Introduction

Last year, I celebrated my first running anniversary and the loss of 110 lb by running the 2012 Disneyland Half Marathon.  This year I’m celebrating the end of my second year running and the loss of an additional 30 lb. by running the Double Dumbo Dare.

The Double Dumbo Dare is a combination of the Disneyland 10k on Saturday morning and the Disneyland Half Marathon on Sunday morning.  The 10k is the first leg of the challenge, and I decided to get in a bit of the Disney spirit.

So Rick, why are you wearing an Aladdin costume?

RunDisney events are unlike any other race.  It is the merger of two geekdoms or cultures: running and Disney.  I figured out that runDisney events should not be taken too seriously the last time I ran the Disneyland Half.  At mile 8, I was passed by guys in foam Nemo, Dory, and seagull suit like I was standing still, and the guy in the seagull suit was yelling, “MINE! MINE! MINE!”.  It was hard to keep from laughing.  My wife had recently acquired a new sewing machine, so I thought I’d join in the festooned festivities.

Rick found another Aladdin!

My wife made the Aladdin costume out of tech fabric, (which she reports is not an easy fabric to work with) and she did a very good job.  I had only one problem.  Normally when I race, I carry my iPhone in my pocket.  My wife uses the phone’s friend finder features to follow/cyber stalk me as I race.  This time, my wife won’t be cyber stalking me because she did not sew any pockets into the Aladdin suit.

The Course

The starting line is at the Disneyland Hotel’s parking lot.  It starts southbound down Disneyland Drive/West St., back behind the Anaheim Convention Center, turns north on Harbor Boulevard where it makes a left turn and makes a serpentine path through California Adventure and Disneyland, (including Disney’s signature section: through Sleeping Beauty’s Castle) and several backstage areas.  The race ends where it started.

This is the first year of the Disneyland 10K and the course is either genius or madness. I’m not sure which.  The 10k race is collocated with the 5k.  The courses share start and finish lines and the 5k and 10k courses cross over each other.  The 5k race starts 45 minutes before the 10k.  Given the wide variety of athletic abilities Disney races draw (from the svelte to the supine) my fear is that the fast 10k runners will encounter Disney Wall of Humanity™ in the form of corpulent 5k walkers lined up 8 abreast.

Goal Time

My 10k pr is 1:11:20. It is fifteen months old, and is as soft as I was when I set it.  My goal for this race is 59:59 or faster.

The Race

I arrived at the race really really early.  I had friends running the 5k and my wife and sister wanted to try to photograph them crossing the finish line. At 4:45 am, it was 82 degrees and humid as all get out.  Ugh.  This is not typical SoCal weather, and not something I am accustomed to.

Something else I was not used to was the Aladdin costume.  I’d never actually run in it.  I train on the streets near my house in Huntington Beach.  I was far too embarrassed to be seen outside around my house in a Disney costume.  My neighbors already think I’m a little strange.  This would really give them something to talk about.  The race would be the first (and maybe last) use for the Aladdin suit.

The gun went off and I headed south out of the Disneyland resort.  I’m beginning to see why people say not to expect a personal best from a Disney race.  This course was really narrow, and Disney has 12,000 runners (7,000 10K and 5,000 5k).  The first two miles of the course that were on the city streets.  The Anaheim Police Department had only blocked off one half or two lanes of the street.

Mile 1 – 9:53 Mile 2 – 9:45

I also found myself listening for the five beeps of my fellow runner’s interval timers.  Disney draws lots of Galloway folks, and the beeps means that somebody is about to take a walk break.  That somebody is not me.  Please don’t let that person be in front of me.

Another interesting benefit of running in a very recognizable costume is that you get the spectator’s attention.  I heard “Hey Aladdin!” and many refrains of Prince Ali a Babwa! from the crowd a lot.  It was fun at first.  Towards the end, it got kinda old.

Mile 3 – 9:59 Mile 4 – 10:07

The midways of Disneyland are also rather narrow. While I did not encounter the Disney Wall of Humanity™ I found myself constantly passing people.   In the beginning of the race, I was passing my fellow corral mates.  Towards the end of the race, I had caught up to and was passing the 5k walkers.   As I approached the combined 5k/10k finish line, I was ready to summon the Genie for my third wish:  Genie, get me out of here!

Mile 5 – 10:31  Mile 6 – 10:17

The Finish

I rounded the corner out of Downtown Disney and saw the finish line.  The clock said 1:08:00 on it.  I subtracted 10:00 minutes from the race clock because I was in corral C.  I did it!   A chip time of 58:00, a new 10K PR that is less than an hour!  Or had I?

Triumph!

What I did not realize is that the starter released both corral A and B at the same time, so my spread between chip and gun times was actually only 5 minutes.  I lined up in the back of Corral C, so it took me an extra minute or two to cross the starting line.  My final chip time per runDisney was 1:01:50.  So I have a shiny new PR and will run a sub-60 10K at another (non-runDisney) race.

My next race?  The Disneyland Half Marathon.  It’s tomorrow.

Nicely done, and good luck tomorrow!

Well done my friend. Cool outfit as well. I'll be doing the Tinkerbell 10K this forthcoming January so that I can give the medal to my granddaughter (she's all about Tinkerbell). I'll be in costume as well...a Tinkerbell costume (complete w/ wings and wand)

Ha ha......my wife commented that she thought anybody running the Disney races this weekend would have to be ABSOLUTELY INSANE!!!  (I.e. the weather right now is REEEEEDONKULOUS!!!)

Nevermind the fact that I went out and did speed work at the track today in that me disgusting weather. 

But seriously, great work and MAJOR kudos to you for running the half tomorrow too!

Congrats! Great Race. Good luck today.

I'm sure you woulda broke 60 if you rode your magic carpet. Good job.

Congrats on your 10K, Rick, sorry you did not get the under-hour time, but even so, you did great!  And running in costume too, sheesh!

This time, my wife won’t be cyber stalking me because she did not sew any pockets into the Aladdin suit.  Umm, Rick, you can get these arm-band thingys that will hold your phone for you as you run, I've seen a lot of my local-area runners using them.

Haha, very nice job, Lurch.

Congrats on the new PR and on having a lot of fun.