The alarm was supposed to go off at 3:15 but I woke up at 3am and just stayed up. I got ready quickly and called a Lyft over to the harbor side entrance as I figured the security line would be less. I hopped in line and chatted with some folks while we waited 15 minutes. Sadly I didnt read the book and notice that bag check was at the finish! Ugh I wasn't going to pay for a locker so I knew I would just have to run with my bag of crap haha. 
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The corrals were insane. Basically there are not corrals. You are placed with when you arrive. Since I was one of the first 100 people in line I was in A. I made sure to stand by the rope so I could see the pre show and the castle. 

I think the no corrals is just silly. People show up and are told-you are in B with no other instructions. People wanted to run so they eventually pushed their way over to A. Also, want to use the bathroom? You had to go to the ones in adventureland and hope you could get back to where you were. So crazy! 
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The pre show started and the banter was strained but at least I could see it! The national anthem was so unique-played by a pirate! Tinkerbell flew (which I enjoyed but heard it was not as good as years before) and it was time to start. We moved up next to Pixie Hallow and Carissa said GO! But I didn't move: it was a wall of walkers. I was able to pop through and stop for a pic with pirates by Small World

We ran through carsland and the photo pass pics I got here were beyond amazing. Holy smokes-look at these! ​

The lost boys were on the carousel but they said-only selfies allowed which was a bit strange. Me and another group just switched off for pics. We continued around the pier through Grizzly Peak. I stopped for a pic with Peter and Wendy where Peter told me to clean the deck​!

​We headed out to downtown Disney and on to the finish! 

All done and here were my splits according to my Garmin: 3.09 miles in 30:20 (9:42/9:52/10:09). My final moving time was about 37:52 which isn't bad for the photo stops I did. 
These splits for a disney race for me are crazy, it is really is crazy how fast you can go when there is no crowding. and that was with me forcing myself to slow down

The finish was dead silent! It was so weird. I also took a pic of when I finished so you can see how uncrowded the course was for me 

I was tired so I went back and relaxed and napped before heading to the park. I got ready to go to the #teamsparkle meet up and it started pouring! Which is crazy for California. I waited for the rain to die down and then headed to the park. I got a coffee from Starbucks (pre-order FTW! I walked in, they called my name, and I walked up). However, I hit a crazy bag check line(20 min wait!) and met up with Stephanie and went to Cove Bar and rode the Ferris wheel. I then went to an amazing meet up at tortilla Jo's and trader Sam's for one of my facebook running groups. I stopped for a quick visit with Carolyn and went to grab dinner at Tangeroa terrace. Ate in the room and slept like crap! No idea why! what is up with this crazy sleeping pattern before a Disney 10k after a disney 5k? I dont like this! 

Overall it was a great day. I liked the extra time relaxing in the room but definitely could tell I was tired. Doing the Disneyland 5ks are hard since I usually have to come straight from work and get all settled before I go to sleep. 
The race was super fun once I was able to break free and get to run my pace. The photos are beyond amazing and I'm so excited going forward with other races. I think it's very strange to not have corrals and it causes confusion and is a bit dangerous if people are really trying to run. 

Have you ever done the Neverland 5k? Are you a fan of the 5k? 

In honor of Tinkerbell sign ups yesterday, here is how I have put together my Tinkerbell costume over the years.

This costume has survived now 4 Tinkerbell half marathons (and next year will survive a 5th!)and is going strong! This is an easy costume to put together. The more green the better! 

SUPPLIES NEEDED

• Lime green shirt
  
• Lime green bottoms-I had on shorts under my tutu (tutu tutorial!) 
  
• Wings
  
• Hair in a bun with a blue tie (I just bought this Tinkerbell bow from Hot Topic)
  
• Green compression socks
  
• Wings and poms on shoe
  
• Green hat-I just bought one from Sparkle Athletic to use next year 

And that's basically it. It is so easy to put together!


Have you ever dressed up as Tinkerbell? 

Yay I am all registered for Tinkerbell Half Marathon and boy I did it big! This will be the 5th year of the weekend and I will be FINALLY earning my perfect pixie legacy, my first legacy!

Since I loved Pixie Dust Challenge so much last year, I registered for that. I also have wanted to do the 5k since it starts on Main St and Tink flies!! I decided to do that one as well especially since it will be right after I finish the semester.

And they had merchandise available so I also ordered a jacket. I figured that will be a great way to celebrate.

Over I am so excited for this weekend and it is far away.

Anyone else sign up for races today during early registration? Anyone planning to sign up in 2 weeks?

Triumph Thursdays hosted by Smitha from Running With SD Mom, Linzie from Sharp Endurance & Carlee from Carlee McDot.  I will be finishing up my Tinkerbell Pixie Dust Challenge recap! 


It's here! The tinkerbell half! I was up at 3:55 and out of the door by 4:30. I got dressed much faster today so had more time to chill in the pre-race area. I met up with my friend from grad school and we did a real bathroom break in the Paradise Pier hotel before splitting off to our corrals.

Corral A was abuzz with excitement but also pretty crowded. I really wish they would adopt the smaller corrals of Princess were each corral has around 500 people instead of 2000. Sub 2:15 is a huge span considering the race was won in 1:15!

Before I knew it, we did the national anthem and off we went. We had the same start as the 10k with the overpasses so I took my time going slow and walking all of the uphills and running the downhills. We were backstage before I knew it and entered DCA by tower of terror. There was a decent line for buzz light year and the girls from the parade. I skipped it as it was pretty long (the first one usually is) and continued on. As we headed back to Carsland, we got to see the first women coming through and it was exciting:they are fast!!
Carsland had mater and McQueen and I skipped them as I got them the day before. We continued to backstage and ended up on the Pier and took my first pic! Silvermist was across the way but I couldn't safely get over to her.

Here is Iridessa's complete Disney Wiki if you are interested. 

Iridessa is one of Tinkerbell's friend that is the fairy of light. Her talent is she can manipulate light to add to lightning bugs or even create rainbow. Her dress is made of sunflower petals and she has a sunflower seed on her topMaking an Irisdessa costume is a very easy endeavor.

You need the following materials:

• Yellow shirt-mine is from Target
• Yellow bottoms,such as a tutu-i made mine
• Brown belt-made mine from ribbon from Michael's
• Cut out sunflower-fabric square from Michael's
• Rainbow accessories such as a headband-mine is Sweatyband
• yellow compression socks-mine are from ProCompression 
  
• Wings-I got mine at the Dollar Store
• Hairdo-she has an updo. I did my hair in a bun

I was able to take many parts of my costume from former costumes such as the yellow shirt I had for my Tweedledee costume in from 2013, my yellow tutu was from my snow white costume for Princess half 2014, and everything else I bought.

Overall this is a very easy costume to put together and I am very happy with the results. 

What was the last costume you used for a race? Did you reuse parts of your costume?

I have decided to join a new linkup: Triumph Thursdays hosted by Smitha from Running With SD Mom, Linzie from Sharp Endurance & Carlee from Carlee McDot. This week I will talk about The Tinkerbell 10k and how it was the best Disney 10k I have ever run (even though the DL 10k of 2013 was amazing as it was the first one!)! 


The morning started early at 4am. I was slow moving and eventually got ready and out of the hotel by 445 and at the pre run area by 5. My costume for the day was Iridessa, the fairy of Light. I used the portas  (first one in the porta!) and then checked my bag and headed to the corral. I chatted up a few people and before I knew it, it was time to take off.

I decided to run by feel and get over on the sidewalk to do my walk intervals and the plan worked well. I walked the first 3 "hills" aka overpasses and finished the first mile around 10:45 and before I knew it, we were in the backlot! I took some water and headed into the park.

We hit Disneyland first so I stopped for a pic with the outside. Then I stopped for a pic driving the Fire Truck and with chip and Dale.

The expo for tinkerbell was Thursday-Sunday. I couldn't justify taking another day off work especially with it being during Finals at work. Luckily I had all of my papers turned in before the weekend or it would have been even more stressful! 

This is the first time for a Disneyland race I took off for the entire day before the race and I really like it! It was so much less stressful and I had the whole day to relax and it ensured I was in bed at a good hour. 

I headed down early to avoid traffic which was great with the weather. I hung out and caught up with some sorority sisters (and I ran into Merenda as well!) before going to the expo at 9:30 (it opened 30 min early). Of course the official merchandise was pretty much done, but luckily I got to finally meet Pam from WeRunDisney while there. One thing I don't like is they put out regular park merchandise so that the shelves don't look bare but over 50% of the stuff was gone. I also got to meet Pam which was lovely! All I bought was a magnet. 

I do think it's sad to get the merchandise you want, you have to go on the first day. It's not fair to everyone that can't come on the first day because eBayers are greedy and want to make a profit and buy 5 of everything. It makes the runners just upset and something needs to be done about it. Maybe limit purchases to 1 item per person? Show your bin for race specific merchandise? Do a pre-order--this is what I would like to see. You could preorder what you want but not pay for it until you get there and all the overflow can be sold in an open arrangement for anyone. 

Afterwards, I went to get KT tape and buy the packs they had the day before but they never had them out even after checking back multiple times. Oh well-I will definitely need to buy more tape at Dumbo and wine and dine. 

After I went to Procompression and bought 4 pairs of compression socks, stopped by GoodSense and won a free bottle and finally went to New Balance. I was supposed to start at 10 but I got the text at 9:30 but since the expo wasn't busy, I wanted to hit some booths early. I waited about 10 min and finally got my shoes! They came with free poms and I took an Instagram pic with them for free wings! 

Next I went downstairs and got my bib and then got my shirts. They are so cute this year!  

After I went to Fit2Run to get extra fuel and a new roller to keep at work, I stopped by Flipbelt and got a black one. I love my lime green one but its getting dirty and it's super bright. 

My final stop this round was Sparkle Athletic to pick up my shoe poms I ordered online. They were 2 dollars cheaper in person but it was worth the peace of mind to know they would be there and not sold out. At dumbo, I need to buy some hats-green, yellow and maybe pink as well. 

I went to drop everything off at my car and then headed to grab food with my friends. They were staying concierge level at the DL hotel and it was incredible. We had a light lunch of veggies and dip, fruit, chips and salsa and espresso and lemonade. The view was gorgeous and we had such a relaxing afternoon. We then went back to the expo, I ran into Lacey briefly there as well!  We stopped by the Stick booth and I ended up buying a stick (to use mostly while traveling) and a device to help with my sciatica/piriformis. 

After that I helped out with gift bags for the tinkerbell Facebook group before heading to the park to ride Little Mermaid and grab a super early dinner of Stirfry and a macaron for dessert. 

I checked in at the hotel and unpacked and prepped everything by 7. I stretched and rolled and was in bed relaxing by 7:45. I had trouble sleeping but got 7 hours of sleep! My wake up was 4:00am. 

Overall, I spent more money at this expo than ever before-they shut my credit card down because they thought it was fraud. (TIP-alert your credit card company because the companies at the expo charge where they are from. So new balance showed up as Anaheim, but fit2run showed up as Florida and The Stick showed up as Atlanta). 

Everything I bought, I needed and had just been waiting to get it at the expo as it was cheaper-for example, the Procompression socks are 25 each at the expo but retail for 50 dollars each. 

Overall, I'm very happy with my purchases and had a great Expo experience minus the fiasco with the official merchandise. 


Anyone else attend the Expo? Your thoughts? Do you usually like Race Expos? 

I went to bed early on Friday and was up bright and early at 5am for the tink 10k. I dressed as Iridessa the fairy of light. I got a new Disney PR by almost 3 minutes (1:21:57) which included a bathroom break and FIFTEEN PHOTO STOPS!! woo-hoo! 

Saw the Hatbox Ghost in Haunted Mansion and hung out in the parks for a bit before going to a Facebook meetup and having a solo dinner at Carthay Circle. Up early on Sunday for the half dressed as Tink. 

I got another Disney PR by almost 8 minutes (2:35:53) which included TWELVE photo stops and 2 bathroom breaks. 

Full recaps for all of the events: Expo, 10k, and half are coming this week along with a review of a few new items I got at the Expo. 

I had an amazing weekend and can't wait for next year and the 5th anniversary race! yay for being a Legacy! 

Expo day is here! I will be heading over bright and early tomorrow but here is a sneak peek at the merchandise. 

I was super excited for the jackets but they all seem a bit plain for my taste. I do like the teal tink one thought so I will have to check it out in person. 
The only other things I want are the Pixie Dust challenge sweatyband and the magnet for my office. 


What do you think of the merchandise?