lifestyle

the force was with us at the #rundisney #starwarshalf

The M Family travelled down to Orange County this weekend to partake in the inaugural runDisney Star Wars Half Marathon weekend.

Miss L was the first to race with her events on Saturday morning! It was her 4th runDisney kid’s race, but her first 200m event since she finally aged out of the 100m races!

pricess-leia-hair-empire-strikes-back

Her ensemble? Princess Leia from “The Empire Strikes Back.” (I may have muttered a few bad words under my breath about the most recent haircut we got sabotaging my braids… but it stayed like this for 12 hours! WIN!)

As usual, she sped down the course with nothing but pure determination to finish on her agenda!

#StarWarsHalf #rundisney weekend

And she even passed up Han Solo on the way to the finish line!

This event’s race expo was extra special with some fun Star Wars touches on the merchandise as well.

UCLA_Star_Wars_shirt_Lack_of_Sparkle_disturbing_shirt

Miss L got herself the most adorable new UCLA t-shirt, and I drooled over the options from the #TeamSparkle booth.

Did I forget to mention why this runDisney race was so special? Well, this time around, Mr. M decided to add “Half Marathon Finisher” to his list of personal accomplishments, so we ran our first race together!

#StarWarsHalf #rundisney weekend

It’s truly amazing how good people look at 5:30am before a race… I’m always so impressed! And the costumes… just look here for some of the best one’s out there from the course!

#StarWarsHalf #rundisney weekend 

Can you guess who we were (hint: Mr. M is missing his green buddy)??? I definitely never expected to walk around Disneyland in full gold lame spandex, let alone run 13.1 miles in it, but I did!

The course for this race wound its way through Disneyland and Disney California Adventure for the first 5 miles as usual, with lots of character photo-op’s along the way. Luke and Leia, Chewbacca, Stormtroopers, Star Wars Rebel’s Ezra & Sabine, Darth Vader and others lined the course in the parks and made the dark morning run fun!

#StarWarsHalf #rundisney weekend

My speedy BFF Auds caught up to us in Radiator Springs (she was taking ALL the photos) and we actually got a photo opp of the amazing sunrise! Seriously… if you think sunset is pretty in CarsLand, then sunrise is about 1000x as gorgeous!

#StarWarsHalf #rundisney weekend

We trotted through the streets of Anaheim and Garden Grove for the next 7 miles, then finally made our way to the finish line! We took a slow-steady pace, and minus a photo opp and bathroom break and med-tent stop here and there, we ended up quite happy with our overall finish time. Especially because we were back in the parks and playing by noon!

Which reminds me to give another “CONGRATULATIONS!” shout to Mr. M for really rocking his first half marathon (and his longest run ever) and still being able to walk today! It was definitely the perfect event to mark his first race ever!

The Star Wars Half Marathon was my 7th runDisney medal and 4th half marathon… and who knows when the next one will come! All I know is that it’s a blast seeing real friends & family on the course and in the parks and virtual friends online sharing in their success over the weekend and that no one puts on a race like runDisney!

3 Comments