Executive Summary:

Old and fat guy dresses up like the Hulk and takes six minutes off his Half Marathon Personal Best.

Longer Version

At 3:00 am this morning, I opened the front door and escorted the dog out to do her business. I looked up and saw a sky full of stars and thought, “oh crap.” The clear sky told me that the weather had changed and that hot and dry Santa Ana Winds are on their way. I’m up at 3:00 am because I’m on my way to Disneyland for runDisney’s Avengers Half Marathon.

I’m not normally the kind of guy that wears a costume to races. For this race, I made an exception.  At 6’ 6” tall and 240 lb. there is only one outfit to wear: The Hulk. I ordered a green Hulk shirt and purple basketball shorts off of Amazon and called it a costume. As I’m dressing for the race, I have a little trouble with the drawstring of the shorts. It has one continuous string and not two ends to tie together. It took me five minutes to get my shorts tied so that they would stay up.

My training plans did not consider this race. I’m in the middle of training for a January marathon and cutting weight. No taper, no change in routine for this race. In my head, this was nothing more than a long run in the streets (as opposed to the sidewalk), with water stops, Jeff Galloway, and a medal at the end.

I arrive at Disneyland at 4:00 am, pose with the Pacebook Running Club and in the runDisney photo booth. I’m then off to the corrals. When I get to the corrals, I notice that it’s not quite as mobbed as other rD events I’ve run. Did Disney leave money on the table by limiting the capacity of this event?

Facebook Running Club.  No Docket Rocket Here

runDisney Photo Booth where I look more like the Jolly Green Giant than the Hulk

I also notice that most of my fellow athletes are wearing some sort of costume. Some of the costumes are as simple as what I’ve done. Other are so elaborate I’m getting a ComiCon feeling. For some of them, I begin to ask myself, “How are you going to run in that?”

How are ya gunna run in that?

The First Three Miles

RunDisney has really changed things up with this race. The starting line and finish lines remain the same as every other rD event. Other than that, this course is all new. It starts with a serpentine path through Disney’s California Adventure and Disneyland. Instead of running north up Main Street USA to Sleeping Beauty’s castle, we ran south down Main Street towards the train station and the Christmas tree. There was less ‘backstage’ time and less time in the theme parks on this course.

I eschew the port-a-potty lines and dive into the men’s room next to the Pinocchio ride. Given the difficulty I had securing the drawstring, I elect to relieve myself without disturbing the knot. Towards the end of the second mile, the course takes us out of the parks and onto the glorious streets of Anaheim and Garden Grove.

Mile 1 – 9:41 Mile 2 – 9:43 Mile 3 – 9:29

Miles 4 to 6

As I ran south down Harbor Boulevard, I am in awe by the course layout. When the police coned off the course, they closed half of the street for the runners. Which half? The middle half. I find myself running down the center divider. Harbor Blvd. is a six-lane highway lined with hotels, restaurants, and shops on either side. One lane each way is available to cars. Runners are in the others. Since the course is in the middle of the street, the only on-course entertainment is what the runners brought with them.

As I turn onto Chapman Ave. the sun and the winds begin to rise. All areas of the country have bad weather. A Santa Ana wind condition is bad weather for SoCal. A hot, dry, desert-like 25 to 40 mph wind blows out of the east. I’m headed east on Chapman Ave. and have the wind in my face. Because it’s fall, I have leaves, sticks, and dirt blown in my face too. My bib is flapping in the wind, and I almost lose my hat. The wind is so bad, several of the giant Avenger Mile Marker signs blow over.

At the 10k mark, I step off to the side and consume a Vanilla Clif Shot. That’s something new for me for this training cycle. On training runs 10 miles or longer, I’m consuming a Clif Shot packet every six miles.

The course then turns onto the parking lot of Christ Cathedral, the central Catholic Church for the Diocese of Orange. This building hasn’t been a catholic church for too long. The building is better known from the name its former owners gave it: The Crystal Cathedral. The Diocese of Orange bought the building for a song when the The Rev. Bob Schuler’s church filed for bankruptcy and its creditors forced it to liquidate.

Mile 4 – 9:36 Mile 5 – 9:40 Mile 6 – 9:57

Miles 7 to 10

From the Christ Cathedral, the course heads over the one and only hill (over the Garden Grove Freeway) and onto the Santa Ana River trail. The Santa Ana River isn’t really a river, and the trail isn’t really a trail. It’s more like a bike path along a drainage ditch. I loathe running on the Santa Ana River Trail. I hate this place for what you’ll find on it (homeless people, horse dung, and gang bangers) and what you won’t (a toilet or a drinking fountain). Disney ran the gang bangers off and replaced them with a squad of hard-core cosplay types dressed as the Avengers. The homeless remain and enjoyed all the blue powerade they could drink. The wind turns the trail into a dustbowl.

Santa Ana River Trail

Shortly after I start up the trial, I see the big A of Anaheim Stadium. Like the Disneyland Half Marathon, the Avengers Half takes a lap around the warning track of Anaheim Stadium. And like the Diz Half, my running club was in the parking lot cheering. At the Diz half, I was promised a doughnut that was never delivered. This time, they had a doughnut for me.

I took two bites of the doughnut and discarded it into a trashcan in the stadium. It was good, but this was not the time or place for a doughnut. Shortly after discarding the doughnut, I ran into Jeff Galloway and his wife Barbara. They ran and walked and ran with me through the stadium.

Disney placed a marching band in the stadium. On the road out of the stadium, we were treated to cheers from a WWII re-enactor group. Some of the folks in the troupe were young men wearing WWII vintage uniforms. I think some of the older gentlemen were wearing the uniforms they wore in WWII .

Mile 7 – 10:24 Mile 8 – 10:21 Mile 9 – 10:51 (donut!) Mile 10 – 9:53

Mile 11 to the Finish

The course now turned west through an industrial section of Anaheim and headed back towards the Disneyland Resort. That put the menacing wind at my back. That was huge. After fighting/dealing with that wind for an hour and a half, running suddenly became easy. It was like a weight had been taken off my shoulders.

Now that the wind is gone, I realize I have another problem to deal with: I had to poop. This normally isn’t a problem on the back half of the course. Port-a-potty lines are short to non-existent. But given the struggle I went through to get these shorts tied, I didn’t want to risk untying them and lose a bunch of time to re-tying them. I elected to press on.

I also began to see more spectators along the roadway. Once the course returned to Disney property, the spectators disappeared. They were replaced by employees who were cheering with all the enthusiasm of a person working for a wage. I think their function was to keep the runners on the course and out of the parks.

I never did see the mile 12 sign and given the impending finish, I wonder if I would have slowed to consume a foil packet of Clif Shot goodness. Probably not.

Mile 11 – 9:54 Mile 12 – 10:18 Mile 13 – 9:41 last 0.1 – 1:58 (8:56 mm pace)

Final Time 2:11:28 - a six minute PR.

How the heck did this happen? I ignored my watch. Most of the timing signs blew over in the wind. I didn’t specifically train or taper for this thing. So why the PR? I offer four possible reasons:

1. The Dryness – I drank a lot of water last night and a bottle of Gatorade on the drive to Disneyland. I also drank water and electrolyte drink at every water stop. Perhaps the wind and the dryness increased the cooling effect of my sweat, allowing me to run faster.
2. The Wind – The Tailwind (or rather cessions of fighting the wind) came at the right place: Mile 10. It was a huge physical and psychological boost to put the wind behind me. Running the last 3 felt easy.
3. Rick didn’t think about his time at all. He just ran with the flow. I wasn’t passed a whole lot. I didn’t pass many people. Not thinking about my time takes away the performance anxiety.
4. Rick is just running faster and after the experience at the Marine Corps Marathon (I see spots but I'm gunna finish anyway!), is willing to push himself harder than before.

Whatever the reason, I do know this: 2:11:29 is going to be tough to beat. So I’m going to keep on running, and continue to live the calorically limited life.

Next race: I’m preparing myself for the six-hour suck-fest that is the Walt Disney World Full Marathon.

Great job!  Question, was the course better than the Disneyland HM (which I found boring as hell)?

I saw some of the pics from the 5K yesterday and there was a dude dressed up as Thor's hammer.  It was hilarious.

Glad you did so well!

Congrats on a huge PR, despite the Santa Anas.  And, I think you're wrong that you are going to have trouble beating your time.   You've clearly gained a ton of fitness from your marathon training and that's probably going to carry over to your next training cycle.   Thanks for the very entertaining RR.

Congrats on a great time. You're getting faster!

Dang, that wind sounds brutal.  Nice job on the PR!

Congratulations on the big PR.  If you had specifically trained for this race and tapered, it probably would have been even bigger.  So there is hope that your next HM will be even better.  Hopefully it will be on a course you like better.

Sweet PR. Nice pics and costume.

Congrats on the PR!