OMG, we had a BLAST!!
We started our morning off with a 4:30 am wake up call. To be honest I was not particularly happy to be waking up that early. We got ready, ate a small breakfast and hit the road at 5:30 am.
We made it to Disneyland around 6:00 am and had no problem parking. It’s one of the things that stresses me out so I was so glad that they had the large parking structure.
We parked easily and then made our way down to the starting area. The race started right where the trams picked park goers up.
There were a ton of people there.
After they sang the National Anthem, they started the race with some confetti.
It took awhile but soon enough, we were crossing the starting line.
Since there were so many runners and walkers mixed in, the beginning was a bit crowded. Jeff and I tried not to weave in an out and ended up passing people on the wrong side of the cones.
The first part of the race had us running by the back lots where they were working on some of the ride parts.
And then we made our way into the park!! It was so cool to get to run in the park before regular hours. We ran right by Splash Mountain.
Then made our way down to New Orleans Square passing Haunted Mansion and Pirates.
We then made our way to Frontierland…
Down a service tunnel…
And right out by Small World!
We headed into ToonTown, which may be the first or second time I’ve ever been there!
Right as we were in ToonTown we came up on the Mile 1 marker. I was a little thirsty but overall feeling good at this point.
We ran through Fantasyland and then through Tomorrowland, right in front of Star Tours. This was also the first water stop. I don’t normally drink water during our runs, but was really thirsty so grabbed a cup from a volunteer, took some sips and then tossed it.
Many many people had customer shirts and costumes for the run. Jeff and I are already planning what we are going to wear for next year.
We came out of Tomorrowland and made sure we got our picture in front of the castle.
By now the course had us running down Main Street and out of Disneyland towards California Adventure. We stopped for one more picture…picture fail! How do you miss closed eyes when you have a digital camera???
Right outside of Disney, they had us run underneath the monorail and along a line of spectators. It was really nice to see peoples’ friends and family there cheering them on. This was also where we came up on the Mile 2 Marker.
The next stretch of backroads behind CA was a little meh and that’s when it kicked in that oh yeah, we are running 3 miles. When it was about to get too boring we saw this view…
And finally entered into CA and hit mile 3 at pretty much the same time. The last mile had blown by and out loud I said, oh my gosh we are almost done! Only that .1 left to go.
And then we crossed the finish line!! We don’t have any pictures but made sure we smiled at multiple camera men. Hopefully one of them caught us crossing.
It was early enough that Jeff and I got in line for a photo and tried to take a picture of our “medals”.
They offered minimal refreshments after the run – cold bananas, water and mini Clif bars.
On our way out, we were behind this guy. Can you imagine running 3 miles in jeans? OUCH.
On our way back to the parking structure, we squeezed one more picture in.
And I admired our “medal” during the car ride.
Jeff wanted me to take a picture of the back. He was a little concerned that we paid all that $ to get a cancer causing medal. 
Below is a picture of the course.
Jeff and I are already talking about next year. Jeff wants to get a group together to make t-shirts and run as together. He’s already thinking of ideas!!
We had so much fun doing this 5k together. This was a great one to start with. The staff had the event so organized that everything ran smoothly, something pretty neat since there were almost 5,000 participants there.
Tomorrow is the Half Marathon and I cannot believe that the runners would have to run 10 more miles that what we did today! Good luck Half Marathoners!!
