Disneyland 1/2 Marathon
Sunday, September 6th, 2009

First, let me say I’m biased when it comes to this race. It’s the one race I run that my family can actively participate in almost all the hoopla – and when they can’t, there’s plenty to keep them occupied. With that said, I enjoyed this year’s event (Expo aside) more than the previous two.

In previous years, I was always really early to the start which meant lots of waiting. This year, I slept in a little later and headed to the start a 1/2 hour before the gun. Big mistake. With over 13,500 runners, I was trapped in the back of Corral B. In fact, I couldn’t get into my corral until the wheelchair start when they lifted the gates between A and B. Normally this wouldn’t bother me much except I knew that the more people in front of me would mean slow going running thru the parks.

The weather was almost perfect – mid 60′s – but the humidity was in the 70% range. This meant more water and not skipping stations. As an added bonus, a marine layer of clouds blew inland just as the sun was rising and stayed for good hour before the sun burned it off.

As predicted, the first three miles thru Disney’s California Adventure and Disneyland proved to be slow. I was only able to average 10/min. miles and couldn’t wait to hit the streets of Anaheim. The coolest thing about this race is the community participation. I’ve never competed in a race with so many different organization represented. From cheer groups, bands, dancers, boy and girl scouts – it’s really fun to see a community get behind an event like this.

Knowing I had a lot of time to pick up, I kicked it into gear and started putting in low 8/min. miles. Since I’m no speedster, I think I’m most proud of the fact that between miles 3-9 I was able to keep this pace steady. In fact, when I paced out my time, I was actually looking at a 1:57 finish which would have been a great time for me and a personal best.

The sports geek in my really comes out when the race route reaches the Honda Center (home of the Anaheim Ducks) and Angel Stadium. First the course wrapped around the Honda Center and then onto the Santa Ana trail (a hard pack trail that runs next to the Santa Ana river). I swear that the first step I took on that trail, a rock with my name on it found it’s way into my shoe. Not wanting to ruin my new found “speed,” I chose to wait until I exited the trail at the next water stop. This is where my race took a turn for the worse.

As I took off my shoe and rid myself of my pesky passenger, I stiffened up like a board. In a matter of 30 seconds, I could barely move. Only the thought of running thru Angel Stadium got my wheels moving again.

Running thru Angel Stadium is awesome. It’s amazing how big the stadium is and imaging yourself playing in front of 40,000 fans makes the trip thru it an adventure. To add to the atmosphere, there had to be at least a thousand boy and girl scouts in the stands – all in the front row waiting for high fives. This was the coolest moment of the whole race and I truly appreciate everybody who was there and the organizers for putting that whole thing together.

After exiting the stadium, my legs were like boards. I downed my last gel and struggled to get back to a comfortable pace for the next two miles. Not until the last mile was I able to loosen up again and pick it up to the finish. I ended up finishing in 2:02:13 which was a course best for me by 8 minutes.

I love this race and as long as my family and I can make it there on Labor Day, I’ll run in this race. My only regret is that I didn’t run the inaugural race (I wasn’t so much a runner then) and be able to say I’ve run in every race.

Registration is now open for next years race on September 5th. Sign up early because it fills up fast. I’ll see you there.

Mickey’s Main Street U.S.A. 5K
Saturday, September 5th, 2009

The first thing to remember about 5K Fun Run’s are that they are Fun Run’s!!! Don’t ever think you’re going to PR a Fun Run. Most of the runners there are not runner’s and especially at an event like this, it’s all about location, location, location. With that said…on with the review.

I signed my wife and boyz up for this when I first registered for the 1/2 Marathon. We had ample time to do a little training and of course, buy appropriate running gear!!! When race time came, those training days seemed to fly by…just like our vacation.

The Fun Run started at 7 a.m. and the temperature was in the low 70′s but the humidity was around 80% so it was more than a little uncomfortable. There were approximately 4,000 participants at the event and the atmosphere was much more jovial than I’ve experienced at the longer distances. We took advantage of some of the free snacks and got in the corral well before it was time to go. There was a little concern before the gun went off as a runner not far from us fainted and had to be assisted by a medical team. To Disney’s credit, the medical team was there within minutes and before we started, it looked like she was doing fine.

A barbershop quartet, Mickey and Minnie Mouse saw us off promptly at 7 a.m. With the number of people there, it took a while to get going and when it did, the going was slow. That fit perfectly into my pace plan for us. I figured my wife and the boyz could run and have fun around 15-16/min. miles.

The course started at the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure and we headed toward Disney’s California Adventure. It’s important to remember when you run within the theme parks that some of the paths get narrow and keeping an eye on who’s in front and behind you is very important. There were many characters along the route and we (along with many others) stopped to take photos with many of them.

After looping thru California Adventure we were off to run in Disneyland. The interesting part of the route is that you get to see some of the back stage areas of the buildings and attractions – sort of behind the scenes access if you will. After several walking breaks and shoe ties, we headed towards the finish line – Main Street.

Now in other years, they’ve finished the race in a parking lot which provided ample space for handing out medals, refreshments and photos. Having the finish line at the end of Main Street was probably not a great idea. Now the atmosphere was great with characters, fans lining Main Street, the music and engaging announcer – it was just there was no room for anything when you were done!!! The crowd stacked up at the medal lines and getting to the bagels, water and Powerade was extremely difficult. While half the fun is just taking in the mass of sweaty humanity, we just tried to exit with all limbs intact as quickly as possible.

Overall, the experience was more than enjoyable and running with my family was a thrill. The medals are plastic, artistic and colorful and the same can be said for the shirts. The only thing that Disney officials need to work on for next year is thinking thru the finish line area.