hitting the track (& field)

i was pretty shocked when the bean told me that she wanted to join the track and field team at school this year.  i mean, this kid hates to run.  the few times i've managed to drag her out for a 5K were kind of excruciating...for both of us.  but as i listened to her chat with her friends in the back seat, i realized that she was likely doing it not for the love of the sport, but to be involved in more activities with her BFFs.  either way, i was all for it and signed her up before she could change her mind.  heh.

the season really only went for a couple of months.  they practiced twice a week for two hours per session, and the first scheduled track meet ended up getting rained out (go figure...of course it fell on one of soCAs few rainy days).  the regular practices came to an end mid-april, and then the coach emailed to let us know that they finally had a chance to reschedule the track meet.  three schools would compete at a nearby school - a full month after practices had come to an end.  makes so much sense, but whatever.

the kids were released from class about half an hour early that day to get changed and board the bus to head to the field.  the old lady, the hub and i ended up meeting there as we were all coming from different directions.  when we got there, the team was just getting checked in.

the bean was signed up for three events - a 200m race, a 4x50m relay and the softball throw.  the kids all hung out in the playground until it was time to start the show.

it was a while before they finally got to her race, and then they lined up.

my girl is just like her mother - not fast.  like, at all.  but i give her a shitton of credit for going out there, giving it her all and having fun doing it.  she didn't even care that she came in last, and happily crossed the finish line.

the softball throw was next.  not having a chance to practice this one, she hucked it as far as she could and then went back to the field to join her teammates for the relay.

not before we got this selfie, though.

i wonder if she'll sign up for track again next year.  i'll keep my fingers crossed.

defeating the death star

the bean did her very last run disney kids' race this weekend.  she's officially aged right out of the oldest category, and so now if she ever wants to do another run disney event she'll have to suck it up and run a 5K.  those are billed as "family fun runs" though, which means it's not a timed race and it's totally laid back.  maybe one day.

although we ended up doing a little circling as i stupidly thought i could park at downtown disney, which i couldn't.  and there was an assload of traffic on the street trying to get back to the parking structure, which is where i should've gone to begin with.  it was already past 8:30 by then, and even though i knew there was plenty of time since the kids are in the last group to run, i was panicking a little about being late.  i HATE being late to stuff.

of course, we made it in plenty of time.  we met up with our friends at the entrance to the corral and gave mini cee her bb8 dress.  lilcee and i had worked on it together a few weeks ago using my die cutter and heat press, and it turned out really cute:

as expected, there was plenty of time to kill standing around waiting for the 100-meter and then 200-meter races to finish up.  our kids were doing the 400-meter for the first time, which we'd avoided in the past but they've grown up so much that they wouldn't have gotten away with the younger group this year.

i managed to get at least one shot with my little runner.

we spotted this guy running around with this crazy looking camera that looked like it was straight out of "back to the future."  or maybe like he had a dyson strapped to his back.

and then finally it was our turn to head up to the start line for the race.

we warned the kids to start out slow and pace themselves so they wouldn't poop out halfway through the course.  i was grateful that the bean heeded the advice, because she's more of a sprinter and always leaves me choking on her dust.

i'm not gonna lie, guys.  remember how i said i was totally untrained for this half?  yeah...i was totally winded running 400 meters at the kids' race.  yikes.  but i finally caught up to her at the 200-meter mark and we ran the rest of the course together.

she happily accepted her very last run disney medallion:

and took her finisher's photo.  i was relying on the photographer to get a great shot for me, but as i searched for these along with the other official race photos, they never showed up.  so this is the best i got:

there were some pretty fun photo ops set up beyond that, and so while lilcee got in line the kids decided to do a little hula hooping.

first, here:

and then here.

we'd seen on social media that there was a tent for annual passholders to take photos and grab an exclusive cinch backpack, so we headed over to get ours.  on our way, i noticed something that i'd never seen before - a snack bar where you could grab drinks, popcorn, or even a death star balloon.  disney, man.  always looking out for the hustle.

the photos we got inside the AP tent haven't shown up yet, either.  boo.

before we left, the bean asked to get a picture in front of the giant jyn erso backdrop.  she was a little irritated that so many people had mistaken her for other star wars characters...but then brushed it off with "i guess they haven't seen the movie yet."  heh.

and one last shot with her BFF:

she had a birthday party to attend back home, so we raced up the freeway to get there on time.  i'd stupidly thought we'd have time to go home and change, but you know what happens when you assume.  luckily, i'd had her put on a pair of leggings under her costume and i'd worn a star wars tee layered over a long sleeve.  so she stripped off the costume, i gave her my t-shirt (which fit her perfectly aside from being a little long, holy crap), and then she was good to go.

that's right - she ran the 400m (without stopping, did i mention that?) and then headed straight over to a party where she got to jump around on the trampolines for an hour.  it was a good exercise day.

much later, we headed back down to anaheim with the old lady to check in at the hyatt house hotel.  lilcee had found this hotel months ago and booked a room. but when we realized that it might be a little cramped with just one bathroom for eight people, we thought it might be a better idea to get a second room.  it was really nice, and only a few months old.  look - it had a little living room area, dining room and even a full kitchen:

there was a whole list of things you could borrow if you'd forgotten something important:

and both the bedroom and bathroom were really spacious and comfortable.

after enjoying a delicious korean bbq dinner with the gang, we all headed back and got ourselves ready for the next day.  i'd originally planned on dressing as jyn erso, like the bean had, but after we mourned the loss of carrie fisher i felt compelled to honor her in a small way.  and so here's my flat runner, complete with my mini hoth leia to wear on my shoulder:

leia lives on forever!

rey will win

it's amazing to me that the bean has been doing run disney races almost as long as i have.  she's got enough medals to fill up a good-sized medal rack by now!

when she saw my rey costume for the star wars half, she decided that she wanted to be rey too.  and with a little disney store magic, i was able to snag her a costume in time for the kids' race.  she kind of groaned and rolled her eyes when she heard that we moms were going to wear our race costumes so that we could get fun pictures during their race, but i know she secretly thought it was cool.  i think.  whatever, we were doing it anyway.

maybe i just didn't pay attention before, but i don't remember having to go through security or bag check before races in the past.  although with the new costume guidelines and all of the new rules at the parks and at the races, i wasn't really surprised.

group pic with mini DG and mini cee!

and i had to have one of the two of us, since we were twinning.

the girls are run disney veterans by now, so they knew the deal.  there's always a good amount of waiting around until it's our turn, because they do the younger kids first and since the races always sell out, there's a lot of kids to get through before the next age group can go.  mini DG got pretty antsy after awhile, but the girls managed to keep him occupied with games on the phone.

now, i know these kids are fast.  they're sprinters, all three of them.  but i was totally caught off-guard as the cast member yelled "GO!!" and they. took. OFF.

i had a little trouble catching up to her, but i finally caught her as she slowed down at the curve.  you guys, this was a 200-meter race and i was panting and wheezing like i'd never run a step in my life.  i jogged along next to her as she grinned at me and kept on going.  and i was so thrilled when i was able to catch this picture of chewbacca waving at her as she scampered towards the finish line:

i can't help but grin like a loon every time i look at that.

and then just like that, it was over.

yay for star wars medals!  we took advantage of every photo op, of course.

as we headed out of there, i was trading text messages with a friend i've known for a full decade but had never actually met in person.  that's wacky, right?  we were both on the local knot boards during wedding planning and keep up with each other over facebook.  it was awesome to finally give her a hug and chat a little bit.

then we headed over to disneyland hotel and visited the expo again, since daily gluttony and lilcee both still needed to pick up their race packets for the next day's half.  we ran into this dude, who had apparently gone all out for his 10K costume but wasn't allowed to wear it per the guidelines.  i guess he figured, might as well wear it where he could.  the kids got a kick out of it.

hey, look - more photo ops!  gotta love disney, right?

and while the others picked up their race shirts, i took the bean over to the run disney instagram booth to get her own light saber portrait.  it looks like this before the CGI magic:

and after.

the kids had some fun decorating signs in the area near the stage.

and then that was that.  another fun kids' race at disneyland!  we're getting close to the maximum age for these things, so we have to enjoy them while we can.  next up - disneyland half marathon races, over labor day weekend.  the old lady wants to run the 5K and i've never done one with disney before, so that's going to be super fun!

it never ends, folks.  never ever.