My apologies in advance for the looooong post, I had so many great pictures it was hard to narrow them down – enjoy!
Another race and another early morning! The good thing about the runDisney events in California is that coming from east coast time the early morning wake up calls really don’t feel that bad!
A group of us met outside the Disneyland Hotel around 4:30am to head over to our corrals…
Cathy, Pat, Sonali, Christina, Jeff, Me, Jenn, Adam, Ashley,
Eric, Scott, Dan, Lisa, Keith and Katherine
Yeah! First half marathon in corral A – it seemed so close to the start!
…and right after the national anthem, we were off – it was surprising how quickly you start in corral A!
After a nice mile and a half warm up (and it sure was warm out!) we entered California Adventure by Paradise Pier. Jenn, Daniel, Patrick, Keith and I all started out together and we decided that because of the heat (and a lot of walking around in the parks the days before!) none of us were really running for a PR time, so we’d stop for pictures if we wanted to (or take pictures on the run!).
Having way too much fun for 5:30am!
(photo by Daniel Wanderman)
As we ran around the Pier we were treated to a bit of the World of Color show, which is hands down my favorite Disney show and I love getting to run by it during a race!
And right there were the green army men – LOVE them! Jenn and I had to stop for our mid-race pushup picture (a tradition we started back in January at Marathon Weekend!).
Not sure what’s going on with the terrible form here…
I may just not have been fully awake yet!
Our next stop was in Cars Land where we got a quick picture with Mater and Lightning McQueen!
And on our way out of California Adventure we thought it only appropriate to stop and thank Walt for everything (after all, we wouldn’t be running Disney if it wasn’t for him!).
We went from California Adventure straight into Disneyland where we ran down Main Street, through Tomorrowland and Toontown and then back out through the castle. Along the way I stopped to say hello to Snow White!
Once we left Disneyland it was on to the streets of Anaheim (and time to pick up the pace!).
runDisney did a great job of adding entertainment to the course with high school bands, cheerleaders and even these lovely ladies!
Between miles 7 and 8 we were treated to an incredible car show! I’m not really a big car person, but having 300+ cars to look at mid-race is definitely entertaining!
(Somewhere after we left the parks Daniel and I lost Jenn, Patrick & Keith so we were on our own for the rest of the race – any non-self photos taken of me are courtesy of Daniel Wanderman!)
As the cars ended we headed into Angels Stadium!
After Angels Stadium it was pretty much a straight run for the next 3 miles to the finish…and right by the mile 13 marker we saw Jason and my mom!
Next time we’ll try to both look at the same camera!
(photo by Daniel Wanderman)
Dan and I crossed the finish line, collected all our medals and found Jenn and Pat for a group shot!
After some quick pictures I ran (yes, I actually ran!) back to where my mom and Jason were to wait for my sister Christina and her boyfriend Jeff to finish – I got there just in time!
Apparently Christina couldn’t wait the extra .1 miles to cross the finish line and get her own banana because she grabbed mine on the way by, and Jeff (who came into this totally untrained) somehow looked like he hadn’t even broken a sweat.
They kept going, crossed the finish line and with that the Dumbo Double Dare was complete!
The Disneyland Half Marathon is easily one of my favorite races, I can’t recommend it enough and I really hope I’m able to continue to make it out to California for it!
In case you missed any of them here are the other posts from my Dumbo Double Dare Weekend!
Greetings from Sunny California
**due to an issue with the timing chip on my bib I don’t currently have an official time recorded for my races this weekend, I have reached out to runDisney to work to fix this, but in the meantime I know my time was around 2:16 since I was with Daniel the entire race! Not bad considering the amount of pictures we stopped for!
Live, Run, Grow 
that looks like so much fun!!! I want to go back out for it next year, dare I say I think I liked the actual race at Disneyland more than the Disney World ones…
To be honest I have to agree, I really love the Disneyland race – running through Cars Land and by World of Color is amazing, plus not having to take busses to the start and everything is a MAJOR plus! (Although I love the WDW full going through all 4 parks!)
I hope you get the bib issue worked out, but at least you have proof with the pictures and medals.
Thanks Lesley, since I wasn’t running for a PR time I’m not TOO concerned about it, like you said, more just for proof that I actually ran the races.
So jealous of all the pictures! They all look so good and so much fun! All mine came out horrible and I really wanted a pic with Cinderella (since that was my costume) but the lines are just way too long by the time I get to them
Congrats again on the race! And yeah, totally not fair how easy your sister’s boyfriend made this look lol
Thanks Kellie, I had a great time this race and am really happy with all my pictures!
Love this post! This is one runDisney race I’ve never done. It looks like SO much fun! I love the World of Color pic. The one time I went to Disneyland the show was canceled due to bad weather. I was so sad. And I love the pic of your medals on Dumbo. Congrats!
Thanks Karla! It was SO much fun, it’s definitely my favorite runDisney half (the full marathon is my favorite race over all since it goes through all 4 parks!). Be sure to see World of Color next time you go, it’s incredible!
AHHHH, AWESOME recap! I was hoping to be able to spot you at the expo/race — maybe next time! Sounds/looks like you had a blast. 😀
BTW, I LOVE the Dumbo picture with the medals…wish I had thought of that. Too funny! 🙂
I actually think I saw you from far away the morning of the half – the bowl on your head made you easier to spot! I was too far away to get over to you and I didn’t want to lose the group of friends I was with. Hopefully we’ll be able to meet next time!
Love your recap 🙂 Definitely an awesome race with everyone, even it it was only a few miles that we were all together!
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The faster runners seemed to really like this race. So jealous! Love your pictures!
Thanks Abby! I really do love this race!
During the expo they said that putting the bib next to a magnet might mess it up, hopefully they can get it fixed for you! Totally wish I were in corral A since it got SO HOT!!!
Yeah, I remember them warning us about the magnets, mine was a different issue though, they made a mistake matching the chip name/ # to the bib # (if you look at the B tag on the back of your bib it has your name & #…mine had the wrong one). Not a huge deal since I wasn’t really running for time, but if I was I probably would have been more annoyed!
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Hey! Totally late to the party here, but just wanted to say that I LOVE your pictures (of course, you know I’m ALL about the photography, haha). Looks like you had a fantastic race — congrats! It really was so much fun. Hope to catch up with you at a race sometime soon! 😀
Running by World of Color is one of my favorite things about Disneyland races! Love the Dumbo pic (and jealous I didn’t think of doing that!! 🙂 ). Great pics!! Congrats!
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