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2007 Disneyland Half Marathon Race Report: Paul Calizaire

Paul Calizaire Photo's

The trip West was decent. I flew from JFK to Salt Lake and then on to Orange County. The flight to SLC was a combination of sleep and playing with Delta's new digital entertainment system. I played trivia against fellow passengers for a good hour. Always coming in second place and falling short of first. Oh well, maybe I can do better on the flight back. We got into Orange County 20 minutes early, which was good for me because I wanted to race to the hotel so that I could watch the Notre Dame - Georgia Tech game. My plan started to fall apart when it took a little time to get my luggage. Then I went over to SuperShuttle and their was at least a 10 minute wait before we left the airport. The continued downfall of my plan was when a couple going to Tustin, CA was dropped off first (after the driver had some difficulty finding their destination). So we finally pull into the Anaheim Desert Inn & Suites around 12:50 (the game started at 12:30). My plan completely fell apart when they told me that the room was not ready and wouldn't be ready until after 3pm. I asked if their was a lounge or television somewhere that I could watch the game on. The answer - NO.

Now the race was truly on. I placed my bags in a locker, grabbed my waiver for the race and walked briskly to the ESPN Zone in Downtown Disney. My original plan was to head to the ESPN Zone at half time, but it looked like I had no choice but to get their asap to watch the game. I made it there within 10 minutes and found a television set to position myself in front of. Cutting to the chase, the Irish lost 33-3. It is going to be a painful season.

So after watching the game and having lunch (Smokehouse Burger - tasty), I went to the Convention Center at the Disneyland Hotel. I picked up my race packet, verified that my Champion Chip (tracking system) was functioning and then walked around at the Health Expo. I have to say, the expo at Disneyland feels much smaller than the one at Disney World. I walked through the area with the official merchandise but really could not see anything that I really wanted. I didn't feel like I needed another t-shirt, especially since you get a runners shirt in the race bag. I ended up buying a golf shirt (more of my style) and two pins - one that says "My first half marathon" and one that says "I finished". I know, it is presumptuous to buy the I finished pin, but if I don't finish, I will have to hurt myself after months of training.

It was time to run again, as it was now 4:55pm and I was trying to get to a 5:30pm church service. Back to the hotel I went to get into my room drop off my purchase and race bag and then off to church. By the time I got into my room and dropped my things off, it was just shy of 5:20. So I decided to take a cab to St Justyn Martyr. Cabs in anaheim are not cheap - it cost me $12 to get there and it did not seem too far. I walked back to the hotel after church (figured it would be a good way to stretch the legs after they had been cramped during the flights - first class would have been nice - gotta save the miles next time I run in CA).

I stopped at the Disneyland ticket booths on my way back to pick up my theme park tickets for Sunday and Monday. By the time I got back to the hotel it was almost 7:30. Not much time to rest as I had tickets to see Beyonce at the Honda Center. Since I had little interest in the opening act, I relaxed in my room until 8:20 (the concert started at 8pm). I walked over to Disneyland and hopped in a cab. By the time I got to my seat, Robin Thicke was wrapping up his set (I heard three songs).

I must admit, I like Beyonce and only purchased the tickets because it would be something interesting to do while on vacation, but she impressed me. The stage set up and dancing was entertaining. Her singing (while still doing the Beyonce yodel) was live and impressive in her ability. She sang one song that really won me over - I think it was named "I don't know why you love me" (UPDATE - it is called "Flaws and All" - simply beautiful). She just stayed very still on stage and sang this song about how she appreciated her love because he shows her affection no matter what. With her on stage was a dancer wearing angels wings. At the end of the song the angel wrapped her in his wings. It was more beautiful than my words can convey - it was sweet and she looked radiant as she sang the song.

She also performed for more than two hours. it surprised me because in NYC most shows (at least at Madison Square Garden) have to end by 11pm due to union issues. She sang until 11:40pm). I was TIRED. If you think about it, by the time the show ended I had then been up for 24 hours (though I did get a little sleep on the plane). I took a cab back to the hotel (another $14 fare) and crashed. Sunday is a Disneyland & CA Adventure day. No real plans except for trying to get on the Finding Nemo Subs.

Sunday, September 2
First off let me say something about the Anaheim Desert Inn & Suites. It is not a bad hotel. The rooms are basic but good enough to put your head down at every night. The room has a fridge which is a plus, but the real reason to stay here is that it is feet away from the crosswalk into Disneyland. So when you are tired (which I will be after the race) you can get to your hotel and more importantly your bed quickly.

So on to day two (Saturday), I woke up early this morning (6:30am) because my body generally refuses to let me sleep late and it is still judging time by the Eastern time zone. I wrote the blog for yesterday (you didn't think that I actually wrote that last night with how tired I was did you? I then showered, went to the hotel lobby for internet access (I can't stand hotels without internet access in the rooms!) returned to my room and then headed off to Disneyland. By the time I got there it was a few minutes from rope drop. I would have wanted to be closer to the front so that I can sprint to the subs, but oh well not everything has been going according to plan. When the rope was dropped I walked briskly to the subs - by the time I got on line (only took a few minutes) the wait was 75 minutes. Oh well, at least it wasn't two hours which it supposedly is at all times. In all honesty, by the time I got off the ride, it was a little after 10am (one hour and a few minutes in total). It was a decent ride, but not really worth a two hour wait. I then headed to California Adventure because I wanted to take advantage of the free picture for Disney Visa Cardholders. My picture was a tad dorky, but hey it was free. From there I spent a few hours walking around CA Adventure. CA Screamin was down - very dissapointing (it would remain so all day) so I took the Mission Tortilla and Boudin Bakery tour for the first time. Then with the hunger killing me - I went to the Boudin Bakery for an early lunch (it was around 11:30 at the time).

Once my stomach was satisfied, I headed to the Hyperion Theater for the 12:20 showing of Aladdin The Musical. By the way did I mention that it was burning hot! The sun could fry an egg in less than a minute. Seriously, the temperature was in the high 90's and you could feel it. Forget the half marathon - waiting in line to get into the Hyperion was really the test of endurance. I absolutely love this show, the genie makes it worth it every time (I try to see this show at least twice each time I come to Disneyland. Among the ad libs this time - Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and more. After Aladdin, I went to Paradise Pier and went on Maliboomer (I was starting to feel as though I was not hitting enough rides) and then went back to Disneyland. I spent the rest of the day going to Pirates Cove, ridding Haunted Mansion, watching the parade going back to the Expo and then hitting Matterhorn and Space Mountain. At that point it was 5:45 and I decided that I would call it a day so that I could have my pasta dinner (is this a runners myth?) and then go to bed early (maybe catching a movie in my room).

Dinner was a Tony Romas on Harbor by the way. I took the carbo loading seriously by accompanying my pasta dinner with beer. As I write this, I am back in the hotel lobby getting ready to post this entry and then it will be back to the room to make sure all of my running clothes and accessories are ready for the morning. I am still debating what time to get up. If the race starts at 6pm, I don't want to wait the requested hour to hour and a half at the start line. I also don't want to miss the start. Only time will tell. Hopefully the next few words that I write will be "I did it".

Monday, September 3
Happy Labor Day. Now it is time for some real labor. I woke up at 4am in hopes of getting out the door by 4:30. The butterflies were doing their dance in my stomach so I powered up my laptop and played some music on i-Tunes. I also started drinking some of the bottled water that I purchased the night before. Gotta stay hydrated. The temperature on Sunday was over 100 degrees so the heat is going to be a problem during the race.

At 4:30, still feeling a little groggy I started the walk to Disneyland. I was glad to see that I was not alone and others were waiting until that time to head over. After walking through the Esplanade and Downtown Disney we headed over towards the parking structure (near the Mickey and Friends lot). There was a stage set up in the Disneyland Hotel lot with a DJ, large TV Screen and blower flags. People were stretching, sitting on the ground, taking pictures and just hanging out. After a few minutes one of the Green Army Men from Toy Story came to the stage. He was hilarious. He had everyone stretching (one particular stretch which seemed like a bathroom squat - he had us do just to see if we would and because it amused him!). On a serious note he then warned everyone that it was a Red Flag event meaning that the heat could be problematic and that anyone who has a history of heat problems are advised not to participate. I saw some people in costumes but not as many as I thought that I would. I was particularly amused by a trio of Fairies, fully dressed wings, wands and all.

When they announced that we would be heading to the corrals shortly, I decided it might be a good time to head to the porta-potties. I usually don't have bathroom issues when running, but I was not going to risk it this time. There were tons of porta-potties, but still there were lines. Naturally, I picked the slowest line around and by the time I got back to the staging area, people were already leaving for the corrals. I found my way to corral E (wave 2) and then the waiting game started up again. While waiting, I met this gentleman from Northern California, he was 70+ and excited about running in another half marathon. Kudos to him. Towards the end of my conversation with him a pacer from the Clif Bar Pace Team came and asked whether everyone in this area was hoping to finish in 2:45. This surprised me because I was hoping to finish around 2 hours. But then I remembered that when I signed up for the race, I had no history to judge my pace by (other than a couple of 5Ks which did not seem to compare) so I guesstimated a 2:30 finish. So I said goodbye to Mr. No Cal and moved up. I knew that there would be a bit of running around people after the start and I wanted to minimize the number of people that would either slow me down or I would have to side step.

Finally the time came and the national anthem was sung (complete with fireworks at the correct points in the song). Everyone stood up (many of us sat on the street during the 45 minute wait) and started to get psyched up. We could see corrals A & B directly in front of us and they were directly behind the start line. Corral D was directly to our left and Corrals F & G were on a side street perpendicular to us (I never did see a Corral C).

We could not hear perfectly but we heard when Mickey and Minnie made their way to the start line. We saw the Nemo Monorail come in and position itself right over the start line. The wheel chair participants were then sent off with a fanfare. And then the time came (well not for us in corral E) and the countdown began for corral A&B. There were fireworks when they reached 1. And they were off. The rest of us were just like - when will it be our turn. They moved Corral D to the start line and then it was our turn to move forward. They had another countdown to kick off wave number two (complete with another set of fireworks). In all it took about 15 minutes for Corral A, B and D to get across the start line.

As my wave begins to move, I pull out my camera to capture a little of the action. I get what turns out to be a blurry but halfway decent image of Minnie and Mickey at the start line. Being paranoid I make sure to shuffle my feet against the mat to make sure that my Champion Chip is picked up by the receivers. And I am off. But oops, after about thirty seconds I realize that I forgot to start the timer on my Garmin Forerunner. So much for accurate timing! It was a sea of people and there was a lot of side stepping and shuffling of your feet as everyone tried to find an area or group that was more of their speed. I made my mind up then and there that I would not stick to my training (the Galloway Run/Walk) and I would run for at least the first two miles with no break so that I could separate myself from anyone who would be running slower than I.

I had a race map, but I was surprised that we did not enter any of the parks right away, instead we ran around the perimeter of the parks up to harbor and then we turned into CA Adventure. There were some characters positioned in the park, but again changing my routine I decided to just keep running. We had already gone more than a mile at this point and I felt good (just a year prior running a 5K was an exhausting experience). After making a brief foray through CA Adventure, we crossed over into Disneyland. And there was Goofy (my favorite character) right at the end of main street. Oh I got to stop and take a picture. Nope gotta keep moving, gotta come in under two hours. But then right past Goofy was Donald and Daisy. Alright, let's not forget that we are here to have fun. So I stopped and had my photo taken. I considered going back to have my pic taken with Goofy but that was pushing it too far. From the bottom of Main Street we turned off to the backstage area of Disneyland. There were cast members throughout the backstage area cheering us on. It was invigorating and helpful to hear the cheers. We emerged from the backstage area close to the Finding Nemo Subs. One of the cast members was yelling out "No wait for the subs" a young lady behind me yelled out "Are you serious?" If it was true that would have been tempting based upon the two hour waits to get on the ride!

We made our way through Fantasyland where I saw people stopping to take pictures in one of the cars from Mr. Toads Wild Ride. And then came the moment - we ran through the castle. The ASI photographers were positioned on the other side to take peoples photographs. Around the hub and then we were into Frontierland. Captain Jack Sparrow was waiting for us as we neared Pirates Lair. Some Pirate was kind enough to shoot into the water to make it clear that we best be on our way. We made a turn into Adventureland where the Genie greeted us from above. Back to Main Street and into Downtown Disney - actually we only made it as far as the tram route and then the parking area which took us out of the resort. While running on the tram route I saw something interesting - there was a guy running at a nice clip - but he was running barefoot! No way could I run 13 miles through streets and more barefoot. I hear a few people going - what the heck? But to each his own. By the way at this point the temperature must have been in the mid 80s already.

The roadway out of the parking area was a small challenge because it was an incline. Going down the hill was a relief because your momentum helped you get going. Then we made a right turn onto Ball road. There was a crowd waiting for us but watch out - the sun was officially out. To say it was blinding would be an understatement. I put my sunglasses on but it still felt like you were running blind - it was that bad. The one thing that I could see was a MASSIVE hill coming up. It was the I-5 overpass. I made it about halfway up the overpass and decided that I would walk the rest of the way up. Hey after all I had not taken a walking break yet and I was already over four miles into the race (Jeff Galloway would be so displeased).

Not much to say about the course for a while. It was nice that there were bands, Mexican dancers and Hawaiian Hula dancers along the way. Plus all of the high school cheerleaders and bands were nice diversions every few miles. Starting with mile five, I made sure to take a one minute walking break before continuing with my jog. As we started to get close to the Honda Center I saw the fairies again, they seemed to be holding up well (the only reason I knew we were close to the Honda Center was because the office parks were called Arena Center, Stadium Park, etc.).

As we entered the parking lot for the Honda Center, the Anaheim Duck cheerleaders were there to greet us. I waved hello but five seconds after I passed them, I regretted not stopping to take a picture - they were cute. We cut around the parking lot of the Honda Center and then went through a gate into the Santa Ana Trail. In my opinion, this was a cool part of the course. It was a dirt road next to the Santa Ana River. The bad thing was that there was quite a drop off into the river if you stumbled off the trail. I took two pictures while running (thank goodness for the sport setting on my camera - you couldn't tell that I took the picture while in motion).

After leaving the Santa Ana Trail (it wasn't that long), we passed Mile Marker 9 at the top of a hill as we moved towards Angel Stadium. So far I was feeling fine, my longest run during training was 10 miles so I still felt positive. It was quite a sight to behold when we entered the parking lot of Angel Stadium - there were TONS of people. There were a lot of Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and other people cheering everyone on. It was a gauntlet of support. Some people had misters and were giving us a little relief from the heat. And then it was on into the stadium. I stopped at the entrance to take a picture with the ballpark in the background. Just keep running. The jumbotron had pictures of the runners on it which was very cool. And up ahead by third base was another mat where they were registering our time. As we crossed the mat, an announcer would mention the hometowns of the people running (I got a shout out - yeahhhh!) This was really a fun experience. Just past the announcer and mat were some Angels cheerleaders. I had to stop and take a picture - why not? One more picture at the exit of the stadium by the 10 mile marker. I was now into new territory for my running.

As you left the stadium parking lot there was a sign that said "Thanks for visiting with us". I thought it would have been cool if they changed it for the day to say "Thanks for running with us". Maybe next year. So now it was back to the streets. Again not much to report on here just long stretches of road. We were somewhere past mile marker 11 when we turned onto Disney Way. The mind started to play tricks on me at this point because I just wanted to take a walking break though I knew that I should wait until mile marker 12 (I did end up slowing down at a water station). The sights started to look familiar and I knew that we were almost back at the resort. Off in the near distance was the entrance into the parking lot off of Harbor. You could almost feel the pull of the finish line.

It was back into CA Adventure again, this time we ran by the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and through the Hollywood Pictures area. Instead of going through the front gates we ran through Condor Flats and then out a side gate into Downtown Disney. There was another gauntlet of supporters lining the course through Downtown Disney. This was the final stretch. There is no stopping now. Mile marker 13 was right at the ESPN Zone and I decided time to turn on the after burners. I started a sprint to the finish line. Turning the corner by the ESPN Zone there was the finish line. Oooh look, it is Goofy in his running outfit just in front of the finish line. Should I take a picture. Heck no. I wanted to reach that finish line (though I did pull out my camera and tried to take some pics as I ran - talk about multi-tasking).

My official time was 2 hours, 8 minutes and 22 seconds. I achieved my goal of finishing but fell short of the other goal of finishing under two hours. But that can be a goal for a future race. I felt like I could race a bit longer which to me was an achievement - I did not collapse to the ground. I got my medal and then made a call to my folks to let them know that I did it and my unofficial time (Garmin had me at 2 hours 7 minutes but it also showed me as having run 13.8 miles - I don't get it).

The legs started to feel sore but not more so than during any of my longer training runs. I walked slowly through the staging area after grabbing water, a banana and oranges. It was time to head back to the hotel and my appointment with the shower - boy did I stink. I did pause throughout Downtown Disney to cheer on everyone else who was still running and then made the trudge through the esplanade and out to Harbor.

Monday, September 3 - PART 2
It took me about twenty minutes before I was ready to hop in the shower, I just needed to get off my feet for a while. Plus I made some more phone calls and sent some text messages (family and friends had sent me encouraging text messages during the race - too bad I did not notice them until after the race). After showering and getting dressed for a day at the park, I went to the hotel lobby to post some pictures on my blog and update the message board at Disney Running with my official finish time that I got from the marathon web site.

Now it was time to enjoy myself. I put my medal around my neck and headed to the parks. My first destination would be CA Adventure. I wanted to take advantage of the free Disney Visa picture again. Again it was Mickey and Goofy in their sailing outfits which was a bummer but, it turned out to be a good thing because the pictures were much better than on Sunday. Mickey pointed at my medal in the pic and Goofy was just chilling. While I was waiting for my turn there was a group of 6 people who looked like they came straight from the race because they were still in their running outfits complete with their bibs (I just couldn't do that because I was a hot sweaty stink bomb).

After photo time, I headed to CA Screaming - it was running this time. I rode two times in a row before deciding that I really needed some food in my stomach. I decided to eat at the Wine Country Trattoria since I had never eaten there. Chicken Pannini not bad and pretty decent with a glass of Chardonnay. From there it was about some rides. I went on Tower of Terror and watched Turtle Talk with Crush. On Tower of Terror I decided to try and get my medal into the picture while screaming. It was funny so I had to buy a copy.

At this point I went to pick up my free pictures and then I started to feel VERY tired. I was done with CA Adventure at this point and was going to head to Disneyland but I decided that it would be better to drop off my photos at the hotel. Thing is when I got back to my room it was about 1:30 and my bed was calling me. I turned on the TV and stretched out. Next thing I knew, I was starting to doze off. I wanted to see the fireworks that night so I decided a nap would not be a bad thing - besides at this point it was somewhere around 100 degrees out. Who needs that kind of heat.

After I woke up it was around 2:40 and I decided to get off my rump and head back to the park (the thought of more sleep was tempting). As I entered the park there was a band playing by the firehouse - and they were all dressed like firefighters. I decided to stop and take a listen since I had never seen them before. They were amusing and good.

Now it was time to hit some rides:
Pirates of the Caribbean
Pick up Splash Mountain FastPass
Haunted Mansion
Buzz Lightyear

After Buzz Lightyear, I hopped on the monorail to go check out the official race results at Downtown Disney (besides my Splash Mountain FastPass was for 6 pm so I had over an hour to go). When I got to Downtown Disney, I made my way to the ESPN Zone which is where they positioned the boards with the official race results. The results were sorted by Division (based upon Male vs Female and age group). I placed 223rd within my age group. Doesn't mean much to me, but okay. I was just glad that I was not at the bottom of the pack.

After having a picture taken by the result board I made my way to the Disneyland Hotel. I was confused as I walked by the first tower because the name on it was Dreams. Then I looked over at the main tower and it was called Magic. What happened to Bonita and Sierra (and the other one)?

I went over to the Neverland Bar for a frozen drink (I gulped down liquids and frozen drinks all weekend to beat the heat) where I was told that they towers were renamed a month ago. The towers are now named Dreams, Magic and Wonder. Funny - those sound like the names of the Disney Cruise Line ships. After hanging around the bar for a while watching the Clemson - FSU game and chatting with the bartender, I made my way back to Downtown Disney. It was time to head back to the park for my ride on Splash Mountain. As I was walking, I met a group of four ladies who noticed my medal and we started up a conversation as we walked. They had all participated in the half marathon and were not new to the half marathon scene. They encouraged me to keep on racing and I told them that my next goal was the WDW Marathon. One of the ladies was from Florida and said that she would be participating in the WDW Half. They also mentioned that they heard that a lot of people couldn't finish because of the heat (a fact that was verified the next morning as I shared a shuttle with an official from WDW who was volunteering at Disneyland. He said that only 9,800 of the 15,000 runners finished).

So anyway, I took my leave of the silver haired ladies and walked back to Disneyland and hopped on the following rides:
Splash Mountain
Matterhorn
Small World

I tried to get on Space Mountain but they said it was down for an hour or so. So I decided to set up camp on Main Street to get a good spot for the fireworks. I only had about a half hour wait so it was not too bad. Plus it gave me a chance to rest. My legs were feeling fine, but some of my toes were feeling sore.

The fireworks show was great, though I hoped they would have changed it after the 50th Celebration but it was entertaining nonetheless. It was then time to go back to my hotel and call my Disneyland Marathon Weekend done. I had to pack and get ready for a 7:45am pick up. Vegas was next on my itinerary (call it a congratulations for finishing extension of my trip).

All in all I had a great marathon weekend. It was entertaining, fulfilling and a first. Now to start training for the WDW Marathon (maybe I will take two weeks off to relax and sleep in) and the Tower of Terror 13K.