Half Marathon Disneyland 2013

After the 10K we headed to the parks to check them out with our last day of our passes.  I had a headache and felt pretty awful (we ended up leaving the parks-gasp in horror).  You know me and I do not like to leave Disney, ever!  We did catch the Play Parade (thanks momma for holding a spot for us while I sat in the shade and fan area from lunch with a bag of ice on my face thanks to a slight allergic reaction to the heat and sun block.

 My headache was not going away despite eating and drinking.  We ended up at the First Aid center for some asprin but that did very little in making me feel better.  The heat really got to me after the 10K.  Would I be doomed for the half the next day?

 Those Mickey beignets were delicious and I really wanted a Dole Whip but just wanted to lay down and not feel so icky.  We headed back to our room and I slept through until the next morning when we had to get up for the half marathon.  Bed for me was about 6:30 that night and I planned on getting up for the fireworks to watch from the hotel but that didn't happen.

 I felt great the morning of the half other than the hot weather.  It wasn't as humid as the day before so I just figured I'd still take it easy since I do not tolerate heat well.  (Sorry, no pictures since they are on my mom's camera).  I ran very well all things considered and had a great race.   I felt good most of the race.  Also, my first race using music to run with.  I made the decision knowing the course wasn't through parks and I would need a distraction from the weather.

 The music was great and provided me the inspiration I needed right on cue as luck would have it.  As I was starting to feel like ugh, 3 miles to go I heard Ever, Ever After... which reminded me of Luke and how he proposed to me at the finish line 3 years before so I pushed through.  The back area of California Adventure had a "techno" version of I Wanna Be Like You playing and I heard the words, "hit it Papa Bear," and thought of my dad (my papa bear).  Piece of cake after that.

 My very precious Dumbo Medal that I held so it wouldn't clang or get scratched.  Of course I hung my new medals ASAP on my wall.  There isn't much room left so good thing there is only 2 more Goofy's til I have 10 on there (but that Dopey might put the medals over the edge).

Disneyland 10K

So I am going to skip talking about the expo.  It was crowded, I was cranky (what, me cranky at Disneyland?).  Mom waited in line about 2 hours or more to purchase some Dumbo Double Dare items for me and there were just so many people it kind of just bugged me beyond belief.  Moving on to happier memories.

 This post is long and full of lots of pictures.  I carried my camera for the 10K but not the half marathon since I knew most of the course would be "off" Disney property and honestly there wasn't much I'd have wanted to stop for a photo of.

 The start of the race was a disaster to put it mildly.  They had the 5K start 45 minutes before us in 5 minute waves.  We weren't allowed to enter our corrals until they finished the waves and that was about 15 minutes before we started.  A lot of runners very nervous about making it to the start and panic.  Um, I was there for fun but still was concerned since if I didn't get in the 10K I wasn't going to get the coveted Dumbo medal (he's my absolute favorite and I would have had an honest to goodness melt down temper tantrum with uncontrollable sobbing).  Fortunately for Disney this did not happen.  Probably even better for my Momma for not having to deal with that.

 Right away we headed into Cars Land through Route 66.  It was a hot and humid morning with temps already in the mid 70's and probably about 70% humidity.  Hot but not hotter than I have handled in a race before.  I figured stop, take lots of photos and be ready for the half the next day.

 Selfie with World of Color in the background.  Much more beautiful the next morning while it was still dark out.  With any back to back race the strategy is to survive to see the next day.  If you feel good and conditions are favorable bust a move on that second day (or third).

 The 10K theme was Wonderland so they had all sorts of Alice in Wonderland characters out and about for the day.  Characters that you would not normally see so of course I had to stop.

 Perhaps the cutest flowers I will ever see and they weren't scary.  I like this kind of flower.  Or the one from Bambi (also known as a skunk).

 My time already starting to shape up into "meh."  Don't worry, it got slower as I went through Disneyland due to waiting to see characters.

 While waiting to see characters I take a look back at what I have run and check out the other runners costumes and such.  I also get some pretty unique photos at the same time.

 Apparently people run with their iphones so when faced with a real camera for photos people seem to have a tough time.  Hence the weird walking and awkwardness of some of the photos.  They think it's taken the photo and tell me, OK when it's clearly not.

 Joey Fatone!  I also saw him at the Goofy Challenge both days I was there.  Did not see him for the half but he did finish it alongside his lovely wife.  Both are so nice and humble to all the runners who want to stop for photos.  They don't care that they are all sweaty, which is nice cause we all know we aren't looking our best in a race.

 This guy totally reminded me of my Papa Bear.  He picked up the course cone and was using it as a mega phone.  Way to be super awesome.  At least he was cheering which is a lot more than I can say for many of the other cast members.

 Halloween parade floats since they are getting those ready for special performances very soon.  Made me excited to visit a different time of year than my usual.  Hint Hint handsome Manfriend of mine.

 They did a great job of having items and characters along the course for us to be entertained.  These characters were great but I was annoyed at a girl running at this part of the course.  She jumps in front of the line and says she isn't cutting.  Obviously a Cast Member and starts talking to the guy taking the photos and the characters start interacting with her for a few minutes while the rest of us wait in line for our chance to photo and continue.  After this she is in line for characters to have photos and same thing happens.  GRRR!  Take the photo and keep moving, that's what the rest of us do and expect of you.

Sticking with the Wonderland theme we've had the Flowers, Cards and now Mad Hatter and Alice, Queen of Hearts and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum (and as Mr. Gallagher said Tweedle Dumber pointing to himself).  

 That was it for the characters.  Meanwhile my mom was at the finish line having her own kind of fun and frustrations.  They didn't put the start of the 10K on the big screen but rather continued to show the people finishing the 5K (right in front of her) on the screen.

She snaps a photo of the first male and female finisher and the confetti burst.  Then tells me that the clean up crew is trying to sweep around runners to clean it up rather than leaving it to take care of at the conclusion of the event.  Also some unfortunate issue with not having the finishers tape up for some runner that was the top runner (or was that half day?).  Anyways, they have some issues to work out.

 The strange curve of the finish did not provide much room for her to "spot" me coming into the finish. Probably didn't help that she was really looking for my bright green Tink outfit.  Hi mom.  I finished and I see you!

 On my way to get my medal and get another wristband to identify that I earn a Dumbo tomorrow.  So now I've got two wrist bands and feel like a ridiculous teenage girl with a coast to coast band, Dumbo band and watch taking up half my arm.

Tomorrow I will be earning my Dumbo medal and I am beyond excited.

That's the End

Now that I was done with my Jungle Cruise duties the only thing left on our agenda was the closing ceremony at the hotel.  We said goodbye to Randy and Jordan.  They gave us a Jungle Cruise pin and a copy of the whole script (not just the few pages we were given to memorize in the weeks before arrival).  The script was about 45 pages with alternate jokes for each scene.  

at the closing ceremony

The closing ceremony was very nice (would you expect anything else?).  We were greeted by our character mascots and had some delicious snacks and desserts.  The cast members and ambassadors that had helped us throughout the event thanked us for being so wonderful and making the event so much fun for them.  We were each given an amazing gift.  It was a photo of Mickey giving us our Cast Member pins after our Disney etiquette training and all of the Dream Job members in front of the castle.  The frame was a golden hue with Mickey's in the scroll design.  

team mascots

We said goodbye to each other and then my family and I headed out to the park.  Disneyland was open until midnight... that means lots of fun for me!  Those that know me are well aware of my last night at Disney/I'm leaving syndrome.  I burst into tears during the fireworks--especially the wish upon a star part.  After that it was all smiles.   

Jungle Cruise Donald Duck

 What do you do when the park is fairly empty after fireworks?   I head to Fantasyland since most of the little kids are gone and the lines are short.  Can you guess what line was really short? 

Dumbo had "no" line.  I was able to walk off and walk right back on again.  After doing this about 5 times the cast member working there told me I didn't have to exit unless there were about 10 people in the line.  Another dream come true... getting to fly with Dumbo over and over again.  I think I rode on every single Dumbo there was.  My mom chatted briefly with the cast member during one of my flights and I was given a Magic Feather to take home.  

It was an amazing experience and I loved every exhausting minute of it.  

Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho it's off to work we go....

I left the hotel at 6:30 , but no breakfast for us behind the scenes so I had a bagel in the room.  We were all shuttled over to the park where we did a walk through of our role in the sub opening ceremony before costumes and makeup.  After the whirlwind of costumes and makeup (we only had 2 hours) it was off to the opening ceremony where we walked across stage in a line (we were told to be careful and to wave our right arms so we didn't block our faces) to the tune of Heigh Ho, and then right off stage and backstage again.  Our families were put in a special viewing area with a big screen to watch the live event.  While they waited they were introduced to some new "prototype/test" Disney stuff.  They were describing some 3-D shooting game to me... Guess what?  It's part of Toy Story Mania now.  Very cool. Then my family had some time to explore before our event (other families not as much time).  I'm telling you everything was precisely planned and ran very smoothly.   

screen in the viewing area

on tv

We had about an hour to eat lunch, more boxed lunches but this time at the Inn Between.   We all managed to chat about what we'd experienced so far... the Mansion dream jobs getting to walk the track that morning, Parade Performers dancing all afternoon and the Pirates creating their "characters."  The pirates had a lot of fun, just like us since they really had the opportunity to interact with guests.  One pirate was cursed with being literate and murmured "Finding Nemo... just find the bloody fish already."  Another pirate was cursed with always wanting the 7th guy and a piece of the 8th.  They looked great and after their show they were allowed to ride Pirates of the Caribbean in their costumes. 

My boat leaves in about 30 minutes!

getting ready to board the boat with the crew

Show Time!!!  Well, not for me just yet.  We were each given a 45 minute blocks of time and I was the 4th slot.  We got to sit at Aladdin's Oasis and wait our turns or stand on the dock.  I needed to sit and be away from the busy area.  I was so nervous.   So I sat and waited and stretched.  We were all pretty nervous sitting there waiting.  But we had lots of reassurance that we would do great from the camera crew and our hosts Donna and Rebecca.  I can only imagine how exhausted the crew was from having to be prepared to get us early and help us out all day.  They were amazing and continued to smile through it all. 

Skipper Randy introducing me

Then a Skipper named Jack came back on the way to the bathroom and saw us sitting there nervous.  He gave us some confidence and helped settle some nerves.  "Don't worry about it kids, nobody knows what you are supposed to be saying and you don't have to drive the boat.  You have visual cues in the jungle and once you get out there it will just happen."  Fortunately he was right.

waiting for them to load the boat so we can get the show on the water

Here in the jungle...

looking for a cue/sensor

I don't know how I managed to get through the first boatload of people, probably not that hard other than the fact that I had a media camera in my face and a giant light to soften the shadows.  Round two, it wasn't so bad.  It was the same group of people from the first boatload for the camera.  They were asked if they would be willing to ride the attraction twice, sign some legal document about their image/likeness being used for promotions and given something as a thanks for doing this. There was a nice couple on my boat that had gotten married the day before and were wearing thier bride/groom ears.  They laughed at the jokes and saw me later in the day and told me they loved being on my boat.  Third boat load a piece of cake, even though it was just regular, not specially picked, dock people.  I can't believe it went by so fast.  My official skipper duties had come to an end.  

whew...it's over

wearing the jacket

After we all went they whisked us to the upstairs line area (only used in really busy months) and did wrap up interviews with us before returning to costume and makeup for the last time.  We tried to convince them that we should get to keep the hats but it wasn't going to happen.  I know the pirates wanted parts of their outfits, pieces were actually worn in the movie.  We were brought back to the hotel, where I once again scrubbed my face.  Then I got ready for the Dream Job Closing Ceremony at the hotel.  

with my parents