Official 2014 Tinker Bell Half Marathon

[rachlovestv]

Any current/recent repots from the Expo? Wondering if I should go now or wait until later in the afternoon . . . the only merchandise I might want is an "I Did It" shirt but hopefully that's not a high-demand item. (And if anyone happens to have a picture of the "I Did It" shirt, I'd love to see it.)

It seemed liked there was quite a few I did it shirts left, though hard to verify sizes.

 

[VickiHD]

I think I saw your car in the parking lot this morning.

The "Official Pixie Pace Car"......Blue Explorer is at Stovall's.

Kim
How did you do at the Expo??

 

[VickiHD]

Got in late last night. Getting ready to go have breakfast and go to the expo. Staying at Stovall's. Anybody else at this hotel?

I am!!

 

[Blondie1973]

the hubby went for me. I got the tink sweaty bands and the 10K I did it shirt. my DD got something but I'm not sure what

 

[mamastew]

I am!!

Your car was parked just a few doors down from us.

 

[AmyAnne]

Question about the half course: Will there be anything Disney (like maybe Disney mile markers) after we leave DL at mile 5ish? What is the course like through Anaheim, in terms of interesting scenery and such?

 

[VickiHD]

Your car was parked just a few doors down from us.

Hi neighbor !!

 

[mamastew]

Is there a group meet up tomorrow somewhere?

 

[Goofierunner]

Question about the half course: Will there be anything Disney (like maybe Disney mile markers) after we leave DL at mile 5ish? What is the course like through Anaheim, in terms of interesting scenery and such?

You will have the Disney mile markers throughout the whole course. I liked running through DTD and past the Disneyland Hotel. Nice crowds through that area. Probably not as many people along the course through Anaheim but you'll still get some cheering you on.

 

[Figment1990]

Anyone else still deciding what to wear? Now that I'm finally here (YAY!), I stepped outside at 5am this morning and I think I'll be wearing a long sleeve tech shirt and capris (with a tank under just in case). It's so nice to be at a Disney park and not step out into thick humidity!

Can't wait to get to the expo and hopefully snag something that says tinkerbell on it. I really want a mug.

 

[VickiHD]

Wishing all Tinks goodnight !!! Don't forget to set the alarms.
Have a great race everyone. Only a couple more hours to go !!!

 

[Figment1990]

Good luck everyone! It's almost time! Wishing everyone a great run and fantastic morning.

 

[Nulles]

Can anyone let me know if I missed any characters on the half? Here is what I remember:

California Adventure:
Mr. and Mrs. Incredible
Lightning and Mater
Mike and Art with Monsters University Cheerleaders

Disneyland:
Monkeys: Turk and King Louie
Capt. Hook, Mr. Smee, and TinkerBell
Peter Pan and Wendy
Lost Boys
Stormtroopers
Cinderella
Rapunzel and Flynn Rider
Merida
Marie and Clarice
Big Al
Jack Sparrow

Finish Line:
Running Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Daisy, Chip & Dale (all in sweat suits)

 

[Belle Ella]

Sounds about right. I wasn't paying too much attention, lol.

 

[ludari]

I had a wonderful Tinker Bell Race weekend with my friends and the weather was perfect for all three races. I have to admit that the most fun I had was during the 5K while wearing my Magic Carpet costume. I received so many wonderful comments and I can't count the amount of people who stopped me to take pictures. I can't wait to wear that costume again.

After completing Dopey the previous weekend and this weekend completing the 5K, 10K and half I logged 71 Disney Miles in 7 days.

 

[Belle Ella]

I had a wonderful Tinker Bell Race weekend with my friends and the weather was perfect for all three races. I have to admit that the most fun I had was during the 5K while wearing my Magic Carpet costume. I received so many wonderful comments and I can't count the amount of people who stopped me to take pictures. I can't wait to wear that costume again.

After completing Dopey the previous weekend and this weekend completing the 5K, 10K and half I logged 71 Disney Miles in 7 days.

Congrats on accomplishing all that in one week! Sounds like such a fun costume for the 5K. I remember this past Halloween at DLR one of my favorite costumes I saw was a magic carpet. Hope you got some photos for yourself too

This wasn't my first 10K + Half (I did Dumbo past year), but I am definitely hurting. I took it easy for the 10K since I was running with my friend - her first event ever - so I let her pick the pace and was just there for support and to keep her motivated when she was struggling (so proud of her!), but went for a PR for the half. Got it by 2 minutes, which is a huge accomplishment for me considering how training has gone in the last few months. Even had negative splits after each 5K. Here's to hoping by next year I can cut a few more minutes off. And another day of rest and recovery. Definitely couldn't make it in to work today. Oops. But that's what I get for forgetting to ask for one more day off.

 

[ludari]

Congrats on accomplishing all that in one week! Sounds like such a fun costume for the 5K. I remember this past Halloween at DLR one of my favorite costumes I saw was a magic carpet. Hope you got some photos for yourself too

This wasn't my first 10K + Half (I did Dumbo past year), but I am definitely hurting. I took it easy for the 10K since I was running with my friend - her first event ever - so I let her pick the pace and was just there for support and to keep her motivated when she was struggling (so proud of her!), but went for a PR for the half. Got it by 2 minutes, which is a huge accomplishment for me considering how training has gone in the last few months. Even had negative splits after each 5K. Here's to hoping by next year I can cut a few more minutes off. And another day of rest and recovery. Definitely couldn't make it in to work today. Oops. But that's what I get for forgetting to ask for one more day off.

That magic carpet costume you noticed this past Halloween at DLR was ME! I had just finished making it the day before Halloween and I wanted to show it off so on Halloween I headed to DLR and DCA. I have made and have many costumes but this magic carpet costume is my favorite and I plan on using it many more times at races.

 

[kappyfamily]

This was my second half at DL (DL 1/2 in 2012 and this years Tink) and have made up my mind that I will wait to do another DL run. I prefer WDW runs so much better! I'm from Oregon so trust me, so much easier to get to DL too. Both of DL races I've done were just crazy packed...the entire time. Never loosened up and was constantly trying to get around people, for 13 miles.

Really don't mean to be a downer but I wasn't wowed by the course. Of course the first part was great thru the parks but it was all in the dark. Expo set up was good, got our bibs and tees quickly Friday around noon. Tink merchandise was already fairly limited. Why do they always make the women's shirts with those tiny little cap sleeves? I like the regular short sleeves! The long sleeve white shirt was super cute and thought about getting it, but it looked really thin and kind of see thru. On the course we saw several people wearing them and you could see the "pink" of their skin thru them! Yikes! Was glad I didn't get one, wish they came in other colors!

Great support on the course, lots of bathrooms, great medals at the end too! Super cute! By the way the parks were insane yesterday (mlk day). Wow!

With that said ready for princess in a few weeks!! Hope everyone had a great run!

 

[Figment1990]

This was my second half at DL (DL 1/2 in 2012 and this years Tink) and have made up my mind that I will wait to do another DL run. I prefer WDW runs so much better! I'm from Oregon so trust me, so much easier to get to DL too. Both of DL races I've done were just crazy packed...the entire time. Never loosened up and was constantly trying to get around people, for 13 miles.

Really don't mean to be a downer but I wasn't wowed by the course. Of course the first part was great thru the parks but it was all in the dark. Expo set up was good, got our bibs and tees quickly Friday around noon. Tink merchandise was already fairly limited. Why do they always make the women's shirts with those tiny little cap sleeves? I like the regular short sleeves! The long sleeve white shirt was super cute and thought about getting it, but it looked really thin and kind of see thru. On the course we saw several people wearing them and you could see the "pink" of their skin thru them! Yikes! Was glad I didn't get one, wish they came in other colors!

Great support on the course, lots of bathrooms, great medals at the end too! Super cute! By the way the parks were insane yesterday (mlk day). Wow!

With that said ready for princess in a few weeks!! Hope everyone had a great run!

Kappy - First let me say that I am not trying to tell you that you were wrong about the crowding. I just want to tell people that my experience was much different. There were several places on the course where I was literally the only person in a 5 or 6 foot radius. To me, that's not that crowded. I started in Corral B (thanks to a hard-earned 10k proof of time) so perhaps that had something to do with it. There were lots of people passing me too - it's not like I rocketed out of the start and flew by everyone (I run 12:30 pace for a half). And also, in my opinion, I enjoyed running the streets of Anaheim more than I do the highways of WDW. I've only ever done the wine & dine at WDW, so I've not been on the WDW highways during Princess, but as a first time visitor to Anaheim, I found it really cool to see some other parts of the city than just DL. Running through the palm tree-lined retail parts, seeing the high school (or college) bands and cheerleaders, and even the residential areas were interesting to me. I love running at WDW, but I wouldn't hesitate to run in DL again at all. At least not this course. I'm not sure I could go in May, but if they moved it back to January, I'd definitely do it again! Plus I felt like the park parts were better (i.e. longer), than the WDW courses (except the full). AND I have to say I enjoyed not having to be there 3 hours before the start and I thought the finish line was very well organized and found my DH and DS more easily than I thought I would.

I am excited about princess though and experiencing a whole new WDW race weekend! See you there!

 

[camouseketeer]

Kappy - First let me say that I am not trying to tell you that you were wrong about the crowding. I just want to tell people that my experience was much different. There were several places on the course where I was literally the only person in a 5 or 6 foot radius. To me, that's not that crowded. I started in Corral B (thanks to a hard-earned 10k proof of time) so perhaps that had something to do with it. There were lots of people passing me too - it's not like I rocketed out of the start and flew by everyone (I run 12:30 pace for a half). And also, in my opinion, I enjoyed running the streets of Anaheim more than I do the highways of WDW. I've only ever done the wine & dine at WDW, so I've not been on the WDW highways during Princess, but as a first time visitor to Anaheim, I found it really cool to see some other parts of the city than just DL. Running through the palm tree-lined retail parts, seeing the high school (or college) bands and cheerleaders, and even the residential areas were interesting to me. I love running at WDW, but I wouldn't hesitate to run in DL again at all. At least not this course. I'm not sure I could go in May, but if they moved it back to January, I'd definitely do it again! Plus I felt like the park parts were better (i.e. longer), than the WDW courses (except the full). AND I have to say I enjoyed not having to be there 3 hours before the start and I thought the finish line was very well organized and found my DH and DS more easily than I thought I would.

I am excited about princess though and experiencing a whole new WDW race weekend! See you there!

I have to agree with this.

While I would have liked to have seen more of the parks in daylight, running by the dancing water lights of World of Color in DCA, the mountains of Radiator Springs in Carsland, and the lights of Small World in DL were amazing! I also liked how we really weaved through both parks. For the WDW half, I felt like I only made a cursory run through Epcot, and I was too exhausted at the end to care!

I, too, preferred running on the streets of Anaheim with the bands, businesses, and cute houses, to the long and plain stretches of WDW roads.

I never had problems with crowding. I was also in corral B, and, while the first mile was pretty tight, it kept me running at a nice slow pace, which I needed to have something left in the tank at the end. Everyone spread out just fine, especially when we left the parks for the second half of the race. I felt more crowded at the Donald half in WDW.

Clearly everyone's experience is unique, but I liked both races on both coasts. They each have something special to offer and, for me, were great racing opportunities!