After a long absence — initially due to construction, but later, the pandemic — the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend returned to Anaheim. While I’ve done a number of runDisney events over the years, I started running them in the period when nothing was being held on the West Coast. That wasn’t an entirely bad thing, for it made an excellent excuse to visit both Walt Disney World and our relatives in Florida; still, my wife’s very first runDisney event had been in Anaheim, so it holds a very special place in our personal running hall of fame.
When the news hit last year that the Half Marathon was returning, I blocked out the morning the registration opened and hoped that I’d be able to score a spot; having been shut out of the Disney World Marathon Weekend this year due to the insane interest in participating during an anniversary year, I was perhaps less optimistic than normal about my chances for I was certainly not the only person who had a keen interest in Disneyland being added back into the mix as a location. The virtual queue was indeed long, but after about a forty minute wait, I triumphantly signed up for both the five and ten kilometer events; this is not the year I will be doing a half — that is slated for 2025 — but I am tinkering with the Disneyland version being the one I do as my first.
I suppose it’s not much of a stretch to reveal that I’m a massive Disney fan. My wife and I made regular trips to Walt Disney World when we were living on the East Coast, and, after moving to Arizona, quickly became Annual Passholders for Disneyland — a multiyear affair that sadly ended when the passes crept above what we felt were reasonable (even for super fans). The early years of the pandemic dialed back travel of all kinds, something we are still recovering from; our sojourns to Florida tend to focus more on visiting family, while trips to California are mainly to spend quality time with our friends who live there.
Slowly — very slowly — we’ve begun to visit Disneyland at least once a year, far less than the heady days when we were able to go at the drop of a hat. Those trips tend to be focused around the special events the park hosts now, which made the return of the 1/2 Marathon Weekend a wonderful excuse to dive into full travel planning.
It was barely a month out from the race when Disney emailed us the routes for each of the events; even after pouring over them, looking for the hidden hills and chokepoints where it would be hard to maintain a reasonable pace, nothing prepared me for actually standing at the base of Sleeping Beauty Castle, waiting for the rope to drop on the 5K.
The lighting, the music, the overall atmosphere was phenomenally amazing; projections against the Matterhorn and the shops along Main Street added to an experience that saw us (literally) wind our way through both Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure, nearly hitting every single land in both parks. Along the way, various characters from the Disney pantheon were available for photos, an option that (judging from the very long lines I passed) extremely popular with runners. For my part, I found myself singing along to the relentlessly upbeat soundtrack that was piped in along the route; who knew you could run a 6:30/km pace to the pop version of The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room? Thankfully, my wife and I got separated at the start of the race, so she didn’t have to listen to my off-key accompaniment.
The 10K was the following morning — the second of three consecutive pre-dawn calls that made me empathize with Cast Members who are usually there at that hour prepping the park for the coming day. Due to the race length, we didn’t get the same start along Main Street, U.S.A., and were instead corralled along one of the roads that used to lead to the original parking lot entrance. Still, that didn’t take away from the magic of the moment; just as with the 5K, the atmosphere was electric, right down to Donald and Daisy Duck cheering us on as we crossed the starting line.
I had the joy of running the 10K with my best friend and her daughter, making the experience a wonderfully social event that really doesn’t compare to anything else I’ve ever done. There were a ton more people running the 10K, but we managed to stay together right up until we hit the back third of the course; it was hard to carve out space when we turned into the new Star Wars section of Disneyland, so we wound up rendezvousing back at the finish line once the dust settled. (That might have been a blessing for them, for my singing became uncontrollable again.)
Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. I’m actually considering trying to get into the new Halloween-themed race scheduled for September; we’ll see if the budget will allow another trip. Regardless, I think I’ll try for running again next January; it’s such a great way to start the year, it’s totally worth all of the training involved to get there.