Avengers Half Marathon Recap

I wrote this post on the flight home from the race but then left the laptop that it was saved on at my parents' house while we were trying to move so it took me a while to get it online for you. I am still working on the other post I mention below and hopefully will have it up for you by the end of the year.




I have a post in mind about all that has been going on this year and why I haven't been posting much that I hope to get out soon. For now, I want to give you all a recap of the Avengers Half marathon that Mac and I ran this weekend.

I haven't been training the way I should for several different reasons, so I was not looking forward to Avengers at all. I felt like it might be the first time since the very first attempt at Princess that I might be swept. Disneyland races are always really strict about sweeping since the course uses so many city streets and that made me nervous. Mac was going to be with me but I knew that if I was really struggling, I would have to send him ahead to finish and I would just have to get on a bus.
I flew in to Orange County on Thursday so that I could go to the expo first thing Friday morning. I really wanted to get my hands on one of the Avengers Half edition Dooney and Bourke purses. Since I picked up an annual pass for both DL and WDW on my last Disney trip, I was able to wander around the park a little that afternoon and hit a few rides while I waited to meet up with Heather and Jackie for dinner. Friday morning, we were lucky that Heather was still on east coast time and couldn't sleep. She went down to the expo line an hour earlier than we had planned and found that the lines were already growing. We made it down and into the lines(Heather for the Dooney and Jackie and I for official merch) in time to have a good spot. We met people in line around us and spent 2 1/2 hours hanging out waiting to get in. Our waiting paid off because we were all able to get everything we were looking for at the expo before most of it was sold out that afternoon.
Mac flew in Saturday morning and we tried to take it easy after starting the day in DL until he arrived. Through a random chain of events, Heather, Jackie and I were able to visit the lounge at Club 33 in Disneyland. It was AMAZING and made the entire trip for us. Saturday afternoon, we had our traditional pizza from Naples in DTD and turned in for an early night before the race.

I love that DL races don't require such an early start. We were able to head out of our hotel about 45 minutes before the start time, get in our corrals and wait for the race to begin. I hate that the DL races have not adopted the new corral system. There were around 12,000 runners at this race since this was an inaugural event. In the first 6 corrals, there were approximately 850 people per corral. The rest of the runners were all in the last two corrals. That means over half of the participants were in two corrals at the end. They released the first six corrals two at a time(A&B, C&D, etc) Then they released G and H individually. There were TOO MANY PEOPLE in those last two corrals. It was insane. The first two miles of the race were the only miles that were in the parks, except the last mile which ran through the back lot of Disney California Adventures. That meant you had a ton of people on a very narrow course without much room to spread out. There was a guy that kept yelling that walkers needed to be on the right. That is proper race etiquette(though Disney race etiquette states walkers can be on either side to allow runners in the middle) but with the conditions, it was impossible to move to the right every time someone had a walk interval. The first time the guy yelled, we had just started and weren’t into DCA yet. The second time he yelled at everyone, we were in DCA heading into Cars Land. I am not a morning person, I am not a fan of crowds and I was nervous about the race. When he yelled the second time, I was at my breaking point so I yelled at him. I said “It’s not possible, so shut up.” Everyone around me laughed. I never heard him yell again. The great thing about yelling at the inconsiderate runner was that it helped me get out some of the pent up anxiety and I felt better after I did it.
We had started the race near Heather and Jackie but since we were doing different intervals, we ended up getting separated. Jackie had not been feeling well that morning and she was dealing with an ankle injury. Not too far into the second mile, I received a text from Heather that Jackie was in too much pain and was pulling herself from the course. Mac and I decided to wait for Heather to catch us so we could do the race together. We switched to Heather’s intervals of 20 second run and 40 second walk instead of the 1 minute intervals we had started with. I was glad to shorten the intervals since I knew I wasn’t trained well and I wasn’t sure how long I would last with our original intervals.
I felt pretty good as we made our way through the parks. The temps were nice and things were going well. Then we left the parks. As we got onto the streets of Anaheim, I started to understand the High Wind Advisory I had seen the night before when I checked the forecast. It called for sustained winds of 25-40 mph with gusts of 60-70mph. They weren’t joking. Not far into mile 3, the wind was howling. Posters were being ripped out of spectators hands and flying into the course. I saw a giant palm limb (at least 10 feet long) flying across a parking lot headed straight for the street full of runners. Fortunately, there was a security guard that saw it and stopped it before it could take anyone out. For the beginning of the street course, we were dealing with crosswinds. Around mile four, the course turned and then it was a head wind. Running into winds of those speeds was insane. Sometimes you felt like you weren’t moving. We also started seeing the toll they were taking on the course. Barriers were in piles on the side of the road instead of standing. Mile markers were torn apart or missing by the time we ran by. When strong gusts would kick up, you had to shield your face so you could breathe and to keep the sand from your eyes. My throat quickly became raw because no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t keep from breathing it in. Near the mile 5 water stop, they couldn’t keep the full cups of water on the table. They were being blown everywhere. With no hope of keeping it all contained waves of empty cups flew across the open parking lots around us. Between miles 6 and 9, there was a long stretch along the Santa Ana River that was a bike/running path. Because of the draught in California, there was no water, only dirt which quickly became even more dust in the air. The path was very narrow and there was still so much congestion from the poor corral breakdown that we had no choice but to walk. The only bright spots on this stretch were an awesome mural someone had painted at the entrance to the path that contained Thor and Captain America and the huge group of Cosplayers that came out in all of their Marvel character glory and cheered us on. There was a Loki there that could easily pass as Tom Hindleson’s younger brother and his costume was amazing. I hate that I did not get pictures of him or any of them because I was so focused on simply moving forward.
The path ended at the Anaheim stadium. I was glad to see some of the local runner support that I had experienced at Tink in the parking lot of the stadium. They were handing out red vines, pretzel rods and DONUTS. It was a very welcome snack during a very tough race. Running around the warning track was really cool but I knew there was a really good chance that the official pacers were catching us. After exiting the stadium, I made a quick pit stop at the next water station. I was praying that the port-o-potty I was in would not do what many others near it had. They were scattered all over the parking lot because they had been blown around by the wind. I quickly met back up with Heather and Mac as we headed away from the stadium. I found myself a little choked up as we passed a group of WWII reenactors and many veterans. I always love seeing the pride in Mac’s eyes when he sees those that have served before him.
As we were passing through the gates on the road out of the stadium, I heard people talking about the “balloon ladies” or the official pacers. They are the ones that start walking a 16 minute mile pace after the last person crosses the start line and if you cannot stay in front of them, you will be picked up or “swept”. I turned around and realized that they were only about 10 feet behind us. I freaked out and took off running. We had not been doing our intervals because of the congestion but we quickly started them back up. We had just over 3 miles to go and we were doing everything we could to put distance between us and the pacers. Every time we would stop to walk, I would ask Mac how far back they were.  We finally hit a few areas where we could no longer see them and I felt a little better. I knew I could not keep up that pace for the rest of the race but we need to get away from them. At around mile 11.5, we decided to just walk unless they caught us again because I was getting tired and my lungs were hurting from all the dust.
We were finally within sight of the parks again and I started to breathe a sigh of relief. I knew we should be hitting mile 12 soon after entering the back lot area but we never saw the sign. Turns out, it was destroyed by the wind like so many other mile markers that day. Finally, we left the back lot of DCA and crossed over Disney Way into the parking lot at Paradise Pier. I knew we were finally safe. We made our way past the hotels and to the finish line. I grabbed Mac’s hand and we crossed the finish. I immediately lost it. I was crying so hard I was having trouble breathing. I was so overwhelmed by emotions because I knew that if I had not been with Heather and Mac, I probably would have been swept. They helped push me when I was tired and distract me when I was frustrated. They kept me going when I didn’t think I could any more. I was so grateful to have them with me. I was so overwhelmed by the way God works and how he brought Heather into our lives.  Thanks to her and my loving husband, I was able to finish my 9^th half marathon.
We received our medals and made our way through the maze to get our food boxes, water and powerade. The thing I hate most about RunDisney races is the insanely long walk you have to do after finishing. This one was even worse than most because in order to get back around to our hotel, which we were in the parking lot of, we had to walk about a mile from the finish, through the exit area and then around the block to get back to a place that was about 100 yards from the finish line. I was tired and sore and PISSED to be walking so far after running over 13 miles in insane conditions. We finally made it back to the Disneyland hotel for our breakfast reservation where we had great food and some time to enjoy our accomplishment. We were able to meet back up with Jackie at breakfast. She had gotten her ankle taped up and was feeling a little better even though she was down about not being able to complete the race.

We ran(waddled) into DL after we ate to get pictures with a few characters and in front of the castle with our medals. Then Mac and I hit the pool and hot tub while the others went to the room to shower and change. We had big plans of closing down Disneyland that night after ice skating in Downtown Disney , having dinner and watching World of Color at California Adventures but while we were eating, we all nearly fell asleep in our food. We found out that we could swap the preferred viewing tickets we got with dinner to another night and we were all back in the room and in bed by 9pm instead of watching the 9:45 show and then partying in the parks until midnight. I have closed down the parks after every other DL race I have done but running in that wind all morning just took everything out of us. Monday and Tuesday were full of park time hitting everything we had not done in the days before the race and making sure we checked off all of our must do and see items.
All in all it was a great trip. The race was tough but I am glad I did it. I truly enjoyed the theme even though I was not a fan of the course. 10 of the 13 miles were off property and barely over a mile was actually inside either of the parks. I am interested to see what they plan to do for the Star Wars Half coming up in January and I hope to be more prepared for it once it rolls around. I’m so grateful I have the opportunity to do races like these with amazing people and I can’t wait until the next one.
Rebel Challenge, here I come.