Disneyland Tinkerbell Half Marathon & Kids Races

Here is a post I wrote after I ran the

Inaugural Tinkerbell Half Marathon

& Kids races

My Husband didn’t do the 5K

because it was REALLY expensive

(it included a park ticket, but we already had annual passes – lame!)

Nobody does Races Like Disney

This was my third Disney Race,

and at least, race performance wise, it was my favorite

I have LOVED each of them

They were all GREAT races

I got there around 4:45/5:00 (the race started at 5:45) and was one of the first in my corral

(they had said to be there by 4:45 :P)

So I was near the front of Corral B, which is as close the the front as I will probably ever get 🙂

There was apparently 11,000 women and almost 1000 men there

I ran past Sean Astin – You know the guy from Rudy and Lord of the Rings?

(he then passed me later because he is fast!)

I made use of the earlier Corral and stopped for a bunch of characters

(previously I only did one or two)

because there were smaller lines because not as many people had been through yet

(The later corrals = longer lines)

It still took me at least 15 extra minutes to do the stops,

(I timed it, it was at least 15 minutes)

but worth it!

I stopped at all the characters I thought the kids would like or think I was cool for stopping and getting pictures with

Jonathan was especially jealous of Jack Sparrow!

(you can’t find him in the parks anymore!)

I even helped a few other people take pictures (’cause I am nice that way!)

The rest of the race went well

I had some stomach “issues” around mile 11

luckily it passed with an extended walking period

(my body/me has issues with portapotties)

It also started to get REALLY hot toward the end

The announcers were talking about how it heated up REALLY fast once the sun came up when I crossed the finish line

I think they may have flagged the race even

(Disney raises flags along the course if it is getting to hot, I think it reached level 1 – there are 3 levels)

There were lots of bands along the race – even an army band!

The Red Hat Ladies set up a HUGE cheering section

They were awesome

The Medal is FANTASTIC!

It is the coolest medal I have

(although all the Disney ones are awesome!)

Tinkerbell spins!

I also got my coveted Coast to Coast Medal!

My Coast to Coast medal is just cool

I am so excited about that one!

It is literally a dream come true

Something that I have been planning for a long time

FINALLY coming to fruition after years of planning it

It was VERY exciting to get it!

Plus I was able to get the green wrist band I HAD to wear ALL weekend on my wrist to get the medal, off 🙂

I was feeling GREAT after the run

Didn’t feel tired or sore

Which means I should probably push myself more

But I don’t like pain, I like not getting injuries, and I like breathing

so whatever – I finished

and had I not stopped for the characters

I would have PR’d

but the race is about fun and fun is what I had!

So 7 Half Marathons in 9 months – Not bad for a new runner

(if you can call what I do running!)

It is hard to say which race course I liked better –

I like the way that they run us through the parks at this race better than the Disneyland

However, I liked running through Angel Stadium at the DisneyLand Half

So if I could take the beginning of the Tinkerbell and mix it with the end (or at least mile 9-11) of the Disneyland Half, I think you would have the best course!

There was no line for food, drink, etc. at the end

(unlike my 10 min wait at DisneyWorld :P)

I got my medals, food, and drinks

and headed for the hotel

The kids were excited to see both of my medals 🙂

It was a very exciting day!

Onto the Kids Races:

They started at 8:00 at California Adventures. So we left the hotel at 7:15ish. We got there and there was a HUGE line to get in. They had to bag check everyone and it was taking quite awhile. We got through in plenty of time before the races started though.

Our 9 year old was in the mile race, so she started at a different spot than the younger boys. So my Husband went with her and was going to run with her. Her race started first. My Husband said the line was huge, but moved fairly fast. She apparently was not in a hurry and pretty much ran at her own pace. But she finished in a little over 13 minutes, so really not bad! She got her medal and after race treats.

The boys races started in a different place and it was CHAOS over there. There was a BIG difference between this race and the Disneyland half. The Disneyland Half was in Downtown Disney, so they had SECURE corrals staged in the parking lots with employees at the entrances to each age group to keep kids safe and make sure they couldn’t leave without the correct adult (you had claim tags for your kids) and it was very orderly. So theoretically (we used Aunts to help us, so we didn’t have to leave them), you could leave one kid to race with another and then go race with the other kid when it was their turn. Here there were no corrals. They just had signs for the different age groups and people spread about this massive eating area in the park. There was no way you could leave a kid with their age group (in fact they told you not to), so we had no choice but to have the boys go together (they told us to do this). Our 6 year old decided he would just go with 2 year old group. Fine with me, they are first, so we were done sooner!

So once the milers were done – I could see my 9 year old pass by us! – the 1-3 year olds were up. One thing that was better was they got the corrals through the start MUCH faster than the Disneyland half! I think it was because they were a little behind and they had to open the park for business! So they would line the kids up like 4-5 at a time and say 1, 2, 3, GO! and then line up the next set and same thing. They went really fast – which was a nice improvement over Disneyland Half. So in a perfect world, I would take the orderly, and secure corals of the Disneyland half and mix it with how fast they got the kids going from this race and would have the prefect kids races! 🙂 Both of the races were alot of fun regardless and the kids LOVE having their own races!

My 2 year old took his time when it was his turn – my 6 year old was very sweet and stayed with him and tried running with him. The 2 year old however was very distractable. He stopped to look at the flowers (at least twice!) Then he got to the cheering crowd. I didn’t think we would EVER get him away. He walked near them and LOVED having them cheer for him. He thought it was great. He stopped to smile and wave at all the people. They would cheer and tell him how cute he was and he would move onto the next cheering section of people, smile and wave. Yeah, he is a little Ham. I had to move him along – he finally got to the finish line (this was only 100m) and was excited to see Minnie! He loved the all Characters, but is still too chicken to go up to them himself. He is only brave around them if mom or dad is holding him and then he is fine 🙂

So he finally finished, (he started toward the middle of the heats, and by the time he finished they were announcing that the 1-3 year old were almost done!), and both boys got their medals and we found my husband and daughter. We then did bathroom breaks, had a snack, and then headed back into California Adventures for the day.