Disneyland Half Marathon...

Well, we are back from our Disneyland vacation!

It's always hard to leave Disneyland-

it really is such a fun, exciting, magical place- isn't it?

Before we could enjoy it, we had to get there :).

AND

I had to run the Disneyland Half Marathon.

So off we went...

(one little boy was asleep within the first hour)

We drove 6 hours down to Vegas,

where we spent the night in a not so awesome hotel.

Then we made our way the 4 remaining hours to Disneyland!

We still had around 2 hours before we could check in to our hotel,

so the husband dropped me off near the Disneyland hotel,

where the expo was being held.

 So many people but everything was easy to find

and picking up our bibs, bags, shirts, etc was super quick.

They put the very special bracelet on me:

 because that is why we came to Disneyland at this exact time.

So I could get that extra medal :).

I am all about the race bling.

Then we checked into our hotel, got all settled in

and went for a walk around Downtown Disney.

The race started at 5:45am.

I was only about a 10 minute walk from the start line,

but I underestimated the amount of people trying to get

to their correct corrals all at the same time.

I was in corral A, but I only managed to make it to the

very, very back of the corral before the race started.

I was off and running before any pictures were taken.

Then I took zero pictures during the whole race.

(my phone was tucked away in my running pouch and it was hard to get out!)

I'll summarize the race.

First off, I LOVED it.

The course is nice and flat-

plus, we run through Disneyland/California Adventure!

Can't beat that, right?

 Probably my favorite half marathon so far.

Here's a pic of the start that I snapped the day before:

The first few miles were pretty darn slow.

I just couldn't get in a good rhythm with so many people around.

Starting at the back of the corral, trying to get through the crowds,

heading through the parks- made for slow goings.

The first 3-4 miles are in/around the parks.

Then we moved out onto the streets of Anaheim.

I had heard that these parts were boring,

but there were so many people out cheering

that the miles just flew by for me.

Really, the whole race seemed to go my very quickly.

The aid stations were frequent and well stocked.

Spectators were awesome.

The weather stayed cool enough to suit me :).

We reached Angels Stadium around mile 9-10

and that was a really cool experience!

Loved running around the stadium and glad that

there were spectators in the stands cheering us on.

I even saw myself up on that big screen thing (what's that called?).

I had to make a bathroom stop right after that,

but that is becoming pretty commonplace for me these days!

Other than that mile, I was able to get my average pace up

a little bit and managed to do negative splits.

The husband got all 5 kids up and walked them over

bright and early to watch me finish- isn't he amazing??

Even more amazing, he found a place to watch where 

I was actually able to see them as I got close to the finish!

Loved being able to high-five my kids at the end...

 (I did have the hat with me the whole way, but not on my head)

Another great thing about this race is wearing a costume.

Although the majority of runners were NOT in costume,

I love LOVED hearing everyone yell out "Go Jessie!"

I also got lots of high-fives from children out watching the race.

Final time: 1:50:29

Again, no PR- but wasn't going for that.

I really think if one were to get themselves up to the front of their corral,

this could very well be a PR course- just my opinion :).

I got my 2 medals!

Then I located the husband and kids:

We stayed and watched my SIL finish the race,

but I won't post her picture on here without her permission :).

As I already stated-

I LOVED this race.

If I could, I think I would do it every year.

We just hung out the rest of that day and the next-

in preparation for Tuesday... Disneyland Day!

More posts on that to come very soon!