Inaugural Disneyland 10k recap!

Race day was finally here!!

I had my outfit all laid out the night before -

  
I had plans to meet Brandi and her mom at the Sorcerer’s hat near the Disneyland hotel before heading to the holding area for the 10k.  On my way there I passed the start line -
We met up with other #TeamrunDisney friends for a quick group picture.

This was runDisney’s first race where they held the 5k and the 10k in the same morning – 45 minutes apart at that!  We couldn’t get to the corrals until after the 5k had started, so we hung out, stretching, chatting and meeting up with old and new friends.  Karen from Just Me and My Running Shoes and I texted and met up again before the race -
Brandi and I had some fun with my UGA outfit (I was asked by a couple of people if I cheered for the Green Bay Packers…um…their colors aren’t red and black and I have a bulldog on my cheek people!) Brandi is a Georgia Tech fan…good thing we get along! :)
  
Finally it was time to head to the corrals…it was bottlenecked!  We very slowly made our way to Corral D -
 
So.Many.People!  We snapped some pictures in the corral while we were waiting -

Our friend, Lena from The Beginner's Runner, ran the 5k as well and luckily she found us before the 10k started and ran with us!  Soon enough, it was our time to start!!  The official runDisney race announcers, Carissa and Rudy, were dressed as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum – very fitting since the theme of the race was Alice in Wonderland! The course took us down off Disney property and through the grounds of the Anaheim Convention Center (the D23 expo was held here just a couple of weeks before!).  We continued along the streets of Anaheim and finally came up on the back of Carsland and entered California Adventure!
 
After passing through Carsland we continued along toward Paradise Pier!  I love that they had “World Of Color” playing as we ran through – bummed I missed seeing this show, but it gives me a reason to come back again!

As we ran through I smelled beer and then passed a man who was drinking a can as he was running!  I’ll admit, an ice cold beer does taste great after running, but not sure I could do it DURING my run! 
As we continued through DCA, we snapped a few more fun pictures.
 
We finally exited DCA and entered Disneyland!

Running down Main Street USA was a very different experience here than at WDW.  Sleeping Beauty’s castle is so small compared to Cinderella’s Castle at WDW!  The plus side was that the entire road was open and it wasn’t so crowded.  The down side was the lack of crowd support, as only those who purchased a Gold or Platinum ChEAR package were allowed inside.  It was nice to be able to spread out a bit!

 
We ran through Tomorrowland and by my Grandpa’s FAVORITE ride EVER, “It’s A Small World”! (He hates it with a passion)

Next we headed backstage for a bit.  They had Halloween and Christmas parade floats out for us -

As we were running backstage we came across this pretty cool banner – thanks to the Custodial staff for coming out and cheering for us!

We re-entered into the park at Toon Town, where Brandi and I were just too tired to continue -
Haha not really, but we thought it was a funny photo op :)  We did have fun taking this next one though!
We approached Fantasyland, where Alice and the Mad Hatter were waiting to welcome us to mile 5!
Finally it was time for one of the most magical experiences in a Disney race – to run through the castle!

My Marathonfoto castle pictures crack me up…no, I did NOT stop running!  I wasn’t sure if the photographer would get me so I ran crouched over.  HAHA!  At least I got a few!

We exited Disneyland and finished the race through Downtown Disney.  By this time there were quite a few people there so we had lots of fun spectators!  It was also nice to run by the shops whose doors were open and feel the air conditioning blowing out into the street!

Yeah…not sure why my shirt kept shifting…it looks so funny!  As awesome as the race was, I was ready for it to be over.  Finally, we crossed the finish line and earned the inaugural Disneyland 10k medal!

 

If you were participating in the Dumbo Double Dare Challenge, you were to get a wristband after completing the 10k to indicate that you had indeed finished both races.  I was happy to obliged with this and add another wristband to my lovely collection. 
I absolutely loved the course that runDisney came up with for this race and really hope they keep it for years to come.  After the race we grabbed some water, our food boxes, and headed to our hotels to shower and get ready for a character brunch with tons of friends! (I’ll recap the rest of Saturday in another post)

What did you think of the 10k course if you participated?  What was your favorite part?

Up next – my recap of the Disneyland half marathon!

Until next time,

LiveJournal Tags: runDisney,Dumbo Double Dare,inaugural Disneyland 10,10k,TeamrunDisney,Disneyland,Disney California Adventure,Alice,Mad Hatter,Marathonfoto