"Ready Are You?" - Maintaining Rebel Challenge Legacy - A Continuous Journal - Update 5/29

Introductions

Dis_Yoda

Who am I? I'm an engineer in the aerospace industry that has to work hard so I can play hard. I'm an overweight Disney fan who for some reason has become obsessed with RunDisney races. My first RunDisney race was in 2013 for the Haunted Family 5K. In 2014, I completed the Tower of Terror 10 Miler. In 2015, I did the Inaugural Rebel Challenge in Disneyland and the Glass Slipper Challenge in WDW along with the Jingle Jungle 5K.

I am injury prone for my left ankle but for some reason I still keep up with the running. Hopefully there will not be large gaps in my training because of that this year!

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2016 Race Schedule

January 2016

15th - Star Wars - The Light Side 5K - Disneyland Result: 45:39 (14:44 pace)
16th - Star Wars - The Light Side 10K - Disneyland Result: 1:36:10 (15:28 Pace)
17th - Star Wars - The Light Side Half Marathon - Disneyland Result: 3:35:15 (16:25 Pace)

February 2016
20th - Princess 10K - Walt Disney World Result: 1:37:10 (15:38 pace)
21st - Princess Half Marathon - Walt Disney World Result: 3:43:37 (17:03 pace)

March 2016

April 2016
16th - Star Wars - Dark Side 10K - Walt Disney World Result: 1:46:69 (17:13 pace)
17th - Star Wars - Dark Side Half Marathon - Walt Disney World 3:56:54 (18:04 pace)

May 2016
30th - Memorial Day Veterans 10K - Punta Gorda, FL

June 2016

July 2016
2nd - Kaena Point Firecracker 10 Miler - Kaena Point State Park, Oahu, Hawaii

August 2016

September 2016

October 2016

November 2016
5th - Wine & Dine 10K - Walt Disney World
6th - Wine & Dine Half Marathon - Walt Disney World​

December 2016
 
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Star Wars - Light Side - 5K

Our alarm went off at 3:30AM. We got dressed and ready for the run! I was just going to put up with the cold weather as I hate wearing a jacket while running. My husband was not as tough as me!

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Dis_Yoda - Pre-Race

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Mr. Dis_Yoda - Pre-Race

We both had corral A for the race and went to go out the front door of the Grand Californian to get to the corrals since we had been able to do that the year prior at Paradise Pier. Sadly, that wasn’t allowed anymore. We were forced to go to the pre-race area at Disneyland Hotel instead. We were super annoyed with this as the distance to the corrals were why we originally decided to stay at the Californian this trip and that it ended up being useless for that! We trekked to the main pre-race holding area to kill some time until they opened the walkway to the corrals. We walked through security - as we had no bags - they didn’t search us. It was nice to see they had stormtroopers hanging around along with a nice photo op that we had a stranger take of us! I warned Betsy about this in text as she was planning on just coming straight to the corrals as well (she says I didn’t wake her up but I’m still not sure I believe her *whistles*)

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Stormtroopers wandering around

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Stuck In Hoth

It was about an hour before the race started so I wanted to get to the corrals. We were towards the front of the corral and looked at our trackers to find out we already had walked 1.24 miles this morning! We waited as we watched the hosts and eventually were greeted by Betsy as she got into the corral as well! We all talked. I was planning on taking the 5K easy. My husband was doing to go all out. Betsy was undecided at first and said go ahead and she may catch up. I had my Garmin set for 30 second run/60 second walk intervals after a 3 minute ‘warm up’ which I would do whatever I wanted (mostly run) as I went up Disneyland Dr and towards the highway.

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Tankgirl aka Betsy

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Wheelchair Start

About a minute after the wheelchairs started, Corral A was off and off we all went, quickly separating. Once we got backstage at Disneyland, they had a long line up for Chewie so I took a flyby photo of him and continued on my way!

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Blurry Photo of Chewie!

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I was super happy when I saw my pace for the first mile! 12:58! I’ve never gone that fast for a mile in a runDisney race! I was also failing at taking this race easy like I had planned ;)
Mile 1 - 12:58!

They had all holiday lights on throughout the park.

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It’s A Small World

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Monstro!

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Sleeping Beauty’s Castle

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Star Wars Rebels

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Jedi Symbol

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Leaving Disneyland

Right after arriving in California Adventure, we hit mile 2! That mile had taken me 15 minutes to complete which isn’t bad seeing as I had stopped for selfies and other photos!

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Mile 2- 28:58

Going up Hollywood Blvd, I saw that they had BB8 - but I also saw the line was wrapped at least 4 times and was going to be a long wait. I knew if I stopped for it, it would be impossible to keep this pace up I was doing as my legs would stiffen. I took a quick photo to the side and continued down the course!

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BB-8!!!!

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Bad C3PO & R2D2 Photo

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Stormtroopers leaving California Adventure

Leaving California Adventure, we headed out towards Downtown Disney where we hit Mile 3. It had taken 15 minutes to get to Mile 3 as well and in a short .1 miles afterwards - I was over the finish line!

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Mile 3 - 43:58

I stopped my Garmin watch right over the finish line and was super happy to see what my total time and pace was! This was a great pace for me and I was happy to see that I was right on at 3.1 miles instead of gaining a lot of mileage during the race!

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Official Garmin Data

I grabbed my powerade, water, banana and food box and walked back to the hotel! I ate the banana right away and chugged the powerade. When back at the room, I ate the Salted Caramel Puffed Corn and Goldfish. My husband stole the trail mix as it had dried edamame which he loves!

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Done & Back In The Room!

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Bibs & Medals

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Food Box

After I had my runDisney box breakfast, I got cleaned up and we got ready to head to Disneyland before they opened!​
 


Star Wars - The Light Side 10K

I woke up at 3:30AM and was eager to wake up! I got dressed and was ready to go!

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All Dressed!

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Mr. Dis_Yoda all dressed

My husband told me I was crazy to want to head to the corrals this early so I left him behind! The event guide had said the corrals would be opening around 4AM and I wanted to be at the front of my corral! I kissed him goodbye and told him to have a great race! I walked the long walk all by myself.

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Except this time, they hadn’t opened the walk to the corrals yet. I hung out there for a while. My husband ended up joining me around 4:15AM and laughed at my being an early bird to just wait!

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At 4:30AM, they let us start walking to the corrals and my husband and I split as he went to Corral A and I walked all the way to the back. I was able to get in the front row! I passed the time talking to people in the corral. Some of them thought I was crazy for not having a jacket on and dealing with it being a cooler morning.

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At 5:32AM, they let the Corral A go and eventually we started our slow walk to the start line! My husband was through the 5K checkpoint before I even got to start! He did the 5K portion in 26:35/8:34!

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Start Time: 29:07

The first mile was pretty much the same as the mile at the 5K. I had my Garmin set for the same intervals and just took the first mile as far as I could. I didn’t grab a photo of the Boba Fett line as he wasn’t even out as it was a switchover. I was happy to see I completed the 1st mile in 13:36!

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Mile 1 - 42:43

The next mile didn’t go as well. There were so many narrow spaces that the course got so tight and slow that it was almost painful for me to move that slow!

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Just a casual walk

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Yoda!

I was sad to see that my 2nd mile took 16:31 to complete! Those tight spaces killed my pace. Right before I got to mile 2, I got the notice from text message that my husband was done in 53:38, an overall 8:38 pace! Such an awesome job!

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Mile 2 - 59:14

My anger shortly went away as I soon was able to see the Castle! The castle was another spot that killed the course with the narrow so we all halted to a walk.

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Sleeping Beauty’s Castle

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Chewy

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It’s A Small World!

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Star Wars Rebels

Soon I was at Mile 3 in 16:02!

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Mile 3 - 1:15:16

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I received my text message stating I completed the 5K in 47:52 at a 15:25 pace! I thought I would be able to do better but at same time, looking at my intervals, there were times I wasn’t able to go faster than a 20:00 pace because of the traffic flow.

After the 5K point, we were leaving Disneyland!

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Stormtroopers

I hit the Mile 4 Mark in 15:03 which made me happy! I was finally in a decent groove :)

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Mile 4 - 1:30:19

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Something Star Wars

Even as someone who really hates Cars, running through Radiator Springs is such a great moment in Disneyland Races especially as the sun is rising!

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I hit Mile 5 in 15:43 which isn’t too bad!

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Mile 5 - 1:46:02

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R2D2

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More Stormtroopers

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Paradise Pier

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Grizzly

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As we left and went towards Downtown Disney, Betsy (tankgirl) was cheering on the racers outside of Starbucks. The guy next to her was holding a sign “Come To The Dark Side, We have Cookies” and Betsy helped with handing out Oreos and Chips Ahoys. I totally broke one of my race rules of “Nothing New During Run” and grabbed an oreo! It may have been the best tasting Oreo I’ve had!

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Dark Side Cookies

I completed this mile in 16:14.

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Mile 6 - 2:02:16

After crossing the finish line, I took a shot of my watch and a selfie with my medal!

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Garmin Data

This race felt better than how 2015’s 10K went. I’m happy with finishing with energy still left in my system. I’m not sure I like this course in comparison to 2015’s due to the amount of narrow spots that caused traffic jams. It makes me wonder how much better my time would have been if it wasn’t for the jams.

After my selfie with my medal, I grabbed my water and powerade. Again I immediately chugged the powerade as I made my way to the refreshment table to get my food box and banana. The banana was also quickly eaten. I made my way back to the room to clean up so we could head into the park.​
 
Star Wars - Light Side - Half Marathon

My alarm went off at 3:30AM. My husband was going to sleep in a little longer than I since he wasn’t too worried about where he would be in his corral. I got dressed and wished him a great race and started towards the corrals. There were a lot more people walking around Downtown Disney this morning. Many of them went into the pre-race entertainment area and I instead decided to walk towards the corrals as I wanted to be as far away from the balloon ladies at the back of my corral as possible! This time they didn’t hold us until 4:30AM to get to the corrals and I was able to head that way even though it was just barely 4AM. I actually was the very first person to show up in my corral. The volunteers called me crazy for not having a jacket as it was a little chilly this morning. It wasn’t long though until someone else showed up and I asked them to take a photo of my full outfit since my husband didn’t get one this morning for me.

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I spent the next 90 minutes entertaining myself with either my phone, conversation with people around me, including a very nervous first time half marathon runner and the same guy I had seen at the 10K the day before who had run Dopey. He made the joke that I had to have a better day after the race yesterday than him as he spent it doing laundry. Joke was on him as I totally did the same thing in the afternoon! Having great conversations with these people really made the time fly! Eventually, we started moving towards the start line. I was kinda annoyed as I got the text message notification that I had started the race while I was waiting for it to actually start. Boo for it unnecessarily adding 3 minutes to my time! My husband had already completed the first 5K portion of the race before I started.
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Start Time: 31:01

We were let free a little after 6AM and I kept with the intervals that had been working for me all weekend - 30/60.

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Backstage Disneyland

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Bad Boba Fett

When I reached the first mile, my pace could be considered either 16:14 if I go by Disney’s start time for me or 13:14 if I go by when I actually started…

Mile 1 - 47:15

And just like the day before, once we got past Mile 1, people apparently forgot this was a race and it turned into a slow walking mass. Too many people trying to get through!

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Eventually, I broke free from those crowds and made my way through Tomorrowland!

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Stormtrooper Selfie

My Mile 2 pace was 18:58 which annoyed me greatly as I still had tons of energy in the bank and the crowded spots killed it.

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Mile 2 - 1:06:13

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Approaching Disneyland Castle

Mile 3 took 15:26 to complete! I only had to deal with crowded spots when going through the castle and immediately leaving Disneyland. Not nearly as bad as what Mile 2 was!

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Mile 3 - 1:21:39

I received my tracking text that I had completed the 5K in 49:54 at a 16:04 pace. Boo!

They had empty cars running in Radiator Springs!

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At Mile 4 in 15:48!

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Mile 4 - 1:37:27

As you leave property between Mile 4 and 5, I saw a lady with a cocker spaniel that looked so much like mine at home! So cute!

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I also shortly saw my husband passing on the other side of the road as he was getting near Mile 12.

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Mr. Dis_Yoda in front of the bright yellow shirt guy

I hit Mile 5 in 15:04!
Mile 5 - 1:52:31

I got to Mile 6 in 14:04! That is such a great speed for me at this point in the race! It also was a good mark for my mental being. As I've mentioned previously in the report, Mile 5 to 12 last year resulted in a nasty mental breakdown/self loathing session. I was really happy that I hadn't repeated that yet. I was feeling stronger physically and mentally. This race was going better!

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Mile 6 - 2:06:35

I gained during the 2nd 5K portion when I received my text for the 10K. I did the 10K in 1:38:38 at a 15:53 pace.

Around the time I finished my 10K portion of the half, I had received notification that my husband had finished. He completed in 2:01:50 at an overall 9:18 pace! That is awesome considering that is his 3rd straight day of racing. It didn’t meet his goal of under 2 hours but he realized he probably would have hit that if he hadn’t done a 5K and a 10K the previous mornings. He has Princess & Star Wars - Dark Side to try again!

After the initial 10K, my pace took a bit of a hit. I was getting tired physically as I realized I hadn’t really taken my gus at my normal training intervals. I made it to Mile 7 in 17:30

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Mile 7 - 2:24:05

It was nice to see people out around Garden Grove!

I hit Mile 8 in 18:08.

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Mile 8 - 2:42:13

At this point, I had my only negative thought of the race. The band had started playing “My Worst Enemy” right as I reached them. I totally ranted about it in the group chat I have with my husband & some friends. Luckily, shortly after that, you reach main street Garden Grove along with getting to the 501st! It was a nice pick me up.

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R2D2!

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Yoda

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Steampunk Star Wars


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Mile 9 was completed in 17:29 which wasn’t bad considering how many photos I taken!

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Mile 9 - 2:59:42

I received notification of my 15K mark as being hit in 2:29:17 as a 16:01 pace. I noticed my face started feeling gritty as well. I broke the “nothing new on race day” rule yet again and began getting the powerade at the water stations instead of water. Luckily, it didn’t create an issue for me, most likely because its so watered down.

Mile 10 was done in 16:55.

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Mile 10 - 3:16:37

Mile 11 was done in 15:12. I’m glad this mile went better!

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Mile 11- 3:31:49

My energy died heavily after Mile 11. I pretty much just started only walking at this point. Mile 12 took 20:24.

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Mile 12 - 3:52:13

Mile 13 - ???? It was off!

Mile 13.1 - The Finish!

Officially complete in 3:35:16 at a 16:26 pace.

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Official Garmin Data

I went through the finisher’s shoot getting my half marathon medal. I went to get my Rebel Challenge medal and was cleared for it; however, apparently they had ran out of medals?!?!?! I think the crowd was about to revolt to the poor volunteers but eventually they found another box of them and we were given our stuff!

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Dis_Yoda with Medals

Overall, this half went way better than 2015. I may not have had an awesome pace (actually pretty much the same officially as last year even though I know I really did 3 minutes better) I finished feeling strong and accomplished rather than physically and mentally drained. To me that is a major win!​
 
January 2016 Training Update

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I took a fair amount of rest days after Star Wars 5K + Rebel Challenge. I’m shocked at how much adding a 5K to our race weekend killed our motivation for working out once the races were over. My husband pretty much took the full week off too! My attempt to run on Thursday after the races pretty much was a fail as my quads were killing me still!

January Total Miles: 51.14 Miles​
 


Your runDisney trip reports are very inspiring! Thank you! Looking forward to reading more!
 
great trip report, look forward to following along!

Thank you for following along!

Your runDisney trip reports are very inspiring! Thank you! Looking forward to reading more!

Glad you find me inspiring as it doesn't always feel that way in the middle of a race, if that makes sense. I know being as overweight as I am, it takes so much to push through and make this happen.

I hope to get my Princess Updates this week sometime. When we got home yesterday, we were so beat (especially after the drive home taking almost 5 hours as I-75 was shut down for 9 miles and thus traffic was a nightmare on the detour)
 
Thank you for following along!



Glad you find me inspiring as it doesn't always feel that way in the middle of a race, if that makes sense. I know being as overweight as I am, it takes so much to push through and make this happen.

I hope to get my Princess Updates this week sometime. When we got home yesterday, we were so beat (especially after the drive home taking almost 5 hours as I-75 was shut down for 9 miles and thus traffic was a nightmare on the detour)

I think it's awesome! Good for you! How is training on a treadmill? Can I ask you, what kind of running shoe you like and how do you prepare for a race while at Disney or do you mostly just go the night before the race? Sorry for 20 questions!
 
I think it's awesome! Good for you! How is training on a treadmill? Can I ask you, what kind of running shoe you like and how do you prepare for a race while at Disney or do you mostly just go the night before the race? Sorry for 20 questions!

Training on a treadmill works fine for me. I end up on the treadmill a lot as our trash days are on Wednesday and Saturday, which isn't really pleasant to run past! We also get a lot of rainy days down here in Southwest Florida which I'm not going to risk my injury prone ankle on!

I used to love the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 14s! However, when they changed to the 15s, it caused me to have horrible IT band issues on long runs. I was glad I had bought all black shoes so I could just use it for day to day at work since there was no way I was going to run in them. I've moved to Asics GT-2000s for my most recent purchase at the end of November. I'm going to probably try something new as I have to retire my pair of GTS 14s that I switch out with the Asics. That is on the to do list for March.

For Disneyland, we got a few days before so we can enjoy the parks before the race. For WDW, we get in on Thursday Evening so we can do the Expo on Friday and enjoy the races over the weekend. Our Park time during "race trips" at WDW is usually whatever FP+ we have and walking some to keep our legs from getting too stiff. We have other WDW trips usually planned for park time, but we are lucky to live so close that trips like that are allowable.

You can keep up the 20 Questions all you want :)

Following along...hope you had fun at Princess weekend!! :)

Thanks! We did have fun at Princess, for the most part!
 
Training on a treadmill works fine for me. I end up on the treadmill a lot as our trash days are on Wednesday and Saturday, which isn't really pleasant to run past! We also get a lot of rainy days down here in Southwest Florida which I'm not going to risk my injury prone ankle on!

I used to love the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 14s! However, when they changed to the 15s, it caused me to have horrible IT band issues on long runs. I was glad I had bought all black shoes so I could just use it for day to day at work since there was no way I was going to run in them. I've moved to Asics GT-2000s for my most recent purchase at the end of November. I'm going to probably try something new as I have to retire my pair of GTS 14s that I switch out with the Asics. That is on the to do list for March.

For Disneyland, we got a few days before so we can enjoy the parks before the race. For WDW, we get in on Thursday Evening so we can do the Expo on Friday and enjoy the races over the weekend. Our Park time during "race trips" at WDW is usually whatever FP+ we have and walking some to keep our legs from getting too stiff. We have other WDW trips usually planned for park time, but we are lucky to live so close that trips like that are allowable.

You can keep up the 20 Questions all you want :)


You are awesome! Thank you! I've been on a Dis_Yoda TR marathon! Stalker much! Lol
By the way, I love your outfits especially the pink animal print skirt for the AK 5K! Where does a want-to-be runner who sometimes bases her outfits around her Disney park day find one? Clueless me
Oh another question, I see you wear a garmin, how do you feel about an Apple Watch? My husband is bugging me to get one and I'll only do it if it is ok for my training.
 
You are awesome! Thank you! I've been on a Dis_Yoda TR marathon! Stalker much! Lol
By the way, I love your outfits especially the pink animal print skirt for the AK 5K! Where does a want-to-be runner who sometimes bases her outfits around her Disney park day find one? Clueless me
Oh another question, I see you wear a garmin, how do you feel about an Apple Watch? My husband is bugging me to get one and I'll only do it if it is ok for my training.

I post them so people read - don't feel like a stalker ;)

The skirt was actually a Group Custom from SparkleSkirts. I had found it on facebook when it was announced on one of the SparkleSkirt fan groups and was able to get in on it, even with the limited amount of fabric that was available. I found it perfect for Animal Kingdom themed races & possibly the Naples Zoo 5K that happens at some point of the year. I should probably look up that date and put it on my calendar. SparkleSkirts has a lot of different options but fair warning, it becomes an expensive habit. The cheapest skirts are like $60 (I think the cheapest one I've bought is like $70 though & my BB8 was like $90 because of the embellishment) I do love them for running as they have 3 pockets - 2 on the side pockets on the shorts underneath that are large enough to hold my cell phone and gus I would need on long runs. The zipper pocket is also nice for ID/other items one may need.

I have a Garmin 225 & an Apple Watch. I got the Apple Watch when it first launched. I do love it - but I love it as it can be used for my day to day activities (yoga/indoor bike/indoor running/etc) and cell phone use. I was able to use their running outdoors program in WorkOuts succesfully and with Runkeeper for intervals as well. The GPS (which goes through your phone) though isn't as accurate as the Garmin though. I only got the Garmin because I got it for 65% off through an accommodation my husband was able to get with his work. I only use the Garmin for outdoor runs. I'm still the weirdo that wears the Apple Watch and the Garmin during a race though. I like getting my text messages during race with updates on my husband and myself or other messages from friends. Better than having to pull my phone out of my pocket which takes a bit of time if I was in the midst of a run interval!
 
2016 Princess Enchanted 10K

We woke up at 2:45AM to get ready for the race! I knew it wouldn’t take us long to get ready as we weren’t running in costume for this race. I quickly dressed and started making a light breakfast as I knew I probably wouldn’t be running until at 6AM and there is no way I could be up for over 3 hours without something in my stomach if I was going to run 6 miles!

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Toast w/ Grape Jelly & Butter

My husband and I had on the same outfits as we did for the Star Wars - Light Side Half Marathon. We knew they were good running wear!

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Mr. Dis_Yoda Pre-Race

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Dis_Yoda

There wasn’t much of a line to get onto the bus outside Kidani and we were at the EPCOT Parking Lot by 3:45AM! We hung out by the tables until the corrals opened up and I left to be at the front of my corral as I was in the last one. We had run into a friend I’ve known from the Disney internet world almost 10 years ago who was running the Glass Slipper Challenge as part of her very first Half Marathon! She was in the same corral as me for the 10K so we hung out until the beginning.

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Dis_Yoda & Friend

At 5:30AM, my husband’s corral was off! He crossed 7 seconds after the official start of the race! I was still hanging out in the corral as he passed the 5K mark in 24:55 as a 8:02 pace! I joked with my friend that he was going to finished before we even started our corral! At 6:21AM, Corral F started and I was off! Less than a minute later, I got a text message that my husband finished in 51:05 at a 8:14 pace! That is officially his fasted 10K timed run to date! Go him! (Who says you can’t PR at Disney?)

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Start Line: 50:19

They had Anna & Elsa in the exact same location as they did in 2015 but as my camera on my phone didn’t like me in 2015, I never got a photo then! I was going to take advantage of that this time around!

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Frozen Princesses

I hit Mile 1 in 14:22. I was feeling strong!

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Mile 1: 1:04:41

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Bad Fairy Picture

I hit Mile 2 in exactly 15 minutes! I had forgotten about the hills that hit between Mile 1 & 2 on this course with the overpass. I’m very spoiled in Naples for only have flat land around here! I also had my only view of the ‘balloon’ ladies at this part of the course at the turnaround point as they were heading towards Mile 1! There was already a fair amount of people behind them though it seemed!

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Mile 2: 1:19:41

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Pocahontas & Meeko

I giggled as I passed the “Parade” bus. I knew I was doing fine and not worried about being swept but people around me did NOT like seeing that there.

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Evil “Parade” bus.

Not long after that bus, I hit Mile 3 in 15:33!

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Mile 3: 1:35:14

I hit the 5K mark in 46:41 at a 15:02 pace! I was happy to see that this was my pace for the first half of the race!

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Stilt Walkers

The one thing I had about this course is that at the entrance of EPCOT they have us go through is by the Food Trash Cans! That smell makes me gag a ton! But the good part of hitting EPCOT, there are going to be more characters out, even if I wouldn’t get in line with them, I could take my flyby photos!

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EPCOT Entrance

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Dis_Yoda EPCOT Selfie

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Bad Character Photo!

I hit Mile 4 in 16:08.

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Mile 4: 1:51:22

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Cogsworth & Lumiere

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Genie

I remember the boardwalk looking super wet. There was no way I was risking hurting my ankle for the 10K! I ended up walking most of the Boardwalk portion and the area of wood in front of the Yacht Club/Beach Club! That didn’t shock me that it took 16:22 to finish that mile!

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Mile 5: 2:07:44

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Princess Sofia

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Nemo Stilt Walkers

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EPCOT Ball

I hit Mile 6 in 16:37. Once I hit the Mile 6, I tried to pick up my face to finish strong!

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Mile 6: 2:24:21

I finished in 1:37:11 at a 15:39 pace! This was a 0:58 pace improvement from 2015 on the same course! That made me super happy.

Once I finished, I stopped my Garmin and was happy to see I only gained .1 miles on the course!

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Garmin Data

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Dis_Yoda & Medal

Overall, this was a successful race. I finished still feeling like I had energy in the tank which was a good sign for the half the next day!​
 
Love your report!! I'm new to RunDisney but I've definitely drank the kool-aid. ;) I ran the 5k and half for marathon weekend and am looking forward to my first challenge at Dark side weekend.

While I've read many reviews of WDW races over the years I am not sure that I have ever read about DL races. It shouldn't surprise me that there would be so many areas where people get jammed up since DL is so much smaller but it still did. I'm glad that your race was better for you this year! Bummer that rD messed up your start time.

Great job at the Princess 10k. Looking forward to the half review!
 
Love your report and calendar. I need to post mine...after all I am back at it this week training wise.
 
Loving this report! I'm new to running and am now stalking all the runDisney stuff I can find :P It's nice to see that there were a lot of fun characters out - that's a cool part of a Disney race to me, but I'm not fast enough that I'd be able to stop for many of them :P Can't wait to read about the rest of your Princess weekend!
 
Love your report!! I'm new to RunDisney but I've definitely drank the kool-aid. ;) I ran the 5k and half for marathon weekend and am looking forward to my first challenge at Dark side weekend.

While I've read many reviews of WDW races over the years I am not sure that I have ever read about DL races. It shouldn't surprise me that there would be so many areas where people get jammed up since DL is so much smaller but it still did. I'm glad that your race was better for you this year! Bummer that rD messed up your start time.

Great job at the Princess 10k. Looking forward to the half review!

RunDisney does get very addicting once you drink the kool-aid! You were smart to do a half marathon first before your first challenge weekend! I wish I did that. How is your training going?

There doesn't seem to be as many posts about DL races on these boards it seems but their races are a lot smaller in field than the big WDW ones! I think princess had over 20,000 runners versus the 12K Star Wars has! It will be interesting to see how many Dark Side gets!

Love your report and calendar. I need to post mine...after all I am back at it this week training wise.

Thanks for reading along! I find the calendar to be easier to maintain than a weekly update to me. It's easy to just log that in Google Docs and put together feelings on a monthly basis, except if some big things happens like races! Good for you being back at it this week training wise! Keep it up!

Loving this report! I'm new to running and am now stalking all the runDisney stuff I can find :P It's nice to see that there were a lot of fun characters out - that's a cool part of a Disney race to me, but I'm not fast enough that I'd be able to stop for many of them :P Can't wait to read about the rest of your Princess weekend!

Yay for being new to running! Its such a great thing to get into! These boards have so much to read about the races! I'm not fast enough to get in line with the characters either, at least not enough that I'm willing to risk it. I'll just take the photo as I pass by. It may kill my pace a bit but not too horribly overall! A fair amount of people do the same I think.
 

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