Sunday, September 1, 2013

Disneyland Half Marathon 2013

The second leg of the Dumbo Double Dare (and Ryan's very first half marathon) is IN THE BOOKS!

The morning started off pretty early - but that is what you have to come to expect with runDisney events [keep in mind, they still need to open the parks once the races are done, so they need to participants off the course by a certain time]. I set my alarm for 4am, but of course was up prior to it going off (probably closer to 3:45am or so).

Ryan and I got ready and were out the door by around 4:30am, on our way over to the corrals. We made a pit stop at the Disneyland Hotel to use the 'real bathrooms' one last time before the race. I thought I knew the 'secret' spot, but apparently everyone knew about it because there was a MUCH longer like than I have seen there at the last 3 races I used it for (Disneyland Half Marathon 2012, TinkerBell Half Marathon 2013, yesterday's Disneyland 10K 2013, and this morning's Disneyland Half Marathon 2013).


We were able to make it to our corral (Ryan was in C, so I jumped back a corral because we wanted to run together) by around 5:00am. We took a couple pictures, did a little stretching, sang the National Anthem, cheered for the wheelchair and challenged racers and the first two corrals and then it was time for us to take off!

Selfie!
The hoards of people! I think there were close to 25,000 runners!

Ryan getting ready for his FIRST half marathon!

Ryan's bib

We were able to ask a fellow runner to take a picture of us

The race was extremely hot and humid. Thankfully the sun stayed behind some clouds until we were near mile 6.5 (last year the sun was straight in our eyes for a good straight 4 miles, so thankfully we were able to miss some of that) - which was amazing.

Ryan wanted to be around 2:30, so at the Expo on Friday I picked up a bracelet from ClifBar that had splits that we were supposed to aim for to meet our finishing time goal. They were around 11:27 minutes miles. After we had been out in the heat on Saturday I told Ryan I didn't want him to be bummed or disappointed if we didn't hit the goal, since the weather did NOT seem to be in our favor.

I noticed around mile 3 that we were already under the pace, so instead of slowing down a bit, we decided to keep pushing it. We ended up keeping around 10:55 minute mile pace - which included walking through all the water stations (because I cannot run and drink at the same time, so it is safer to lose a few seconds and not choke) and a pit stop at the bathroom in CarsLand.





We ended up finishing around 2:22, which was 8 minutes FASTER than Ryan's goal - TOTALLY AWESOME!! And as you can see from the timing, we were actually getting faster throughout the course, which I was NOT expecting, especially with the temperatures rising quickly once the sun came out.

I think I started my watch a little late, but the weaving adding a little extra distance. 

Us with our medals in Downtown Disney

SMILE! WE DID IT!

The guy that took this "photo" actually was in video mode, so we had to screenshot a decent part of the 'movie' - bummer!

We were able to make it back to the hotel by around 8:45am, Ryan took a quick shower, and then we were able to eat our continental breakfast. We were on the road by about 9:30am and back to the house around 10:30am.

Of course he can have a waffle - he just ran 13.1 miles!

He was a little snooze-y on the way home and slept the WHOLE WAY!

OF COURSE I had to take some pictures of the BLING (I mean that IS why we run, right?!)!

Disneyland 10K Tech Tee, Bib and Bling

Disneyland Half Marathon Tech Tee, Bib and Bling

Dumbo Double Dare Tech Tee, Bib and Bling
All the medals from this weekend's runDisney races I ran in :)
To say I am proud of Ryan is the UNDERSTATEMENT of the YEAR! HE ROCKED THE RACE!! And he even mentioned he might think about doing another one... YAY!!

...Until next year Disneyland Half Marathon:)...

3 comments:

Unknown said...

You guys rocked that race! Congratulations. I think the pics of you guys with the new bling speak for themselves. Proud indeed.

jenjen2845 said...

Great job! Those medals look awesome! I love that you supported your hubby the whole way through! :)

Obat alami darah tinggi said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.