Neverland Family 5K and runDisney Kids Races 2013

I'm back with the runDisney Neverland Family 5K and Kids Races that took place in Disneyland and were part of the Tinkerbell Half Marathon weekend races.

These were my first ever runDisney races and since I was planning on getting my Coast to Coast medal, I figured that I might as well take part of all the weekend races, since we were going to be there anyway. Check out my other blog posts about the Expo and my videos on YouTube!

Both of these races took place on Saturday, January 19th, 2013. The Neverland Family 5K was at 5:45AM, I had set my alarm for 4:30AM, but I had all of my stuff ready from the night before, so I put my costume on and I was ready to go. I used the same costume that I had planned on wearing for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon. Unfortunately I had only bought one blanket with me and I wanted to save that for the Half Marathon, so I ended up using the Tinkerbell half marathon tech shirt that came with registration. It worked out perfect since it was a long sleeve shirt and it was a bit chilly in the morning.

I made my way down to the hotel lobby by 4:45AM, I was the first one there, but there were more people who came as we waited for the shuttle bus. It was nice that they had free rides all through the weekend. The shuttles were running every 20 minutes, so once it came it was a short ride over to Disneyland. I should have given myself a little bit more time, I didn't know how long I would have to wait for the bus, I think I must have just missed it, so I did end up waiting for 20 minutes or so.
The starting line was right by the castle, which was beautiful. It was all lit up purple and later on they had swirly designs playfully scanning across the castle. They didn't really have corrals assigned in this race, although they were calling out corrals A, B and C, we didn't have anything on our bibs. I made my way up to the front though, I though i was going to run it in about a half an hour. There were a lot of kids and families running, and since it was a Family 5K they did not time it. As I waited there they had a stage set up in front of the castle and had a pirate themed hosts keeping us entertained. Once we were almost ready to start they walked us a bit father up to the side of the castle where I could see the actual starting line. Sean Astin was in the front row, running this race as well and then the fireworks started and I was off.

The course was very easy, they had characters on the side of the road, just like I had heard about. They did not however have professional photographers by the characters, so you had to bring your own camera if you wanted to take pictures. They did have them on the course, so I got some cute pictures from the race in addition to my own. At the very end just before the finish line they had Mickey and Minnie waiting for you, I got my picture and to the finish I went.

 

It was still dark when I finished, I got my medal and my food box. They did have a cute Peter Pan reusable bag that you could put your stuff in, which was super helpful. I walked back to the bus stop where the shuttle had dropped us off and there was nobody there. I happened to come across a bus driver who said that the shuttle did not start going back until 7:20 and I was done with my race by 6:15sh. I most certainly did not want to wait there for an hour. I was disappointed in that they did not plan that better, they should have had some sort of transportation going back to the hotels. Oh well, I was a little frazzled by that and didn't really know how to get back, so I put the hotels name on my phone, but it took me in the wrong direction. I walked so far out of my way before I realized that this was not right, so I turned back around and just walked back to Downtown Disney were I knew how to get back to my hotel. It took me probably an hour to finally get back. My husband and son were still sleeping, so I took a quick shower and by that time they were up and off to Disneyland we went.
The Happiest Place on Earth - TRUE STATEMENT!

runDisney Tinkerbell Half Marathon weekend Expo 2013

I know this post is a little late, but being a Mom and having a full time job, doesn't really leave me much time for anything else. Here it is anyway, better late than never right.

We arrived in LA on Friday January 18, we live in Seattle so it was just a quick 2 hours flight or so. We flew into the John Wayne airport in Orange County which was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy more convenient than LAX and it was much closer to Anaheim as well. Definitely recommend that if you are going to Disney. We got in about 10:00am and we had planned on spending some time at Newport beach and just hanging around that are for a little while. My little boy is a beach baby and he loves the water and the sand so much that he could spend all day playing in it and running around. The weather was beautiful and the sun was shining, so we spent a few hours at the beach and then rode the Ferris wheel and played some arcade games. After that we were ready to head for Disneyland.


We stayed at the Holiday Inn Anaheim, I thought the hotel was very nice and clean and much bigger than I thought. We got a great room with a Kings size bed and lots of room for Chase to play. We wanted to rest a bit, so we played some games and I unpacked a little and then I decided to go to the Tinkerbell Half Marathon Expo. My husband and son stayed behind, we were going to meet up at Downtown Disney and have dinner once I was done.

The hotel was walking distance to the Expo, which was held at the Disneyland Hotel. It was not at all crowded by the time I got there at about 4:00PM. I had to pick up my packets on Friday because I was running the Neverland Family 5K and my son was running the Kids races on Saturday morning before the expo opened. They had set everything up very conveniently, I walked downstairs first and that's where they had set up all of the packet pick ups. I picked up my Tinkerbell Half Marathon packet and shirt, then the Neverland Family 5K packet, then the Kids races packet and finally the ChEAR squad packet. That's where they also gave the pins and the necklaces if you had pre-ordered them, so I got all of my things and I headed upstairs. That's where they had the Official Merchandising area set up, the speakers and ton of other booths that sold all sorts of running related merchandise.

 

New Balance was there with their new runDisney running shoes, I wanted to buy them so bad, but they were kind of pricy at $125.00 and I just wanted to think about it and I figured since I was going to the Princess Expo a month later I would buy them from there if I still wanted them.

I looked around the booths, but nothing really stood out to me and I didn't want to spend too much money anyways, but I did want to get something from the official merchandise section. I ended up getting the Tinker Bell mug and the runDisney Mickey Vinylmation with the little Tinker Bell medal and the vinyl Mickey ears magnet.

Once I was ready to leave, right by the doors they had set up a little photo opportunity with the Tinkerbell Half Marathon background. They had cast members there taking your photo with your own camera, which was nice so you weren't forced to buy the photos, you can just use your own.

I had so many bags as I was leaving, I consolidated them all into one and off I went to meet my husband and my little boy. We had an awesome dinner at the House of Blues and went back to the hotel and crashed early. My race was at 5:45am the next day!!!!

 

Mercer Island Half Marathon Finished!

Last Sunday I finished the Mercer Island Half Marathon with a time of 2:21. Not too bad for me, since I had not trained for this since my last half in DisneyWorld 4 weeks ago. My tendon was just hurting me too much and I didn't want to irritate it even more.

Just a quick race recap:
I picked up the race packed at a small expo at the Mercer Island Community center the day before. They had some vendors selling shirts and local businesses and sponsors there. I didn't buy anything while I was there, but did pick up some freebies, like an emergency kit and some tote bags.

I was a little worried about race day transportation because parking on the Island is very limited and they started the half marathon walkers before the runners at 7:00, my race was at 9:00. I didn't think that there was going to be any parking available by the time I got there so I just decided to park at the closest Park and Ride and then take the bus from there. The buses were free for all the runners, which was super nice, so I didn't have to worry about carrying change on me or anything.

Once I got to Mercer Island it was just a short walk to the Community Center where the starting line was. They did offer gear check, but I try not to deal with that if I don't have to since the lines are always so long. They had bagels, oranges and bananas before and after race. Odwalla was a big sponsor, they had a tent set up with free samples and goodies. After that I made my way to the starting line, they didn't have corrals, just different colored flags to stand behind depending on what your pace was going to be. I stayed towards the front though.

Once the race started I was feeling great, I was blasting "This Girl is on Fire" by Alicia Keys on repeat for the first three miles to get me started and it really made get a good start, I think :)  I love that song, its really inspirational and makes me want to run faster and do better. I had brought two packets of energy gummies with me. I had the first pack at about mile 4 and was feeling good and the second pack at about mile 7. They had lots of water stations all thru the course and the best part was that we were running around an island that is mostly residential, a ton of the residence were out in front of their homes cheering us on. Some even had set up their own mini water stations and were handing out candy like twizzles and skittles. Two little girls set up a lemonade stand in front of their home. It was so sweet and it was amazing to see the support from our community.

At mile 8 is where I normally start crashing, I was actually feeling great. I was even thinking to myself, what am I doing different this race that I feel so good that this point, but I could not figure it out. Oh well, I was happy and just kept going, the course was quite hard, due to all the hills there. At mile 5, 8 and the finish were all steep uphill battles, but you always know what goes up, must come down, so there was always a reward of going downhill afterwards.

Overall I really enjoyed the race and I would do it again in a heartbeat. This was the 41st year of the Mercer Island Half!!

See you there next year :)

Oh, FYI they had major discounts for other races in the area after the finish, so I signed up for the Heroes Half in Everett at the end of April. We'll see how I do! I'm officially three for three for half marathons this year (one every month) and now I'm registered for the fourth.

New runDisney Dopey Challenge!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was checking Twitter this morning and yes I do follow runDisney, if you don't you absolutely should! They are awesome. Anyway, this is what they posted:

Today, runDisney reaches another milestone as we expand the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend presented by Cigna with the addition of the Walt Disney World 10K, the Dopey Challenge, new medals and the return of the popular Runner’s World Challenge.
In 2006, the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend had a big year. The races had become so popular, the half marathon and the full marathon now had to be held on two separate days. This race day bifurcation led to another interesting development. It was now theoretically possible for a runner to run both races, so the team decided that if someone was goofy enough to do that, they deserved a medal. And thus, Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge was born with just over 2,300 runners receiving the first Goofy medal for their 39.3 mile accomplishment.
Through the years, “the Goofy” has been a favorite with our runners as well as a unique offering in the running industry. Well, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. This next year, runDisney is adding a 10K race to our Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend line-up, joining our already popular 5K, Half Marathon and Full Marathon. And you guessed it (we couldn’t help ourselves), we are now offering the Dopey Challenge to those runners who conquer ALL FOUR of our races. That’s right…completing the 5K, the 10K, the Half Marathon and the Full Marathon in the four consecutive days will earn you the Dopey Challenge Medal. That coveted piece of hardware will be clanging around the necks of our finishers with the Mickey Marathon medal, the Donald Half medal, the 5K Family Fun Run medal, the Goofy Challenge medal, and the new Minnie 10K medal.
Six medals for 48.6 miles over four days. I think I am just Dopey enough to do it. Come join me!

Ahhhhhhh, yes, of course I want to do this, this sounds amazing and what an experience it would be. Hard, of course, fun, of course, Dopey and Goofy, absolutely!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, please sign me up, I couldn't ask for a cooler weekend to spend in Disneyworld. I know this may seem crazy if you hate running, but it truly would be a dream for me, this one definitely goes on my bucket list!
I think its so fun that they are coming up with new things all the time and adding new challenges to existing events, for people who have been running Disney for year, I'm sure its a nice change. But for me and all the runDisney newbies, its cool to see who much they care about running and that they keep going every year, year after year.

Registration opens on April 9th, 2013!!!!!!!!!! This is two and a half weeks away, crazy. I bet it will sell out in the first couple of months as well. If you are a runner and like me where you are up for trying anything at least once, I think this is a dream come true. I really am curious how many people will do it, we'll see I guess.

If you are reading this and have a lot of money and have nothing to do with it, I have an idea, you can just sponsor me to go there and take this challenge on ;)

Comment below if this is something you would ever consider doing or if you are ready to get signed up.

Keep on running and maybe, just maybe I'll see you there,

Keili

Fun in Seattle!

I had taken a couple of days off work since there was no school for my son. I had asked what he wanted to do during that time and he wanted to go to Seattle. I should say that when people ask me where I'm from I always say Seattle, but technically we do live on the Eastside. I think most people do that when they live in the suburbs. But anyway it takes us about 20 minutes to drive to Downtown Seattle. We hardly ever used to go there until my son was born. We have gone out to explore more of Seattle since then. Now that he is old enough and really into all sorts of vehicle he really enjoys riding on the Seattle Monorail, so we'll go down there just to ride the Monorail back and forth. The drivers always ask us where we are from, I think only tourist ride it, they always think its funny that we go there just to ride it. It makes my son happy and that's all that matters.

So anyway after that long introduction, we went to Seattle for a day of fun. We got there about 11:00am and the first thing we did is got on the Monorail, we always have to sit in the front of course, that's the best view and the drivers always let him honk the horn two times. The best part about riding it back and forth is that you are guaranteed to get a front row seat on the way back, because most people get off at the end and we just walk to the other side of the monorail and get our seats.

After the monorail ride Chase really wanted to go to LUSH. If you are not familiar with the store, its an amazing bath stuff store. That's what I call it anyway, they have the best bath bombs and Chase really wanted to go there to pick out a few things. Since we are running low on them anyway I had him pick out a few things. He really wanted the rocket ship bath bomb, but they were all out, so he ended up choosing the robot, the three in one Easter egg and the Saturn bath bombs. This made him super happy.

After LUSH we stumbled across this really cool games store (not video games, my husband is a huge gamer so that's where my mind automatically goes :)). They had all sorts of board games and fun stuff and Chase loves to play games, they had a bunch of them out to try. I think we spent over an hour at that store and the clerk was super nice and showed us how to play all the games. We ended up buying a very cute penguin game I'd never seen before which was exciting. Chase couldn't wait to go home and show Daddy how to play, so on our way we went.

Next we went back to the car we drove to the other side of the city to go to Uwajimaya, its an Asian grocery store. We always leave with a lot more than we came for.
There was a Travel Channel episode about best places to eat or something like that and a pastry shop located inside Uwajimaya was featured in it and my husband really wanted to try it. Its called Bearded Papas and they have the most amazing cream puffs there. I would recommend the chocolate filled cream puffs, those were my favorites, they do run out of that one the fastest, so go early.

After that is was time for some lunch and Chase was ready to go home anyway. We had yummy deli sandwiches and headed home.

It was a much fun filled day, we accomplished everything we wanted to and had fun playing the new game once we got home.

Hope you had fun reading about our adventure for the day. Comment below if you know any awesome places around the Seattle area we should check out, food, play, parks or otherwise.


Keili and Chase

Mercer Island Half Marathon, March 24, 2013

I'm excited to announce that I have signed up for my third half marathon this year!! So far I'm three for three, one half marathon a month so far this year :)

I only have a week and a half to train from here on, I've been really good, but have not ran any long runs since my Princess Half marathon. I'm planning on a 10 miler on Sunday, so I'll let you know how I feel and how it goes. This week I still have to do two more short runs and then next week is the Mercer Island Half. I've never ran this race before, I've read some reviews and people have said that the course is really hard and when I looked at the elevation chart, it looks like its all uphill, with two minor downhill sections. This makes me a little scared, I was going to try for a PR, but now I don't know. I will still train my best and do my best during the run.


The weather should be good, not too cold, not too hot, maybe even raining, which I actually enjoy. I know I'm weird like that, but somehow it makes me be faster and better, probably because I just want to get out of the rain :) I think on the long runs it just feels good when you get hot during your run to feel the rain on your face.

Thankfully this race is close to my house, but the parking will be limited, it is an island with mostly residential areas after all. So what I thought about doing is driving to a park and ride and then catching a bus to Mercer Island. They did post on their website http://www.mercerislandhalf.com that the buses and trains will be free if you wear your bib, which is awesome that they support the race that way.

I'll let you know how it goes and hopefully I'll see you there!!!

Run For Your Lives 2012

I decided to do this run last summer because it looks different from all the other races and it looked really fun. All the zombies were already sold out so I just registered for the race.

For those of you who don't know what this race is about I'll tell you a little bit about it.
There are three things that you can register for, one is to be a spectator and yes you have to pay to be a spectator in this race, second is a zombie, they go all out and have professional make up artists who make you look like a "real" zombie (they really do an amazing job) and third you can be the runner. The race is 5K, ours was about 2 and a half hours south of Seattle on a dirt bike track. It happened to be one of the hottest weekends in Seattle, I think during my waive at 4:30PM it was about 90 degrees out. This race is not about the obstacles, but about not getting your flags taken by zombies.

When I got there I checked in, they gave me a belt with three red long flags on it (think flag football), they were attached to the belt with Velcro. You put the belt around your waist and you can adjust the flags however you want, back, sides, front, wherever. The rules are that you cannot tuck them in your pants or shirt, they have to be visible, otherwise you will be "disqualified" and won't get an official finishing time. I think you still get a medal though. then they had three staring lines: slowest, faster and fastest. I went into the fastest line since I was going to finish at a decent time. They let each of the lines go separately, so we got to go first. So they had the zombies right out of the gate and I got my first flag taken right away, I was bummed. I did face plant as I was trying to run away, pretty embarrassing, but I didn't know any of these people so I just kept running :). I lost both of my last flags as we were running thru the trees. There was even a zombie sitting in a tree. I finished the race, however I DID NOT SURVIVE :(
I got a medal anyway though. For 2013 they will have two separate medals, one for the survivors and one for the "dead".

It was a fun race, I don't if I would go down there again this year, it was such a long drive and the course itself was pretty boring, it was lots of sandy hills and some woodsy areas. I think the course used to be and old motorcycle rally area or something like that. I don't know. I was also disappointed in how many zombies there were, well its subjective I guess, it was cool seeing the costumes and make-up and all that, but truly unless you ran in a huge group where everybody else can protect one person it was impossible to not loose your flags.

We'll see, I'll keep you posted if I will run it or not.

Keili

SeaWheeze 2013 SOLD OUT!!!!!

Wow, that was fast, I cannot believe that they sold out in a month I think. I mean, I guess I do believe it, it really was an amazing experience.

I hope you all got signed up for it in time. I was on my way to California for the Disney Tinkerbell Half Marathon when they opened it up for registration and I totally forgot about it, so when we got back 10 days later I saw their Facebook notification that they were 80% full. I immediately went and signed up and I think two weeks later it was sold out. I'm so excited I got in, I'm hoping to spend an extra day in Vancouver this time, so we are not rushed to get back to the hotel to get checked out since in most hotels its 11:00am.

We'll see hotel are super expensive in Vancouver, but I'd really like to stay longer so I wouldn't have to rush back after the race.

Keili

Lululemon SeaWheeze 2012

So I know this is kind of late for a review on the SeaWheeze, but better late than never right? :)

My SeaWheeze Half Marathon went a lot better than expected. I ran it with an insured tendon and it hurt a lot, however I finished with a decent time. I think it was 2:20, it was slower than my Seattle Rock'N'Roll half, but I was fine with it since I was insured and all.

Lululemon did an amazing job putting the whole even together. I also volunteered there the night before as well (got an awesome SeaWheeze shirt for that).

 We got there Friday afternoon, we drove up from Seattle. When we got there we checked into to the hotel and then went to the Vancouver Convention Center, where the event took place. And I really mean an event, they had a room where you picked up your packet, it came with a cool drawstring backpack and Native flip flops. Then right next door they had the SeaWheeze store set up, the bummer about it was that by the time we got there which was in the afternoon they didn't have any of the bags left and a lot of the clothing was sold out in my sizes. I ended up getting a pair of compression socks that I ended up wearing during the run. Right outside they had freezer carts with lime and watermelon pops and energy gels, they had hammocks and couches you can sit and lay on. By the water they had a photo booth set up with all you can take free pictures, it was amazing. They also had free massages and people painting nails with SeaWheeze colors. After that we just walked around Vancouver and had a great time and ate some amazing food. I love Vancouver.

I was volunteering that night, I had signed up for a two and a half hour session at night. I walked over to the convention center and met up with another girl who was there to volunteer for the same shift. She worked at the Lululemon headquarters and was there just to support the event, I thought that was really cool. They didn't have much for us to do, we just went and labeled some parking spots and then we were all done. Pretty easy, I would have stayed to help more but they told me to go since I had the run the next morning.

I woke up super early to get ready, my husband and son were still sleeping. I got my running stuff on and off I went. I had a bit of a hike to the Convention center, it took me probably about 15 minutes to walk there. On my way, I think every person I saw was going to the race. Once there, they didn't really have anything set up pre-race, which was a bummer since the Expo had been great, so we all just stood around and waited for the race to start. The view was amazing as the sun started rise over the water, Vancouver is truly a beautiful city.

I had made a huge mistake and not eaten anything that morning, I don't know what I was thinking, but I got super hungry super fast. BIG MISTAKE, always eat something, anything. Well, the race was about to start and everything was closed I had no choice to make my way to the staring line.
With the SeaWheeze, they didn't have any bibs or corral assignments, you got a chip for your shoe  and a wrist band with your number on it, a little different than what I was used to but I rolled with the punches.
Same with the corrals rather than A-F or whatever, they just had pacers standing there with their times and whatever time you thought you can finish at that's who you stood behind. Well I was being very optimistic and stood behind the 2:00 finish time. I was hoping to beat my Seattle RNR. Well that didn't happen, as you know :( Oh well.

Once we started running I got really hungry and lightheaded, I thought that I might faint and not even finish the race. To my huge surprise at the first water station they had cut up bananas and oranges for us to eat, WHAT?!?!? I was in heaven, I think I eat a whole banana and an orange, downside, my hands got super sticky. Now my tummy was happy and that made me happy. The course was beautiful, over bridges and next to beaches, through parks to finally the finish line. It was overall an easy course I thought, the only thing against us was the weather, it was way too hot, I'm sure it must have gotten around 80 degrees and the sun was just blazing. There was a girl just a mile away from finishing that had collapsed, I felt so bad, they had medics tending to her though, hopefully she walked to the finish line.

I finished with 2:20, super excited, the medals were kind of disappointing though, you could unclip it and use it as a key chain, which was cool, if the medal would have been cool, it says said SWEAT ONCE A DAY, and had the SW initials on it. Most people would not even know what it was for. Oh well. The after party was all worth it. I didn't stay for the concert, we had to check out from the hotel and I wanted to be able to shower and what not. But they served brunch with hot eggs and waffles and all sorts of cool stuff.

They had sunset yoga on the beach that night and they provided yoga mats for everybody and you got to keep it! Lululemon is awesome, I love that company so much!

Overall I definitely recommend the race, it was super fun. Even though I did it all by myself I still had a ton of fun and enjoyed Vancouver afterwards :)

See you there in 2013!