Race Recap: The Disneyland 10K

#NatConDisney: The Races, part 1

Where to begin?! So it’s been a little over two weeks since we completed our Dumbo Double Dare challenge at Disneyland…we’re still beaming about it and can’t believe that it not only happened, but it’s over already. We had so much fun! Running 19.3 miles over the course of two days was no easy feat by any means.

The best thing we did during our trip was not switch over to Pacific Standard Time; we stayed East Coast. So yes, while we were going to bed between 8-9pm most nights, getting up at 3am on both race days felt relatively normal (or as normal as that can be, I guess). This is the first post in a multipart Disneyland set. You ready? Let’s start with the 10K!

Disneyland 10K | Saturday, September 3, 2016
It’s a good thing Aladdin and the Genie were the 10K hosts, because this race went by faster than a magic carpet flying through the streets of Agrabah! We were in corral E and started around 5:50am (official race start time was 5:30am). The route was mostly on Disneyland property, with the exception of a mile or so at the beginning on the road and through the Anaheim Convention Center. We kept with our training of 6 minutes running X 4 minutes walking and did that up until mile 4. We walked the entirety of mile 4, then picked up our 6×4 scheme again and ad-libbed till the end of the race (I mean, you just gotta run all the way through Fantasyland and down mainstreet!). We crossed the finish line at 1:22 and were clearly quite excited! (I had a knack for getting photos taken mid-jump…couldn’t quite time it right to get an actual leaping shot…oh well, maybe next time!)

The Disney Photo Pass folks were on point the whole weekend. TBH, we totally had our eyes peeled for them. There’s a new weekly photo pass package that gives you unlimited photos and downloads for only $69, plus direct-downloads from the Disneyland app. So knowing that we’d have puhhh-lenty of photo opportunities during our trip, I splurged. And we got some sweet money shots! Here are a few faves:

This was also the first race that we dressed up in costume for. Coincidentally for us, the theme of the weekend was dynamic duos, and we happened to dress up as Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde from Zootopia. So naturally, we had to get a photo with Judy herself along the race route. The line took a good 5 minutes to get through, but it was worth the wait because she was very excited to see us!

Not gonna lie, I’m pretty proud of our costumes. I wanted whatever we wore to be completely functional and comfortable to run in (no non-moisture wicking clothes for these two sweaty runners). I managed to score some decent deals on the clothes and got a little crafty on the accessories to make them both happen. Here’s a before and after — look how cute we are (with our little police badges and everything)!

I got my navy shorts, shirt, and tank from Eastbay (Wisconsin-based, holla!) for $39 total, my Pro Compression running socks for $25,  and Connor’s shirt from RoadRunner Sports for $26. Here’s where #CraftyNatalie comes in! I cut up the tank to make Judy’s top, then cut up the bottom portion to make her little wrist sleeves. I went to JoAnn Fabrics sans coupon (tsk, tsk, I know) and nearly broke the bank making Connor’s tie…haha, kidding! I bought a strip of fabric for a whopping $1 and used paint I already had for the stripes. I’m so proud of that damn tie! Then I made our police badges from some thin cardboard I found in the closet and drew some ZPD stuff on them. All the clothes we bought can be worn again (or turned into Halloween costumes perhaps?) which is great. Here’s Flat Judy/Natalie and Flat Nick/Connor the day before the 10K.

I’m really not sure what it was about this race that made it fly by! I was a little concerned about an ankle/calf/shin flare up that I’d been dealing with in the weeks leading up to the run. And while it wasn’t a completely pain-free run, it was manageable and not debilitating (whew!). All-in-all, it was a really fun route and we had a blast! Then we realized that we still had to do a half marathon the very next morning…