it's become tradition now to take a pre-race photo with delovely details at this one. except that next year she won't be there. since it's now been moved to mother's day weekend indefinitely, it doesn't fit in with her work schedule anymore. boo.
and this time, as we made our way into the corral, there was just barely enough time to listen to the last few bars of the national anthem and take a quick selfie before the race started.
we didn't end up stopping for a single character photo op. instead, i snapped blurry photos from afar.
this helped us reach the mile markers at a fairly decent pace - along with everyone else, which made getting a decent shot of them a little tricky.
cars land!
first 5K(ish), check.
as we crossed over into disneyland, we ran right underneath the monorail.
somehow, we were managing to keep up with jeff and his wife. if i haven't said it already, he really is such a nice man - always encouraging and has a smile and some words of support for everyone he encounters.
but then when we reached the castle and stopped for a photo op, we lost him. oh well, it was worth it. and we'd kept up with him for at least a solid mile, so we were happy.
hello, messengers of evil.
this is where broken down ride vehicles come to die, apparently.
and where parade floats hang out when they're not in use.
it's always nice to hear the cheerleaders and bands along the way.
hello, disneyland horses!
in toontown, DD and mr. DD stopped for a potty break.
on our way out of there, we caught a glimpse of pluto and donald.
big thunder ranch. well, from the backlot, anyway.
pirates awaited us in frontierland. they cheered and jeered as the runners passed by.
too bad the rides aren't actually open during these races, because splash mountain sounded pretty good right about then.
because it was so light outside, tink's shadow on this building was a little hard to see.
mile 6 meant that our journey through the parks (meaning, the best part of the course) was over. boo.
now the only entertainment we had were folks who came out to cheer us in costumes and made silly race signs.
and of course, disney's gentle reminders as we ran through residential neighborhoods.
with not much else to look at besides the lovely city of anaheim, the mile markers were the only things i took pictures of.
well, those and a couple of runners who wore costumes that didn't look particularly comfy to run in for 13.1 miles.
i love the clif shot station, although it's way past where i should be fueling. it's okay though, i grab a couple and end up using them eventually.
new balance put up a bunch of fun signs for us.
these are some of the toughest miles for me during any half:
obnoxious? maybe a little. but still, i laughed when i read this one.
this particular mile marker is always a welcome sight.
and this sign was pretty accurate. heh.
then we were back to the wall of ivy, only this time there was no cheering.
and around the back side of cars land:
past one final group of cheerleaders:
then, the 13th mile marker:
and then we flew right to the finish.
through this doorway, we were verified for our pixie dust challenge medals:
and then we headed out to grab some post-race snacks.
it turned out that those snack boxes that they usually hand out after each race had contained some applesauce pouches that had expired in march. oops. so they gathered up a bunch of volunteers who'd frantically opened each and every box, tossed out the expired stuff, and separated the rest of the contents into bins. it was kind of fun for us, though - felt a little like trick-or-treating.
obligatory post-run bling shots.
back at the hotel, i got cleaned up and then we checked out so we could head out and find some grub. i was excited when i saw where we were going:
no better way to recover from a run than with a sunset (lemonade and fruit punch) and some good ol' chicken and waffles.
so...it's done. and i didn't die!
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