I haven't been posting race reports in quite awhile. With injuries ruining most of the 2016 season, there wasn't much to report! But now, I'm starting 2017 off right... Yesterday I ran the 2017 Disney Star Wars 1/2 Marathon in Anaheim, California.
Pre-Race:
In additon to the half marathon on Sunday, the race series has a 5k on Friday and a 10K on Saturday. My wife and a few of her friends were entered in the 10K, so we came out to Anaheim on Friday afternoon and stayed at a hotel that was about a 15 minute walk to the start/finish area. My daughter also came along, so once we got settled into the hotel, we went over to the the theme parks and took her on as many rides as we could. Saturday, I was up at 4:30am to take my daughter out to see my wife run her 10K. After that, we spent the day at the theme parks again, and at 6pm had dinner at the Napa Rose restaurant in the Californian Hotel (a Michelin 1-star restaurant). I had their petit filet mignon, and some really great wine. Definitely not a smart pre-race meal, but I was so tired from two days of Disney theme parks, I didn't think it mattered anymore what I did to prepare for the run, so may as well enjoy myself! After dinner, we finally headed back to the hotel so I could get off of my feet. I laid back with some recovery compression socks on, and sipped water in a vain effort to recover a little before tomorrow.
Race Morning:
I woke up at 4:15am, and checked the temperature outside. It was crystal clear, no wind, and 49 degrees. Perfect conditions. I put my gear on, mixed a bottle of Infinit Jet Fuel, and sipped on that as we woke our grumpy 3-year-old up and got her ready as well. At about 5am, we started the walk over to the corrals, The first two corrals are seeded by time. When I registered for the race, I submitted a time from my Surf City 1/2 marathon, which got me into corral B (they had a total of 9 corrals labeled A through I). At about 5:20am, I took off my warm-up suit, got my Garmin and Stryd powered up and ready, and walked over to my corral. The start area was in full Disney/Star Wars fashion. A huge jumbo-tron screen, bright lights, and Star Wars music everywhere. They definitely had the right mood!
The Race:
The race started right on time. At 5:30am on the dot, the A corral (elites and top seeded age groupers) took off. My corral shuffled to the start line. I was about two thirds of the way to the back of the corral. At precisely 5:35am, we were sent off to the sounds of the Star Wars intro theme music. It was pretty cool. I walked for maybe 20-30 seconds before I reached the timing mats and started my Garmin and my Stryd app. Even though it was crowded, everyone was moving at or near the same pace. It was one of the cleanest starts to a large race I have ever seen.
Miles 1 through 4:
I'm going to talk about the first few miles most, because they are what make this race unique. The first 4 miles are entirely inside of Disneyland and California Adventure theme parks, and the adjacent roads that allow you to run from one park to the other. It is really cool being in the theme parks pre-dawn with nobody else there. There is so much happening as you run through, it is hard to describe it all. Everything is lit up, the rides are moving, spinning, etc, Star Wars music and movie dialogue blaring, actors in full costume interacting with the runners, or acting out scenes right in front of you. There are a few photo opportunities set up for you, but you have to actually stop running and get in line to take your picture in one of the scenes. I didn't want to stop running for that long, so I just checked them out as I ran by. I saw the BB-8 droid photo op, the C-3PO + R2-D2 one, one where you look like you are riding one of the speeder bikes on Endor in Return of the Jedi, one where stormtroopers are holding you captive, and one where you act out the trash compactor scene from A New Hope. My favorite part, however, was when I ran up on a battle scene being acted out by about 15 people. It was Kylo Ren and his 'Knights of Ren' versus a group of Jedi. Aside from the Star Warsy stuff, it was also neat to run by the 'Cars' part of California adventure when it was all lit up (it makes a very cool looking desert mountain backdrop) and the 'world of color' light/water show is actually going on as you circle that area near the scream machine roller coaster. There is a lot to see, so much that I am sure I missed stuff. But it makes the first 4 miles go by fast.
The 5th Mile Onward:
Once you leave the theme parks, the race turns into a well spaced out, very flat course. The huge streets around Disneyland (like Harbor Blvd, Chapman Ave, etc) have one or two lanes coned off from traffic, so there is a ton of room for everyone. Despite having nearly 13,000 people in the race, I literally had no problems with other runners getting in the way, having to take bad lines at corners or anything like that. I just settled into a nice rhythm and counted off the miles. At around the 5 mile mark, there is a stretch of probably 1/2 mile or more fully lined with high school marching bands and cheerleaders, and a decent amount of spectators rooting us on. It got quiet for maybe a mile or so at about the halfway mark. At mile 8, I was feeling so good that I told myself that if I still felt this relaxed at 10 miles, I would try to hammer the final 5k to see what kind of time I could run. But by mile 9, fatigue really set in. I'm sure the previous two days of NOT resting and preparing to run were kicking in, but I still felt confident I could hold my pace. My quads were starting to feel sore, and by mile 10 I was feeling hot spots in both of my arches. There was another section of high school bands, and also a stretch that was lined with members of a Star Wars fan club called the "501st Legion" who are quite fanatical. They had costumes on that rivaled (and exceeded) those of the actors inside Disneyland. To show my appreciation of their presence, I was hi-fiving sith lords, forearm bashing stormtroopers, etc. It was a lot of fun and renewed my motivation to finish strong. I had definitely picked up the pace on the second half of the race, but it was requiring a lot more effort to keep it up. The stretch from mile 10 to mile 12 seemed to take forever, but once I knew I only had a mile to go, I rallied a bit and made my last mile one of the fastest of the race. I saw my wife and daughter right at the 13 mile marker, and then cruised it in for the finish. My Garmin read 13.08 miles when I was in the finish chute, so I actually started it back up and jogged until it read 13.11, so I would get the 1/2 Marathon Challenge credit when I uploaded the data to Strava!
Finishing Time: 2:05:25
Overall Place: 1458th out of 12,434
Age Group Place: 196th out of 1000+ (they only list results for the first 1000 in huge age groups)
My time is nothing to write home about, but for me, that isn't the point. I am very happy about this race because it marks a return from some very long injuries that have plagued me for over a year. I can finally cover 13+ miles without any injuries (and have fun doing it), and I am ready to start doing some real training for IM70.3s and other events. I think with proper rest and preparation (NOT what I did the 3 days leading up to this event) I can run at least a few minutes faster with a similar controlled effort.
Details:
Some notes about my equipment, nutrition, and observations about this effort...
Nutrition:
Like an idiot, I ate a very heavy meal the night before the race (red meat, lots of veggies, alcohol, etc) but I wasn't really aiming for a 'race' performance so I didn't worry too much about it. I did make a good effort to stay hydrated though. And in the morning before the race, I ate no solids, just drank about 12 ounces of Infinit Jet Fuel. During the race, I took fluids at most of the aid stations after the 5K mark (alternating between plain water and Powerade). I think I had plenty of energy and was well hydrated through the event. No issues there.
Gear:
I ran in my Hoka One One Bondi 4's, which were great as usual. I wore a pair of ultra-thin no show socks, like I always do, but for some reason I got a minor blister on my right arch and a hot spot on my left arch. Not sure why that happened. I wore a short sleeve Nike Dri-Fit shirt, Dri-Fit shorts, and wore the free hat I got from IM70.3 Oceanside. The hat and short sleeved shirt were fine for the weather. The hat came in handy when the sun came up, as I used the bill to block the sun in my face for a straight 2 mile stretch. I did get some chafing from my shorts, which is very strange as I have never had that before, and these are shorts I do long runs in all the time. For timing/data I used my Garmin 910XT with HR strap, and I wore my Stryd running power meter on my left shoe. I also wore a waist belt that had my iphone on it (so I could link up with my family after the race, and also to run the Stryd mobile app to catch more running data). The 910XT was fine, but I did have about a 2-3 mile stretch where the HR data reported low. I have been having issues with these HR straps, and think I am going to ditch them and use a Wahoo TICKR instead. Also, the Stryd app on my phone completely died and captured zero data. So, wearing the device and carrying the phone was a waste. The Stryd meter itself seems to be good, but the IoS app for it totally sucks. If you do not have a device like a Garmin 920 or 735XT that can read the Stryd data, I would not recommend the Stryd power meter.
Logistics:
One negative thing about this race, is that because of the time and location of the events, you are almost forced to stay in a hotel nearby in order to participate. The races start promptly at 5:30am, and there is nowhere close by to park your car and walk in. We stayed at a hotel on Harbor Blvd. right by the Disneyland Dr. entrance to the compound. This made for about a 7-8 minute walk to the Downtown Disney area, and about a 15 minute walk to where the race corrals and start/finish area are. You can stay even closer to the race area if you go to the Disneyland Hotel or the Californian, but those are very expensive. The race entry fee is already very high, so we tried to minimize the lodging costs. If you are a Disney/Star Wars geek (or your family is) it is a lot of fun to tack on a trip or two into the parks, as we did. But that did take a toll on my legs leading up to the race. I was mostly running it for fun, and just to get a long run in so I didn't care about the end results (aside from finishing). But honestly, if you wanted to, this could be a very good course for a 1/2 marathon PR. Get into one of the first 3 corrals, and you can fly. But yeah, not the most economical race out there.
Next Race: Surf City 1/2 Marathon on February 5, 2017
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