Completed the race today! This was my 2nd half marathon, and the 2nd one at Disneyland. I wanted to improve since the last race and I knew that would be an achievable goal because it was so hot during my previous race, and because I did not have school going on making it tough to train. Looks like I did beat my last time by about 12 minutes. Woo!
Did training starting in July - the goal was to do one long run a week and increase distance by 10% each week until I'm doing the 13.1 miles on a long run. 10% was supposed to reduce injury, but I eventually got injured (see previous post...). Luckily there was enough time to heal for the run today, but not so long that my training went down the tubes.
Got up at 3:30a, which was about 6.5 hrs of sleep, and I ate a banana and toast. I think she just had an english muffin. We had everything ready to go from the night before - bibs on shirt/skirt, race chip on shoe, check-in bag with watch, camera, etc. So we headed out, arriving before 4:30 and parking which was $12 (arg). We definitely beat the rush because we got in on the 1st parking level. It was a little to chilly outside and we were tired so we just relaxed in the car before walking over to the race area.
They had a guy playing snippets of Disneyland ride theme songs and people in the crowd guessed the songs. Also they had some dudes dressed up as the Toy Story toy soldiers (green plastic army men). They were pretty funny. One lady had a trash bag over her shoulders and he told her "Ma'am, you're wearing a trash bag." but she did not see the humor haha. I think she was just cold.
We eventually headed over to the race corrals at about 5:20 or so. I was in corral G, and she was in B. Sun was just barely coming up at this point. Would have been nice to have been in the same corral, but I did not have race proof from the last year since I've run no races, so I got relegated to the back.
They sang the national anthem - everyone around me was totally quiet for it. That was neat. People were pumped up. They started by calling Wave 1, but I had no idea what wave 1 was. Ends up it was corrals A,B,C or something like that. Then about 10 minutes later they called wave 2 which was corrals D,E,F maybe? So FINALLY they when they called wave 3 which was me, it was a solid 25 minutes after wave 1. I didn't even know that I was in wave 3 so when they called it and everyone started moving I was surprised. Sort of bad organization there... but that's only the start of the problems.
Ends up they jammed all the walkers into wave G - still not sure how I got in there since I told them I was not walking! We walked the first half mile - there were so many people that I couldn't get around or through. Whenever there was an opening I squeezed through and I jumped on sidewalks and on curbs just to get around these walkers. Apparently groups of 5 or so decided to walk it and they felt like they needed to walk side by side which totally blocked up progress. VERY rude of them, and very dangerous. They should have gotten over to the right side and leaving room on the left for the runners. I'm not sure how they could have thought they would be able to complete the course in 3.5 hrs if they are walking - that makes no sense. Would have been best if Disney would have just made an announcement to let people know how to be courteous. Even better, Disney could have made a special wave just for walkers.
It was very dangerous because people were getting angry. One lady that ran past me said, "are we runners here or what?" Good point, but she was out-voted. Less than one mile in on the course the race route actually narrowed down due to Disneyland construction to about 20 feet wide. Then to make matters worse, Disney put a water station there!!! Insane! That funneled us down further to about 8 feet! Sorry, but that is idiotic.
We ran through the parks, and the sun was up at this point. Hard to enjoy the park since it was so crowded. Another guy yelled "I want a fast pass!" Me too. We wound around Matterhorn and then past the carousel and through the castle, still walking. Headed over by Pirates, then past Mansion, Pooh, and then out of the back lot. I was hoping to see the fireworks equipment which I know is back there, but I think we went down a different alley. We eventually dumped out to Ball street and this is when the route was finally wide enough to get in with runners running my pace.
I did not run with any music, which was my plan this year. I've decided that running with the headphones actually makes the long runs seem longer for some reason. She suggested that maybe the songs make the run feel longer because songs are relatively short compared to the run duration. I buy it! Listening to long talk radio podcasts are good for running, I've found. But I wanted to audio because the cords get in the way and all that. I think people with music on made the race a little more dangerous because they couldn't hear people around them. People were making abrupt jumps and stops right in front of other runners without looking back. Rude rude rude.
Also good to not have headphones because this race organizes high school bands, mariachi bands, and Hawaiian bands/dancers along the Anaheim route. That's cool - they're playing pep band music, and they have cheer squads making lots of noise too which is fun. Runners were giving the band kids all high fives but I thought that was kinda nasty. Break out the Purell!
The last race I started periodically walking at the 10K mark (6 miles or so). But this time my training runs were a lot longer than that so I knew I could run further. I made it to the Honda center before I had my first walk. Just maybe 20 steps of walking to feel if my ankles were sore at all, or if I was injured at all. We then headed down the river trail under the Angel's A sign by the freeway. Just before entering Angel's stadium was the 15K mark (9.3 mi).
Then we got to "run the bases" again this year! That was fun. They had a bunch of boy and girl scouts in the stands cheering which was a nice idea. We got on the jumbotron, and they had an announcer in the stadium just chatting like they do.
Exited the stadium and it was the home stretch! Only about a 5K distance to go! I figured at this point if I ran my best 5K ever I could finish this half marathon in under 2 hrs, but I knew I was poopin out. I ended up doing a decent amount of walking on this last stretch through DCA and back to the finish line. I got no videos along this route because I was really having a rough go. Had to go to the bathroom, was really tired. But I made it eventually and was very happy it was over!
Funny as soon as I was done I didn't have to use the bathroom anymore - arg. But I did sit down and recovered a bit. I wasn't feeling that great, and I downed a whole powerade and a whole water. It was getting warm at this point, but there was some shade. I got a couple pictures of me with the medal, picked up my post-race chow, and met up with my lady.
So on one hand, maybe the walking at the start due to the crowds was OK since that reserved energy for the end which I obviously needed. OR maybe the crowd weaving and abrupt starts and stops took up energy which would have made me faster. Who knows - if I do it again I will run any race to qualify for a wave 1 corral. Worth the effort.
Here's my race stats:Bib 13204
Div 25-29 M
ChipTime: 2:07:55Pace: 9.6 min/mile
Clock Time: 2:33:09
Overall Place: 2563 (out of 11643 finishers, 2563/11643=22.0%)
Gender Place: 1635 (out of 4381 finishers, 1635/4381=37.3%)
Divison Place: 228 (out of 642 finishers, 228/642=35.5%)
Age Grade = 46.3% (100% is world-class)
5K Split: 30:46
10K Split: 1:00:46
15K Split: 1:32:49
My 2007 Disneyland Half Marathon race results! Previous chip time was 2:20:12, so this is a new personal record! Hah, the weather was much more pleasant this time around, and I probably did better training despite the minor injury.
Other race stats:
~13500 racers, 11643 finishers
Oldest runner: 85 y/o man from Salt Lake City, ran 2:26:20!
Avg Age: 37
People from each of the 50 states were running.
64% female entrants
My division:
Filtered By Division=MEN -- 25 THROUGH 29
| 642 | MEN -- 25 THROUGH 29 | 01:19:33 | 02:23:17 | 03:46:02 |
Pace: 7:45 min/mile
