13.1 Miles of Disney Magic - A Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend Trip Report

[MotoXPrincess99]

Hi everyone!

This past Labor Day weekend I ran the Disneyland Half Marathon. This was my first race ever and I had a blast! I have never written a trip report before but I want to share my experience and pictures with everyone so here goes nothing…

For the past 3 or 4 years I have wanted to run the Disneyland Half Marathon but I never signed up because 13.1 miles seemed like so much I wasn’t sure I could finish in the 3 ½ hour time limit. My aunt ran it the very first year (2006). Here she is after finishing the inaugural race:

After I told her that I had finally decided to run it this year she hopped right on her computer and signed up too! I was excited to have someone to run with.

My mom (VintageDisneyRules) decided to come with us to cheer us on. Here is a picture of her and I:

 

[MotoXPrincess99]

On Saturday, September 4, 2010 my mom and aunt came to pick me up and we were off to Disneyland. We stayed at the Red Lion. I booked this hotel through Priceline’s “Name Your Own Price” option and ended up getting it for $70 per night. The Red Lion is about a 10 minute walk to Disneyland. It’s on the south east corner of Harbor and Katella.

We got to the hotel around 11:30am and luckily they had a room ready so were able to check in early. We had a 2 queen room. I had asked to be upgraded to a Disney view but none of those rooms were ready.

After we unpacked, we hung our door sign up and headed to Downtown Disney for lunch.

 

[MotoXPrincess99]

We headed to White Water Snacks in the California Grand Hotel where we met up with Rochelle (eatmypixiedust). My mom, aunt and I all had the nachos and Pix had a chili dog and chili cheese fries. I love the nachos here! I can never eat them all.

After we ate my aunt and I headed to the Disneyland Hotel for the Sports Expo where we needed to pick up our Bib, t-shirt and goodie bag. My mom and Rochelle headed into the parks.

We tried to take a picture of ourselves but it didn’t quite turn out.

So then we asked someone to take if for us.

They had a backdrop set up for people to take pictures in front of.

There was a big sign for all the runners to sign.

After we got our stuff we walked around the Expo for a bit and then headed back toward the parks to meet up with my mom and Pix. We each bought a shirt that says "I Did It" that we planned to wear on Sunday after the race.

We saw Goofy in the hotel.

I’m not sure what all my mom and Pix did while we were at the Expo but I know they did Animation Academy and I think they saw The Aladdin Show.

 

[staley7580]

I love, love LOVE your pics!

 

[canadadisney]

Great Work!!! I have put this run on my, "To Do List"!

 

[where's_my_prince]

LOVE your pics

 

[tinkermell]

Sarah!!

Great start!

Looking forward to hearing much more!

 

[MotoXPrincess99]

Whoo Hoo! People are actually reading my TR!

I love, love LOVE your pics!

Thanks!

Great Work!!! I have put this run on my, "To Do List"!

You should definitely run it next year.

LOVE your pics

Thank you. I've got a bunch more to come.

Sarah!!

Great start!

Looking forward to hearing much more!

I plan to get the rest of Day 1 finished today.

 

[MotoXPrincess99]

Ok, so after the Sports Expo I had plans to meet up with my mom and Rochelle at 4:30pm in front of Gibson Girl Ice Cream where we were going to meet up with some other DISer's for a little mini meet. My aunt had only bought a 1 day park hopper ticket that she was going to use on Sunday so she decided to walk around Down Town Disney while I ran in to Disneyland for the meet.

I do Pin Trading so I gave my aunt my bag of traders and told her to look for some Tinkerbell pins for me so she would have something to do. She also wanted to go back to the Expo at 5:00pm to exchange our shirts. The shirts that they gave us in our goodie bags were HUGE and they wouldn’t let us exchange them for a smaller size until after 5:00pm.

The first person I saw was MaryJo. We talked for a bit and then we saw my mom and Rochelle outside talking to someone. It was Jen (Mrs.PinUp). We decided to move to a table down Main Street. A few ladies that post on the WISH boards and who were running the ½ Marathon also met up with us.

From left to right standing:
MaryJo (MaryJo), Trudi (VintageDisneyRules), Sarah (MotoXPrincess99), Jen (jbucci), Joan (joan4mickey)
And sitting:
Rochelle (eatmypixiedust), Jen (Mrs.PinUp), Corrina, Laurie (hockeygirl)

After we chit chatted for a bit Rochelle and I went to get Dole Whips and my mom and MaryJo stayed at the table to talk. The line for the Dole Whips was so long! I took a few pictures while we waited. Luckily the weather wasn’t too hot on Saturday.

After we got our Whip and our Float we headed back to meet my mom and MaryJo. It was almost 6:00pm and we had to meet my aunt outside the gates so we could all walk over to California Pizza Kitchen in the Anaheim Garden Walk where we had 6:30 dinner reservations.

As we walked over my aunt told us about her two hours in DTD. She was able to exchange her shirt for a small but they were all out of X-Smalls for me. She traded almost all of my pins and had so much fun doing it. She hung out at the UVA Bar and some guy bought her a beer. She really didn't mind being on her own for the time.

 

[VintageDisneyRules]

This is great Sarah ! I get to re-live the weekend all over again !!!

 

[mommaU4]

I'm here and going to read what you wrote so far later tonight once the kiddos are in bed.

 

[wendypooh22]

Great TR Sarah!!!
I can't wait to read more!

 

[Belle Ella]

Great way to start it off! Do you mind if I link to it in the September Check in thread?

Can't wait for more!

 

[MotoXPrincess99]

Great way to start it off! Do you mind if I link to it in the September Check in thread?

Can't wait for more!

Nope, not at all.

 

[MotoXPrincess99]

Okay, so we headed over to the Anaheim Garden Walk for our 6:30 reservations at CPK. I had never been to the Garden Walk. There are so many stores and restaurants there. There’s even a bowling ally. Some day I would like to look in all the stores but it would take half the day. Here’s a link to the website if you want to check it out: Anaheim Garden Walk


We stopped to take some pictures in front of a HUGE picture of the Disney Villains.

There was a man that was making balloon animals for people that were waiting to eat. They were so cute!

There was a long wait to be seated but luckily I had made a reservation a few weeks in advance so we didn’t have to wait too long.

My mom and MaryJo shared a pizza, I had ravioli, I think Rochelle had pizza and my aunt had spaghetti. I didn’t take any pictures of the food but here’s one of the dessert my mom ordered. It’s called a Butter Cake.

It was around 8:30 by the time we were all finished. Rochelle and MaryJo headed back to the parks and my mom, aunt and I headed back to the hotel to go to bed since we had to be up at 4:00am the next morning for our race.

By the time we walked back to the hotel, finished un-packing and got our things together for the race it was probably 10:00pm before we actually got to bed.

 

[where's_my_prince]

oh my gosh those balloon characters are so cute!!!!

 

[MotoXPrincess99]

oh my gosh those balloon characters are so cute!!!!

I know! I've never seen anyone make Disney ones before. We looked for him after we got done eating to see how much they were but he was gone.

 

[tinkermell]

Look like everyone is enjoying themselves to so much!

 

[VintageDisneyRules]

There was a man that was making balloon animals for people that were waiting to eat. They were so cute!

.

Sarah, Aunt Toni said it looks like Tinkerbell is pole dancing.
What IS that pink balloon supposed to be?

 

[sameyeyam]

Sarah, Aunt Toni said it looks like Tinkerbell is pole dancing.
What IS that pink balloon supposed to be?

I'm not sure, but I think that Ariel needs to schedule her yearly mammogram. She's looking a bit lumpy up on top. Those are awesome.

Great TR Sarah!