CARBLOADING
EXPO
LILO COSTUME
HALF
FINAL THOUGHTS
The 2014 Disneyland 10k was Lilo and Stitch themed. Many costumes were Hawaiian, Lilo or Dtitch which I loved. I went as Lilo (coming soon: how to make Lilo costume!) and loved it.
We got up at 3:30 am and were ready and out of the door by 4. We went to the teamrundisney meetup and got to meet some great fellow bloggers. I love meetups and it is great to meet people in person!
We took pics and then checked our bags and made it to the corrals around 5:00. We made our way to the front and just chatted with people and got ready.
We were corral C so we had 2 short waits until we took off. I thought it was a bit strange that there were more Dumbos than just 10ks (6000 vs 4000).
We took off and decided to do intervals of 2:15/:30 to conserve energy. It was a bit cooler than it has been but also very humid. Since the first mile is pretty straight, it was a great way to spread out.
Since I drank a lot of water and tea before the race, I had to pee so bad. We stopped at the first port-a-potty at the convention center and I immediately felt better. This is where the course narrows and it was a lot of walking, which is fine, but I could tell other people were annoyed by it.
I will do a shoutout to all of the great costumes we saw on course. People are really stepping up their costume game and it was a great distraction while running!
Before we knew it, we were at a water stop and backstage!! We ran through Carsland, Paradise Pier, Buena Vista St, over to Disneyland, Main St, tomorrowland, fantasyland, toontown, frontierland, adventureland and backstage to Downtown Disney. The support in Downtown Disney was the best! I love the end of the course.
We finished in 1:29:45 (14:26 pace) and A NEW DISNEY 10K PR FOR ME (by 4 secs haha). Considering I stopped for more pics this race than the one at Princess and it was hot and humid, I consider it a success. 1:30 was my goal so I met that! It was about 3 minutes faster than the year before.
Our running time was 1:18:20 (12:34 pace), which is great considering the crowds and level of humidity.
I decided to run with both my Garmin (using it for running time-pausing when we stopped) and my ipod (really time, never paused).
The one downside of the course was a lack of characters. We took a lot of pictures (in carsland, world of color, castle, main st, etc) but the only Disney characters out were chip and dale as robbers and elvis stitch. The lines were CRAZY so we did not stop. I knew they want to have things in theme but a bit more would have been nice.
We ate (so hungry-turns out we were lacking salt!) and wanted to go back to the hotel. It was insane trying to get through Downtown Disney and took forever and didn’t get back to our room until an hour after we finished. We showered and stretched and headed for coffee at Starbucks, breakfast at Flo’s and back to the Expo to shop and go to the screening room. After that, back to the park to ride Radiator Springs as well as get dinner. Back to the room to relax and got in bed around 8 and was asleep by 830.
This is the first time I have not taken a nap after running. It seems that not napping is becoming common. I like it as then I am sleep very early the day after running.
Next time we would bring a bag for costumes and head straight to the park for brunch, then go to the hotel to shower and get ready, then Expo. We walked a lot and it would save us miles on our legs.
Overall, it was a great race. Weather was better than it had been the week leading up to the race, but once the sun came out, it was very hot. The lack of characters was sad as was the leaving after the race. This is still my favorite course of all the Disney races I have run (4 miles of park time!)
For more pictures of the race course, visit my friend Greg's blog. He writes the best recap posts!