And now, what you've all been waiting for......

The FUNNEST HALF MARATHON EVER

Looking for just the facts? I liked the corral systems. It made a HUGE difference for me to be in Corral C instead of Corral Z like in Princess. Race started on time. Course support was fantastic. Tons of water stations. REAL bathrooms if you know where to look. Course entertainment was great - IMO, not quite as good as at Princess, but ONLY because I would have preferred characters to cheerleaders and bands, but had it been a non-Disney race, I would have considered the entertainment great. The course? Meh. I was not a huge fan, but again, because I would have preferred a more Disney-centric course... and that's a tough thing to pull off in Anaheim. Flat, fast course - I think the last 3 miles or so are a slight downhill even, so even though I would advise NOT to go out with a PR on your mind, it's totally a PR friendly course.


I've been putting this recap off, because I don't even know where to begin.

I was also kind of waiting to have the "official" finishers pictures with Team Jam and our medals, but apparently.... Brightroom has lost them.

Cute. But not really.

So, I guess the best place to start is where I left off on the 5K/Bloggy Breakfast/Bloggy Dinner post (did you miss it? Link HERE).

After the Bloggy Dinner at Cheesecake Factory (Freaking YUM), The H took allllll of the kids for a slumber party.

If you're keeping track, that's our three (12, 10, and 4 yrs old), A (5) and H (4). That is 5 against 1. He's a brave, brave soul.

Becka was awesome enough to let me crash in her room, so we were super duper close to the start.

And man. She was not joking when she said the fireworks were, like, 2 inches from their room. Holy smokes.

Got our stuff together, and was in bed shortly after 10. And I was utterly calm - not nervous at all, and as a result, slept like a baby, until that damn alarm at 4:03am.

While I was getting dressed and ready to head out, I realized that I sucked at packing stuff - I forgot my handheld, my inhaler, my arm strappy thing for my phone, my camera (hence the "borrowing" of some of Rose's pictures)... All of which made me really commit to running for fun with Fruit Fly and Rose.

Anyway, we headed over across the street to Disneyland. Obviously some of these folks that were speedwalking past us had never raced with RunDisney before, because... if you have, you know it's a whole lot of hurry up to wait.

Becka and L were hoping to hit the Half Fanatics group picture, but we didn't quite make it in time... but we did immediately run into Fruit Fly and Biker Boy! Considering how many people were at Disneyland this weekend, it's SHOCKING how easy it was to find each other all weekend. Crazy!

Then, we literally ran into Rose heading towards the starting corrals. B and L were in corral A, but FF and I were in corral C... and somehow, speedy Rose was in D!

She totally crashed our corral, though, and took advantage of someone sneaking in a bunch of TNT runners.

Team Jam!
Please don't ask me where that name came from. It's not appropriate for sensitive eyes.

Fierce, right?

Unlike Princess Half, there were no fireworks for the Disneyland half start! Booo!

But we were off, and busy dodging folks throughout the first mile.

I wasn't a huge fan of the course, but I seem to be in the minority. I just thought it was kind of weird, and in general I dig Disney and would have loved a more Disney-ish race. But, I knew the course going in, so not a complaint, just an observation.

The first mile was outside of the parks, then headed back in around mile 2. There were not a ton of characters out, compared to Princess, but we sure took advantage of every photo op we could imagine....

And, really, we all know this is what you've been waiting for. The Funnest Half Marathon EVER, in pictures...

Don't hump the dog......


GOATSIE!
Also, of note, this is where the cast member got snotty and asked why we needed three pictures. "Don't you guys have Facebook? Can't you just.... tag?" Shut Up, Sucky Castmember.

Darth Vader bailed. Jerk. According to the Castmember, we could wait... if we wanted to. He'd "be back". I'm also pretty sure this is where the Castmember rolled her eyes at being asked to take three pictures with three cameras. Lame.

REAL bathrooms!


Evil genius = Rose

Zebra skins? That's not creepy. Not at all.

Somewhere around mile 5-6... man down!

So close!!!

Rose also = Sun Shade

Done. And, for some reason, eating our medals?

And, finally, my favorite picture, possibly in the history of always...

Followed immediately by us laughing like we're the most hysterical chicks ever.

Why? Because, we missed the photographer the first time, stopped everything, went back, and re-did the picture.

Funnest Half Marathon EVER.

Rose's recap is HERE, and FruitFly's recap is HERE.