Inaugrual Star Wars Weekend - Pre-race and 10k

Disney has been expanding their race weekends with the addition of Avengers and now Star Wars.  Unlike Avengers, Star Wars was setup to support a challenge, called the Rebel Challenge.  Like normal challenges by Disney (Glass Slipper, etc), this was a combination of the 10k and half marathon.  Unlike the other challenges, this race weekend was a week after Disney's biggest event, their WDW Marathon weekend.  This is significant because many of the racers will have run at least one of the four races in Disney World before flying out to the west coast and running these.  That would include me, as I participated in the Dopey Challenge for the second year in a row.

Since Sallie had just finished her first marathon, she would not be racing in Disneyland, so she headed home early Wednesday after her race.  I stayed a bit long, eventually leaving late Wednesday night and arriving in Los Angeles in the evening.  After arriving in Anaheim, I headed to my hotel, unpacked, and went to bed.  I knew I needed to be up early Thursday to make sure I got to the Expo for any inaugural exclusives, which would not last past the first few hours.

Star Wars Weekend Expo

I woke up at 5am, with the intent of reaching the Expo by 6:30am.  The Expo wouldn't open until 9:30, but I knew there would already be a line.  I got dressed and drove over to the Expo.  While it was within walking distance, I felt lazy and drove anyways.  Once there, we were directed up a flight of stairs to a holding room.  Here we would wait in line until the Expo opened.  To all of the Expo guests surprise, Disney decided to show the original series to the waiting crowd.  By the time I got in line, they had already started Empire Strikes Back.

As we got close to 9am, they asked us to stand up and get ready to head down to the Expo, giving us what we thought would be an early entrance to the Expo itself.  Instead, they were actually moving us to the second queue line, down in the expo.

From here we waited, as they let in about 20 people every 5 minutes.  Unlike the first holding area, we where not treated to the movies.  Instead, they just projected a marketing slide for the race weekend, which was a little disappointing.

I finally got into the Expo and the Official Race Shop.  Here there was a mass of Star Wars race gear, which I grabbed a great deal of.  Once I headed out of the Official Merchandise area, I wandered to the packet pickup to retrieve my bibs for the next two races, as well as Sallie's Cheer Squad passes and accessories.  Each ramp to and from the packet pickup area had rugs designed specifically for the race.

 

From start to finish of the Expo, Disney kept you in the mindset of Star Wars and I was getting excited for two races I expected to be horrible at, after last weeks four race weekend.  Now it was off to lunch, then to meet up with Coach Shannon at the Wookie Welcome Party later that night!

Wookie Welcome Party

After the park closed Thursday night, they allowed us into the park to hang out with the Disney Star Wars character over at Tomorrow Land.

The party hosted a large amount of runners, with deserts and drink throughout the park.

They also allowed us to ride any of the Tomorrow Land rides, which Shannon and I took advantage of.  We both rode the Star Wars Tour ride at least four times, and I jumped on the Space Mountain ride once.

In the center of the festivities they had a stage were Jedi Chip and Jedi Dale were dancing it up to the music being mixed by the park DJs.

Every hour they would have some of the Star Wars characters come up to the stage for a skit, from the movies to the animated shows like Star Wars: Rebels.  All in All it was a great night of deserts, rides and Star Wars fanfare!

Friday Pre-Race Wandering

Friday was a relaxing day for me.  With the Expo out of the way, and all of the races in the challenge starting Saturday, I had the day free to wander Anaheim.  I went out for a short run to stretch out the legs and get a feel for how they had recovered from last weekend.  They were a bit sluggish, but that was to be expected.  I then headed out to a local Boardgaming store to see what Southern California offered their gaming community.  After a bit of lunch and some preparation for the next two days of racing,I headed off to LAX to pick up Sallie and head back to the hotel.

Saturday Storm Trooper 10k

The morning came early, though not as early as last weekend.  Since most of the hotels in Disneyland are within walking distance of the race start, I didn't need to get up a 3am for a race at 5:30.  Instead, I got up at 4:30am, grabbed a quick snack, and wandered down to the lobby to meet Shannon and Sallie.  The course for this 10k was different then previous 10k courses, as it started on the streets and over the hills for the first 2 miles, then head back into the park, where it would stay for the rest of the race.

We then walked over to the starting line, where both of us would start in Corral A.  Shannon and I were al set in costumed for this race.  Shannon had an awesome Ewok costume, while I was dressed as Luke on Dagoba, with Yoda on my back.

As we entered Corral A, we could see the starting line, where they had a huge screen that kept showing clips of the original movies as we waited.

Eventually, the announcers came onto a stage near the starting line to do a few skits and then release us.  This would be the beginning of my attempt at pacing.  I knew I wanted to stop at as many characters as possible, so I needed to make sure my pace was controllable and comfortable.  Corral A had a ranch of elite to middle of the pack paces, and I set myself up near the front of the corral.  It was still quite dark as the race start loomed.

Miles 1-2

With the race started, I setup a pace of 8 minute miles.  This would allow me to get a good feel for my capabilities, without worrying too much about burning out for tomorrows race.  If I felt good after the first two miles, I would speed up a bit.  These two miles were on roads in Anaheim and they started at the entrance on the road next to the Expo.  We then headed out to Ball Rd and turned right onto Harbor Avenue.  This part crossed over two bridges, which were considered the hills for the race.  Once we were on Harbor Avenue, it was straight and flat until we got to the entrance of Disneyland.  My legs started off feeling tired and a bit weak, but the overpasses quickly woke them up.  I had some good discussions with fellow racers and we came to the entrance and headed through the turnstiles to the Magic Kingdom.  At this point I felt good enough to start pushing the pace a bit.  We actually entered the attractions a 1.75 miles into the race.

Miles 2-3

Once we entered Magic Kingdom, we headed to Frountierland.  We would run through the main paths there, past Tom Sawyers Island and on to Fantasyland.  The course was flat, with only minor quick bumps for hills, but there was a lot of turns that were tight.  As we reached Tomorrowland, I was averaging a 7:30 minute mile and felt good.  I was chatting with a few racers about the lighting of the different sections of the park until we came to Toontown.  From here we would enter the back lot of Disneyland.

Miles 3-5

The back lots are always an interesting place to run.  You have the opportunity to see the behind the scenes activities of the park, repairing attractions, creating new art, and just interesting random artifacts.  This also meant that we could not take photos, which was odd, as one of the cooler things Disney did for this part of the race was to project different symbols and art onto the walls.  Things like the Imperial seal, Rebel emblems, Droid silhouettes, and other fun things. My pace was still averaging 7:30 minute miles as we reentered the parks at California Adventures.  After the longer, straighter parts of the back lot, we were headed back into curves and sharp turns.

Now halfway through California Adventures, we headed to Paradise Island.  I knew this would be a bit straighter and flat, so I was expecting a kick up in pace, as we only had two miles left.  I pushed my pace to 7:14 minute miles as I came to the 4.5 mile mark, Paradise Pier.  There at the entrance of the bridge stood Boba Fett himself.  This was the first real character we had run into, and he had a line, but I had to stop!

 It took about a minute to wait and then get the photo, and I was off.  I had been running with another runner from our area who had dropped a bit in pace through California Adventure.  My delay allowed him to catch up and we agreed we would kick the pace to 7:16 from here and finish strong.

Miles 5-6.2

From here we took off, weaving a bit through races as we pushed to the end.  There was a bit more weaving until we got to the back lot of California Adventures, where it straightened out, eventually dumping us into the parking area for the park.  From here we would circle around to Disney Wat, with is a parking lot road for Disney Cast.  This would be the last bit of road on the course, before we came back to some parking lots and to the finish line near the Expo and Disney Downtown.  We kept the pace at a 7:15 minute mile until we got to the last stretch, which was the entrance to Downtown from the parking lot.  I bid my buddy good luck and kicked up my pace to the end.  I averaged a 6:45 minute mile pace until the 6 mile mark, where a sprinted at a 4:44 minute a mile pace to the end.  Sallie was waiting for me on the other side of the finish line, where she pointed out that Darth Goofy was at the finish line giving high fives and I had just blown right by him.  It was still dark as I crossed the line at 46:40.

Cheering and After the Race

Once I got through the gauntlet of medals, snacks, and racing retreat areas, I headed back to the finish line to cheer on Coach Shannon.  Other racers were out there as well, including Sean Astin, many with amazing costumes.

Courtesy of Karen Chu

As Coach Shannon came into view, we screamed and cheered and watched as she triumphantly crossed the finish line.  Now it was time to meet up near the Runners area stage.  With it finally becoming light out, it was time for breakfast and some park walking.

 

 

 Knowing that we had another race tomorrow, we decided to load up on some carbs and protein, heading to Black Bear Diner for a large and tasty breakfast.

After we finished gouging ourselves, Coach Shannon headed off to meet some friends and family, while Sallie and I walked California Adventures.  After a day of running, parks, and food, we hit the sack for a big day tomorrow.

Bringing in the New Year... Runners Style

Since I have started running, I have made it a tradition to run a race on New Years Eve.  It has always felt right, Bringing in the new year by doing something I have grown to love.  This race has traditionally been the Brambleton Ringing in Hope 10k.  My wife Sallie and I would run this (her the 5k) later in the day and then get dressed to party the night.  Over the last two years, Sallie had to work New Years Eve, so we decided to do the Potomac River Running New Years Day 5k in Reston last year.  I still felt the need and want to keep up my tradition, so I did the 10k and 5k across the two days.

This brings us to 2014-2015.  I had seen the Festival of Lights 5k advertised over the years, but never had the chance to run it, as it is usually at 3pm, and the 10k has traditionally been at 1pm.  This year, they moved the 10k due to issues caused by runners of the 10k course cutting it short and just doing the 5k.  It would seem some of them may have had a bit to drink before the race and things went south early.  To help reduce this type of issue, they moved the race to 10am, giving me a change to do the 5k later that evening.  Yes, that would be a 10k, then 4 hours later a 5k, some partying, and then a 5k at 10am the next morning.  It would seem that this was not hard core enough, as a few of my coaching partners pointed out a 4 miler at 6pm that they were running, and would I like to join them.  They added something about being really impressed if I added that race.  Who could say no, right? (other then a sane person).

New Years Eve Eve

Tuesday I ran around gathering all of my packets, minus the 10k packet, which could only be picked up Monday or on race day, and I missed Monday. I first grabbed the Reston 5k packet and headed out to Fairfax Corner for the Festival 5k packet.  There I met the race director Michelle Newkirk.  We had a chat on the race, where I heard about it, and my thoughts on the course.  She also pointed out a possible 11:30pm race that I might add.  In that same direction of thought, we talked about possibly doing a medal for people who do the four races.  This would mean organizing between her (a small race), PRR, Pacers, and Ringing in Hope.  I think it is a great idea, and I hope we can start those discussions and see if we can make it happen.  At this point it was off to Pacers in Fairfax for the last packet, where I met a fellow Dopey runner behind the register.  Dopey is a set of races at Disney (5k/10k/half/full) that are run on consecutive days at the beginning of January.  In this case, eight days after I finished this craziness.

New Years Eve

I had the benefit of the day off, so I slept in a bit, waking up at 8:30, getting dressed for the race, and walking the dogs.  A quick caffeine hit from my normal morning source (Diet Pepsi) and off I went.  My goal for the races was to use feel versus pace to run each race.  This way I shouldn't push too hard trying to get a specific time or if I thought I was going too fast or slow.  The watch would only be used for the final results and future data.

Ringing in Hope 10k

The Brambleton course is a 5k course, where the 10k takes two laps.  When I got there, it was cold enough to still need tights and a jacket, which is rare for me in races.  The line for packet pickup was short, as I got there with 25 minutes left before the race.  I grabbed my bib and went out to warm up.  The 5k was released first, with a 10 minute buffer before they released us.  At the start line, we listened to a local singer do an amazing job of the National Anthem, and then we were off.  The race started with a climb up a long hill, then through the neighborhood.  About three quarters of the way through, we started to catch the middle of the pack/end of the pack 5k runners, forcing us to weave a bit more then we wanted.  At the 2.9 mile marker, the course split, with the 5k runners (and those 10kers that wimp out) turn left to the finish as the 10k runners keep going back around the course.  I was warmed up at this point and pushed the pace a little more, as I felt good.  The second pass around, we had a little out and back at the top of the hill to make up the .1 additional on the 10k.  At the end of the race, I ended up doing what I normally do, which is not let anyone pass me, and sprint to the end.  I also planned to jump and hit the Finish sign, but timed it wrong and almost tripped.  All in all, it was a good start to the day, with a 47 minute finish.  Now for breakfast, a change of clothes and a beer.

Adroit Theroy

 My wife and I are members of a local brewery Adroit Theory, which is known for doing single barrel experiments that are very unique and usually dark.  Today was their end of the year party, and final release for members.  I headed there to grab our last set of beers of the year, and a growler of their Strong Ale.  It was crowded, with food and beer flowing like water.  I grabbed our beers and headed to the front for the growler.  As I finished paying for it, the keg kicked, so I had to choose another beer.  They had just featured a new ale, and thought I might like it instead.  They gave me a glass to try.  It tasted far too much like Bud or Miller, and after the glass I decided to go with the safe Saison.  I grabbed some of their new marinade sauce and headed to Bull Run for the 5k.

Festival of Lights 5k

The 5k was held at the Bull Run park, right next to the outdoor shooting range.  It also used part of the Festival of Lights path.  It was warm enough that I didn't need a jacket and could move to capris.

The course started near the main Festival, just south of the Ferris wheel.  It did two loops around a sharp hill, then it released out to the Festival path for an out and back.  For this start, they used a recording of the National Anthem, with the sound of gunshots from the shooting range in the background.  It was surreal to say the least.  We were then released up the hill.  This path was gravel, so I took the edge where there was grass for better footwork and stability.  I didn't see a reason to waste energy trying to push through gravel.  After the first loop, I heard Michelle yell toward me, saying hi, and asked if I went to get a beer before the race, which I replied yes, and told her I had more in the car.

After the first two loops, I pushed down the Festival path.  Again, running by feel alone, I kept my breathing under control and what I felt was threshold pace.  At the turn I started cheering for everyone behind me, though no one seemed to want to high five.  The last bit was back uphill, and then sprinting to the finish.  The field here was only 106, which was great, and allowed for very little bunching during the race.  I ended up with a finish of 22:48, a minute off my fastest time, but still good enough for a first place in my age group.  After talking a bit with a few racers who would also be at the 4 miler, and giving my feedback to Michelle, I headed off to Fairfax City for the last race of the day.

Fairfax 4-miler

Once in Fairfax City, I parked in the closest parking garage and changed clothes.  It had gotten cold again, and I needed to put the tights back on, and use a new, dry jacket.  I was also a bit tired, with sore legs and just a tired feeling.  While the total distance will be a half marathon by days end, the continual starting and stopping was taking its toll.  After changing, I headed out to the starting area to see if I could find a few friends, but only running into the guy I met at the Festival 5k.  Unlike the last race, there were 1700 runners for this night time race.  To keep things festive, I put on my Frosty hat, because you can never have enough frosty.

The race started on time and up a hill.  To avoid closing most of Fairfax City, the race used the George Mason campus as its course.  It was mostly lit, with a few places that were dark, on uneven asphalt.  I purposely started in the middle of the pack, to allow myself to warm back up, and to keep me from trying to stay with the lead pack.

This didn't work out as well as I had hoped, as the darkness meant a higher chance of tripping over people, and the head/hand lamps people had were very detracting.  After we entered the campus I pushed to get ahead of the middle group to get more space to breathe.  This also allowed me to see the strangest of runners.  With a mile and a half left, a guy passed me at a decent rate of speed.  I then ran into him again a few minutes later walking.  Again he passed at a fast clip, but this time I saw him stop and start walking.  Each time he did this interval, the sprinting became shorter and shorter, until he never caught back up to me.  With a mile to go, I felt tired and didn't want to push hard to the end, so against my inner competitor, I watched as people started to pass me.  Not many did, but those that passed caused a pain in my ego.  As we got to the top of the last hill, you could see the finish line, and at this point, a guy charged past me.  My ego couldn't take it any more, and I sprinted to catch up, then pass him, as well as a few others that had passed me earlier.  So much for keeping a steady pace.

After a piece of pizza and some water, I headed back to the car, as I was freezing.  It would seem I didn't have much energy left to keep myself warm, so tomorrow would be interesting.  Once home, I showered, changed, and Sallie and I headed out for parties.

Some time after 1am, we got home and went to bed, knowing that we would only have a few hours of sleep before tomorrow's race.

New Years Day

Sallie woke up a few hours before the race, with the intent of eating breakfast.  I chose to sleep in, and with an hour left to the race, I got up, changed into my running clothes and headed off.  I was sore and still a bit tired from yesterday, so it was run by feel again.  Our intent was to meet Nate from DTP there, run the race, and then get a drink.

Reston New Years Day 5k

When we got there, it was a bit windy and cold, so we quickly warmed up and headed to the start.  I ran into a bowling friend Chris and his family who were running the race together.  We talked a bit and then each continued to warm up.  Then it was off to the actual start line.  I ran into Shannon Doherty there, and then Coach Tonya from DTP Ashburn.  We talked about, and by the end Tonya pointed out that, even after yesterday, she expected me to beat her.  I disagreed, and started to talk about the Bills with a fellow runner when they started the race.  I should have been paying attention, as I was not a bit behind and in the middle of the pack.  For this race, that is bad because it is crowded.  I quickly picked up the pace to get some room, but it was still crowded as we hit the turn.  Tonya was still ahead of me, and I waved and she went by, point that fact out.

Saying that, I then caught her 3 minutes later.  We chatted for a few and I started to pull ahead.  As we got to the last mile, where there was a water stop, the woman ahead of me decided to get water at the last minute and stopped.  We almost collided and she dropped the water and started running to avoid the collision.  As we rounded the towncenter and up the last hill, I picked up the pace a bit more.  I knew we had a downhill finish, and my legs were warmed up and wanting more, so at the top of the hill I sprinted to the end, jumping to hit the finish line.  Sallie finished a bit later, commenting on how she will never again drink a lot the night before a race.  We then spent time looking for Nate, and when we did not find him, we headed to World of Beer for a New Years Day lunch and beer.

A fun 24 hours of racing, and I look forward to trying it again next year!

Happy New Year Everyone