After a very long wait I finally participated in the Disneyland half marathon. This was the race that got me even slightly interested in running. Last year my friend Michelle invited me to walk the half marathon - I had been walking a few miles as part of my quest to lose weight and get in better shape/health. I figured that setting a race goal would help me to keep walking. So I signed up for the race. As luck would have it a work trip forced me to miss out on the race, but it was a trip to France so I was okay with it. Later on in September last year I signed up to walk the Wounded Warrior 5K, and I did that in a good time for walking, about 41 minutes. However, walking that fast was beginning to hurt so I decided that if I was to enter more races in the future it would be better to maybe jog a few hundred yards every mile. I was blessed that I was able to extend those few hundred yards to miles, and running them at a decent pace.
Fast forward to September 2011, Labor Day weekend, race weekend!!! It started out with a long fun day at the parks on Friday with my friend Michelle, the same friend who invited me participate in the race last year. Saturday had an early start to it with the Star Tours 5K, a fun race in which time is not kept. This freed us up to have pictures taken with characters or at cool locations. How often can one get a picture taken in front of the Mickey with no one else around, or Sleeping Beauty's castle just as empty? With the race theme being Star Tours, Mickey dressed up as a Jedi Knight and Minnie was Princess Leia. A good time was had by all and it was also a good warm up for the half to be held the next day. Here are some of the pictures from the 5K.
This race was the biggest race in which I have participated, with over 15,000 runners and walkers registered. Luckily I was able to get a qualifying time fast enough to move me to the first starting corral. Knowing that there were gonna be many people who would be much faster than me I waded my way near the back of the corral. Here's a view of the starting line (near the video screen) from about 1800 runners back. The start of the race was 6 AM, and the weather behaved for the most part. It was in the mid 60s at the start, the sky was mostly cloud free and humidity wasn't high yet. It warmed up a little bit but not bad at all. Another wonderful thing about the race was some friends were also running it, although we were all spread out in different corrals. My friends Becky, Ron and Michelle from SB Search were there, along with Linda and Chuck from the running club.
The race started in Downtown Disney area and went through the parks the first couple of miles. It then went through the streets of Anaheim, including a view of the sun rising as we ran down Ball Road. A few turns here and there and there we were by the Honda Center. After a brief jaunt on the Santa Ana River Trail we ended up Angel Stadium, where we actually got to run inside the field. OK, it was on the warning track along the right field side and then the left field side. As we ran by the third base dugout a video camera caught the runners and displayed us on the big screen in left field. Way cool!!!
Well, I made it all the way to the finish line. My first half was a couple of minutes faster than the second half so not bad at all. I ended up taking a few walk breaks the last few miles but not slow enough to keep me from attaining a secondary goal. My first goal was always to participate in the race, finish and get that pretty cool medal. A second goal was to complete the 13.1 miles in under two hours. It helped that at every mile marker there was a clock to let me know how I was doing.
Finish the race, I did and it was an incredible feeling. I wish that I could have connected with my other friends right after the race. The different starting corrals, the different times it took us to complete the distance, and the huge number of people there which overwhelmed the cell phone capacity kept us from doing that. Still it was a great weekend, one which I would love to do again over and over.
After a very long wait I finally participated in the Disneyland half marathon. This was the race that got me even slightly interested in running. Last year my friend Michelle invited me to walk the half marathon - I had been walking a few miles as part of my quest to lose weight and get in better shape/health. I figured that setting a race goal would help me to keep walking. So I signed up for the race. As luck would have it a work trip forced me to miss out on the race, but it was a trip to France so I was okay with it. Later on in September last year I signed up to walk the Wounded Warrior 5K, and I did that in a good time for walking, about 41 minutes. However, walking that fast was beginning to hurt so I decided that if I was to enter more races in the future it would be better to maybe jog a few hundred yards every mile. I was blessed that I was able to extend those few hundred yards to miles, and running them at a decent pace.
Fast forward to September 2011, Labor Day weekend, race weekend!!! It started out with a long fun day at the parks on Friday with my friend Michelle, the same friend who invited me participate in the race last year. Saturday had an early start to it with the Star Tours 5K, a fun race in which time is not kept. This freed us up to have pictures taken with characters or at cool locations. How often can one get a picture taken in front of the Mickey with no one else around, or Sleeping Beauty's castle just as empty? With the race theme being Star Tours, Mickey dressed up as a Jedi Knight and Minnie was Princess Leia. A good time was had by all and it was also a good warm up for the half to be held the next day. Here are some of the pictures from the 5K.
This race was the biggest race in which I have participated, with over 15,000 runners and walkers registered. Luckily I was able to get a qualifying time fast enough to move me to the first starting corral. Knowing that there were gonna be many people who would be much faster than me I waded my way near the back of the corral. Here's a view of the starting line (near the video screen) from about 1800 runners back. The start of the race was 6 AM, and the weather behaved for the most part. It was in the mid 60s at the start, the sky was mostly cloud free and humidity wasn't high yet. It warmed up a little bit but not bad at all. Another wonderful thing about the race was some friends were also running it, although we were all spread out in different corrals. My friends Becky, Ron and Michelle from SB Search were there, along with Linda and Chuck from the running club.
The race started in Downtown Disney area and went through the parks the first couple of miles. It then went through the streets of Anaheim, including a view of the sun rising as we ran down Ball Road. A few turns here and there and there we were by the Honda Center. After a brief jaunt on the Santa Ana River Trail we ended up Angel Stadium, where we actually got to run inside the field. OK, it was on the warning track along the right field side and then the left field side. As we ran by the third base dugout a video camera caught the runners and displayed us on the big screen in left field. Way cool!!!
Well, I made it all the way to the finish line. My first half was a couple of minutes faster than the second half so not bad at all. I ended up taking a few walk breaks the last few miles but not slow enough to keep me from attaining a secondary goal. My first goal was always to participate in the race, finish and get that pretty cool medal. A second goal was to complete the 13.1 miles in under two hours. It helped that at every mile marker there was a clock to let me know how I was doing.
Finish the race, I did and it was an incredible feeling. I wish that I could have connected with my other friends right after the race. The different starting corrals, the different times it took us to complete the distance, and the huge number of people there which overwhelmed the cell phone capacity kept us from doing that. Still it was a great weekend, one which I would love to do again over and over.
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