disney but people who walk should lined up at the BACK no matter where the race is.  It was hard to pass people for the first 3 miles.  I get that people stop for pictures and that it forces the runners behind them to slow down or stop.  We saw several Disney Characters that was fun.  Phineaus and Ferb, Russel from Up!, Princesses, Fairy Godmothers, Marry Poppins, Maleficent, Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast and he was lit up!  Lots of bands and Cheerleaders along the course, I loved that.  I had my Ipod but I turned it off for a good part of the race. 

The course was flat.  The weather was perfect.  My stomach no so much.  I had bad cramping.  For the first time in 24 races I had to make a restroom break, that lovely stop happened around mile 4.  I also had bad cramps on a calf. It was so bad I have 2 huge bruises on my leg.  Medic said was caused by cramps and having those darn varicose veins.  I knew that if I stopped I would not be able to continue so I never did stop (except for restroom but that was long before calf issue.)  I was feeling pretty good other than those 2 problems.  My stomach was OK from mile 6 to 10.  At mile 10 I almost threw up. ALMOST.  Mentally I was doing pretty good compare to my 2 previous half marathons.  When we got to HONDA Center (Home of the Anaheim Ducks) I had a second wind because I knew that ANGELS STADIUM was next and that was where my kids would be!  We had to choose between them being at the Stadium or the Finish Line and the Stadium was much easier for Bill because the kids could sit while waiting and for parking it was also much easier.  Angels Stadium is mile 9.5 so we did not know if they could make it on time to see me finish and sadly they did not see me cross the finish line.  But they saw me run in the Stadium and that was sooooooo GREAT.  For sure the best part of the race for me. 

3.6 miles to go after that.  I was not easy.  I had been doing pretty good drinking my NUUN and taking my Sports Beans.  But I was getting dehydrated.  AGAIN.  I had the chills.  I tried to ignore it as best as I could.  I did not stop.  I did not hit the wall.  When we entered the park to get to the finish line it was so nice seeing all the people that were lined up! All along the course people were great cheering for the runners, a lot of them called my name, it was fantastic to hear someone say "You are doing great CAROLINE!" I THANKED ALL THE NICE FOLKS  WHO CALLED MY NAME. I was so happy to see the Finish Line and this time I did not panic like I always do.  I did not sprint like I wish I did, I still need to work on that.  I was sad that my family was not there to see me finish.  If I do Disney again, I will want them at the Finish for sure!!!

I was really overwhelmed...I had done my best time so far for this distance.  By 12 minutes.   I think because I am slow and also because I have been running for 18 mos and I still have so much to learn;  the room for improvement is hmm huge.  This is why I got a12 minutes PR.  Yes I am getting a little better but I also learned from all the mistakes I made in January at my first half and in May for my second half.   In January my time was 2:42:xx (don't remember the sec) and this time 2:26:38.  I know I can do better than that. 

After the finish I went to the Medic station and they wrapped ice on my poor calf.  I got my HUGE Medal.  The nicest one I got so far.  They gave the runners a towel and water.  After that I had my picture taken, skipped the food and got my checked bag and looked for Bill and the kids.  Took me a while to find them but I finally did!  They had a tent with free massage so I decided to go get one while Bill took to the boys to eat at Goofy's Kitchen.  My first massage.  It will not be my last.  The guy said I had lots of muscle knots in my back and neck and asked if I am stressed! Ha Ha!!! I told him I was born stressed.  I saw a table where they were engraving the medals (I did not have my medal engraved..$25 extra..no thank you. :) ).  They had the official times, that is how I got mine, was pretty close to my Garmin.  (On the website, my time was different and I emailed them and they responded today that 2:26:38 is the correct one and they will correct it online)  After that I walked to go meet Bill and the kids.  They were having a feast but I could not eat anything.  My stomach felt like crap.  I knew I had to drink but even that was not going down easy.  It took 6 hours before I was able to eat some pretzel.  

So this was a fun race.  Lots of people running in costumes, lots of distractions along the course.  It is not the perfect race to set a PR or for serious runners.  Way too many people walking and stopping all the time.  I would do it again though, maybe try the Thinkerbell one next time!!!

Not the Race Report...just an update

Half Marathon #3 done
2:26:38
that is a PR for me, 12 minutes
Still slow but under 2:30 I am happy
this is not the place to PR.
More on that in my report...
one restroom break and several stomach cramps...
but I am happy!
More pics and details...tomorrow
Naptime