Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend: Disneyland Day 1

I am going a little bit our of order from my last post about spectating the 5k on Saturday. Our first actual day in Disneyland was Friday. Since we went to the expo and couldn't check into our hotel till three, we didn't end up getting to the parks until about five. That meant getting amazing sunset pictures of the castle!

As we were finding a place to have dinner, we went through the Fantasy Faire. This is a new addition to Fantasyland and I had never been to it before. I loved Rapunzel's little tower and the Flynn Rider wanted signs!

After we ate, it was time to go on some rides! We let Alexandra and my mom choose the first ride since they would have to head back early for the 5k. They decided to go on....Splash Mountain! The line was pretty long, but it was so hot and extremely humid that the line was worth it. It almost felt like we were in Disney World with all of the humidity throughout the weekend. It was pretty bad.

My pose was supposed to be a spellout of the number 13 since that's how many miles I was going to run. I totally failed. I even tried it on California Screamin' and Space Mountain and it failed on those rides as well. But you get what I was going for right...?

Next, we went back to Main Street and got some dessert. We found these amazing cake pops that were HUGE! They put Starbucks cake pops to shame. My mom and Brad got chocolate cake covered in chocolate. I didn't think I could take that much chocolate so I got white cake covered in chocolate with white chocolate drizzle. So yum!

Definitely getting this on my next trip.So good.

Mom and Lex headed back after dessert while me and Brad hit up a couple more rides including Space Mountain, Pirates, Matterhorn, and TeaCups.

Yup. There it is again. The failed 13.

We were exhausted ourselves and headed back a little bit before the park closed. We did a lot for only being in the park for a few hours. It was such a fun evening :)

QOTD: Have you ever been to Disneyland for just the night?

Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend: Spectating the 5k

On Saturday, August 31, runDisney held a family fun run 5k that my mom and sister participated in! I was so excited for them because my mom worked really hard for this. She is not a runner and she really challenged herself by doing this race. I was so proud of her. My sister has Addison's disease which causes her to not be able to run long distances. Originally, her doctor told her to walk it, but she pushed herself and ran the whole thing! Dang girl.

Snapped this pic as I was exiting Downtown Disney the night before the race.

Anywho, while their alarms were set for 3 am, my alarm was set for 5:30ish. I was going to wake up, then wake up my brother and we would walk near the finish line and wait for them to cross. Well, plans don't always go through do they? In this case, I slept through every single one of my alarms I had set. Ahh!!! Somehow, my brain triggered the idea that I was supposed to be somewhere and it decided to wake me up at 5:50. I jumped out of bed and started brushing my teeth immediately. Next I through on jeans and a sweatshirt (bad idea) and tried to wake up Brad. I tried a couple times...and a couple more. By then I was so worried that I would miss them crossing the finish line that I ditched Brad. Sorry!

I was late for this very important date.

I was so, so scared that I was going to miss Lex and my mom and then they would be mad that no one was there to support them. So at this point I had no choice but to run. I ran down the very long street all the way to Downtown Disney. And it was hot. And I mean hot, humid, the whole deal. Keep in mind that I did this in jeans and a sweatshirt. Once I hit the stoplight that leads to the Disneyland Hotel it was time to walk through a sea of people. There were spectators every for the 10k along with all of the 10k runners moving in the opposite direction as me, trying to get to their corrals. It was a mess and a lot of "excuse me's".

I finally reached a pretty good spot of the finish line and stood my ground! I probably looked like I had just finished the 5k by how tired and sweaty I was. I ended up waiting their for about 20 minutes before Alexandra crossed the finish line. At first she didn't see me, but then she found me and we waited for Mom.

Alexandra celebrating her victory.

About 20 minutes after Lex had finished, Mom came through the finish line and saw us. She was so happy to see us! Next they both got their medals and I may or may not have sneaked into the runners area where they got food, water, and a goodie box.

Happy to get some food and water!

We headed into the family reunion area and took some photos with the medal.

So proud!

Ended the morning with a beautiful sunrise!

I was so glad that I actually got to see them cross the finish line despite my alarms not waking me up. I had so much fun supporting them! Great job Alexandra and Mom.

What Brad was doing this entire time...

Color Me Rad Recap

Today I got the honor to run my first race EVER! It was only a 5k, but I think it still counts. So, let's start at the beginning...
I woke up at around 8:00 since my race time was supposed to be at 10:20. My friend Kelly was running with me and came over at around 9. We ended up talking and putting on sunscreen for a while, so we didn't end up leaving my house till 9:40! Yikes!

Kelly and I in our "before picture"

We got to our destination on time and my mom dropped us off on the corner of the street. We walked across the street to the race where we saw tons, I mean tons of people. And they were all in a huge mob. Kelly and I jumped into the "mob" that was actually a line. The starting line was pretty close, but we were a little confused on why we were all in this huge line! I was a little irritated.
We waited in the line a while longer and then realized that it was 10:40. Umm...weren't we supposed to be running at 10:20? I was a little confused on how all this was going to work. People next to me were supposed to run in the 10:00 group and the 9:40 group. But, we just kept waiting, seeing what was going to happen next.
Once we were close to the starting line, Kelly and I decided that we would try and find my brother's girlfriend, Rachel, and her family. We didn't want to be alone and confused! Lol. We finally found them and walked up to the starting line. At this point, they were letting people start running in small little groups about every 10-15 minutes. We walked up expecting to start the race when this Color Me Rad staff member puts this huge pole in front of us! Looks like we barely made it to that group. But on the plus side, we were going to be right in the front for the next heat.

We finally moved up to the very front of the starting line and within a few minutes, we were off! I have been really sick for the last week, so my group decided that we would try and run as much as we could (especially through the color parts) and walk as much as we needed to. We ended up walking a lot because I was coughing up a storm and wiping my nose every few seconds! It was absolutely horrible. I really wanted to run though. We ran all the way to the first station: purple. We got so excited and came out with absolutely no purple on us! We were pretty bummed. After that, we were on and off running and walking.

I was very excited once I saw the finish line. I was ready to end my misery, take a shower, and just blow my nose without getting colored powder everywhere. I ran the last part of race, because I wanted to end the race running. There were color "bombs" galor at the finish line! I was coughing and coughing until I finally got out of the madness. I found my mom, we took a few pictures and then headed to lunch.

The whole group afterwards. 

The "after" picture with Kelly. 

Overall, it was a fun race. I'm sure if I wasn't sick it would've been a lot more fun. I definitely think it needs to be more organized (I saw people without bibs on, just joining the race!) so hopefully they improve that for next year!

QOTD: Have you ever ran in a Color Me Rad race? How was your experience?

Upcoming Races (Part 2 of 3)

Color Me Rad 

Today I am sharing one of the races I am doing this 2013 year. The Color Me Rad! Color Me Rad is only a 5k so it's more like a fun run because it really is a FUN run! Many of my friends have done a color run and loved it. I am very excited to be doing this event. 

If you don't know what a color run is, it's basically a race where you wear all white and during the race people throw different colors of cornstarch at you. Some people might not think this sounds like fun, but from the look at these pictures, it looks like a blast to me!

Doesn't that look like fun? I am very stoked for this race! If you would like to run in the Color Me Rad, go to colormerad.com and look to see if they are coming to a city near you. I am running at the beginning of April. I can't wait to share my experience with you guys :) 

Here's a fun video I found of the Color Me Rad...enjoy! 

*All photos today came from the Color Me Rad Facebook page. I do not own the rights to any of the photos*