Disneyland 1/2 Marathon

Waiting in the Corral

This Sunday in the early morning I ran the Disneyland Half Marathon. Lauren was a good wife and stayed with me from when we got there at 4:15 a.m. to the start at 6 a.m. and then met up with me at the end. I was in corral D since when I signed up 6 months ago I estimated a slow pace; corral A is for the fast runners and E for the slow runners.

There were some runners dressed up as Disney characters; The Incredibles, Tinker Bell, Mickey, etc. It took about 12 minutes to cross the start line since there were 12,000 runners. However, it doesn’t matter when you cross the start line since you have a chip on your shoe to start the clock for your time. I did have to run around a lot of slow runners/walkers. The first 4 miles we ran though California Adventure and Disneyland. I had to slow down when people got water so I decided to walk a little during every water station. I think I acidentally skipped water stop 2.

Then once I hit mile 4 and we were out of Disneyland, I saw my wife with a couple of other ladies from WPC. I gave a halfhearted wave since I was conserving my energy and they got a good laugh out of that one. I then hit my stride and was running well and with people at the same pace as me for the next 5 miles. Then when I hit the river trail by the Pond and Angels stadium I started to cramp up in my calves. I ran through it and got to run through Angels stadium around the warning track on the first base side and then the third base side passing the dugouts.

The last few miles were tough, but I was able to run slowly and the music playing from bands and speakers helped me keep the energy level up. Also I had a Power Gel before the race, one after the 4 mile marker, and then one at the 9.5 mile marker. I ran though Disneyland again and finished the half-marathon in 2:19:11 That is under 11 minute miles. My latest goal was to run it in under 2 hrs and 30 minutes, so I am happy about my time.

I finshed in 3,259th place!