A RUNDISNEY AUGUST RECAP: Dumbo Double Dare

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At the end of August, I made the trek back to Anaheim for the biggest RunDisney race weekend yet: the Dumbo Double Dare. This was something really silly that I signed up for only moments after I had declared 2013 a “half-marathon free” year.

Instead of that, I ended up running 19.3 miles in 2 days in exchange for 3 Tech shirts and 3 medals. That’s a 10K on Saturday (6.2 miles) and a Half Marathon the following day on Sunday (13.1 miles)So… yeah. I don’t think there’s been a car magnet made for that just quite yet…

The weekend started out interesting, as the weather was quickly getting in the way of an easy run on both days. It was insanely hot. AND humid. In Southern California?!?! When you hear people from Florida complaining about the heat & humidity, you know you’re in trouble… and the worst of it hit on Saturday in time for the 10K.

Saturday: 10K & Kid’s Fun Run

The 5K was the first race of the day, which gave everyone at the 10K the ability to sleep in for an extra hour before walking out the corrals. I dressed up (along with my BFF, our fellow sorority sister Jackie, and my UCD buddy Nicole) in a familiar costume to go along with the Alice in Wonderland theme for the Saturday races. I also made a “sparkly skirt” for everyone to wear (tutorial coming super soon now that I know what I’m doing!)… which nabbed a certain BFF a personal best and Top 3 division award that day! (yes…. it was all the skirt!)

Oh, and the race course just happened to be the best course EVER for a RunDisney race. Why? Because outside of the first 2 miles, the entire course was through the parks (on stage and backstage)! But the race itself? We got started really late due to being in Corral F, and it was really really hot and crowded. Nicole and I were planned pacing buddies for both races. But… around Mile 3, stuff happened. I wasn’t properly hydrated well before the start due to some medical issues, so I overheated early on… thank goodness for running with friends who can tell you “Um, Kim. You’re REALLY flushed right now!”  I let her go ahead, and I slowed down after mile 4, and decided to enjoy my time with some photo-ops!

… with a baby cow from Frontierland…

…the White Rabbit…

… empty spinning Tea Cups…

… and the Queen of Hearts!

The photo op with the Queen of Hearts is my favorite, mainly because she is one of my former identities that is rarely out and about! She was very happy to know I had worn the crown before as well, and we did a silly dance and took more silly photos too. All while “running” a 10K. Yup.

I made it to the finish line that Saturday with a sense of “phew!” and not much thought about what the next day had in store. I just took my medal, refueled, d/l’d with Nicole (who had waited patiently for me at the finish) and then focused on the fun race of the weekend: Miss L’s 100 yard dash!

Now, this being her 2nd RunDisney event, I knew that she’d be a little old for the age group of 0-3 year olds. But, since she can’t run the 200 yard dash until after her 4th birthday, she was mixed in with the barely-walking kiddos with parents dragging (or dangling milk/food in front of them like carrots) their kiddos down the street. But Miss L… she just decided to bust by them. (BIG thanks to Nicole for the extra photos capturing Miss Speedy!)

Right before the finish line, Donald Duck grabbed her hand and they raced across together! (side note: Miss L was so darn focused on the finish line, she INSISTED that Minnie, Goofy and Mickey <to the right of this lady in pink> were not at the race and that I was lying when I said they were) And yes… that’s a kid-sized sparkle skirt that I made for her.

She was once again beaming with that medal around her neck all day, and was rewarded with a Jamba Juice and an afternoon at Disneyland! I returned to the hotel for a nap and attempted rehydration with medicine in tow. That night, we met up with my BFF, her hubs & little one for some serious carbo-loading at Wine Country Trattoria as we sweat through our dinner (seriously… it was that hot) in preparation for Sunday’s race, and ended the night riding Mickey’s Fun Wheel.

Sunday: Half Marathon

I woke up on Sunday at 4am not really knowing what to expect. I didn’t know if my feet would be tired, my legs would be heavy, or if I’d be riddled with nerves. Turns out none of the above applied… well, the nerves started kicking in about 10 min before our start…. but who would have thought, eh? Guess I was ready for this thing after all!

The corrals for the half marathon were chaotic and jam packed, and everyone was in complete disarray. But, somehow everyone managed to get to the start line and go, so that was all that really mattered!

Nicole and I were pacing buddies again and stuck together through the whole race. It was her first half (and the 10K was her first race EVER!), so I wanted to make sure I got to see her cross the finish line!

Sunday’s outfit of choice: DUMBO! (check out Jackie’s awesome Timothy get-up… SHE PR’D WITH THAT HAT!!!)  My custom Dumbo sparkly skirt was pretty wonky, but was so perfect and light to run in that I pretty much wore it until 2pm that day in the park.

I was pretty horrible at taking photos during the race due to one big factor: making sure my phone DID NOT DIE during the race. My iPhone 4S has horrific battery life, unless you turn off the brightness. Then it will last forever it seems. Well, I discovered that it’s REALLY HARD to take photos while running in bright sunlight without your brightness at a level where you can see the screen. So I ended up with these mementos:

That last one is a Dumbo topiary. You totally could tell right? Yeah. Nicole captured some better ones with her fancy little racing camera… I’m even in a few of them!

The race was going really great on a 1:1 pace (courtesy of Jeff Galloway’s lovely system), but Nicole started to heat up big time at Mile 8. We took a few extra walk breaks, and started up again around Mile 9, but it was clear that running was going to cause more harm than good at that point. So, I called a “TEAM FINISH!” shout-out… and we kept up a strong sub-15 min walking pace for the rest of the course. You don’t want to mess with heat exhaustion in general, and people were dropping like flies that day. So we aimed to finish strong, and were with a big pack of people doing the same exact thing. (THIS, my friends, is why Disney races are great… there are a lot of people out there just for the finish line!) We did run again one more time, from the Mile 13 marker to the finish line though!!!

And guess what?  TEAM FINISH!!!

We did it! 19.3 miles in two days! And I got that awesome Dumbo medal to wear with pride around the park! And… I spent the rest of the whole day/night at Disneyland! Final time for this half: 3:15:03. Pretty happy with that time w/the 10K the day before…. AND that I didn’t die/collapse in pain in the following days! That’s a “conquer FMS” victory if I’ve ever known one!

So yeah… the rest of the time was left to play in the parks!!!

And… then next RunDisney race will be the Tinker Bell 10K in January! WITH MY MOM!  Yup… if only RunDisney had a referral program, because I’d be raking the $$$ by now with all of the friendly referrals I’ve made!

As for the next half marathon… who knows? But for now, I’ll just keep running and see where it gets me!