by Run Diva
What an amazing, amazing weekend! Yes I said it twice! I just couldn’t think of a better word! As I’m sitting here with my cup of coffee writing this and looking back on the race weekend, I am getting a serious case of “post Disney” blues. Thursday morning rolled around and at 3am, we got in the car to drive down to Anaheim. The trip usually only takes about 6 hours, but since we have a toddler, I wanted to be at breakfast at the grapevine when it was time for her to normally wake up. Crazy, I know.
To kick off the race weekend, I picked up my bib from the runDisney Expo, and then we all went to the Disneyland Half Marathon 10th anniversary party that was in Frontierland from 7pm-12am. Due to the party being a special ticket event, we were allowed in at 4pm, which was a perfect amount of time to ride Winnie the Pooh, grab some snacks and camp out for Paint the Night. The park was practically empty for the party so we got most of our big ticket rides done before it was time to say goodnight. I had an early wake up call of 4am the next day, so it was time to leave.
My friend, Andrea, was running the 5K with me so she picked me up around 4:30am where we found an easy parking spot in the Mickey and Friends parking lot. This was my first Disney 5K and I was thrilled to be doing it. There were so many families there (including some very cute small children) and the whole environment seemed welcoming! If I had the choice, I would absolutely do the 5K again. It was worth every penny and was the perfect start to the three race days. The magic mirror from Snow White appeared on screen along with Cruella in person to start the 5K. It was a preview or “warning” as they said for what was to come from the 10K since the theme was villains.
Mile 1 was all through California Adventure starting in Cars Land. I adore the way Cars Land looks in the dark. If I didn’t know I was in DCA, I would have thought I was on Route 66!
The sun was peeking out while we entered Disneyland, so we could see all of the beautiful white and blue decorations that have been out for the big 60th anniversary. Mile 2 was around Fantasyland which gave us plenty of picture stops.
For the big anniversary, Disneyland had out a bunch of picture stops where you could insert your face into ride posters. We loved them!
Due to 4 hours of sleep and lack of coffee, I was feeling a bit silly! Right above Pirates of the Caribbean, Maleficent was standing there as a warning to come to the evil side before tomorrow! She was so into it and the crowd was going nuts over her! I couldn’t get over just how perfect the theming was from start to finish.
Many classic characters were out as well, but since Pinocchio’s line seemed a bit long we tried to get a silly selfie with him in the background.
Mile 3 came pretty quickly and before we knew it the race was over and we had this new fantastic medal to add to our collection.
I had to admit, I signed up for this race thinking that the 5K medal would be one not to miss with the anniversary. I was right! Fab 5 and in color?! Love it!
Minnie and Daisy were off to shower, have breakfast, and enjoy their day in California Adventure. If you are thinking about adding on the 5K to your race weekend or even trying this for the first time, I highly recommend it!
