Disneyland 10k Recap!!

I can't believe it has already been over a week since the Disneyland 10k! It seems like just yesterday my alarm was going off at 4am to get ready for the race! So lets flash back to that then....

Last year I ran the half only and didn't sign up for the Dumbo Double year so this year I signed up for Challenge. I was very eager to run this race as I had heard the course was great with a majority of it in the park. I was the only person in my family running this so I told them all to sleep in, I would run and wake them all up after when I was done. As I had mentioned I woke up at 4am well 3:45 I was very excited to run and couldn't sleep anymore. I wanted to be in my corral by 5 so this gave me plenty of time it was only about a ten minute walk to the race start so I headed down at around 4:40.

I got over to the start line just as they were opening up the corrals. I was in A and was really excited about that because I was right up in the front and could see everything that was going on with the announcers. The theme of the race was Stitch. As you may know Stitch is a big fan of Elvis so that was a big part of the theme as well. Before I knew it "Elvis" was singing the national anthem and we were off and running. My plan for this race was to take it easy not go for a PR and have fun after all I had a half to run the next morning. As soon as I took off I knew I wasn't going to run this one slow. I was feeling really good it was not humid at all like Cape Cod and it was actually quite cool. The first two miles or so were outside the parks and then we headed inside with the remainder of the race weaving in and out of the parks. One of the interesting parts of the race was running behind the scenes of Disneyland. It was kind of cool to see whats behind the park and through all the doors that block of certain areas. Also there were so many twist and turns and things going on the miles just flew by. Before I knew it I was heading out of the park hitting the six mile mark and flying through Downtown Disney to the finish! As soon as I crossed the finish line I got a text from my mom and found out I had PR'ed! She had been getting my alerts texted to her through out the race, so I guess I ended up waking her up pretty early. I was very happy about my time and was feeling great body wise! I grabbed my finisher medal and my DDD wristband and headed back to the hotel to change and get ready for the day!

My overall thoughts on the race and the course were I loved it! I liked it much better then the 10k course during Princess. I know they are different places and what not but I liked that we were in the parks so much, and two different parks at that! I also liked that the course was not super flat. There were some slight uphills and downhills that made it a bit more interesting too. Also the crowd support was great! There where people all through the parks and through Downtown Disney. I can't tell you how much I love when people are lining the course screaming for complete strangers it just really keeps you going. Another thing I liked about the 10k and this applies to Disney World races too is there aren't as many runners which sometimes is nice. runDisney does a great job with corrals and not having everyone start at once so it is very spread out however there is just something about the 10k. If you have not run a runDisney 10k do it! All in all I loved every minute of this race! 

For those wondering about the amount of characters throughout the race. In Disneyland the characters are only allowed to be in the parks so there are normally many more in Disney World races because they are along the course. I don't stop for character photos so didn't notice many of them just a few. This didn't bother me though because there is so much going on. I did hear people commenting on how they were disappointed by this though. The amount of characters out didn't alter my thoughts on the race.

Also check out my expo review here!

QOTD: Which runDisney race course is your favorite?!?