Tags
2014, coast to coast challenge, disneyland, disneyland 10k, disneyland half marathon, dumbo double dare, race recap, race review, rundisney, running, running costumes
Dumbo Double Dare weekend has come and gone, and I am officially counting down 125 days until I return to Disney World to take on the Goofy Race and a Half Challenge (yes, I’ve lost my damn mind).
But before I hurry along into my next Disney countdown, its time for a Dumbo Double Dare Race Recap! I will skip over all the dramatics (which are STILL on-going) of our travel days and Disneyland antics for now, and only focus on the related events of the weekend.
Tim and I arrived at the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend Expo at the Disneyland Hotel on Thursday afternoon. We headed downstairs to pick up my packet along with Matt’s packet for the Dumbo Double Dare. Matt and I had bib numbers that were close together, so it was just one line for both of our packets, but there was no line at all, so I walked right up to the window! When signing for my bib, I noticed that there was no spot to sign off for my Coast to Coast Medal wrist band! I asked the volunteer that was assisting me and she flagged down a runDisney staff member and he brought me over to the Runner Relation’s Booth. I had to wait in a bit of a line, but eventually I made it to the front and the woman at the booth was able to look up my Princess Half Marathon race results and put the green Coast to Coast wristband on me.
After that, we went up to the vendor area of the expo and browsed around. There was quite a bit of a line for the official merchandise, and since I wasn’t planning on buying anything from there I decided not to wait and figured I would come back on Friday or Saturday to check out what was left. We headed back to the Paradise Pier Hotel for showers and naps before dinner.
On Friday morning, Matt joined us at the hotel and we spent the day at the parks. We were probably out a little to late for the eve of the 10k, but we weren’t planning on actually racing the 10k, just having a good time and taking lots of pictures.
On Saturday morning we woke up around 4:15 and got ready for the 10k. Matt and I headed out and followed the mass of runners towards the start line, and Tim would join us later at the finish line. While it is much nicer being able to sleep in and then just walk to the corrals at Disneyland and not have to wait for a bus like you do at Disney World, the start area seemed much more congested and compact compared to Disney World. We got in our corral just after 5am and waited for the start. I was in corral C just like I was for the Enchanted 10k, so I expected we would start at 5:50 again, but they set off the corrals much closer together at Disneyland than they did in Disney World, so we ended up starting at 5:44 instead.
We were off, headed through the streets of Anaheim and eventually into a back entrance of Disney California Adventure to hit up Cars Land. Soon we were headed towards Paradise Pier and stopped for pictures by World of Color. I can’t really recall any character stops, except some people dressed up as Elvis? I saw some pictures on the runDisney Facebook page that there was a stop for stitch who was dressed up as Elvis, and Chip and Dale. It was a little disappointing considering I was actually planning to stop for character photos this race, and there just weren’t any to be had.
As we headed out of Paradise Pier into Carthay Circle towards the 5k time pad, I spotted them, the trolley tracks. I was in the middle of making a mental note in my head to be careful not to trip when I felt myself going down. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as I felt my ankle twist in the track and my water bottle flew out of my hand. I realized I was about to lose my iPhone and tried to gently skid it across the ground. SLAM! I tore up my left elbow on the ground and my knee twisted. I could feel my four race medals slipping away. I sprang up from the ground as quickly as I could.. Maybe no one noticed? I was bleeding. My ankle was throbbing. Runner’s were asking if I was okay. One yelled to me that I had a great recovery. “I’m okay, I’m okay!” I repeated to everyone who asked. Two or three Disney worker’s tried to convince me to go with them to a nurse’s station, but there was no way I was stepping off course, I was getting those medals! We kept moving and hit the 5k pad. I looked down and realized I had ripped my bib half off. I started to poke holes in it so I could repin it and Matt asked if I wanted to stop and work on it. No, we had to keep moving. If I stopped, I was afraid I wouldn’t start back up again.
We left California Adventure and headed into the Magic Kingdom. We ran/hobbled/walked/jogged down Main street USA, past Its A Small World, Toon Town, through Sleeping Beauty Castle and out of the park. We ran through Downtown Disney towards the Disneyland Hotel and out to the finish line. We collected our medals and hurried back to the hotel for showers before our breakfast reservations.
I was able to clean up my arm a bit and put some neosporin on it. My ankle and knee seemed okay enough and after breakfast at Steakhouse 55 we headed back over to the Expo. I checked out the official merchandise, but nothing really shouted to me BUY ME NOW! Especially at those prices, the three shirts that came with my packet would be good enough for me.
We then spent most of the day in the hot parks on our feet which probably wasn’t the best idea for day before Half Marathon activties, but I’ve never been to Disneyland, I had to make the most of the entire weekend! We made sure to carbo-load at a pasta place (hooray for reservations!) in Downtown Disney and then turned in early for the night.
The next morning was much of a repeat of the morning before. 4:15am wake up call, followed by getting ready and herding like cattle to the corrals. I told Matt he wasn’t allowed to stay with me. I knew he could run much faster than I could, even if I was attempting a PR. Since my leg was still in questionable shape, I ditched my PR goals and refused to let him stay with me.
I started out very slowly, and was having bad muscle spasms in my leg that I hurt. I feel like they were more related to being dehydrated and on my feet all day then to falling, but either way it was quite painful. We made our way through the streets of Anaheim once again, and then into California Adventure. After taking it quite slow the first 5k and getting an alert on my phone that my anticipated finish time was three hours and 10 minutes, I sped things up just a notch.
I settled into a run 1/10 mile, walk 1/10 mile intervals. My leg seemed to spasm every time I stopped to walk. I wasn’t paying too much attention to the sights around me, mostly focusing on making sure I was okay to finish. When I hit the 10k pad my estimated finish time was 3:03:56… Better, but still, I wanted to try to get under 3 hours! I ticked it up another notch, besides, walking seemed to be more painful than running.
There were some lovely spectators handing out red vines and orange slices which was really nice. It felt good to have something in my mouth besides a gooey ShotBlok.
Then we hit the classic cars and there were spectators with pretzels and jolly ranchers! I grabbed one of each of those and thanked them!
Soon we were on the Santa Ana River Trail and approaching Angel’s Stadium and hit the nine mile mark. They were handing out Clif Gels, but I passed on those since I had my ShotBloks and all the goodies from the spectators. We entered into the stadium and I paused off to the side for a selfie.
After exiting the stadium we hit the 15k pads and my estimated finish time was 3:00:29… Ugh, still not good enough. I was going to have to finish this race out much stronger than I started if I wanted to get below the three hour threshold, so I cranked it up just a bit more. My leg was a little mad, but I was almost there!
Finaly we were running towards the Disneyland Hotel and almost at the finish line. I pulled out my headphones and heard people shouting “GO GENIE!!!” so go I did.
I crossed the finish line in 2:57:53, no where near a PR for me, but only three seconds slower than my Princess Half Marathon race where I wasn’t injured and didn’t stop for any pictures.
I saw Tim as I crossed the finish line, but there was no easy way for him to meet up with me in the finisher’s area, so we agreed to meet back at the hotel. I collected my Disneyland Half Medal, headed for my Coast to Coast Medal and then over to the Dumbo Double Dare Medals. I tried to find Matt but he got kicked out of our planned meeting area because he finished so far ahead of me in 2:04:15 (he’s so speedy, but thinks he’s not!). He sent me a message through Instagram that he was over near ESPN Zone and I told him to just come meet me back at the hotel.
I hobbled along nearly in tears as my leg kept spasming, but people kept congratulating me on my medals and complimenting my costume, so I couldn’t cry! I had to wait a couple minutes to cross the race course to get back to the hotel, and when I finally made it upstairs I took a picture with all of my medals and then hit the shower. My leg was seizing up and I got my compression socks on. I am usually not too sore after running a half anymore, but this pain was a new kind of pain. I took some Aleve and downed a bottle of water with Nuun and then settled in for an hour nap before our lunch reservations.
When I woke up my leg was feeling so much better, it just needed a little rest and electrolytes I think. We headed over to the Magic Kingdom for a celebratory lunch of all you can eat ribs and chicken at the Big Thunder Ranch BBQ. During lunch Woody (my favorite!!!) came out and I was able to get a picture with him, which made me happy!
Later on, we headed back to Carthay Circle and I was able to do a dramatic reenactment of tripping on the trolley tracks, which I cursed every time we saw them for the rest of the weekend.
Overall Dumbo Double Dare weekend was a success. We had a lot of drama at a couple points during our travel, but I’ll get to that next week. 🙂
Only 125 days until Disney World!!!!!!