Disneyland Half Marathon 2013

This is my favorite race to run. This year they developed a new challenge the Dumbo Double Dare (DDD). It was very popular and highly sought for because at the day they released the registration it filled upon 20 min. I was not able to register for that, but was very happy to get into the half.

We arrived in Disneyland on Saturday, so once we dropped off our bags at the hotel we went directly to the expo. Within minutes of stepping into the exhibitors area I hear “Chaddie!” which was my cousin Nanette. She got into the DDD so she was wearing her first medal, which was really nice! I definitely want to participate next year. I also saw Dave Mari and my cousins Dave (Dodong), Nanette’s husband Todd and their kids Taylor and Nathan. It was a fun expo and I got my commemorative vinylmation for the race. We met up for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and then went back to to hotel to rest before the race.

Woke up early to get ready, my cousin Debbie stayed at a nearby hotel so she met us an we went to meet up with the rest of our group. While we walked to the corrals my cousin Nanette found Vivian Cook who we’ve went to school with a long time ago. Once we got into our corral, the wait wasn’t too long and away we go!

I started running with Jean, once we got to California Adventure she went ahead and took pictures. I took a lot of pictures this year and found Snow White again! We ran through Paradise Pier, Pacific Wharf, Cars Land, Hollywood Land and Buena Vista Street…then off to the Magic Kingdom!

Once we entered the park we turned on to Main Street U.S.A. and got to see Sleeping Beauty’s castle. From there we ran through Frontierland, Fantasyland, Tommorowland and Mickey’s Toontown…then we were off to the streets of Anaheim.

I got reunited with Jean where the cars were and we ran the rest of the way through the parking lot of the Honda Stadium, the A’s Stadium and back to the Disneyland Resort.

The morning was hot and humid. I utilized the water stations to douse myself to keep myself cool. I finished the race in 3hrs. 1min. and 28sec. Not my best time, but I had a great time.

We waited for everyone to finish to take our finishers photo together. It was a great run, the first half for Debbie, Nanette’s 50th bday coming up, seeing the sights, it was just a fun experience.

Next year I will be going for my coast to coast medal. Starting with my first full marathon in January and this in sept!

The next day we spent the day at the parks where I sported my medal, I got to spend most of the day with Nanette and Taylor, took pictures with Mickey Mouse. This was a really fun weekend.

Till next year for this race!

Chicago Rock n Roll 2013

Even though I’ve participated in runs this year I felt that this run is the start of my half marathon season, because the Rock n Roll half last year was my first half marathon. This year is the fifth year that the Chicago RnR has been running so there was a bunch of legacy runners.

I took the day off to go to the expo and good thing we did because we spent almost 4hrs there. When going in it didn’t look like they had as much vendors as last year but we spent a lot of time. I got my early b-day present there, a Bluetooth headset for running. What got me hooked was the lifetime warranty for damage from sweat, which is a huge problem with me, I can’t tell you how many headphones I trashed because it shorted out from my sweat! Plus they had a big discount for the expo. I used the headset for he run and it worked perfectly.

I haven’t been feeling well since Thursday and I’ve been taking sinus meds since then to get it out of my system. When I woke up on Sunday morning I felt much better but not 100%. So I decided that I would take my time and take more walking breaks. Also this last week we’ve been n the upper 90’s and the humidity was really high so I was worried that the weather would not be bearable. But luckily the rainstorm on Friday cooled down and the weather was sunny and he lower 80’s on race day.

As usual I had a hard time sleeping the night before, and got up at 4:00 to get ready. We took the CTA downtown and got to the starting area around 5:45. My corral was 22 so it would take some time to start, the waves started fairly quick so I only waited about 20 min. Then we were off.

Some notable bands were a couple tribute bands that played 80’s music,a drum band I am assuming from Chinatown, and in the McCormick place tunnel they had a DJ and had lights o it seemed like a club in there.

The course made some slight changes this year which made us go through different parts of downtown which I liked. At mile 9 I found Dave Mari and said hello. By the last half of the run it tarted to get hot and I started to get drained, so I took more breaks and walked more.

I finished at 2hrs. 57min. 23sec. Not my best time, but considering I wasn’t feeling well I thought I did pretty good.

This year I signed up for 2 Rock n Roll races so I will be getting the Encore medal…so Vegas here I come!

Running where Lincoln walked

The Lincoln Presidential Half Marathon took place in Springfield Illinois on April 6, 2013.

We took a road trip down to Springfield on Friday, and got there to pick up my packet and walk around downtown and see some of the historical sites.

The race started at 7:30 and our hotel was really close so we were able to get there early. The race started with a welcome from “Abe” and a musket volley by the 114th Volunteer Regiment to start the race.

The race took us through the town square where we saw the old Capitol building and the law offices of Lincoln. Next we went through the historical village where Lincoln’s house is located, in the village a Yankee soldier played his bugle the morning taps. We ran past the new Capitol building and then ran through the streets of Springfield. Another highlight was running through the cemetery where we ran past the Lincoln tomb. At the finish we were awarded our penny replica medal and had the opportunity to take a finishers photo with Abe and Mary Lincoln.

My thoughts about this race. It was an enjoyable race, a few quirks like no bathrooms until the 6th mile and a lot of hills to run up were quite a challenge. I enjoyed it because it was pretty neat to be running where historical events happened. I improved my time with this race, I finished at 2 hrs. 27 min. 15 sec. I thought my time would of hurt with the uphill roads, but at the 10th mile I saw the 2:30 pacers next to me, so I picked up my pace and kept it steady and finished before them. Ian very satisfied with my results.

Chicago Get Lucky Triple 7

Through the cold wind, rain and snow I finished it!

This is the first half marathon for 2013. This is part of the Team Ortho series and wanted to do it to add the medal to my collection.

This race offered a 7k or triple 7k (1/2 marathon). Since I predicted that I would be in full swing in my training the 1/2 would be ok to do. Sure enough I was prepared to complete it.

I’ve been concerned about the weather and watched the weather throughout the week. As with Chicago weather it would be nice one day and then change. Saturday came and it was overcast and misty, I thought it wasn’t too bad.

We arrived at soldier field and boy did the wind pick up! We walked around just to keep warm. Finally they announced to line up because the race was about to start. Then we were off!

When running south along the lake it wasn’t too bad, it was just cold. When I got to the turnaround and started running north the wind picked up and it was really cold, first it started to drizzle, which wasn’t too bad. Then the rain started to hurt, then I realized that it was snowing! That’s when it started to get miserable. At that point I really wanted to finish it and soon!

When I got to the 11 mile mark I just kept telling myself 3 more miles. The one thing I didn’t like about this course was there wasn’t that many cheerers along the course. Usually at the end I get motivated by the cheerers to push ahead, so this was a challenge to finish the last few miles. When I passed the 13 mi mark I knew I was almost done and pushed myself and crossed the finish line.

My official time was 2hrs 42min 26sec. Overall did pretty good considering I was miserable for most of the last half of the race! It felt so good getting that medal! After that, all I wanted to do was get in the car and get some food and something hot to drink!

Till next month when I run the RunAbe 1/2 marathon down in Springfield and the Shamrock Shuffle in Chicago…all in the same weekend!

2012 Monster Dash

What a beautiful day for a run, sunny and in the low 60’s. I was worried because for the past few days it has been raining in Chicago. The weather started becoming nice on Saturday so I was very hopeful.

The Monster Dash was a fun run, mainly because a lot of people were in costume. You had a choice of running a 5k, 10k or a half marathon. I opted to do the half. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t make it with a costume, so we designed on that was lightweight and was warm enough.

Being a Disney freak, I decided to go as a running Mickey Mouse. I am pretty happy how it turned out. I didn’t get a chance to get judged on my costume because the line was very long and I wouldn’t be able to start at the gun time.

The race ran along the lakefront so there wasn’t a lot of cheerers along the course. But there a few and it really helped. It was pretty cool because you can tell that families come out to see the costumes. If you think about it it’s like a Halloween parade. There were a lot of great costume, but only took a picture with one, a guy in a Harry Potter outfit, another favorite character of mine.

My personal cheerer was there and he made me a really great poster, unfortunately I didn’t see it when I was running, but able to see it when I finished. I finished the race at 2hrs. 42min. 59sec. I did better than my last half. I m very pleased with this run.

Overall it was a fun race, although it was a little congested at the start and along the coarse up until we got to the main pathway. It was fun running with others in costume, and it had a nice insiders medal.

Happy Halloween!

The Happiest Race on Earth

It was the happiest race on earth! I completed my goal, running the Disneyland half marathon!

I arrived in California on Friday night and stayed with my cousin Jean and her family and we drove to Anaheim on Saturday morning.

The fun started at the expo, where we got our packet.

We checked into the Disneyland Hotel and we had adjoining rooms with my cousins so it was really nice because we were able to hang out. It was interesting to hear everyone’s pre run routine and each one is different.

The race started at 5:45 am. The race started with the national anthem with fireworks, we were welcomed by Mickey and Minnie and then we started running. I did my normal pre race routine, but again had to go to the bathroom! It must of been because I was excited or something. I decided to hold it until I got into the parks because we can use the facilities in there and I wouldn’t have to go to the porta-potties.

I started running with my cousins Jean and Dave. When we entered California Adventure I saw the Mickey Mouse carousel and I told Jean to go ahead because I wanted to take pictures. I wanted to soak it all in, and I didn’t care about my finish time. The route ran through the new section Cars Land and it was amazing, it was liked stepped into the movie, I tried to take a picture of the main street of Radiator Springs, but the sun was coming up and my pictures couldn’t take a good picture of the main drag.

The next exciting point was when we entered the Magic Kingdom and when I saw the castle I was smiling from ear to ear. They had the Dumbo ride running and that also brought a smile to my face. We ran through Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and on the other side she was there with Prince Philip, and who do I see waiting in line to take a picture with them…Dave Mari, a friend that has been traveling across the U.S. running in different races.

I also accomplished another goal, finding Snow White and give her a kiss on the cheek. When I was a kid my mom would always have me kiss Snow White, so when we went to Disney World i couldn’t find her, so I told myself if I saw her on the course I would give her a kiss.

We left the parks just before the 4 mile mark, and the fun didn’t stop, there were lots of cheerers, school bands, cheerleaders, performances and things to see. I really liked the hula dancers and the mariachi dancers. Along a long stretch of the course there were a rows of classics cars, theme cars and decorated cars and had a replica Lightning McQueen at the end. I thought that was really cool, but didn’t think f the reference of it being there because of the opening of Cars Land, thanks Fran for letting us know!

In the middle of the race I saw Nathan, my cousin’s son, and waved at him. I caught up with Jean just before we got to the A’s Stadium. That was pretty cool, we ran inside the stadium and through the outfield. A couple of miles after that we saw the Tower of Terror and we knew that we were really close to the end.

We ran through the backlot of California Adventure where we saw Nanette. She then ran in front of us. When we crossed the 13 mile mark I started sprinting and caught up to Nanette and I crossed the finish line just behind her. So I was able to run with all my cousin in the race except for Todd, which we met up with him back at the hotel.

I finished the race at 2:43:33, I did better than the RnR half! Once we crossed the finish line we received our medal, I finally got what I’ve been training for!

This was a really was a fun run and I would definitely do this one again. It all started with this race, and it is only the beginning. Even though it is over it will continue to motivate metro continue these races. I have set my next goal and Nanette is going to do it with me…In 2014 I want to get the coast to coast medal, so I will be doing the Disney World Marathon and the Disneyland Half Marathon! Who wants to join me!

Rockin’ n Rolling

I ran my first half marathon! I signed up for the Chicago Rock n Roll half marathon.

I looked at my training schedule and the run landed on the day that I was to run 11 miles, so I was thinking I could run 2 extra miles. I also wanted to run a half marathon before I turned 41. This race was on July 22nd, so I was able to achieve that goal.

The health expo was nicely done, and there was a lot of free stuff. RunDisney had a booth there and I got to see and touch the finishers medal for the half I will be running! I even got a free bag from them. I even saw a run that I would like to do, possibly next year, the Las Vegas Rock n Roll half, wouldn’t it be cool running down the strip at night with live music and all the lights.

Surprisingly I wasn’t nervous about this race, I went with the mind set of taking my time and have a good time and not thinking of how far I was going to run. I was placed in corral 26, so it took awhile before we actually started. Once we started I was going at a good pace, and again running through downtown Chicago was fun, the people cheering were great, the bands/djs were pretty good. I really liked the 80’s cover band, they were playing a journey song when I passed by.

By mile 9 I started getting hungry, I was really tempted to go into a shop or Starbucks and get something to munch on. Then I remembered that in the next refreshment station they would have some gels, so I got 2 vanilla bean gels and that kept my hunger at bay. At mile 10 they had cold sponges that felt really good. A friend from work where I get some good running advice told me that to make sure I cool down my core before cooling my head. That really helped.

I finished the race in 2hrs 44min 55sec. I kept saying that I did better than I projected…yeah 5 seconds better! It felt really good crossing the finish line! I finished my first half! If you would of asked me a couple years ago if I could do a half marathon I would of said no way. Now I am looking forward to the next one! I’m very satisfied with my progress and happy how this running has kept my blood sugar down, my doctor even is hopeful that he will take me off my meds. I am very pleased on my progress.