I am leaving tomorrow for the Princess Half Marathon and I realize that I haven't written a report on the fabulous Tinkerbell Half Marathon that I ran last month. So here it is!
This was my first RunDisney race and I had heard mixed reviews about the Tink. The main complaint for most people was that the time in the parks was early on and only for a few miles, with the last 7 miles or so on the street of Anaheim. But, I had an open mind and I had an absolute blast!
But we'll start in the days before the race when, to my horror, my Tinkerbell dress I ordered in early December still hadn't arrived. It actually came while we were in California, in a cruel twist of fate. This left me with no outfit to wear during the race - and dressing up is like 85% of why I run!! Mom and I went shopping the night before we left for CA and found a lime green tek shirt and a child's Tinkerbell costume that I could take the wings off of. I was hoping to buy a Sparkle Skirt at the expo to round out my outfit. Oh! And I had big puffy white loofah balls for my shoes to look like Tink's shoe pom-poms!
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| Here is my last-minute running outfit. I ran in this, minus the arm-warmers. |
Ok, so onto to the big day! I got up at 2:30am and put my hair in a Tinkerbell bun and shellacked about 6 tons of makeup on, because looking good is half the battle, right? My friend, Chris, drove down from Santa Cruz to watch me run and he generously got up before dawn to take me to the Starting Line. I found my corral (Corral C) and started to hand out some lime green glow bracelets I brought. Here's me at the Starting Line with a friend I made:
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| Me & Colleen - both running solo in Corral C |
It was chilly, but not too frigid and I was not uncomfortable while waiting the HOUR or so before we got going. Chatting with Colleen really made the time fly! Finally, it was time to start!! My first mile was outside the perimeter of the park on the streets. I ran it at 13:36, which is pretty fast for me. I know the biggest piece of advice runners give is DON'T START OFF THE RACE TOO FAST. But, I kinda did! We got into the park during mile 2 and I started seeing characters. I skipped the first few and finally did Phineas & Ferb since I didn't want to skip all of them. Next was Darth Vader, who was my MUST HAVE photo op. Colleen didn't want to wait in the line (which was about 7 minutes long) so she went on ahead.
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| Vader choking me with the Force! |
I stopped for a few other pics while in California Adventure and Disneyland:
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| California Adventure at the World Of Color water light show. It was AMAZING! |
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| I had to stop and see Merida!! She's my favorite Princess!! |
Ok, time to run through Sleeping Beauty's Castle!! I expected something more dramatic, but it wasn't that powerful of a moment. I think I am jaded, being a WDW girl and loving Cindy's bigger castle. It was still cool and I stopped to see Aurora and her Prince on the other side:
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| I'm the one in green. |
Shortly after this, we left the parks and the next 7 miles were on the streets of Anaheim. I have photos of this, but they are pretty boring. There were several sets of cheerleaders and a few scattered spectators. It was a pleasant run, but not as visually exciting as inside the parks. I swear, the big mile markers made it go so much faster. I stopped at every mile marker to take my picture!
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| Here's me at mile 13! Almost there!! |
I saw my cheer squad at the finish line and I ran in to a time of 3:46. My actual running time was 3:19, so I spent 27 minutes on photos. I will admit that I walked most of the last half because my leg was kinda bothering me and I didn't want to risk a bigger hurt that would take me out. My walking pace is 15 mm so I knew I was way ahead of the sweepers.
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| Yay me! |
I finished and got my medal. So many people were coming through when I finished that volunteers were handing people medals inside the plastic instead of putting it around their necks. I got one unwrapped and placed around my neck though, thankfully. Just handing it to you in plastic seems like a bit of a let down. I ate a banana and got a box of foodstuff and went to find my people. We spent the rest of the day at California Adventure and I walked all day with no problem. I think taking it relatively easy made for a great recovery.
In all, this was so much fun to run! I would definitely do it again!! For the Princess, I want to get more photos of the spectator signs - some were hilarious, and it really added to the experience. I also had time for more pics (since clearly, I'm not setting a PR with a Disney race!) so that is good info for the upcoming Princess race. I'd love to go back to Disneyland for the Tink again, or possibly the DL Half over Labor Day. Maybe next year!
