The Disneyland Half Marathon weekend seemed to come fast this year. Again I signed up for the Dumbo Double Dare, which started with the Disneyland 10K on Saturday morning. This year the theme for the 10K was famous duos, which the main character was Aladdin and the Genie.
The kick off was at 5:30, so it was an early wake up time to get ready. We got there around 4:45, I was in Corral D, and it was good that we got there early so I could make my way up to the front of the corral. Since I was warry about my pace time, if I wanted to stop and take pictures I needed get as much of a head start. The weather was really nice, in the low 70’s, perfect weather for me for running. Once they had the National Anthem they started releasing the corrals. The corrals were released in 6 minute intervals, so we didn’t have to wait long for us to start our race around the parks.
We headed down Disneyland Drive and made our way to the convention center and ran for 2 miles till they routed us to the vicinity of the parks. At about 2.5 miles we entered California Adventure through Carsland. From there we made a short trip through A Bugs Land and made our way towards Paradise Pier. Seeing Mickey’s Fun Wheel at the pier always brings a smile to my face, riding it is a different story! We ran behind the wheel and made our way towards the Golden State, where I saw the new sign for Soarin’ Around the World, which I made me look forward in riding it when we go into the park on Monday. We ran past Carthay Circle and ran through the Hollywood Pictures Backlot. When we passed
the Tower of Terror they routed us out to the service road and directed us toward Disneyland!
Just before mile 5 we entered Disneyland through Toon Town, where Donald welcomed us from his boat house. From there we ran past It’s a Small World and were routed towards Tomorrowland. Once we got to the hub, we took a right turn towards the Matterhorn, and entered Fantasyland on the right side of the castle. Just before running through the castle, I took my usual Alice in Wonderland tea cup picture and waved at Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip who were on the carousel. After we ran through the castle we were routed down Main Street towards the Main Entrance of Disneyland. When we exited we veered left and ran the last leg of the course through Downtown Disney. I saw Rick at the mile 6 marker and finished the race running towards the Disneyland Hotel parking lot.
I never use the Disney races to improve my time, there is too much to see, take pictures and having fun in the parks. I finished in 1hr 37min 44sec, definitely not my best time, but I had a blast running it. There were not that many characters along the course, but as usual I took some scenic pictures, stopped at each mile marker and took a picture with it and had fun running in the parks, seeing the different costumes that were out there. I like the 10K route because you spend the majority of the time in the parks. The medal depicted the theme of the race with Aladdin and Genie on the magic carpet with Abu hanging on.
Part one of the Dumbo Double Dare is completed, we spent the afternoon visiting my cousin and a couple of friends at the beach. We had a relaxing day and rested for the second part of the challenge, the Disneyland Half.
Chad's Blog for Running, Disney & Movies 