TInkerbell Half Marathon Weekend

All it took was...

Faith * Trust * and Pixie Dust

This was quite possibly one of the best weekends of my life. I have never felt so empowered, blessed, and happy to be running. The Tinkerbell Half was my first runDisney event and my first half marathon. I had the pleasure of running it with my best friend W, and my cousin Juliana!

It all started with Friday. I took a vacation day and mommy and I drove down to Anaheim early in the morning to meet up with W and her mom Dru. We checked into the Anaheim Marriott Suites that we booked through GET Travel. A HUGE shout out to them for making this weekend super organized, and relaxing for us. We loved out hotel rooms and the convenience that GET Travel provided for us. 

After getting checked in we headed to Disneyland!! We rode rides and met up with some of our favorite friends at the park. We met up with one of W's friends and had a lovely lunch at Tortilla Flats at Downtown Disney, then made our way to the Expo!!

We quickly got our bibs and shirts and had a good time looking around the expo and buying some Tinkerbell Half merchandise. We went back into the park to see the parade and ride a few more rides before heading to Tony Roma's for some protein.

Saturday I woke up bright and early, while everyone slept in, and went to runDisney's Meet Up with Jeff Galloway! We started the morning with a nice 2 mile run through the parks led by the man himself, Jeff Galloway. We ended out run right by the Animation Building and went inside to hear from the days speakers. The "show" designer responsible for all the fabulousness of the race spoke about what goes into planning a runDisney event and all the magic along the way.

Then the celebrity himself Jeff Galloway answered questions about compression socks, long slow training runs, magic mile pace calculators, and more. He was so helpful and kind. I pretty much loved every minute of it! The runDisney Mom's panelist Lori spoke as did Megyn Price from "Rules of Engagement" who was bib number 1 for the race.

The morning finished with a huge surprise of getting to see the Disney Dream Suite located above Pirates of the Caribbean. We couldn't take pictures but the memories of the magic of that place will last forever! Now to figure out how to actually stay there...

Saturday concluded with shopping and carb loading.  Duh- no M&W weekend is ever complete without shopping so we headed to the Outlets at Orange for some much needed retail therapy. We shopped until our dinner reservation was ready. We carb loaded at Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel because we only carb load with princesses... duh.

Then it was early to bed and early to rise with a wake up call of 4am. We got up, got dressed, and got dropped off at the starting area. We had just enough time to bag check, get a short warm up jog in, and use the facilities before heading to Corral B for the start of the race.

And we were off! The miles flew by. We loved running through Disneyland park and through the castle. We took some great pictures with some Disney friends, like Hercules and Pocahontas, we just happened to run into... haha get it, run into LOL!! 

W and I's moms were part of the chEAR squad and were waiting right past mile 4 to cheer us on and take some gear we ditched. We ran through downtown Anaheim and smiled all the way.

Now for some technical points. We ran at a 3:1 run-walk-run ration most of the race. My Jeff Galloway Gym Boss died before Mile 2 (ugh) but we managed to download the Gym Boss app to my phone to make use, but felt it moved a but faster. I took one package of Gu Chomps with me and had 4 at the 10K and the last 4 at mile 9. I think I may have needed more fuel. I drank water until mile 5 where I had a cup of Powerade, and kept with water except for mile 9 and 12. We didn't have to use the restroom, but did stop for pictures and clocked in right under 3 hours at 2:54. Our motto was "not for time, but for finish line" and we got our moneys worth out of the race.

The mommas were ready for us at the finish line and we crossed all holding hands. We hugged and got our medals and a banana, took Brightroom photos (that I am waiting for) and found our mommy's. They were so proud and so were we!

After a shower and nap, we went back to Disneyland for our celebratory lunch at the Blue Bayou and it was so delicious. The creme brulee was the icing on the cake. Mom and I are now back in LA rolling and blogging then going to bed! Can't wait for the Disneyland Half in September, 3 days after W's wedding! But next up is the Pasadena Rock N Roll, and I am looking for a PR!

xoxo Mal