Tinker Bell Half Marathon race report

On the flight home from Long Beach Airport (#bestairportinamerica)... it's time to write up the half. 

After the 10K, we decided to take a Disney day off -- just like last year. Originally we talked about going for a hike in Runyon Canyon, but thankfully learned that the park is closed for repairs before we left the hotel. 

In the end, we decided to have a quirky Hollywood day, first starting with a trip to the Hollywood Forever cemetery, where we saw "the sign"...

... then visited Johnny Ramone's grave ... 

(Seemed odd to have a tribute from Lisa Marie Presley?)

... then a little memorial to Toto...

... a marker for Jayne Mansfield, who isn't buried here... and she was actually 5 years older, apparently...

... and it was Rudolph Valentino's birthday. I guess. 

After the cemetery we decided to drive Mulholland Drive -- lots of fun twists and turns, some great lookouts, and some very irate locals passing the tourist vans and cars on blind curves. Woot.

This might be the best trail sign ever. 

Oh, and, well, we went to a Souplantation. Because it's almost a Sweet Tomatoes. Then back to the hotel for an early night. 

Why early? Because we had a 4:45 am wake up call for our 5:30 race. Oof. But, hey, at least we didn't need to be on shuttles 2 hours before the start!

It was a nice morning, and we easily slipped into our corral (B!) just in time to the national anthem and the wheeler start. 

View to the start:

and a view back along the long line of corrals:

And then we were off. I had an achy hip from the slippery 10K the day before, but was otherwise pretty okay. 

The course was interesting -- a swing around the outside of the park to stretch out the field, then into Disneyland for a bit. Due to the build-out of Star Wars Land (!!!), we ran a very different route from previous years, but still spent some quality time both on- and off-stage. We both especially liked the hairpin out-and-back along the riverside to the Haunted Mansion. 

I had been concerned that there was an overlap between mile 5 and mile 12 on the course -- that the slowest runners from the rear corrals and the fastest runners from A might come into conflict. But of course Disney had that figured out. When we got to the stretch, it was clear that the lanes were divided up, and no one had come around to lap us yet. (Phew.)

Then it was time to head into the quiet streets of Anaheim, where a flock of wild parrots squawked noisily at us and I started to really flag. 

But soon we hit the "far point" near the Pond... and a MASSIVE group of Red Hat ladies. They arrived exactly where I needed them: right around the eight-mile mark. I LOVE the Red Hat ladies. Probably 100 yards of whooping, cowbell-clanging, purple and red goodness. So great. They had lots of little  Pink Hat girls with them, too... and some great sights about inspiring strong women. I always blow kisses to the ladies and exchange high fives and laugh and whoop till my fave hurts. It's bringing tears to my eyes just remembering it. 

And, as a bonus, Strangers With Candy were right in the same area, so I got to eat a Red Vine...

Then we turned back toward the parks and the finish, down long flat stretches of road interspersed with surprisingly few bands. 

Finally we were back on property, where I was a little surprised to see that they had already closed the course so that we didn't see anyone at mile 5 when we were on 12. 

(Brief 10K memory: after the race we were walking back to our hotel and spotted the unmistakeable signs of a sweep point: buses, bicycles, lots of volunteers, and some weary folks. This was around mile 4, when the remainder of the course would still be on property. It made me sad to see, but I did wonder if the people were at least a little relieved?)

Back to the half: so maybe I wasn't surprised that they had already swept some people, given that they wouldn't have made it through Anaheim at the pace they were going. 

Finally, on a very sore hip and tired feet, we made it to the finish line, getting a costume shout out (which we didn't get at the 10K!!!) and having a nice kiss at the finish line. 

We picked up our medal haul, took some pictures (custom challenge backdrops!), and picked up our snack boxes before heading out. Oh, and of course we decided to continue the tradition of having a cocktail at the Uva Bar!

We went into the parks, rode Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and Star Tours; stopped in California Adventure for a beer, a cheese dog from Corn Dog Castle, a fast pass for Radiator Springs and then headed back to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool and a nap. Oh, and some #blingpix:

The weekend's medal haul: 10K, Half Marathon, Pixie Dust Challenge, pink Coast-to-Coast, and blue Coast-to-Coast. 

And a collection shot of all five of my Tinker Bell Half Marathon medals... Oh, and did I mention the Legacy Runner ribbon? Nice. 

 

After a well-earned nap we went back into the parks where we won our race in Radiator Springs...

decided on a whim to go see Jungle Book in Downtown Disney, and made it back to the park for World Of Color. 

After that ended we crossed over to Disneyland, wandered around under the fireworks, took a Suz-inspired photo:

... then rode Autopia, where Wil got to experience being the car in front. (Be afraid. Be very afraid.)

We ended up walking on to Buzz Lightyear, where somehow I managed to pwn Wil. 

(yeah, that's my score on the left...)

Finally, we capped the night off with the big sparkly parade (well, that SHOULD be what they call it) and that amazing float with Mickey:

Today we wrapped up our weekend with a ride on Luigi's Rollicking Roadsters (so cute!!!)

Fulfilled Wil's dream of Star Wars name badges:

And I got to compare shoes with Mickey. (I'm pretty sure he was jealous.)

We had a fun weekend, rode more rides than we often do, and even had a day "off". Nice. 

Tinker Bell 10K race report

We're halfway through Tinker Bell Half Marathon weekend -- let's get a little caught up. 

Flew down Friday morning, got settled in the hotel, went into Disneyland to ride Pirates of the Carribean, then headed over to the Disneyland Hotel. 

It had been drizzling, so the carpeted ramp was super slippery. And, apparently, black and white. Must be the rain. Disney noir. 

First we picked up our bibs. Amazingly, we had NO LINE. My luck may have rubbed off on Wil. We were celebrated as Legacy runners with a shout out... and a special bib. 

We took our "challenge" photo, then headed over to this congratulations wall: 

The 900-ish runners all have their names up on the board. So simple, yet so charming! Basically, seeing this made me #tinklegacyforlife ...

Me and Wil on the board. 

Then it was time to receive our "legacy gift". The Wine and Dine legacy runners received a spatula... We Tinks got... a mirror compact. 

(I'm actually pleased with it, Wil less so...)

Then to the expo proper...

We picked up our shirts (meh....) and took a quick pass through the Expo... but then went to go look for the official merch. 

I'm not ashamed to admit it -- we waited in line for 10 minutes to shop the merch. But the line moved quickly, and the shopping was actually pleasant because there wasn't a huge crush of people. We found all the medal pins (to go with the rest of the race pins we preordered) and a runDisney ornament, and were surprised by the amount of things still available. (Race jackets! We could have bought race jackets!)

Then back to the hotel to survey the haul.  

 

So. Many. Pins. And, no, we never managed to get past year's pins on the lanyard. 

There was some park time, some "Alertos" burritos, and then an early night. 

We woke up to a weird noise...  Was it the wind? Nope. Rain. Rain rain rain. 

But off we went ... All costumed up, but also wearing our Nanopuffs. 

We walked through a very wet Downtown Disney,

got into our corral: B; and then got ready for the start. Here was our view of the start:

and a view back down the corrals. Look at all the Tinks!

Finally, time for A to start!

Which meant it was time for our pre-race photo!

And... our turn to Go!

Managed not to take any photos during the 10K, other than this attempt at a Castle photo. Teeny tiny castle!

I had a surprisingly hard time. No idea why. Just struggled. But we finished.

And got a nice medal. 

Tomorrow: the half. 

I ran! To work!

It's unbelievable, really ... but I haven't run to or from work for nearly a year. So... I RAN TO WORK!

It was only 3.27 miles, and it took me 41:38 including walking up 65th to the top of the hill on Phinney Ridge ... but dammit, I ran. To work. And because of that I felt like a badass most of the day. Baby steps, I know. But still, steps.

runDisney, why can't I quit you?

I am not a fan of virtual races. There. I said it. 

And the few I have done were either charity events (raising money for Girls on the Run) or at least required some "proof" using a fitness tracker (Nike+ Women's Half, Route 66 Challenge).

And then this happened.

Yep, a runDisney virtual race. Not just one race, but a series of three. And, of course, each one has A CUSTOM MEDAL. Dammit.



They are, ostensibly, "charity races" -- though to be honest I can't tell if runDisney is pitching in to the charity, or whether runners are just encouraged to make donations themselves. More to come on that.

And, look, I know that it's potentially a way for people who can't travel to Disney to be able to participate in some of the magic of a runDisney event... except, it's not really.

My hesitation has nothing to do with the distance -- a 5K is a great distance -- so it's not that it's "just" a 5K.

It's that there's no "proof". So, basically, you pays yer money, you gets yer medal. You don't need to upload any sort of timing information at all. Which, of course, lowers the barrier to entry, etc. etc. It also makes things waaaaaay easier on the runDisney tech team.

So, for $39, runDisney will send you a medal. I mean, it's a cute medal, and each one is different.

Heck, there's even a series -- you can register for all three and get a "bonus medal" and a tumbler.

Of course, as usual, signing up for the series costs more than the three individual events combined: $142 for the three-"race" series.

All of which makes me feel weird. Basically I'm just buying a fistful of medals, a tumbler, and some "virtual bibs". Sigh.

And, of course, I bought in. All the way in.

do not forget to share!

Buying in means I get entitlements ... I am entitled. 

 Seriously.

I hate myself for loving you.

500 Days Till Summit Day

On September 2, 2017, Wil and I will summit Mt. Kilimanjaro. That's 500 days away. Between now and then we have a lot of training, planning, packing, training, flying, fretting, training, repacking, shopping, and training to do. And we should do some training. And then there's the climbing...

We'll be joining our friend Jenny Hadfield on this adventure ... along with some other friends we met trekking the Inca Trail. In the months to come we'll be talking about this trip in more detail, but here's the itinerary for the main part of our trip:

Day 1 (August 26): Arrive at Kilimanjaro airport and transfer to the hotel in Moshi, where we'll spend the night.

Day 2 (August 27): Rest day in Moshi, and we'll need our guides. I'm hoping we'll go into the Moshi town center as well.

Day 3 (August 28): This is when stuff gets REAL. We'll have breakfast at the hotel, and then we're off, starting our 3-4 hour climb in the village of Nalu Moru (1,950m). Fingers crossed we'll spot wildlife -- colobus monkeys!!! -- as we climb through forest. Tonight we'll camp at 2,600m with views over the Kenyan plains. 

Day 4 (August 29): In the morning we'll climb steadily to the Second Cave (3,450m) with views of Kibo. After lunch we'll head toward Mawenzi, camping in a valley near Kikelewa Caves (3,600m). We'll be walking, in total, 6-7 hours.

Day 5 (August 30): Today we'll spend 4-5 hours walking, mainly to get acclimatized to the altitude. So we'll either walk to gain altitude and return to the same camp to sleep, or hike to the Mawenzi Tarn Hut (and spend 2 nights there instead). 

Day 6 (August 31): If we didn't hike up to Mawenzi Tarn, we'll make that short but steep climb today.  If we already did, we'll explore the area to get more acclimatized. Only 3-4 hours walking. 

Day 7 (September 1): Today we'll spend 4-5 hours crossing the "saddle" between Mawenzi and Kibo to reach the Kibo Campsite (4,695m) at the bottom of the Kibo crater wall. We'll then relax for the rest of the day to prepare for our final ascent. 

Day 8 (September 2): SUMMIT DAY!!! Wake at midnight to a light breakfast, then start climbing at 1am. We'll switchback up steep scree -- possibly snow? -- to reach Gilman's Point on the crater rim at 5,861m between 5 and 7am. Two more hours of hiking along the rim will take us to the true summit, Uhuru Peak, by 9am. This is what we came for!

Then we'll descend back to the Kibo Huts to have lunch, collect our things, and then re-cross down to the Horombo Huts for dinner and sleep... zzzz.... This is, obviously, the longest day -- 10-12 hours of walking.

Day 9 (September 3): Down, down, down we'll go, through moorland to Mandala Hut (2,700m), and then all the way to the National Park Gate at Marangu (1,830m) which we should reach after 6 or 7 hours at around 2 or 3pm. We'll then be driven back to our hotel in Moshi for a well-deserved celebration and more rest. 

After all that excitement, on the day 10 we'll be heading out on a 7-day safari ... so exciting!!!

Fancy joining us for this adventure? Read all about it on Coach Jenny Hadfield's site!

2016 Tinker Bell 10K and Half Marathon Course Maps - a closer look

I always love looking at the race programs when they come out ... sure, they're pretty formulaic, but it's nice to get a sneak peek of the color theme (prediction: peach and lime shirts this year) and, of course, the COURSE MAPS.

First, the 2016 Tinker Bell 10K map:

At first glance, it might look very similar to the 2015 map ... but NO! Thankfully, runDisney kept the opening mile(-ish) intact, running around the outside edge of the park. But then the route through the parks is quite different.

Here's 2015, for reference:

It looks like we'll have much more time "on stage" in both parks! And this year the 10K runners will get to run through the castle -- always a bottleneck .... em, highlight. ;) Of course, a lot of the Disneyland course changes are probably because of the Star Wars Land project (squee!) -- which makes it somehow even more exciting.

Quick side-by-side, with 2015 on the left and 2016 on the right:

Now, what about the half marathon?

Here's the 2016 Tinker Bell Half Marathon course:

and the 2015 course:

Similar changes within the parks -- though the half marathoners will have more time on Main Street in Disneyland than the 10Kers will. Is it just me (or the trick of the scale of the map?), or does it feel like there's less "on stage" time with the half marathon? The route through the quiet streets of Anaheim remains pretty much unchanged, though it looks like the finish line has been moved out of that parking lot behind the Paradise Pier Hotel (and into a different parking lot... by the Disneyland Hotel).

Here's something a little odd, and new:

Mile 5 ... and mile 12 ... are parallel. Which potentially means that some of the slower folks in the later corral, who will start nearly an hour after the first corral, will be in that stretch while the fastest folks from the first corral are running to the finish. I'm going to trust that runDisney is prepared for that and will have cones and such... but I can imagine some congestion here.

Finally, a quick side-by-side of the half marathon map, with 2015 on the left, and 2016 on the right:

I'm finally getting excited about this race... or maybe just for our first trip to Disneyland in a year!

Go Long 520 Bridge 10K race report

You know I love to run on a bridge, an elevated highway, or basically anywhere pedestrians aren't usually allowed to be. So when I read about the Go Long 520 Bridge 10K -- a chance to run across the longest floating bridge in the world before it opens to the public and vehicular traffic -- well, of course I was gonna do it.

We took the 44 -- an amusing bus ride from Ballard, because the bus FILLED UP with runners. But as we got closer to the University District, traffic slowed to a crawl, then a halt. Though we should have arrived at the UW Medical Center at 7:00, at 7:10 we had just crossed I-5. A lot of the runners -- ourselves included -- bolted when the doors opened at the Roosevelt Way stop and we all started running the mile or so to the start.

Luckily I had already gone to pick up our shirts and bibs on Thursday -- otherwise we would have missed the start.

But we got to Husky Stadium slipped through the crowd, and made our way to the starting area. They were announcing that they were delaying the start by 10 minutes to allow people to get from the parking area, which worked out well for us. Why? We had time for our obligatory pre-race photo!!!

The announced field size was over 12000 people ... pretty hard to believe. But the start was indeed crowded...

It took a while to get to the start ... so, TIME FOR ANOTHER PHOTO!

Team Wil-Sun get their race faces on!

Eventually, we crossed the start line and ran out across the Montlake Bridge ... which is always a little scary because of the sharp grating. We also had to narrow down from 4 lanes to 2 to get onto the onramp. I suspect when this race was planned they had hoped to have more work complete, as there was still a lot of construction equipment on the old roadway. 

It was also a surprisingly long way before we got to the new bridge ... I guess I hadn't really thought about it. But then, gloriously, we were on the bridge!

Wil welcomes you to the new 520 Floating Bridge!!!

Though the sun didn't break through until later in the day, the day was dry and there was no real wind. So on and on we ran. I had had weird little thoughts about all those marching feet somehow causing the bridge to wobble, but it clearly wasn't a problem.

Seriously, after the Broughton Suspension Bridge collapsed in 1831, the British Army issued instructions that troops should "break step" while crossing a bridge -- the "mechanical resonance" was blamed for the collapse. Remember the wobbly Millennium Bridge when it opened? Same thing. Apparently there was an even bigger disaster in France -- the Angers Bridge Collapse -- where 226 people died. Maybe floating bridges don't have the same issue as suspension bridges? Less chance of wobble? Anyway, this sign is from the Albert Bridge in London and it always amuses me that it's still there.






We ran up the incline to the turnaround, smiling for the Good to Go!
cameras...

But we had to stop at the turnaround because this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity:

#floatingbridgie

It's a little difficult to tell, but the bridge is FULL of people. Pretty cool. The westbound lanes were all set up for the big ribbon-cutting ceremony later in the day, including a presentation from Guinness World Records of a certificate designating the new bridge, at 7708.494 feet, as the world's longest floating bridge.

We ran into several friends, including our pal Brenda C. -- always great to see our running pals in the wild!

our run

I didn't have a great performance today -- I felt like my feet were slapping the ground, which I noticed in my run in Oklahoma, too. And I got a very strange cramp in my left calf. So much to work on, eh? 

even the bibs were nice!