Tinker Bell Half Marathon

Man! Long time no blog, huh? Well, I have been job hunting (to no avail) like a mad woman. There is a position out there for me, I just haven't found it yet. Since I moved back from London, I've had this itch to take a trip somewhere, anywhere. It's gonna happen. I can feel it in my bones.

I got an early start on my bucket list for 2014. After 20-odd weeks of (poor) training, I ran the Tinker Bell Half Marathon. I actually did better than I thought I would. I don't know that I ran one whole mile throughout the marathon, but I finished in 2:39:11. I was hoping for a 2:30 finish but realistically anticipated a 3 hour finish so I was very pleased with my time when I finally crossed the finish line. The 12th mile was the LONGEST! Holy Moly, I didn't think it was ever going to end.

The Tink Half attracted a big crowd and I loved reading everyone's signs. Some of my favorites:

"Run random stranger"

"Whine now, Wine later"

"The pain is in your head…and your legs, and feet"

"Mom, hurry up! Dad didn't feed us breakfast"

"I trained six months to hold this sign"

There are two sure fire ways to get me choked up. One is any type of military ceremony and two is total strangers cheering other strangers on. It's a reminder that human kindness still exists. I may or may not have teared up more than once hearing all those cheers of encouragement. What? I'm not a robot.

 I picked up my race packet two days before.

 My shirt was too big, but I wore it anyway.

 I woke up at 2:30am, got to Disneyland at 3:25am, found my place to stand at 4:00am and waited to start running at 5:40am. It was a long, tiresome process. I was SUPER nervous! Some of my concerns were:

"What if I finish last?"

"What if I don't finish at all?!"

"What if I don't run fast enough and they have to pick me up in a truck and drive me back?!"

"What if I get hurt?"

"What if I can't find my parents afterward?"

"What if my parents get into a car accident on the way there and one of them dies and the other one blames me because if it wasn't for me running, they wouldn't have been driving and who ever died would still be alive!?"

 I heard there was 15,000 runners! It was INSANE how many peeps were there!

 This is the starting line. They had us start running in groups. I was the last group to start.

 We ran through California Adventure and Disneyland park. There were a ton of characters to take pictures with that included: Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Monster cheerleaders from Monsters University, a slew of pirates, The Incredibles, and the longest line to take a picture with Darth Vader.

 The hostess with the mostess.

 The parks were all lit up and the race started with fireworks. It was pretty magical. Any other half marathon is just a really long, boring run.

 Forever my Disney favorite.

 I did end up finding a bathroom just before I left California Adventure at mile three. All those worries made me have to pee.

 Just before I crossed the finish line I found my parents cheering and taking pictures from the crowd. It was the best ending to my first (and probably only) half marathon. I got a medal and my picture taken, not to mention a banana, water and snack pack.

 My cheerleaders!

 Haha! I saw this guy while running. His butt says "BOOTY". There was a lot of runners dressed up. I don't how they did it. I had a hard enough time with my tiny backpack and yoga pants (wrong pants to wear, they kept falling down). I did love seeing all the costumes though. 

Once I was finished I had to walk from Timon parking lot back to Mickey and Friends parking structure. WHEW! I didn't know if I was going to make it. Usually people take that tram, but I did not see one available which I thought was silly because I just ran 13.1 miles and the least they could do was provide a ride to the parking structure, right?

Susan "Second Star to the Right and Straight on 'til Morning" B.