faith, trust, and pixie dust

so last year, the tinkerbell half marathon had a start time at the ungodly hour of 5:45.  think that's crazy?  well, guess what - this time, they pushed it back to a nice, even 5AM.  yeah.  that may only be a difference of 45 minutes, but at that time of the morning, that's huge.  at least for me it is.

my friend kelley and i shared a room at the ol' embassy suites this time around.  it was her first half, and she was nervous and excited just as i was last year.  although she actually despises running, we've done quite a few races together, and i was really proud of her for signing up for this one.  that kelley, she sure loves a challenge.

i'd volunteered to take a shift at the sparkle athletics booth at the expo, where i got all gussied up in a cute fairy getup.  it was fun helping them work the crowds that never seemed to dissipate, and i think i managed to talk quite a few hesitant runners into donning a pair of wings on the big day.

kelley met up with me when my time was up, and we headed over to california adventure to grab a nice pre-race dinner at the carthay circle restaurant.  it was lovely as always, and although we held fastpasses for the "tower of terror" ride, we decided to skip it in favor of heading to the hotel to get rested and ready for the big day.

oh, and check out the awesome bag i won at that run disney meet-up.  pretty sweet, right?  i dig it.

i gotta say, that wake-up call at 3:30 was kinda painful.  dang.  but we wanted to be out the door and on the shuttle to disneyland by 4:00, and so as sleepy as we both still were, we were up and at 'em right on time.

for not being into the whole costume-while-running thing, kelley sure did a great job of putting together a cute donald duck getup.  i was so proud of her.  as for me, i'd hit up party city around halloween time and scooped up that tinkerbell costume on sale.  i try to think ahead, you know.

my friend sean astin was on the jumbotron as we joined the crowds of people stretching and socializing near the finish line.

and this is about as close as i'll ever get to trophies for any sort of race:

all too soon, it was time to head to our corral.

no, i DIDN'T cry a little when the national anthem was sung and fireworks went off.

it was just after the elite and A corrals were released that i flung off my throwaway jacket and got someone to take one more pre-race photo.

and then just like that, it was our turn.

we started off running up disneyland drive, over the freeway, and then back around into the bowels of disneyland.  about a mile or so in, i stopped to take a picture with these guys:

running through the parks is everyone's favorite part of disney races.  it's always so cool to scamper through the various lands when it's empty, and because of the early hour, we were treated to the colorful neon lighting throughout cars land.

we were treated to the music, lights, and fountains of the "world of color" show, too.

it was right as i exited toontown at disneyland that i realized i needed to stop for a potty break.  luckily, i knew there was a restroom nearby - and i was grateful that it hit me before leaving the parks.  i hate porta-potties with the fire of a thousand suns.  i think that's why i look extra happy here, aside from having just run through the castle (which is my favorite part of running through disneyland).

this glob of light is the tinkerbell half's logo on a wall in the backlot.  and as i took this, i was chastised by a cast member:  "no photos allowed back here," he said.  oops.

after i left the disneyland resort and began the stretch of the course out on the streets of anaheim, i kind of lost the desire to take pictures.  i was just focused on getting through it, and honestly a lot of it is a big blur in my mind.  i do remember thinking that i liked this year's course better than last year's, though.  i think we actually got to run more mileage through the parks and less on boring streets lined with industrial buildings.  anyway, before i knew it i was here:

and then here:

the toughest part for me in all of the half marathons i've run is the very last mile.  between here:

and here:

is always incredibly difficult for me, and i was also fairly bummed to see that i was far behind my awesome time from last year's half.  i'm gonna chalk it up to that bathroom break i had to take, because i can't even blame it on waiting for pictures with characters.  aside from that one i took in the beginning, i didn't stop for a single photo op anywhere.  blah.  nevertheless, the thrill of reaching this never dies:

and i earned my second one of these:

look, ma!  i did it!

and not too long after that, kelley joined me:

i was so proud of her for finishing, especially after she told me how difficult the final four miles had been for her.  she'd had to walk most of it due to some problems with her knee, and although she's smiling in these pictures, i'm pretty sure she was crying on the inside from the pain.

here's my round-up of pilfered pictures from the official race photographer:

one half for 2013 down, two to go.  and back to weekly long training runs i go.  give me strength.

she can fly, she can fly, she can fly!

the next morning found us at downtown disney bright and early for the bean to do her 200-meter kids' run.  she was excited and grumpy at the same time, which made for some fun pictures.

luckily, since we'd timed it so that we weren't standing around for too long, the run started soon after we'd made our way into the corral.  following the never never land theme, a pirate stood at the front and got everyone ready.

and she was off!

the teen had fun running with us this time around.  she was really impressed watching her sister run.  "she's really fast!" she said.  indeed.

of course, some special friends waited at the finish line.

it's always fun watching her accept a finisher's medal.

she was so proud of that medal.  and i'm stoked that she's continuing to add to her own collection of hardware!  i'll make a runner out of her yet.

weezin' the juice

i love disney runs.  like, for real.  run disney just does it up right, from beginning to end.

about a week before every major running event, their social media department puts out a blog post inviting anyone who's interested to a meet-up.  if you're lucky enough to get in, you get to meet some key people on the run disney staff, take part in a warm-up run through the parks (whether it's disneyland or disney world), get some free swag.  it's usually on the friday before the race, and it's quite a hot ticket.  there are a limited number of spots available, and it's a first-come, first-served kind of thing.  the blog post goes up with the details, you send your e-mail, and then you sit and wait to hear back.

i tried to get into the one they hosted in september, before the disneyland half.  i had no idea how tough it was to secure a spot, and was super bummed when my name didn't appear on the list of attendees.  so this time, i kept a close eye on the run disney's twitterfeed and then basically stalked the blog every half hour on the morning the announcement was expected.  i got my e-mail all ready to go, refreshed the site constantly, and when it finally popped up at 12:30 that afternoon it was a mad dash to copy & paste the e-mail address for responses and hit "send."  i was so on the ball, the time stamp on my e-mail read exactly 12:30, maybe about ten seconds after the blog post was published.  i was feeling pretty confident, and when i got the e-mail with the subject line that began with "congratulations!..." i totally squealed and fist-pumped.

like the runs themselves, these meet-ups have a super early start time so that they can be done before it's time to open the parks to the public for their regular day of operation.  and so i found myself on the freeway at 5:30 in the morning, heading down to anaheim for an awesome morning of half marathon-prepping fun.  i snagged a crazy sweet parking spot, scampered out of the car and found a group of excited fellow runners waiting under mickey's sorcerer hat.

i checked in, changed into the run disney shirt i was given, and put my jacket and car key into the bag i was given.  i got to chatting with one of the other girls there as we headed down for a quick potty break, and then we joined the group as we got ready for our 2-mile run.

we had a few special guests in the group - jeff galloway, the official run disney trainer and olympian, and sean astin, who's a running enthusiast and run disney devotee.  cool, right?

i'd been a little nervous about this run, since i'm really still a novice and not particularly speedy.  the requirements for the meet-up included a pace of at least 12 minutes per mile, and while my training runs are typically anywhere from 10-11.5, i was still concerned that i'd totally bomb and make a fool out of myself.  but then i found out that we were going to do a walk/run/walk jeff galloway-style - and for that morning it was to be a 30/30 pace (meaning, alternating between a 30-second walk and then 30 seconds of running).  sweet.  i was golden.

we took off from that very spot, led by a golf cart that held the official event photographer, making our way through downtown disney, then into the gate that led us onto disneyland's main street.  as we began, i was a little startled at the chicks who literally elbowed their way through in order to get to the top of the crowd and right in front of the photographer.  i mean, damn.  i'm a picture whore and a half, but really?  my goodness.

i didn't take a whole lot of pictures because i was focused on keeping up with the pack, but it turns out that 30/30 thing was more than doable.  in fact, i got a little frustrated with it once i got the hang of it - it seemed like i would just get into the groove and then it was time to slow back down to a walk again.  not really something i want to do on the regular.  but i didn't let it bring me down - i was having way too much fun getting to run through an empty disneyland.  we hung a left at the end of main street, heading through adventureland and past fun stuff like the pirates ride and the haunted mansion.

the exact course is a bit of a blur in my pea-sized memory, so i don't really remember how we ended up back out in the hub and running through the castle into fantasyland.

on the other side of the castle is pixie hollow, home of tinkerbell and her fairy friends.  it was here that we stopped for our first photo op, done in groups of about 10.  as i waited my turn, i grabbed the opportunity to say hello to sean and take this.  see how excited i was?  come on - this is dave from encino man!  50 first dates' doug!  and, if you're into disney junior...it's special agent oso himself!

after that, a picture with tinkerbell kinda paled in comparison.  sorry, tink.

when the walk/run resumed, we crossed through the esplanade and headed into california adventure.

and then all too soon, it was over.  we gathered in front of the carthay circle restaurant for a water break and more photo ops.

can you see me?  it's like looking for waldo.

but just when we thought it was over...we found ourselves heading into cars land, to my most favorite cars-themed ride - no fastpass required:

my new friend and i chatted up jeff galloway on the walk there, and didn't have to be asked twice when the photographer waved us over for a shot.

we were all frozen stiff by then, and cheered when we heard it was time to head over to the grand californian hotel's napa rose restaurant for breakfast.  i managed to make my way to the front of the group for the walk, so you can actually see me in this shot.  sort of.

it was just before 8:00, and people were already waiting for the park to open.  we got lots of curious looks as we sashayed right past them.

VIP, suckas!

after everyone had had a chance to grab something to eat and warm up a little, we heard from the run disney reps and then listened to a few speakers - sean astin, jeff galloway, ali vincent from "the biggest loser," and tara gidus, run disney's diet guru.

they did a few prize giveaways, too.  i was pretty stoked when sean astin pulled my name out of the hat, winning me a run disney travel bag.  woohoo!

the meet-up concluded with a cooking demonstration by the disneyland resort chefs, who presented us all with a black bean cake topped with a poached egg and red pepper coulis.

oh, and a final parting gift:  a 1-day park hopper pass, plus a parking voucher that covered us for that day.

as part of this elite group, i'd been hoping they'd either allow us early entry into the expo, where our bibs and race tees waited for pick-up.  alas, it was not to be.  and so i headed right over to disneyland hotel and got into the line, which was already pretty stinking long.

this was my third time doing this, so it was all pretty much old hat to me by then.

but this was pretty exciting - a peek at the hardware i'll be earning next month!

as i was leaving, my buddy jeff galloway was onstage giving the audience a great pep talk and running a last-minute training Q&A session.

and i couldn't resist stopping for this:

the girls were coming down to meet me for some disneyland fun, so i got to hop onto the monorail that goes from downtown disney right into tomorrowland.  on the way there, i got a glimpse of the start line for the half.

the parks were pretty crowded, since it was friday and the start of the half marathon weekend.  we managed to have lots of fun, riding a few rides and saying hello to a friend.

ah, disneyland.  so much fun from sunup to sundown!