Official 2017 Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend Thread

Well done, everyone. Glad everyone made it through safely...congrats!
Rundisney seems to be serious of sweeping. Between mile 6-12, saw at least five spots with buses ready to go and sweep.
That's interesting. Guessing it's a combination of the weather (maybe they were expecting more people to pull themselves from the course, so they needed buses in more spots) and them wanting to clear the streets quickly to stay on Anaheim's good side? :scratchin
 
Well, we now know what it feels like to run on the surface of the sun. That sucked balls. I suspect there will be a long DNF list.

Today's half for me was 28 minutes slower than one I did 7 weeks ago.

Me and air conditioning are going to spend some quality time together today before I venture out again.

Well done to everyone else who ran today.

The SAG list from today is one of the longest that I have seen in my entire time running at Disney, by a considerable margin.
 
This was a first for me. Last stretch after the last water station, everyone migrated to the shady sidewalk with a couple of exceptions. Had never seen so many people move onto a sidewalk during a Disney race: IMG_1120.JPG
 


This was difficult but I HAD to do it and finish it. DH and I have been doing this race since the second year they offered it and last week the guy broke his toe. With strict instructions that this race was a no go for him. So I had to finish for the both of us....humidity/heat and all.
Did it/accomplish goal but really had a hard time getting back to the room, had to stop a couple of times, thought I was going to pass out. Glad that didn't happen on the course.

Guess I earned that caramel apple.
 
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Congrats everyone! The heat sounded brutal but either way it sounded like a fun weekend! Depending on the runDisney west coast slate maybe I'll run this next year.
 


The SAG list from today is one of the longest that I have seen in my entire time running at Disney, by a considerable margin.
I'll be really interested to see whether they swept as they were threatening to do. Is there a way of telling that from the list?
 
Question: How was the course entertainment outside the parks this time?

And congrats to everyone on a tough day! And just in case there is someone here who didn't make it to the finish, you still deserve a lot of credit for getting out there.
 
Question: How was the course entertainment outside the parks this time?

And congrats to everyone on a tough day! And just in case there is someone here who didn't make it to the finish, you still deserve a lot of credit for getting out there.

Course entertainment was great. We had an amazing turnout of the usual suspects: classic cars, dancers, Boy Scouts in angel stadium, mariachi music and cheerleaders. It felt like last year, but maybe with less people due to heat.
 
Congrats to everyone to all half participants - those who finished, those who started but did not finish and those who decided to not start due to the conditions! It was a rough day for all of you.

My dd (16) did not have an entry to this half - for which I am glad as I fear she would not have known when to pull herself. She did do the 10k which she ran in under an hour and came in 7th in her age group. Yippee!! The early start time helped and being in corral A (her first time) enabled her to finish just as the sun was coming up.

She will be running Superheros weekend and will be doing all three runs to end what we call "The year of RunDisney" in our house.
 
It's great to hear all these updates from everyone. I had a great weekend too! I really enjoyed the 10K course, although with the heat and humidity it was the most uncomfortable race I've run. But the awesome entertainment, characters, etc. more then made up for it.

As I was running the 10K course and taking it all in I honestly felt like either runDisney was trying to go out in a big way because some/all of the 2018 Disneyland races will be cancelled, or what I'm hoping is more likely, runDisney was trying to "prove" to Disneyland/Team Disney Anaheim that they can have an extremely well organized and successful race on the west coast. This was my my 5th race at Disneyland and I felt like it was the most organized with the best entertainment out of any of them. (keep in mind I've enjoyed them all, but some are handled better then others.) The number of characters, the specific art work, projections, music, bands, etc. was amazing. (Also did you notice how the announcers even said some of the characters that would be on the course.) The smaller corrals really helped with the altered course. I have NEVER seen so many runDisney team members around (the ones in the runDisney polos and race credentials). Because of the often poor communication and late notice for runDisney things I always imagined their team was way small, like just a few people driving the ship, but there were lots of official runDisney employees throughout the course and you could tell that they were paying attention to various details like the water stations, entertainment, etc. The security was handled very well, it wasn't a problem at all for me, and the fact that all three days Downtown Disney could be open without any major congestion and the parks could open without having to delay paying customers Magic Morning/Extra Magic Hours was also an improvement.

For some of the recent Disneyland races there had been some dumb things that have happened that seem to expand and get worse via social media, and I'm sure some people instead of complaining to runDisney would complain to Disneyland... But I feel like runDisney should be proud of themselves. Lastly as I was walking to breakfast at Steakhouse 55 this morning and passing all the runners I think Disneyland and runDisney would be crazy to cut any races. SO MANY PEOPLE spending money on food, hotels, the parks all because of the races.
 
Well, I was aiming for a time under two hours but the heat and humidity killed any hope of that. I ended up with a 2:09. The long straight between Angel Stadium and the Toy Story Lot was the worst bit for me, it felt never ending! I was glad to see a lot of entertainment sprinkled throughout the course, considering what I had read from past race weekends. Had no issue getting in and out throughout the weekend, with minimal waits to get through security. The only confusing bit was after finishing with breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen and trying to find out how to make our way back to M&F. The festivities were over already but there were still a lot of barriers sprinkled everywhere and we were eventually directed by security to walk through the DTD parking lot and met the path back to M&F that way.

It's great to hear all these updates from everyone. I had a great weekend too! I really enjoyed the 10K course, although with the heat and humidity it was the most uncomfortable race I've run. But the awesome entertainment, characters, etc. more then made up for it.

As I was running the 10K course and taking it all in I honestly felt like either runDisney was trying to go out in a big way because some/all of the 2018 Disneyland races will be cancelled, or what I'm hoping is more likely, runDisney was trying to "prove" to Disneyland/Team Disney Anaheim that they can have an extremely well organized and successful race on the west coast. This was my my 5th race at Disneyland and I felt like it was the most organized with the best entertainment out of any of them. (keep in mind I've enjoyed them all, but some are handled better then others.) The number of characters, the specific art work, projections, music, bands, etc. was amazing. (Also did you notice how the announcers even said some of the characters that would be on the course.) The smaller corrals really helped with the altered course. I have NEVER seen so many runDisney team members around (the ones in the runDisney polos and race credentials). Because of the often poor communication and late notice for runDisney things I always imagined their team was way small, like just a few people driving the ship, but there were lots of official runDisney employees throughout the course and you could tell that they were paying attention to various details like the water stations, entertainment, etc. The security was handled very well, it wasn't a problem at all for me, and the fact that all three days Downtown Disney could be open without any major congestion and the parks could open without having to delay paying customers Magic Morning/Extra Magic Hours was also an improvement.

For some of the recent Disneyland races there had been some dumb things that have happened that seem to expand and get worse via social media, and I'm sure some people instead of complaining to runDisney would complain to Disneyland... But I feel like runDisney should be proud of themselves. Lastly as I was walking to breakfast at Steakhouse 55 this morning and passing all the runners I think Disneyland and runDisney would be crazy to cut any races. SO MANY PEOPLE spending money on food, hotels, the parks all because of the races.

Well said on your last point! The races bring in a lot of money on top of an already busy holiday weekend! If it wasn't for the races this weekend I likely would not have been at the resort at all!
 
Seven years of doing this race and this will definetely go down as one of the most difficult. I was worried I might have to med out once or twice. I was in serious bad shape a few times. Retaining Legacy and my own stubbornness was what kept me going.

Yikes! That's pretty scary. Good thing your new Proof of Time got you a move up from Corral F to Corral B. You might have been swept otherwise.
 
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What an amazing weekend runDisney put on, even though I came out of the half with a new Personal Worst lol. Such a brutal day out there. I can usually finish a half between 2:15 and 2:25 but yesterday I barely snuck in under 3:00. The people that started in the back corrals and had to be out in the sun longer than me are total rockstars.
 
You know what I wasn't going to go there but since the two of you both decided to go there I am going to go there.

Let's make one thing very clear, I chose not to advertise all my health isssues. That in mind I feel the need to say this. I run Disney as an ADA runner. If anyone has paid attention to my previous posts you might have put two and two together since Ive mentioned knowing the people in charge of disabled runners on both coasts. That isn't a piece of common knowledge.

I suffer from migraines. Along with occasionally the pain I am more often then not am dealing with a lot of neurological symptoms. The worst of which can be when it affects my ability to stand for periods. I have done a run with a migraine before it's not fun. So when I discovered that the really bright lights they use for filming stuff in California is a migraine trigger I got in touch and asked if there was anyway to be moved away from the cameras since I was told they couldn't move the lights too much. We talked and they agreed it was an issue and agreed to move me away from the cameras. So now I go where they tell me to go in the mornings.

Since they don't know where the cameras will be ahead of time (had that talk before, they find out the morning of the race where the cameras are) they can't change the letter on my bib. So we have to stick close to a staff member on the walk over to the corrals so we don't get hell raised by the other staff who don't know this group with mismatched bibs are ADA. And that did happen at the 10k this year.

Heck if @Keels had paid a bit more attention yesterday she would have noticed I wasn't the only runner coming into B with a different letter on my bib. There was about 9 of us that were using ADA, which was high for them. Enough to raise a comment from a staff member who wasn't working the disabled tent.

If you seriously have a problem with me using ADA to get away from a known trigger so I can do these races contact Disney. Otherwise back the hell off and go after actual corral jumpers.

ETA: Also if anyone had bothered to pay attention I chose not to advertise my corral coming into the race unlike WDW where I don't use ADA (no camera lights as of current) and do talk abou my corral placement. This assumption about me being a corral jumper is exactly why.
 
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