Originally Posted By VickiHD sunNrainfall.....Yes that was for me. My DH and son were out cheering me on. I did make it and am very happy and surprised that I pushed it the entire way and my knee did not blow up. I finally relaxed after I crossed the finish. I love this race and had a great time. I'm SO glad I did it and was able to keep my perfect pixie status. Boy the weather was just perfect!!! Now off to ice Can't wait for next Tink next year. Glad you had a great race!!!
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I had a lot of fun running yesterday. I'm still not completely sure I love the Anaheim runDisney half marathons, but the course for this was a lot more interesting than the DL1/2 one that I've done several times I thought that the "Shhh...Neighbors Sleeping" signs around mile 6 were interesting. I'm all for being a good neighbor, but isn't that why we had to start the race at 5:00am, so that the roads could reopen? For what we pay to enter the race, and the inconvenience of the timing, that left a bad taste in my mouth (even though I fully understand that the people whose bedrooms were 15' from the course wanted to sleep in) That said, I really think that DLR does its best with the 10Ks. The one this weekend and at DL1/2 were a lot of fun, and had tons of park time. Even the 'boring' parts of those courses were a lot more interesting than the boring part of the WDW 10K It's also fun to see the DL CM's picking up on tricks that WDW has been doing for years. I saw a ton of course crosswalks for spectators, and it seems like they're finally figuring out how to make it work well. They could still use some work on the character stops where they have 2 greeters, one to take pictures with runners' cameras and one to do crowd control, rather than both on camera duty to speed things up (it seemed like photo lines moved 2-3 times slower than in WDW), but it's good to see them progress!
Originally Posted By sunNrainfall @Vicki-good luck with your surgery! glad you were able to finish @ferret-I agree, since they started the tinker bell race, I like it better than the DL1/2 course and I've done all of both races. Sometimes I wondered if I was just getting bored with the DL1/2, but it seems most people who've done both feel that same about tinker bell being better. I saw the shhhh sign. I thought it was kind of cute and I liked the few miles of silence. I get what you're saying though, but I'm sure it's the city of Anaheim trying to keep the peace between the residents and runDisney. I saw nobody up when I passed through early on, but my friend said later on, there was some lady in a robe with a mimosa on her porch cheering people on. At least she was having fun with it.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I thought the sign handled the situation well, but it just came in a rough spot for me. My legs were starting to feel really sore from the day before, and having some quiet alone time wasn't helping motivate me any. I did see a couple folks out in pajamas, sitting in lawn chairs, so it was nice to have a little quiet support in that area Shortly before that part (I think it was near the Walnut/Ball Rd intersection), I saw a couple spectators with a bullhorn, but instead of being really loud, they just whispered everything into it. It was kind of supportive, a little creepy, and just funny enough that it really stood out. Nothing like hearing "You're looking good!" whispered at you from the other side of the street! LOL!
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance LOL That's funny. I enjoyed your pictures on Facebook. Don't know how you do all of that plus walk around the park all day, but it's really cool that you do! Good job!
Originally Posted By sunNrainfall haha! I saw a guy with a bullhorn, but he was holding it in that area. I think I would have been creeped out, too if someone whispered that through a bullhorn. It might have made me run faster to get away! hehe. Then I would have started laughing. Onwards to the next race! LA Marathon. Anyone running Dumbo/DL1/2 in the fall?
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I'm planning on doing Dumbo, but that all depends how registration works out since it sold out so quickly last year. AP registration opens on Wednesday (general registration next Wednesday), so I'm hoping that I can get a link from one of my APer friends who won't be running
Originally Posted By sunNrainfall Yeah, I'm prepared for Dumbo, and set myself up with several alarms for the AP registration tomorrow. Plus, I'm a legacy for DL1/2, gotta be sure I get in! I'll feel better after I register tomorrow.
Originally Posted By sunNrainfall Oh geez! There's a delay posting the link for DL APs, and WDW APs can register. DL has no link yet. This doesn't seem right. :/
Originally Posted By FerretAfros The links are up now (for whatever reason, the WDW AP links went up well before the DL AP ones) In case anybody else out there is trying to register early, the Disneyland Annual Passholders FB page and DisneylandAP Twitter feed have both publically posted the registration links. No AP confirmation is required, so I expect the early slots to fill up quickly once word gets out I'm registered for Dumbo (along with my entire group from Marathon Weekend!), so I'm looking forward to the event (and watching the registration chaos from a comfortable distance)!
Originally Posted By sunNrainfall I got in for Dumbo! Whew. After over an hour of trying to figure out what was going on. I gave up on the AP page, and started searching around and found those posted links. They REALLY screwed up! What's the point of the early registration benefit, if anyone can get in. There's a lot of unhappy runners out there. I don't know how they can even fix this other than confirming everyone's AP#, but I doubt they would go through the trouble.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I agree that they screwed up big time on this one; I wouldn't be surprised if this is the beginning of the end for early registration. It seems to me like it would be pretty easy for them to add an extra box on early registration to ask for your AP/DVC number. If the number doesn't match the name of the runner, it shouldn't work (though that's tough to do with a DVC family). It would also be nice if they had early registration for returning runners. I don't have an AP, but I'm sure I give more of my money to Disney than a lot of APers (especially at DLR where few stay in the hotels). By the time DL1/2 weekend rolls around, I will have run 13 Disney races in the previous year, so it would be nice to have a slight advantage when registering for future races (though I was obviously able to figure it out just fine) I wonder if they'll go through the early registrations and see how many of them were actually supposed to register early. When it asked if you were an AP, DVC, CM, or Visa holder, I replied "no" to all of them, yet it let me through. They have the data sitting there, they just need to want to use it
Originally Posted By sunNrainfall I agree with you about returning runners, or at least legacy runners getting early registration. Most major races allow legacy runners to enter if they would like to before general registration. Funny, as of today I've done 13 runDisney races, too (halfs/fulls-not counting 5k/10k). I'll have more after Dumbo and WDW 2015 (dopey if they have it again, otherwise goofy-$$$-haha). And I'm legacy for DL1/2 and Tink-automatic entry would be appreciated to maintain my status. But yeah, they should check all those numbers, and then dump those spots to general registration - they won't. I have had an AP for many years-so I'd like to keep the early reg, but not if it's going to be chaotic. I'm sure you're right about not having the early registration, especially since they dumped the expo registration they had the previous year. At least we're in!!! I have to figure out my training plan after my spring marathon. I need to take a month or two to recover from the high mileage though.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>(dopey if they have it again, otherwise goofy-$$$-haha)<< I see no reason they wouldn't do Dopey again. The 10Ks have proven to be very popular for rD, and requires minimal additional work to put on, since the corrals, start, and finish are all shared with the 5K. Given how much money they get from the 10K registrations (and even more from Dopeys), I'd be shocked if they remove it Also, next year is going to be the 10th anniversary for Goofy, so there will be the additional buzz for that during race weekend. Hopefully registration won't be too crazy (though with all races roughly double the capacity of DLR's, they have more flexibility) >>I'm sure you're right about not having the early registration, especially since they dumped the expo registration they had the previous year.<< I think the expo registration is a lot of what caused the crazy sell-outs last year. Now that it's in people's mind that they need to register right away, it's going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Luckily, since those spots that were taken at expos last year are still available, things should be slightly less crazy for general registration next week
Originally Posted By sunNrainfall I hope they have early registration for Dopey, at least so I can get in. We were already planning on doing Goofy for a few years because of the anniversary (did it last in 2009). We figured if we are flying all the way out there (from CA), may as well do the Dopey. I just keep hearing rumors, they might not. Even more rumors about adding DL races (I hope any of them are true!). Have the FL races been as crazy to register for? It's been a while and it was pretty calm back then, but I know these races are much more popular now than they used to be.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Compared to the DL race registrations (and Goofy's first few years), the WDW are pretty tame. From what I vaguely remember about last year, the 5K sold out in a matter of a couple hours (go figure), the 10K in about half a day, Dopey was a day or two, the Half was about a week or two, and it was a month or two for Goofy and the full. With the Goofy anniversary, I expect it to fill up faster this year (especially with the one-and-done Dopeys who want to step it back a little, and semi-reduced capacity for Dopey slots), but I'm hoping it will take at least a couple days. Still, early registration is a great tool if you have it!
Originally Posted By VickiHD Registered DH and myself for the DL 1/2 through the DL AP link Wends night after we got home from Tink. Read from another site that there is a change for the 1/2 course. We have to go around the stadium since there is a ball game early afternoon.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros That's a shame if they do change the course to go around the stadium. Running through the stadium is the only real reason to put up with the endless miles through the dull industrial part of Anaheim, so I hope they find a way to make it work. I know in the past they've had the race and early afternoon games on the same day (definitely in 2011, possibly others), and on at least one occasion after previously announcing that they couldn't go through the stadium due to a game FYI - They've announced a second early registration window, since there were issues for DLR APs. It will be Tuesday morning at 9 Pacific
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I was thinking about the course, so I decided to check the description on the runDisney page: >>Then it's on to the scenic streets of Anaheim, past the Honda Center, home of the Anaheim Ducks, along the Santa Ana Trail overlooking the Santa Ana River, *through* Angel Stadium, home of the MLB's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and then on to Disney's Paradise Pier® Hotel and the Disneyland®Hotel for an exciting finish.<< So that sounds promising. However, Disney has been known to make changes to the course well after registration opens (the original Princess course was going to start on the Speedway and essentially be the second half of the marathon; they changed it after a few months to be identical to the January course so it went through the castle) Then again, it goes on to say this, so I'm not sure how much I trust it: >>Ideal weather and a flat loop course set the stage for an exhilarating Half Marathon designed to shatter personal bests.<< Ideal weather? Each of the DL1/2s I've run (the previous 3) have all been quite toasty for running, even early in the morning. Last year, as I was walking to the start line for the 5K/10K, the time & temperature on the Anaheim Convention Center marquee said that it was 82 degrees before 4am! And if the course was designed for PRs, wouldn't they have the narrow winding paths through the parks at the end of the race, where crowds have dissipated, rather than at the very beginning? Some times I think it would be best of they left the course descriptions much more vague, like they do for the WDW races, instead of trying to use flowery descriptions
Originally Posted By sunNrainfall Even though I got in, I'm glad they are giving the opportunity to DL APs for early registration. I wonder if they took away spaces from the general on sale or if they checked AP#s from those that registered during the week. There was one other year we had to run by the side of the stadium. I really like running through the stadium. Hope we still get to. The weather is hit and miss that time of year. The worst year easy was the second year (2007?) of the race, it was up to 90 the first hour of the race. Last year was definitely the next hottest year, but I didn't think it was really all uncomfortable. Any DL/WDW race is NOT a fast course. The parks alone kill that. The changing surfaces and twisty turns knock off quite a bit of time. So yeah, "shattering" PB/PRs is not exactly accurate. hehe