Race Report: Disneyland Half Marathon 2011

The Disneyland 1/2 marathon has definitely become my favorite race of the year.  The course is so fun, weaving in and out of both parks and Angels Stadium. The crowd is amazing, including cheerleaders, bands, Disney characters, hula dancers, boy scouts, girl scouts, and a mariachi band. I didn’t even look at my watch because the miles just flew by.  And I LOVE running in costume. I love seeing others running in costume.  This race is chock full of creativity.  I tried to step it up this year and created a Snow White costume using a sports tank from Target, some ribbon, and a golden yellow Sparkle Athletic running skirt.

I was determined to PR at this race which wasn’t too lofty of a goal since I’d only run two 1/2 marathons before – one was my first 1/2 marathon ever and the second one was 10 weeks after I had The Baby.  After my success running with a pace group at the Surf City Half Marathon, I decided to try again. I hung out with the  1:55 pace group until mile 8. That’s when the pacer said, “Now let’s remember to conserve our energy. Don’t yell or cheer with the spectators and don’t give out any high-fives”.  I responded, “You think I like to dress like this for a race, then NOT hand out high-fives to the fans?” I then proceeded to pull in front of the 1:55 pace group while cheering, waving and weaving back and forth across the route to hand out TONS of high-fives.  I ended up finishing in 1:49:08 crushing my goal time of 1:55 and even coming in ahead of my secret goal time of 1:50 (I owe it all to my Snow White running costume).

And I did it all with my MAC Russian Red lipstick still in place at the end of the race.

More stats:

Time: 1:49:08 (pace 8:20)

676th out of 12,781 runners

28th in my division of 1,410

My running partners had amazing achievements of their own. Kelly came in 10th in our age division with a rockin’ time of 1:43(and change) and Elise ran the 1/2 marathon at 28 weeks pregnant.  Check out the official Run Disney 1/2 Marathon video to experience the fun and see if you can spot us in all our Disney themed running costume glory (hint: we’re at the very end).

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