Hello fellow runners!
Today kicks off my recap of the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend. Woo hoo!
I’m really excited to share with you all the fun of this weekend because, well, it’s freakin’ awesome! Last year I ran the inaugural Dumbo Double Dare and ran my first race at Disneyland and fell in LOVE with running at Disneyland. It’s a little more relaxed, less bus/transportation anxiety, and I love the balance of Disney park race and road race that they have going on. You can have fun and then just let it go and race on the streets. You can check out my pre-race blog
Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend – What to Get Excited For
So let’s get to it. Here are the facts for those of you thinking about running during this weekend:
- The weekend consists of the 5k, 10k, Half Marathon, Dumbo Double Dare (10k+Half), and lots of kids races
- Expo is held the Thurs-Saturday of the weekend
- It’s historically always been labor day weekend
- It’s the (un)official start to the runDisney race season (August-May)
- It historically has started and finished at the Disneyland Hotel parking lot – keep this in mind while planning where to stay and the expo has been at the Disneyland hotel
- It’s freakin’ awesome!*
*This may or may not be based in historical fact
So how did I decide to tackle the weekend? This would be my Dumbo Double Dare Double Take. I really enjoy the 10k+Half combo, it’s a nice challenge but easier to prepare for and still enjoy the weekend than a Goofy or a Dopey.
On the advice on wdwmagic.com, I stayed at the Holiday Inn and Suites just north of Disneyland. This was an awesome location and it was super easy to get to and from the race and the parks. I highly recommend this hotel. Clean, safe, and aside from a slight water pressure in the shower gripe, it was great.
I was also there to help promote/rep/sell Bia at the Fit2Run booth so being close to the expo was something I was interested in since I would be spending a good amount of time there. If you learned about Bia and talked to a tallish redhead, that was ME!
I was also there with my Wookie (this girl’s got a boyfriend! No he is not a real wookie, he just pretends to be one… sometimes) and so I was balancing expo/Bia stuff, running, and spending some quality time with my Wookie. To say I had a few things to juggle would be an understatement. My life has also been a comical (but not really that funny) series of life changes in the weeks leading up to that weekend, to the point where my goal for September is to not have anything that you would coin as “life changing” happen. June, July and August all saw some life changes, some good like Wookie and some not so cheerful. Finding a new equilibrium will do me some good this month.
So now that I’ve rambled on, let’s get on to the fun stuff like the races and playing at the parks!
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