Dumbo Double Dare Part 1: Disneyland 10K

Hmm... feels I've spent 13.1 miles as these two!

When I finally saw the course map for the Inaugural Disneyland 10K I was pretty excited.  Four miles in the park? Yes, please! With this being my ninth runDisney start line, I knew that more park time equals more characters which equals more photo stops! So that means we need a good costume! So for 6.2 miles Man Friend and I became Belle and Gaston. (FYI, he sewed his costume on his own. He's talented!)

Up at 4am, we were putting on our costumers and heading to the start.  I found Abby and Emily immediately, and the fun began.  Getting to corrals was not smooth.  Huge gates blocked the entire road and kept many people trapped. We got around and were only in Corral B for a few minutes before the start happened. What didn't happen? Staggered starts.  So without any fanfare of our own, we were off!

2 miles in .... soaked with sweat.

Melting at the very start I set a goal - don't laugh - run one entire mile.  So that I did, paused for water, and continued running until I entered Cars Land at Disney's California Adventure.  For the rest of the race the plan as to run between character stops.  This worked at first, but since the start wasn't staggered the course become very crowded and the photo lines grew long. 

It was awesome bumping into friends during the race - completely unplanned! I couldn't pass up the chance to pose with horses either, so sweet! In Toon Town our plan derailed.

While in line for Daisy a runDisney dude on a bike pedaled through reminding everybody of the pacing rules.  Screw Daisy, we jumped out and run to the White Rabbit, who would be the last official character stop for us.  Team Freedom formed at this point and we spent the last couple of miles with Jaime, Tara, Abby and Pamela. Somewhere in the frenzy of people running from sweepers I also saw Giraffy and Becka! Small world!!

Immediately after crossing the finish line I was bent over, dizzy, and about to hurt.  I ended up being escorted to a side area, given a barf bag AND a wheelchair! Fun!! Pictures and medals were a breeze and soon I was saying good bye to the whole race area .... for just a day.

So my thoughts ... corrals NEED to be started one at a time. Duh. I had too many times where I couldn't even run because I was suck in narrow paths between groups walking side by side blocking any place that I could have tried to run through. One more water stop would have been nice - or adjust the stops so there isn't such a long gap between the first and second one. And the smells of Downtown Disney restaurants ... NOT my friend - hence the need to vomit at the end (which, for the record, I never actually did.) Start the race earlier. 6:15 felt a little too late, but maybe that was because I was so hot that I wanted it to be earlier.

Been there, ran that. Once was enough. --or so I say right now. ;)

**I bought the official photos -- so expect to see more when I get writer's block!