![\"image\"](\"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/wpid-2012-01-29_11-44-41_661.jpg\" "\\"2012-01-29_11-44-41_661.jpg\\"")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last April, Laura coerced me into registering for the Inaugural Tinker Bell Half Marathon.\u00a0 Okay, so she didn\u2019t have to do that much coercing. \u00a0I just needed an excuse to sign up for a race on the other side of the country.<\/p>\n
I have to admit, I was a little worried about this race. \u00a0Not about my training \u2013 in fact, I was excited to have a January race to force me to train during the holidays. \u00a0I was worried about the fact that it was an inaugural race. \u00a0I love runDisney. \u00a0I love Disney in general. \u00a0But I was nervous. \u00a0The inaugural Wine & Dine Half had a number of issues (that runDisney quickly corrected for the second year of the race \u2013 thank you runDisney!) and this past fall, the corrals for the Disneyland Half Marathon were a bit of a disaster. \u00a0A small issue to be sure, but if that\u2019s what happens at an established race, what was going to happen at a new race?<\/p>\n
Being a women\u2019s race, they had plenty of merchandise, though the Dooney & Burke purses apparently flew off the shelves. \u00a0Not a concern to me \u2013 I didn\u2019t want one. \u00a0But a bummer for others, I suppose. \u00a0Something else new they did for this race (and for Princess as well) is that they offered a commemorative necklace for purchase at the time of registration. \u00a0It was around $20, I believe, and I ordered one sight unseen because I figured I would rather waste $20 than later regret not spending the money. \u00a0The necklace is very simple \u2013 silver chain with two silver charms. \u00a0The circular charm is stamped with the logo of the race, and the other charm features Tink\u2019s wings. \u00a0It\u2019s pretty and I think the charms would be very pretty if put onto a running charm bracelet.<\/p>\n
Now, onto the race itself. \u00a0This race was absolutely amazing from start to finish. \u00a0The corrals were incredibly well organized, with giant lighted letters at the back of the corrals and signs clearly pointing you where to go. \u00a0Definitely an improvement over the Disneyland Half.<\/p>\n
I ran this race with Jenny, and we went with a 1:1 run\/walk pattern because she\u2019s still recovering from her AWESOME finish at the Walt Disney World Marathon a few weeks ago and because we were both a little tired from all the walking we did around the parks. \u00a0It\u2019s a new pattern to me, and I think I liked it \u2013 it\u2019s hard to say when dealing with legs that are already tired.<\/p>\n
The announcers did a great job of keeping us entertained in the corrals, and they had a number of interviews, including the adorable Megyn Price and Sean Astin, who was talking about his #run3rd campaign \u2013 run first for yourself, second for your family, and third for someone important to you, someone struggling with something or who needs the extra thoughts. \u00a0It was very cool to see another celebrity runner out there to just have fun.<\/p>\n
One notable figure missing from this event \u2013 Tinker Bell herself! \u00a0Of course, she was on the screen in animated form, but never seen elsewhere. \u00a0Kind of surprising, but I guess it would have been hard to have her featured.<\/p>\n
I loved this race course. \u00a0It was so much better than the Disneyland Half. \u00a0We started out in Disneyland (you can\u2019t beat running down Main Street towards the Castle), ran through Downtown Disney, spent some time on the streets of Anaheim, then back to California Adventure. \u00a0runDisney did a great job of having characters on the course in Disneyland (the Lost Boys on the Carousel were precious!) and the crowds in Downtown Disney were fabulous. \u00a0So many people cheering! \u00a0And then, I can\u2019t not mention the Red Hat Society ladies. \u00a0Their group stretched for what felt like a quarter of a mile! \u00a0It was incredible! \u00a0Jenny and I were both in awe of how many of them were there.<\/p>\n
I liked running through the streets of Anaheim. \u00a0There were people out on their front porches waving at the runners and probably wondering why there were so many cross-dressing men running through the streets. \u00a0It was much more fun than boring industrial Anaheim.<\/p>\n
The finish area of the race was crowded, but not too terribly bad. \u00a0Clearly, everyone wanted finisher\u2019s pics, which always holds up the line.<\/p>\n
And the medal. \u00a0How can I forget the medal? \u00a0It\u2019s absolutely gorgeous and Tink spins! \u00a0I found myself playing with it the rest of the day. \u00a0The only bad thing about Disney medals is the fact that they are SO HEAVY to wear the rest of the day. \u00a0I know, I know, first world problems.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m probably not going to be able to pull off running this race next year as they intend to move it to MLK weekend, making it back to back with Marathon weekend, which I would like to participate in next year. \u00a0But if you\u2019re considering it, I highly recommend it. \u00a0It\u2019s an awesome event.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last April, Laura coerced me into registering for the Inaugural Tinker Bell Half Marathon.\u00a0 Okay, so she didn\u2019t have to do that much coercing. \u00a0I just needed an excuse to sign up for a race on the other side of the country. I have to admit, I was a little worried about this race. \u00a0Not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[64,63,42],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n