Inaugrual Star Wars Weekend - Half Marathon

It was the morning of the 6th race in 11 days.  Some would say I am a little off, pushing the back to back races a little bit too much, but I love these races, and I love running, so off we go.  The night before I had already set out my clothes for the race.  While the 10k was focused on Luke and Yoda, today would be Boba Fett.  Since Disney dislikes full masks, I went for a Fett hat, and a Boba Fett tech shirt. 

Like the 10k, Coach Shannon would be running this race, and my wife Sallie would be cheering us on. For this race, Coach Shannon was dressed as R2D2, though her beep/boop needed some work.

The Short Walk to the Start

We met Coach Shannon in the lobby of our hotel and started to walk to the corrals.  We were a little over a mile away from the start of the race, so we took the walk slow and chatted with other runners as we entered the Disneyland property.  The corrals are on the main road between Downtown Disney and the main park, so we never needed to enter the park to get to the corrals. The corrals were the same as the previous days 10k, with 6 corrals, all a bit larger then the normal corral sizes for Disneyland races.  Coach Shannon and I would be starting in corral A, but I could not convince Coach Shannon to head to the front of the corral.

As we got to the corral, Coach Shannon headed to the entrance at the back of the corral, while I went to warm up near the front.  As one would expect with a Disney race, as well as one themed for Star Wars, there were a great deal of costumes.  We had joked on the way to the race that it would be awesome, and insane, if someone ran in a full Chewy suit.  As crazy as that sounded, as I was stretching on a fence, up walks Chewy, heading into Corral A.

The Start, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

The start of the Half Marathon was as extravagant as the 10k, with a huge screen on the Start Line arch showing clips for the original movies.  Of to the side stood the announcers, who would drop into skits every 5-10 minutes or so that included major characters from the movies.  This time around the skits were more mature, and went without a hitch.  I knew Sean Astin was running this race, so I hunted a bit for him, but never found him in the corral, or on the course.

 

As the start time became eminent, I started to go over the course in my head.  Unlike the Avengers Half Marathon, this course will utilize a bit more of the parks, and will head south versus south east.  We would also avoid Angels Stadium and the dust bowl that is the canals leading up to it.

The course looked interesting, and I was looking forward to trying it out.  With a few minutes to go before the start of the race, I headed to the front of the corral and readied myself for a fun race.  My plan would be to run at a moderately hard pace, as I knew I was not recovered from the last 10 days.  Holding back will be a challenge, but it was one I needed to meet or I would have serious issues by the middle of the race.

And We are Off...

In the dark, the fireworks went off and the race started.  The first half mile matched that of the 10k, with a single hill that we needed to climb before we headed into the the park.  The next 4 and a half miles would be through the two parks, with some back lot roads before we hit Anaheim and the meat of the course.  The first two miles wandered through the Magic Kingdom and some of the parks back lot.  many a Disneyland employees were out cheering us on, and as we rounded a corner heading past the fourth mile, we ran into our first, set of Star Wars characters.  First up was a set of Jedis, which I skipped in favor of the Storm Troopers.  A quick photo with them and I was off.  Due to being near the front of the race start, there wasn't much of a line for the characters.

Once we left this area, we headed further into California Adventure.  At one point, near the end of the park, I saw a line forming to my left.  Swinging over to see what was there, I saw the great Chewy taking photos with runners.  unlike all of the other characters, Chewy had a serious line.  It took about 3-4 minutes to get through the line, but it was worth it.

Now that the parks were over, it was time to head off into Anaheim.

Miles 5-7

We left the park and entered onto Harbor Blvd, the main road in front of the parks.  The crowds were slowly growing, as it was still dark out, with the sun creeping over the horizon.  At the 5 mile mark, a cosplayer was dressed up as Chewy with a large sign "Free Hugs!".  While I didn't partake in the hugs, many runners took the time out to get a hug from Chewy.  From here is was a straight and open road full of runners and cheering vacationers and locals.  I was running with a pack of runners all looking for a sub 2 hour pace, chatting with them about the differences between this course and the Avengers course.  As we got to mile 6, we heard a roster crow as the sun rose past the horizon.  Even though Anaheim is a city, there are many places that have small sets of livestock.  This course allowed us to see some of this area, giving us a feel for the diversity of people and cultures of L.A. and Anaheim.

The cheering and crowd reduced the further south we went.  At this point, we weaved through a few streets and turned right onto Garden Blvd and to the 7 mile marker.  The crowd was gone, and all we had for a cheering section were cars going by.

Miles 7-11

This part of the course wandered through an urban housing area and shopping strip in the south of Anaheim.  I had lost the pack I was running with, and they seemed to slow down a bit and thus fell back.  I was keeping a 1:50ish pace, and things felt good, almost easy, so I kept moving with the same effort, knowing that I was more then halfway done.  The path ended up being a square-like path that first went past the Garden Grove Argonauts field, a local field for the Garden Grove High School.  Here we found the cheering squad back, as the local high school came out to cheer, as did the local cosplay group.

This race they were out in their Star Wars garb, which included several members of the 501st.

 

(Photos courtesy of Shannon Scalan)

This brought a surge of energy to my body and legs, and I suspect I sped up a bit running through the line of Star Wars icons, high-fiving as many as I could.  The course headed on to Euclid St, where we could see the other runners as they running past the field.  I strained to find Coach Shannon, Sean Astin, or some of my friends from last weeks Dopey Challenge, but I failed to catch site of any of them.  This part of the course was a bit dreary, as it went through a strip mall with some homeless and some buildings in disrepair.  We left the are and on to Chapman, as we turned right and headed back to Harbor Blvd.  The crowd had started to grow at this point, as we came up to mile 10.  Local residences had some interesting items they were giving out for runners, from candy, to water, to beer.  It was a little early for beer, so I skipped that table and headed towards mile 11 and Harbor Blvd.

Miles 11-13.1

As we get back to Harbor Blvd, I realize that there were still runners on the other side of the course, passing miles 5 and 6 and just hitting the halfway mark.  Turning onto Harbor, I wandered toward the center of the road, which would give me the best chance to high-five runners coming in the other direction.  This was something I enjoyed doing, and it kicked up my spirits even more.  While I was doing the high-fives, a female runner came up to me and asked what pace I was running.  I told her around 1:50, which made her smile, as she was looking to beat 1:55.  She was struggling a bit, so I agreed to pace for her, and we headed down Harbor and a nice brisk pace.  We chatted a bit on her goals, running, and random other things, mainly to keep her mind off of the pain she was in while keeping the pace.  Chewy was still out on the road, getting hugs and high-fives.

At mile 12, we turned left off of Harbor Blvd and headed down the last real road before heading into the the park and the finish line.  She was still keeping up with me, but she started to fade a bit.  I tried to keep her spirits up, with another runner joining us at that pace to help push everyone to the finish line.  We turned right onto the main road we started on and I told the female runner she had this, and would break 1:55 easily.  The other runner with me wanted to kick the rest of the race, so I gave her my best wishes and we started to kick the speed up with .5 miles left.

We turned left into the parking lot, with a roar of cheers from the massive crowds that had now gathered.  This pushed the adrenaline even higher, and by the time we hit the street leading to the finish line, the fellow runner had backed off.  He started to cheer me on and push me with some choice words and I went for an all out sprint for the last 400 meters.  The crowds were loud and as I charged through the finish line I could hear my wife Sallie screaming my name and cheering me on.

Later I would find out what she was actually saying was that I blew by Darth Goofy, and to go back and high-five him.  Instead I met her on the path to get the medals, where she handed me a bag of medals from the week before.  I wanted to have my photos with all 10 medals, to show the fun we have had over the last 11 days.

After the photos, I met Sallie at the bleachers and we cheered on all of the runners while waiting for Coach Shannon to cross the finish line.  This is one of the fun parts of a race, something I look forward to.  I know how much the cheers mean to runners, so I always make it a point to stand on the course and cheer all of the runners.

Coach Shannon, in her usually awesome style, charges through the finish line with a huge smile.  I catch up with Sallie and we both head back to the runners area to meet up with Shannon.  As expected, she was all smiles.

 

We headed back to the hotel to relax and shower.  Shannon had to leave latter that day, so we said goodbye, and headed to our rooms.  Sallie and I cleaned up and wandered back into the parks for the rest of the days.  It always helps recovery to keep on your feet after a race, so that the acids can be worked out of the muscles and the soreness is reduced for the next two days.

Overall, it was a fun race, and the course was different enough to make it worth trying again, versus duplicating the Avengers Half course.  I am looking forwar dto trying this again and being a Dopey Rebel for a second year in a row.  This time, though, Sallie may have a chance to run it, as she will not be doing her first marathon the week before.

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.