And what else could i have possibly done to ring in my thirties than go to Disneyland, dress up as a Captain America Fan Girl, and run a 5K.
First off, let me say, it was AMAZING! I definitely encourage any and everyone to sign up for a Disneyland run! Though, be warned, you have to sign up 9 months in advance and IMMEDIATELY. Our race was sold out within 45 minutes.
Below, i'll walk you through a little of the experience (So this will be a long post, BUT with lots of pictures!... please excuse poor quality, these are all of the iphone variety, and i'm pretty sure my lens was dirty)
Our race was on November 15th, so we had to arrive to pick up our race packets on my birthday, November 14th.
What i love about Disneyland is how great they are at signage, and how easily you can find what you need. When there wasn't a sign telling us where to go there was an actual human being!
We found our way down to the lower level, picked up our race bibs, had a little photo shoot in front of a step and repeat, and headed upstairs to the runDisney Health & Fitness Expo.
After picking up our race shirts and gEAR bag (a clear bag that you could use to check your belongings on race day), we explored the floor, and made our way over to the Disney exclusive merchandise line.
There wasn't a lot for the 5Kers (what do they not take us seriously? ;) ), but we found a shirt for me and a glass
for Jayson.
The Expo was neat, but unless you were a serious runner, it was just a bunch of shiny pretty things that you didn't need.
I did love the extra spots they had for photo ops though!
To continue my birthday celebration, i had my birthday Mike Cake Pop, then we headed into Disneyland to get my birthday button and ride the Jingle Cruise, which we have somehow missed the last 3 years that we've been passholders.
After stopping by our hotel (Hotel Indigo, which is really nice, if you're interested. Here is their TripAdvisor link: click here ), we went to dinner inside
California Adventure.
Jayson picked Wine Country Trattoria because, though i'm not a huge fan of Italian food, it was one of the only options that had multiple Vegetarian options. I love Disney, but their parks really fall short on Vegetarian food options, and completely fail when it comes to Vegan choices. It's definitely something they could and should work on.
But can i just say... i love Disneyland at Christmas time.
So not the greatest, but i only got about an hour and a half to two hours of sleep before we woke up at 3:30 am to prepare for the race, BUT the excitement of it all kept me going!
We had a great warm up walking from our hotel to the starting line, and it was fantastic to already see so many people dressed up!
They had a small stage and a big screen set up at the start line to entertain us before the start. We were told that Hydra stole some sort of serum, and we were racing to get it back... of course we were.
For Disney's 5Ks, they have 5,000 runners (10,000 for 10k), and we were placed in Corral B... well, Jayson was Corral A, but he very kindly decided to run with me.
We started about 8 minutes after the first runner, so all of our times are about 8 minutes less than what the mile markers show.
Not sure if any of you have ever run in a giant race like this, but for the first few minutes you are basically forced to walk while everyone starts out the gate. Even with that, and a pause for a couple of photo ops, we ran a 12 minute mile for the first mile.
The first half of the race goes through California Adventure (first taking you through the backstage area), and it's so fun to not only be in a near empty park, but also to be able to RUN through the streets!
There were several character photo ops along the way (Black Widow, Hawkeye, Mickey & Minnie), but we bypassed those to stay on the race. When we came to Thor about a mile and 3/4 in, we decided to stop.
Don't get me wrong, it is FANTASTIC that we have that photo, BUT that was a TERRIBLE idea. We stopped for 14 minutes in the middle of a run, and our muscles definitely didn't appreciate getting cold and then being forced to run again.
If we do one of these again, we probably won't stop for any of these character meet & greets.
But Mr. Thor was fantastic, and the guy even had
Chris Hemsworth's accent (specifically, his voice sounded like Chris Hemsworth!)
Did i mention that Thor's hammer was also running in the race?
We were forced to walk a little more for the rest of the race, due to our muscles tightening up from the cold stop.
Our second mile total, once you took out the 14 minute photo stop, ended up being about 16 minutes. Part of me is disappointed that we stopped for so many photos, only because i wanted to see how fast i could run the 5k, but the other part of me realizes... Hey, it's Disneyland!
Stop and enjoy the happy!
We ran through New Orleans, and out through the backstage area to Downtown Disney.
Realizing that the race was almost over, we actually slowed down even more to enjoy the last of it. Our last mile was about 15 minutes.
What i also loved about the run was having so many people and Disney employees on the track cheering us on! It really made you feel like you should keep running. They didn't come out to see you walk after all!
It took us almost exactly an hour to go through the parks, and I don't think we planned on any less time. This was a fun run, and wasn't timed. No pressure, it was just to explore the Disney/Marvel-ishness of everything!
We got our medals and a handy dandy treat box, banana, water, and powerade!
I love the look this lady is giving Jayson.
All and all, I absolutely loved the experience, and am so thankful that's how I spent my 30th. I even told Jayson that I think we should probably do more 5Ks and 10Ks. :)
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