2012 Disneyland Half Marathon

Jessi & I flew down to Disneyland last weekend to participate in their annual half marathon. My sister, Lisa, ran with us. My mom and brother participated in the 5K fun run through the parks, and my dad cheered us all on. Needless to say, it was fantastic!

We started at 6am to the national anthem and fireworks. Here's what the start looked like:

We then ran through the parks.

Here we are in front of the castle. It's behind my large head.

Then we headed straight to the 1st star for half the morning (instead of the 2nd star until morning). 17,000 people participated! You can see a fraction of them here. And yes, this part of the run was VERY hot.

Disney made sure there was never a boring moment. At each turn there seemed to be some sort of entertainment: Singers, dancers, cheerleaders, and marching bands.

Oh yeah, and people dressed up and/or holding funning signs. One of my favorites said: "Worse parade ever!"

Yep, we even ran through a classic car show.

One of the more exciting moments was running inside the Angle's baseball stadium. It wasn't packed, but there were enough people to really create some noise.

Love it.

For finishing, we got some cool "D" medals.

Afterwards, we spent more time in the parks. This is one of their new restaurants. Lisa made reservations a while ago because it's so fancy & new.

We also rode a ton of rides. Unfortunately, my dad couldn't run because his hip is bothering him. It's to the point that he has to walk with a cain.

FORTUNATELY, it means that we got to cut in line at every ride. We began calling it "the cut stick".

By the way, the new Cars Land is pretty awesome.

On our way to the the Fireworks show we stopped to watch a jazz band. They are really good. Check out the video to see what happened.

Here's the video:


We also ate delicious treats while shutting down the park.

With the help of the half marathon, I managed to set a single day personal record for the most number of steps: 45,000!

It was a great trip. I enjoyed the run, and hanging out with family. Now it's nice to be back at work where I can actually relax and get some sleep!