RunDisney - Tinkerbell Half Marathon January 2014

This blog post was written in January 2014 but I think it belongs here on this blog.

I am Run Disney's newest fan!  This past week I just returned from an amazing adventure with my family from Disneyland in California.  My sister in law and I had hatched a plan to make the Tinker Bell Half Marathon a reality and built a family vacation around it.  I knew it would be an awesome family vacation but I had no idea how much I was going to enjoy this run.  Disney runs are nothing like anything I have ever experienced before.  It was such an atmosphere of friendship and support!  Let me share with you my run.  First we got up at 3:45 in the morning to dress, feed and prepare ourselves.  Seems crazy right?  But I woke up ten minutes before my alarm ~ ready to get up!  When you have something so fun to do, how can you sleep?  Here I am at 4:30 as we prepared to head out to our corals.

Although it was dark out, it wasn't all that chilly.  The time passed very quickly as we chatted with a few people around us in the corals, everyone was in a great mood despite the crazy early time of day.

Before we knew it, the American anthem was playing and it was time to run. 

This run had sold out as it usually does and there were 13,000 registered runners!  The first few kms we worked our way around Disney Drive and over to the main gates of the park.  We spent about 8 kms running through the parks and we stopped for many character photos.  Here are a few of my faves.

Peter Pan and Wendy

Merida from Brave

Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean

After we left the park I stowed my camera in my water belt.  In hindsight, I wish I hadn't done that because there was so much to see on the streets of Anaheim.  There were the Red Hat ladies in droves, there were Cheer Squads, Marching bands and Dance teams.  The support from the community was unreal!  At times we ran down the street giving high fives to the spectators that lined the streets.  It was still pretty magical even though we weren't in the park.  The run was well supported with lots of water stops and fuel stations.  Before we knew it we were winding our way back down towards the park and the mileage markers read 11, 12, 13 miles... We were running down the chute and our magical run was over.  Even though the fun was over, getting our medals was pretty awesome...

What made this accomplishment even more Disney special was that in the days following the race, all the cast members made a point of acknowledging your run.  Even the characters in fur that could not speak would point to your medal or  your run shirt and give you the thumbs up and a high five.  That was Disney awesome!

Although this was my first Disney run I can say for sure that it won't be the last.  It was so much fun from start to finish.  It was a very special milestone for me!