I went to the Inaugural Disneyland Half Marathon 2006 with 3 walking buddies from Portland, Oregon. All of us are experienced walkers who have finished the Portland Marathon and numerous half marathons and relays such as the Portland to Coast Walk Relay. We walk 10K volkssport walking events each weekend in addition to longer mileage training for the marathon.

My buddies Rachel and Krista were excited by the prospect of walking in Disneyland and earning the medal. I thought it would be a fun trip. My speed has been poor due to iliotibial band syndrome, so I knew the 3 hour 30 minute cutoff would be a challenge for me, although my friends would do fine.

I will rate the event from the viewpoint of somebody finishing in over 3 hours - walkers or slower runners and run/walkers.

The Expo and Packet Pick-up was efficiently arranged, except for long lines at the Official Merchandise area.

Start Area: I knew I was going to hate having to mill around the start area for 90 minutes or more before the start. If I had read that before I registered, I wouldn't have registered. They were selling a nice selection of breakfast items and coffee, which I enjoyed. But having nowhere to sit except on the parking lot concrete was no fun. We were told to line up in the corrals 1 hour before the start time. To my surprise, there were no portajohns in Corral E - you were trapped in a block-long, no-exit corral and had to climb over the waist-high fencing to get out and go to the portajohn. Corral E would have an extra 15 minutes wait after the starting gun before starting. This situation was definitely set up by somebody who never needs to urinate. There should have been some exits from the corral to get to the portajohns and back, or better yet - put the portajohns IN the corral.

The Route: I enjoyed the route through California Adventure and Disneyland. I'm not a Disney fanatic, so I wasn't tempted to stop and take my photo with each Disney character. I took some photos within the parks for my web site. The route narrows through the parks, with congestion. A plus side is access to the restrooms in the parks. Water stops were plentiful, almost every mile. The Cast of the theme parks were out to greet us.

Then we went out of the parks and over the freeway to wind around an area that was pretty boring, but also flat. It was enlivened by many music and dance groups, most high school groups or ethnic groups. They were great and enthusiastic even for those of us at the tail end of the race.

We went past the Mighty Ducks' Pond and they hockey guys were out to greet us, and along the Santa Ana River on gravel for a short bit before going through the Angels Stadium. They called out each name and we were projected onto the big screen. Exiting the stadium and crossing the street, you were in the clear at last for the cutoff time as that was the last point at 10.2 miles where they would stop you if you weren't on pace. Many people near me pulled over after crossing the street to adjust their shoes, etc. I kept on pace.

A huge motivator was a runner who was backtracking the route at Mile 11, with the huge medal, showing it to each of us to inspire us. Thanks, guy! That really worked - I still didn't know I had passed the final cutoff and I certainly wanted that medal!

The Disney Cast kept up enthusiasm as we re-entered the California Adventure Park. I crossed the finish line with 7 seconds to spare on the 3 hours 30 minute chip time cutoff.

I found the Finish Area disorganized at that point. I am used to the excellent finish chutes at the Portland Marathon. You are brain dead when you finish these races and need to be taken care of. In Portland, they channel you through chutes so you don't miss any station. You get your medal and rose and mylar heat sheet blanket and they clip off your chip. At the end of the row, a Medical Staff person is eyeballing everyone and is right on you if you appear to need help. You feel LOVED and taken care of.

Perhaps the Disney volunteers thought the race was over, although hundreds finished behind me. The gals giving out the mylar heat blankets were fussing with them and ignored me for quite awhile until I finally said, "Could I please have one?" A volunteer reminded me to get my timing chip clipped from my shoe. I went to Miss Anaheim's station to do that. I kept wondering - where's my medal? That was the 3rd area, and again the volunteers seemed to be fussing with the medals and not looking for finishers. I had to stand in front of them for several seconds and draw their attention to get a medal.

There was a long line to get photos, which extended back to the medal area, and that certainly led to confusion - I can imagine how much it might have been earlier with more people finishing.

As I rounded the corner, the volunteers were good about giving me a bottle of water or sports drink, but then the food tent was bare except for orange slices and yogurt/fruit cups - with no spoons, and volunteers running in with bananas. This doesn't happen in Portland - the last finishers have the same food selection as the first finishers, they hold back a full selection to put out for the later finishers. Here, my friend Rachel saw people carting off boxes of bagels 30 minutes before the race ended. That should not happen.

They also ran out of the Chevron toy cars they were giving away.

My friend Lana finished before me and began blacking out at the Finish Line, but no medical person was immediately on her and instead Rachel took care of her in the finish area. My experience at the Portland Marathon was very different - when I finished in 2001 holding my side, they grabbed me and took me immediately into the Medical Tent and assessed that it was just a muscle cramp.

By the time I rested and iced my knee for 15 minutes, and then we lined up for photos, the Shuttles back to our hotel had stopped running. That was ridiculous, they need to keep running for at least 90 minutes after the finish time.

Overall, I did not find this a walker-friendly event. Throughout the event, there was NO reference to Walkers, everything was Runners, running, jogging. Yet in Corral E there were 3000 walkers. I felt it a walker-unfriendly event, hosted by people who view walkers as wannabee runners. Again, the Portland Marathon made the commitment years back after similar criticism and now you hear "marathoners" and "participants" and "runners and walkers" rather than runners, runners, runners.

Overall - it was worth it just to get the gigantic medal, and we had a fun trip to Disneyland, and it was a well-done event except for those things that they CAN correct. With Disney's commitment to customer service excellence, I believe they will correct them.

For me, it's a Do Once event rather than a Do Often event. The medal will not change in shape from year to year. If it did, it might motivate me to return and begin a collection. Now I would know to stay at a hotel close to the start/finish and just walk to the start corral 30 minutes before the gun goes off rather than taking the 4 am shuttle.

--
Wendy Bumgardner
About Walking
http://walking.about.com

www.About.com
About.com is part of The New York Times Company