Hello! I ran the Tinkerbell 10K Saturday and Half Marathon Sunday. It was an amazing Run Disney weekend! Here’s my Tink 10k recap – the half marathon post will be coming later.
First things first… Running at Disneyland (or DisneyWorld) is a different experience from the usual races. You run through the theme parks and a lot of people dress up as Disney characters or wear some sort of fun costume. I’ve run several Disney races and dressing up is one of the my favorite parts.
For my first Disneyland race I dressed as Ariel. But I wanted to do it again even better mainly because my hair is super long right now and I need a trim. I figured I should be a mermaid for a day before I do that. AND I wanted to run with my hair down and knew I could only do that for a 10k race at most.
I’ll share how I put this Little Mermaid costume together in an upcoming post…
The race starts at 5:30am. And since it’s a fairly big race and there are assigned corrals, security check points and traffic/street closures you have to get there pretty early. I woke up at 3am!
I did my usual pre-race stuff… bathroom / sunblock / clothes (laid out the night before) / iced coffee / Spark for the car / frantically think I forgot something but force myself to get on the road…
Luckily I live in south Orange County so it’s a fairly short drive. There was a complete stop in the freeway for about 5 minutes. I think maybe the police were clearing an accident? But I got there with time to park, hit the bathroom and walk to the starting line.
I originally was only going to do the half marathon but decided to register for the 10K last week. Since it was so last minute I was assigned to the last corral. I asked to change it at the expo, but that was a no-go.
The last corral at Run Disney races often is mostly walkers or walk/run athletes. I knew I would not be able to run at the start because of the crowds. And I was wearing mermaid leggings with my hair down… so I decided to not wear my running watch and just enjoy the race and take tons of pictures. Going into it with that strategy made it a really fun run. (I’ve tried to do the weave around people in previous Disney races and it’s kinda frustrating.)
Since they spread out the corrals I had some time before the start to take a few pictures and chat with the other runners. I really like that because everyone at these races is really there to have a good time. And since the course goes through Disneyland and California Adventure there’s a lot of fun stuff to talk about.
And we’re off! As expected it was mainly walking / trying to run and being stopped every 10 yards for the first mile.
We ran into Disneyland from the back and came into Toon Town first thing. Since the theme of the race is Tinkerbell there were “Lost Boys” from Peter Pan around the park.
Since it was so early the sun was slowly peeking out as the race started. It was perfect weather – nice and cool.
We ran through ToonTown, –> Tomorrowland –> past the Matterhorn –> through Fantasyland –> through the Castle –> Frontierland –> past the river –> New Orleans Square –> Adventureland –> to Main Street.
As we left Disneyland there were a few Lost Boys bidding us farewell… There were not a lot of ‘character stops’ on the course aka places to take pictures with Disney characters.
This is right when you enter/leave Disneyland…
After Disneyland we ran to California Adventure. You also run around the theme parks and Downtown Disney. It’s still fun to run around the parks because the Disney cast members come out and cheer plus it’s a fun peek at some of the behind-the-scenes of Disneyland.
And before ya know it – the finish line!
Enjoying the race, spectators, course, other costumes and everything made it fly by even though I walked a lot of and stopped for pictures. But I’m glad I did because I will not be wearing my hair down for another race – it was super knotted and gross at the end.
Tinkerbell 10K race done and done!
I drove home and refueled with breakfast, tons of fruit punch Spark and later pizza for dinner. Then, it was another early wake-up for the half Sunday. Recap coming soon!
That race looks like so much fun! I LOVE your costume!!! Sooooo cool! And your hair looked super cute, but I can see why you wouldn’t want to run with it that way… sweaty and hot and sticky = flop. But still, super cool! I think it would be really awesome to run a Disney race. I live in Massachusetts, so that would take a LOT of planning on my part. But it would be so fun! The last time we went to Disney was Thanksgiving, 2014. I love Disney. I’ve never been to California, so it’s been Orlando all the way for us.
No pre-race Chinese food? (I am familiar with and approve of your tried and true pre-race sodium infusion!!) Did the pizza work just as well? I guess I’ll find out in the next recap… 🙂
Yeah, it worked 🙂 I wasn’t going to run the race ‘hard’ so I didn’t need it as much as usual, it was kind of like a long run.
You’ve been running so many races lately!! A lot of long distance too. My issue is when I up my mileage so much I end up feeling sooo drained and lack energy everywhere else in life! You should do a post on how to keep energy levels up when increasing mileage/training, would be soo helpful 🙂 Also, lookin great!
Great costume!
I was last at Disneyland about 16 months ago. Before that it had been about 47 years. It was as great as I remembered, except all the shops now seem the same. There used to be a lot more different things on Main Street. I wish I could go to Disneyland every year!
I’ve never thought of that but yeah all the shops have the same things.
I love your Ariel outfit! You have the perfect hair for it.
https://jonandaudadventure.wordpress.com/
I haven’t been to Disney (World) since I was 15. It would be so fun to go back to one of the parks for a race!
I love Disney and I love your costume! Seriously, it doesn’t get much better! My family went for the Star Wars race weekend and it was sooo fun! We had season passes one year, but it’s just so darn expensive and we live 2 1/2 hours away. So stinking fun though!
I ran the Wine and Dine for the first time in November 2016. I’ve been going to Disney every other year for the last 8 years. I love it!
Last time I was in Disney was in January 2016. Last time I went to a Disney’s themed park was on January 2014. I live in South Florida so going to Disneyland at Orlando is pretty easy.
Your race costume is the most pretty I’ve ever seen so far!! I’m dying to know about those leggings. When I read you wanted to run with your hair down all I could think of was “Oh Lord!”. You really put it all for the character!
I kept saying “I’m dedicated to this costume!” because of my hair down. It was really ridic.
Have always wanted to run there! Looks like you had such a wonderful time, and fantastic (yet practical!) outfit 😀
Rich Stead | Athletes Insight
https://www.AthletesInsight.com
It’s been about 16 or 17 years since I have been to Disney world and about 27 years since I’ve been to Disney land! (I was still in high school!)
Wearing your hair down for 6.2 miles was brave. Hopefully you got all the knots out. 🙂
It took one hour for every one mile to get the knots out. Give or take…
I love your outfit. My sister would love those pants! If I were ever to run a race I think i would want it to be at Disney, so fun, although I would get way to distracted and not end up running.
Thanks! I ordered them on Amazon – I’ll link to it in the run costume post coming up.
Those leggings are PERFECT! Congrats on the race! I hope you won best costume..
I grew up in Orange, and used to have a pass, but I haven’t been to Dland for a very very long time. I actually ran the Star Wars half last year, but was disappointed that it was completely dark when we ran through the parks and it seemed like most of the in-park course was actually in “backstage” areas that weren’t very fun to see. I did have fun dressing up and seeing all the other costumes.
Yeah the race starts so early the sun’s not up yet! I think it depends on the time of year and the corral. Since I was in the last corral for this race the sun was up when I started.
Your outfit is ON POINT. Really looks like a mermaid!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Thank you 🙂