Friday, September 6, 2013

2013 Inagural Dumbo Double Dare


What is the Dumbo Double Dare? It's a new runDisney challenge.  You run the Disneyland 10K on Saturday followed by the Disneyland Half Marathon on Sunday or a total of 19.3 miles. All participants that finished both races receive a third medal.



Saturday, August 31st - Disneyland 10k

It's 5:30 am. We are all "up and running", looking fresh and happy, don't we? Zzzzz




Mile 1 - "It's hot and humid today!"


Mile 2 - "¡Que calor!"


I noticed that the Disney staff member that is about to take my picture is from La Coruna (Spain). Her name is Mayte. I asked her to be in the picture with me.


We arrived in beautiful Radiator Springs. Lightning McQueen and Mater gave us a welcome!




Flowers are still blooming regardless the weather :)


Mile 3 - "¡Que humedad! I feel like I am in Orlando"



Few minutes later, I reunited with my friends and the "other" Monsters.  This is our last stop in California Adventure before heading to Disneyland.



Mile 4 - "I should have worn my Queen of Hearts running costume"


"Off with their heads" she said. I am just "playing" with the cards.


You can tell that Halloween is around the corner.


One more picture with the beautiful ladies!


There is always time for some tea!


Mile 5 - 90 degrees and 40% humidity, perfect condition to practice hot yoga!




After a quick encounter with the Queen of Hearts, we crossed Sleeping Beauty's castle.  What a shame! Aurora was not at home. I could have taken a shower!




Mile 6 -  How many grams of sugar do you think are in this muffin? :-)



The last .2. Oh noooo, it's over!!! 



What a FUN race! Only one problem ... aha, you guessed right! It was hot and humid!

After the race, we went to Paradise Pier and enjoyed a nice birthday breakfast with Mickey & Friends. Thanks to all my family and friends who came up to celebrate!!

 



Sunday, September 1st - Disneyland Half Marathon

This was my third Disneyland Half Marathon. This race always falls on Labor Day Weekend which happens to be the closest weekend to my birthday.  Since I am a BIG runDisney fan I cannot think of a better way than to celebrate at the "Happiest Place on Earth" doing what I like the most: RUNNING.


Here we go again, it's 5 in the morning and we are all looking quite awake. Zzzzz.



 My goal this year was to run the entire half without stopping for pictures. After all, I had many good snapshots from the day before. However, like every year, I changed my mind the moment we arrived at California Adventure's Cars Land. It's so pretty.




From California Adventure, we proceeded to Downtown Disney before entering Disneyland. I stopped to take pictures with Merida from Brave but the lines were too long. Soon after, we were in the streets of Anaheim heading towards the Honda Center and the Angel Stadium. Anaheim is not the most beautiful place in the world but the cheer squads and high school bands make up for it.


Like the day before, it's very hot and humid, perhaps too humid for my taste.   I was loosing my energy but I recovered rather quickly as we entered the stadium. This is probably one of my favorite parts of the race.  There were hundreds of people cheering for us. I was trying to get my picture on the giant Jumbotron but I couldn't locate the video camera.I thought 3rd year was the charm. Grgrgrg


Only 3 miles to go from this point.  I turned on the music and zoned out.  This sign made me laugh.



At mile 12, I met my friend April who participated in the Goofy Challenge with me earlier on this year. We ran together for a couple of minutes and celebrated soon after at the finish line. My official finish time was 2:19:21. It's slow but I was fine with it since I took my time to take pictures along the way.
  
With my friend April

With Team Sparkle

With my friends the MW
This concludes my 2013 runDisney races.


My next runDisney event is the 2014 Tinker Bell Half Marathon and the Glass Slipper Challenge in Orlando. 

Thursday, September 5, 2013

2013 Disneyland Half Marathon Meet-Up


This year, I had the privilege to be invited to a runDisney Meet-Up. What an experience! We met at Mickey's Sorcerer's Hat in Downtown Disney around 6:00am.

Photo Credit: Jimmy DeFlippo

We attended the New Balance's Good Form Running (GFR) Clinic and met a few celebrities. Here I am with Sean Astin, best known for his role as Samwise in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Mikey in The Goonies and the title character of Rudy. 


I also talked to former 'N Sync member Joey Fatone who wished me happy birthday. 



After the running clinic, we headed to Disneyland and California Adventure for a short run,  +/-  2 miles. The parks were closed to the public. They were all ours. What an honor!  We ran alongside Olympian Jeff Galloway and 2012 Disneyland Half Marathon winner Cindy Lynch. We stopped at the Mad Hatter's Hat Shop for some pictures and a Teacup ride. 


I met Ali Vincent, winner of the 5th edition of The Biggest Looser. She is super sweet and down to earth. 



The next stop was the Mad T Party at California Adventure.

Photo Credit: Jimmy DeFlippo

We were offered free delicious breakfast by our hosts, Alice and the Mad Hatter.  




  
Photo Credit: Jimmy DeFlippo

We met the official nutritionist of runDisney, Tara Gidus and took a peek at ABC's new tv show "Once Upon A Time in Wonderland".  We listened to Sean Astin, Joey Fatone and Ali Vincent's personal experiences. They are truly inspiring!

Photo Credit: Jimmy DeFlippo -
I am behind Alice with my hot pink visor

At the end of the Meet-Up, there were prizes given away including a new pair of New Balance and runDisney bags. New medals were also revealed. 
Photo Credit: Jimmy DeFlippo

We all received a nice goody bag with H20 products, Cliff bars, pins and a nice 1-day free entry to the parks. 


 What can I say?  It was the best way to kick-off my BIG birthday weekend!

Friday, August 16, 2013

I am IN for the Disneyland Half Marathon Meet-Up!



This is my first runDisney Meet-Up. I still can't believe I made it! I was "just" planning on celebrating my big 40th birthday with +20,000 friends at the Dumbo Double Dare Challenge. This is a 10k on Saturday followed by the Disneyland Half Marathon on Sunday.



To enter and be selected to be part of this event is just mind blowing and the best 40-birthday present EVER! 


For those who don't know what a runDisney "Meet-Up" is, let me explain. It's a social event hosted by runDisney. It usually takes place the Friday before race weekend. It's announced through Twitter and the Disney Parks Blogs. It's limited to a number of qualified runners, usually the first ones to RSVP to the runDisney message. What does the  "Meet-Up" entail? We run through Disneyland and California Adventure with Olympian Jeff Galloway and other celebrity runners. The run starts at 6:00 am before the park opens to the public. Yes, the Disneyland park is all ours! How cool is that! We also have the opportunity to meet Disney characters, possibly take some rides and socialize with many runDisney fans and social media fanatics. Not bad, huh? *wink* I am sure you understand my enthusiasm now. 

This is Disney's official announcement from their website: 

"To get runners warmed up for Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend, an early morning runDisney meet-up is planned for Friday, August 30, at the Disneyland Resort.

In case you’re “curiouser and curiouser” as to the details, we’re planning to have a couple of special guests, along with a teacup-ful of friends from Wonderland to help get the weekend started in a rather un-birthday-like manner. Of course, along with a few surprises, there will be a full deck of training experts, including Jeff Galloway and Tara Gidua"

This makes me smile cause this is nothing un-birthday-like for me, quiet the contrary. Happy 40th birthday to me!

Stay tune for my full report after the event!