TinkerBell Half Marathon Weekend

It's been a month (exactly) after the race, so let's recap this...

Day 1:

After a long day of travel, both by air and car, we arrived at the Disneyland Hotel.

Disneyland Hotel Entrance

Being that it was about midnight, there was all of two people manning the front desk.  What do you know, there was a mini line forming and this guy cuts in front of me, when it was my turn to talk to the cast member. Did she apologize or recognize this, I will never know, but it was annoying after traveling all day.

"When You Wish Upon a Star"

But that made up for all my frustration.... My kids, husband and I were in complete awe. The Disneyland Hotel is truly a magically hotel. Just the little things were thought through. The light posts in the bathroom with the Mickey hand, and the etched hidden Mickeys in the shower. It's just, wow. I have to say, the Imagineers are awesome!

Day 2:

Awoke to needing breakfast. Where else? Earl of Sandwich of course! The breakfast of champions of course. Some fresh OJ, banana nut muffin and oatmeal. It was carb loading at it's best!!!

Breakfast of champions

Upon finishing breakfast, I decided to go check out the hotel and see if there was a line for the New Balance shoes. At 9:30, what do you know? There was...

The calm before the storm

New Balance line

It was about 20 deep? I was a little shocked, but not completely being that it was the debut at Disneyland. The wasn't expected to open till 2, but the sign up for the shoes were at noon. So, being that there was a line, I decided to stay put with the kids. It wasn't that painful being that I packed a blanket and the iPad. There is a bathroom and water a little ways down and people were so friendly to hold your space while you went... Basically it was a time to make some friends!

Once we got registered to get shoes, I went to stand in another line. The expo line.

Expo line

Have mercy! I sat in there for another 2 hours or so. They moved us up to the expo floor at about 1:50p. It was frustrating since when I got my text to get my shoes, none of the cast members would let me in to get to New Balance. I had to argue with many of them, finally I managed to get in, and I got my husband to talk to the manager about that. None of the cast members apparently knew that there was access to New Balance prior to the expo starting.

At the end, I managed to scoop up my shoes, only to have to stand in line to enter the event merchandise. Oh dear. I grabbed what I needed, but after the fact, I realize I should have bought the Sweaty Band for the race.... Lesson learned.

After all was said and done, I was done with lines.....

I can say though besides for the mix-up with the cast members, overall, it was much more organized than the Disneyland Half Marathon back in August. I was at least thankful for that.

Day 3:

We finally hit the parks! My daughter was thrilled that we took her to see Anna and Elsa from Frozen. We stood in yet another line. The door didn't open till 10:30, and there was a line at 9:00. We stood in line for another 1:30 minutes after 10:30. What do you know? When we got to the front of the line, they closed the door to break the characters, when they opened it up, it was only Anna. My daughter was happy to meet her, but quiet saddened by not being able to meet Elsa.

Olaf!

 It was just a day for the parks, it was nice because it wasn't too crazy, and 1 of our friends that was running the race with us arrived with her family and we got to spend some much needed quality time...

Good ol' California Adventure ride

Absolutely my favorite view

Day 4:

Another park day. Probably shouldn't have but we did. Another 2 friends arrived, one that was staying with us to help us with the kids the morning of the race and the other was there to run with us. It was awesome to reconnect with the both of them and as a bonus, the kids got to go to the pool, and Kbbq for dinner with my cousin. Our sweet friend bought me a cupcake for dessert, the last of the carb loading....

Protein happy

Confetti cupcake!

 After dinner it was taping time and bed.

KT Taped

Day 5:

Race DAY! Woke up at 4:00? Maybe earlier, I can't remember.... I can tell you the walk to the corrals was short, but waiting in the corrals, froze me half to death! Coming from Hawaii, it was pretty cold. I had a "throw away" sweater, but it wasn't enough. My hands, they were ice cold!!!

 

This is where it was kind of on the slow end. We went through the residential area and they had signs to keep the noise levels down too. But for the most part, I just felt like I needed to get past this "slow" part of the race....

Supposed to be the 12 mile marker

EARNED!

Wish I could get all of them, but I did get a couple more, but because my pictures were on it, I opted out from posting it. Along the route though, there was amazing bands, cheerleading teams, voluntears, and just people out there cheering everyone on. It is such a positive race!! As for the characters and decor, I remember seeing Rapunzel & Flynn Rider (that's who my husband and I were dressed as), TinkerBell, the Monsters U float, okay drawing a blank now... Sorry.

Here's the heartbreaking story.... I got injured. I couldn't figure out how. At mile 10, my feet were killing me. I learned I have under pronation. I strike with the sides of my feet and it puts serious pressure on my 4th ad 5th toes along side my tendon. It gives horrible plantar issues too...

Any way, back to the injury on race day. We did finish! It was rather emotional for me, I hid the tears though, but it was welling up. After all the training, it was all coming to an end, I earned that medal, and felt an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment.

I couldn't walk very well for the next 3 weeks. I actually began to think I had a blood clot in my calf because my calf was in serious pain, but that had to do with my foot.

As of last week, I am starting to run again.... Re-starting is rough after a 3 week hiatus.

Here's to another runDisney race, hopefully with stronger feet.

Lastly, thank you to all the volunteers, for those cheering on everyone holding signs, and for the free oranges and Red Vines!!! Everyone was so awesome! Thank you!