do or do not, there is no try.

i never sleep well the night before an early morning race.  it just never works out for me.  i'm always awake every hour, which basically means i'm getting very little sleep and leaving me pretty much running on adrenaline.  literally.

the star wars 10K was no different.  and it didn't help that i was worried about the bean, who was complaining of a headache and running a little warmer than normal.  her own race was later that morning, and we'd planned on hitting up disneyland for one more day with lilcee and mini cee afterwards.  i assured her that she was under no obligation to do any of it, and she looked a little sad as i said it.  "i don't want to let down mini cee," she said.  poor thing.

dailygluttony and i left a few minutes after i'd re-tucked her into bed, with a kiss and a bottle of water next to her.  i knew she'd fall back asleep and hoped that a little more rest would help.

it wasn't a long wait for a shuttle to take us to the parks, and in no time we were here:

i would've loved to stop at the starbucks, which was open for business at the ungodly hour of 4am.  too bad i don't eat or drink anything before a race.  i could've used the caffeine fo' sho'.

although we didn't have any bags to check in (thanks to me forgetting ours despite leaving it on the floor right next to the door, oy), we headed over to the staging area to check out the pre-race festivities and peek at all the costumes.

because we were there so early, we managed to snag a great photo op with these guys:

also, yes.  i did indeed have my selfie stick with me, tucked into the side of my sport bra for a 6.2 mile run.  that's either major stupidity or serious dedication.  i haven't decided which yet.  and hey, like my tattoo?

my very favorite race announcer, rudy novotny, took the stage along with carissa bealert to make some announcements.

they were joined by two very familiar droids.

by then, we had enough time to make one more potty stop before heading to the corrals.  on our way there, i heard a familiar voice and noticed sean astin right next to us.

i was pretty excited to be in corral B for the race.  i dig getting to start as close to the gun time as possible.

the screens in front of us alternated between a feed of the race announcers at the start line and clips from the original star wars movies.  after the national anthem, this rolled across the screen:

and then the wheelchair races were given a green light, followed shortly by the release of corral A.  and then...

i'd peeked at the course map for the run, so i had a good idea of what to expect.  there wasn't a lot of running out on the streets of anaheim for the 10K - most of it was throughout the parks and backlots.  we passed the first mile marker just before re-entering the disneyland resort.

most of my on-course photos are blurry, of course.  despite the fact that run disney races are typically more of a fun run where you want to get the most out of your race fees by taking as many pictures as possible, i'm too competitive (with myself) to dawdle TOO much.  so a lot of my shots look like this:

i busted out the selfie stick at mile 2.

and again near the castle.

but i need to figure out how to adjust the tightness or something on that thing.  my phone kept rotating on it, which didn't make for the greatest pictures ever.  i ended up having a cast member take a better castle shot for me.

ohhhhh...i'm halfway there...

i bet there are some cool things to look at inside this building.

the line for mile 4's marker was crazy long.  i settled for this:

i was kind of bummed that we didn't get to run through cars land.  my guess is that they saved that for the half marathoners to run through the next morning.

like the line for photos with chewbacca, the one for boba fett was just stupid.  no way did i want to add another five minutes to my time for a picture.

having given up on the selfie stick for the moment, i settled for an old school-style selfie instead.

for me, the last mile of any race is always the hardest - whether it's a 5K, 10K or half marathon.  i know it's totally a mental block, but whatever.  i manage to get through it anyway, and that's what counts, right?

had i known that my friend joey fatone was exactly one minute behind me at this point, i'd totally have waited.  that's a photo op that would've been worth it to me, heh.

instead, i pushed on through the final .2 miles and heard the announcer call out my name as i approached the finish line.

done!  and with sweet new bling to add to the collection.

i managed to wander around the finisher's area long enough to wait for dailygluttony to cross the finish line and meet me for a photo.

we took turns taking these near the stage:

by then, i was really bummed not to have that gear bag with my jacket inside.  while i'd worked up quite a sweat during the run, it was cold (by southern california standards, anyway) and i was absolutely freezing in my wet clothes.  ew.

i was so chilly, in fact, that i actually ordered hot coffee.  i never drink hot coffee!

all in all though, i know i'll totally want to sign up again for this next year.  i'm not even that much of a star wars fan, but this was really fun - especially with friends to coordinate a costume with:

i wonder what i'll come up with for the tinkerbell 10K and half marathon in may.  because yeah...it never ends.  and i kinda like it like that.