Race Recap: Tinker Bell Half Marathon

On January 20th, 2013, I ran the second annual Tinker Bell Half Marathon. The morning started off incredibly early, I think around 3am to be exact. All I have to say is thank goodness everything at Disneyland is within walking distance (such a nice perk compared to Disney World!). My friend Cait and I made it to the bag check area within fifteen minutes of leaving the hotel. I forgot to take my iPod out of my checked bag (genius) so I had to run through the line twice (oops!). We still had plenty of time to make use of the porta potties and wander around until we made it to Corral A.

Once we were in the corral we waited for about a half hour for the race to begin. I snacked on my Honey Stinger waffle while we listened to the race announcers (Carissa from Fit2Flex had so much energy for 4am!), heard from Sean Astin, and were sent off by Minnie, Daisy, and an onscreen Tinker Bell.

Going in to this race, I knew I didn’t want to go out too fast. It is the #1 mistake I make every single time. I was also hoping to come in under two hours. With my last few training runs I knew I could pull it off if I just focused on keeping a steady pace the first few miles so that I would not completely bonk at the end. I can say that I really tried to keep steady pace despite the speed around me. And I think that what helped me pull this off was enjoying the AMAZING scenery around me!

After Cait and I got separated after barely a mile (so frustrated that I lost her in the masses!), I decided that I wanted to stop and take some pictures along the way. There were so few in line to see Cinderella, Belle, Snow White, and Tink with Captain Hook and his crew, that I had to stop! And even though it was terribly dark out through a lot of the course, it was a whole new way to see Disneyland. The lights and displays were just breathtaking. However, the lack of daylight did not make for good race photography. Most of my pictures from MarathonFoto are so dark, I can’t justify making the purchase for just a few good shots… unless I can find a good coupon somewhere!

Around mile 6 or so, we left the parks and headed through Downtown Disney. The folks out cheering in the wee hours of the morning were nothing short of amazing. My favorite sign of all was, “KEEP CALM AND TINKER ON.” Awesome. Right as we approached the Disneyland hotel, there were a ton of ladies from the Red Hat Society. Talk about ladies getting their cheering on! From there, things were still pretty dark as we headed through Anaheim. By far, the hardest part of the course since there was less entertainment along the way and we were heading into the latter half of the race. I developed a pretty horrible headache the last few miles of the race, despite making appropriate stops along the way. Not sure if it was my pre-race fuel and hydrating that was causing me some issues. But, knowing that I was going to come in close to my PR, I tried to gut through it the best I could until I could see the finish line archway.

And this finish was no different than any other. It was an emotional achievement for me, especially this race as I finally achieved my sub two hour goal.

Final Garmin splits say that I still have a long way to go in terms of figuring out this whole race pacing thing. I think I need more long runs to make this happen. Oh, and maybe sticking to a darn training plan! Either way, a PR was definitely a reason to be happy!