The bus was just arriving when I walked out of the hotel so I hopped right on. I'm not sure if it was much shorter but it felt good psychologically to take the bus. I got off the bus and walked over to the starting area and found the Mickey Milers again. I didn't have a checked bag with me this time.
I was stopped for a picture on the way to the starting area. This picture cracks me up as I look like I'm advertising Diet Coke. "Drink Diet Coke - the Pre-race drink of champions. You too can have fun when you run."
We had our prerace Mickey Miler Photo and then it was time to disperse and head to our various starting corrals.
I again was starting back in Corral D with Dale. Today Donna was going to join us for the half marathon.
After we found a place in D to wait for the race to start the "official 3 hour pacer" showed up right next to me. She was way too loud and perky for my tastes. I kept having to cover my ears as she was screaming right in my ear. I couldn't wait for the race to start so we could get far away from her. I do not think I would do well running in an "official pace group". We weren't planning a 3:00 pace so we let her get ahead of us pretty quickly.
The first mile and a half runs down Disneyland Drive around the outside of the park, over the I-5 on a nice little overpass and down Harbor Blvd where we passed the 12 mile marker (wow that was a short race) before heading backstage.
All the mile markers pretty much looked exactly like this for the half. I do like that I caught the monorail behind it. It was not planned, I was just snapping the picture as we ran by because I thought it funny that we were at mile 12.
Immediately after entering the backstage area we came to a pretty significant incline in the tunnel to go under the bus driveway (I will freely admit that I had no idea what that was and didn't know it existed from the surface even walking in and out of the park several times). If I didn't see it on the map I wouldn't have identified what we were going under here. It's a lot of fun to run down, but not as much to run back up. Things got a little tight here as this was mile 12 and they were pushing us to a single lane as the lead wheel chair participant was close behind us, but we turned before they actually got there.
We left the backstage area and entered Disney's California Adventure Park near Hollywood Tower Of Terror where were got some awesome photo opportunities
including this one with Buzz and the Buzz girls
And here with Hamm and Rex
And we stopped for a photo on Hollywood Blvd.
We took a quick bathroom break on Hollywood Blvd and headed over to Radiator Springs
And grab a picture with Lightening and Mater
And get one with Radiator Springs behind us
And we learn that I am not slow :)
We take a quick turn back stage again and get some more fun photos with
Hamm and Rex
These fun guys
And a toy float
We go back onstage again where we find Vidia - the Fast Flying Fairy with some Attitude.
We also stopped for this classic shot with Paradise Pier behind us
No - not that one - I'm not sure what Dale is doing or why she has 4 legs suddenly :)
This is the classic shot.
We tried to get some bread for Donna from Ted, but settled for this picture instead.
We hit mile 3 as we were leaving California Adventures. All our fun and games inside California Adventures gave us a super speedy pace of 22:52 for that mile.
From California Adventures it is a short run across the Esplanade to the Disneyland entrance. We ran around the flag pole and stopped for a great photo with Chip and Dale (and Dale)
At the center hub we stopped for a picture with Walt and Mickey
Before a couple of pictures with Sleeping Beauty's Castle
Including one as Charlie's Angles
In contract to the Princess Half, we were actually able to run through the castle (at Princess there was such a bottle neck it was a claustrophobic nightmare shuffle)
We ran around the Carousel
Where the Lost Boys were taking a joy ride.
And stopped for a picture with Tinkerbell of course (it is her race after all)
I was almost surprised
to see her out on the course and not at the finish area but the line was well controlled and moved pretty quickly. With perfect timing right as it was our turn, our friend Jenn ran by so we got her to jump into the picture with us.
I adore the fact the Tink was sticking her tongue out behind our backs.
We left Tinkerbell and figured we needed to make up a little time, so we ran around the Materhourn and into Tomorrowland without stopping. In Tomorrowland, my watch beeped to single a mile. Mile 4 was a super speedy 25:05 long. we were also about 2 tenths of a mile from the mile marker.
We passed the Storm Troopers but didn't stop at this time for a picture.
We did stop for one with Rosetta and Iridessa
And were again able to grab Jenn to join us. (Side note, I don't have a clue what Rosetta and I are looking at)
We exited backstage behind It's a Small World and tried to get run over by one of the Disney Steam Engines.
We ran through much of this stretch of backstage area the day before on the 10k and did not stop for any additional pictures of the ride cars today. We were trying to make up a little time after our very slow miles 3 and 4.
We came back onstage in Toon Town
And decided to get a picture with Mickey's frontside instead of the backside at his fountain.
Donna stopped for an awesome picture with Donald and Pluto and Dale and I ran ahead to the restroom.
We took the Big Thunder Trail around to Adventure land where we met an awesome pirate
Stopped for a picture in front of the Haunted Mansion
And a Selfie with Pooh in Critter Country before leaving Disneyland and heading backstage again.
Backstage we ran into poor Smokey the bear. He was missing his arm and looked like he needed a hug and a kiss.
We loop around through Downtown Disney and turn onto Downtown Drive where we are cheered on by 300 of the Red Hat Ladies. They were pretty awesome and so full of energy.
We were at the halfway mark for the race when we completely left Disney Property and headed out on the the streets of Anaheim.
The Streets of Anaheim were well the streets of Anaheim and not a whole lot different than running a any other streets. There were some spectators out and some bands out. It was time to get serious and pick up the pace here.
According to the official results we were at 1:55:56 at the 10k mark which is an 18+ min/mile pace.
Since there wasn't much to see or do the next 6 miles seemed to move pretty quickly. At one point I stubbed my toe into a reflector and rolled my ankle. Ouch. I walked it off for a walk interval and seemed fine. It was a little tender but didn't hurt any worse to run than walk and wasn't particularly painful so I just kept moving forward.
Donna was starving so she ran into the 7-11 and grabbed some donuts.
Yep - Donuts on the course were a must
For the rest of the course we were pushing 13:15 - 14:30 min/miles. Still taking it easy as Dale's knee was tender but defiantly no more true shenanigans.
We came back by the mile 12 sign again, this time it was really mile 12. We had to go back down and up that lovely incline. It was even more fun to run down it this time (and even less fun to run back up)
We came back around the backside of Radiator Springs and Paradise Pier again. There were people on Katella Ave poking their heads through the ivy on the fence cheering. It was really funny to suddenly hear someone and see a face peering out at you.
Somewhere in here we ran into the most adorable Tinkerbell and Peter Pan who were giving our Pixie Dust. Of course we had to stop to get some so we could fly to the finish line.
We crossed over Disneyland drive and into the finishers shoot where we got a shout out from Rudy as we crossed the finish line.
We made up a lot of time on the back half of the course and finished in 3:35:22 or a 16:26 pace. According to my Garmin with our our stops and weaving we ran 13/7 miles at a 15:44 pace. :) 
Showing off our Tinkerbell Half Marathon Medals before we picked up our Coast 2 Coast and Pixie Dust Challenge Medals. Thanks Dale and Donna for making this a fun race!
It was a lot of fun and a great race.
Post race
All the Bling
They fixed the snack issue from the day before and were handing out little gift bags with a Luna Bar in it and then they had the rest of the snacks that were supposed to go in the Snack Boxes in bins. The volunteers were handing these snacks out. They still strangely only had blue Power-aid.
I got all my stuff and left the finishers area. It was crowded and I wanted to get a shower and get back to California Adventures to join the family for the rest of the day.
It was an awesome race. One that I would definitely consider running again.
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