Disneyland 10k – Part 1 of the Dumbo Double Dare Challenge

As with all the Disney races this race was no different and started at 5:30. We met up with my cousins Jean and Nanette at the corner of Disneyland Drive and Katella and we walked to the Disneyland Hotel to meet up with Fran, Niko and Steph. Once we found them and took some pictures we walked toward the corral area.

One thing I noticed was that at the national anthem they didn’t have any fireworks, which I thought was strange, I thought that was done in all the races, I hoped that they would do the fireworks for the Half. There was a lot of people in the corrals, it looked like it was a half marathon rather than a 10k. It took us awhile to start, but once we started they played an Elvis song “Rock-A-Hula Baby” to send us on our way.

We followed the same path in the beginning as the half, but instead of turning onto Katella we continued down Disneyland Drive. This path took us around the Anaheim convention center and the streets of Anaheim.

A little after mile 2 we entered California Adventure and specifically Cars Land. This is where I lost my relative to take pictures. Once we exited Cars Land we turned left at entered Paradise Pier. One thing I like about the Disney races is that the runners were able to use the bathrooms in the park, so much better than using a port a potty. This course allowed is to see the Mickey’s Fun Wheel in to angles, so I was able to take pictures at both spots.

Just before mile 3 we found ourselves in the Golden State area, where I bumped into Fran, Niko and Steph. We took a quick picture and we continued the course. Halfway done!

The course then took us through the Hollywood Pictures Backlot, then the perimeter of the service area between the 2 parks, then brought us to the entrance of Disneyland.

I always look forward to the time on the course where we enter the park and then run down Main Street and see the castle. From there we turned right into Tomorrowland as we approached mile 4. We ran past the Matterhorn and when we got to It’s a Small World the had us exit the park and ran the back service perimeter of the park and enter the park in Toontown.

At mile 5 we arrived at Fantasyland. I was a bit disappointed because they didn’t have Dumbo flying and was concerned that it wouldn’t happen during the half. The course brought us in the back of Sleeping Beauty’s castle and had us run through it and had us turn right into Adventureland.

We again exited the park and ran towards Downtown Disney. Once we got to Downtown Disney I knew we were almost done. Once we exited Downtown Disney I saw the finish and booked it and finished the race in 1hr 26min 36sec definitely not my best time.

This race was really fun, it was Stitch themed and had a neat medal to go with it. There were also a lot of Elvis impersonators, the one I really wanted to take a picture with was the Stitch Elvis, but they were closing his line by the time I got there. One thing I didn’t like was that they were not that many characters along the course to take pictures with.

We were awarded our medal and Nanette and I got our wristband to get our Dumbo Double Dare Medal which we would receive once we finished the half marathon the next day. After having breakfast and showering. Rick and I spent the afternoon in Downtown Disney and then took a short nap before meeting up with my cousins for dinner.

We went to bed fairly early since we had to get up early again for the start of the Half Marathon.