Check out part one here!
Continuing with part 2 of the Tinkerbell Half Marathon Weekend…on Sunday morning we were up and heading to the race start at 4am. It was actually quite nice out. I believe it was around 57/58 degrees with a slight breeze as we were walking to the starting corrals. We ended up getting through security and into the race area pretty easily and found a bathroom near corral B (our starting corral).
We found several of our running friends and made our way into corral B to hang with them before the start. The race got started a few minutes after 5:30 and before long we were off!
Our plan was to take it easy and enjoy the course, weather and overall experience. We both had run solid half marathon times just two weeks earlier at the Tear Drop Half Marathon.
Now even though we had run the Disneyland Half Marathon for the past 3 years, we had seen that the Tinkerbell course was quite different. We ended up spending the first 4+ miles in the parks. And while the WDW races only give you bits and pieces of running through the parks, the DL races give you much, more more.
Once we got out of the parks, the next 7 or so miles run you through a lot of the surrounding Anaheim area. It was flat and fast. Rachel and I found a nice groove/pace and knocked out these next miles.
After getting past around mile 12, we found ourselves back in the DL resort area near Downtown Disney. We ended up crossing the finish line in under 2:28, which for taking it easy, is not bad at all.
We grabbed our Tinkerbell finisher medal and made our way over to the Coast 2 Coast (C2C) tent to grab two additional medals! We ended up with two C2C medals this year, since we “ran” the WDW Half Marathon in January and ran the Princess Half Marathon in February. Rachel was especially excited about the special Pink C2C medal for completing both the Princess and Tink in the same year!
We snapped a few pictures, grabbed water/Powerade/fuel and began the journey back over to the hotel. The only downside to these races is the walk back through security and Downtown Disney. It takes a good 20-25 minutes to walk back over to the hotels.
All in all, we had a great race and experience. Honestly, it was one of my favorite Disney races! The number of runners was a little smaller and the course/weather were excellent. I would consider doing it again in the future!
After we got showered/cleaned up, we made our way back over to the parks to celebrate with food/snacks/desserts/drinks for the next two days.
We ended up having dinner at the Blue Bayou on Sunday (race day), which was excellent! We had eaten there last year and loved it, so we definitely wanted to be sure we ate there again.
We also got super hooked up by our friend AJ with amazing seats for the Main Street Electrical Parade that night. We ended up watching the parade front and center on Main Street with basically private benches. It was awesome!
After the parade, we walked into one last store before calling it a night and who do we run into…but Mickey and Minnie!
On Monday, we spent our last day hitting up a few remaining rides we hadn’t gotten around to yet. We ate lunch at Cafe Orleans and had Monte Cristos for lunch. They were absolutely amazing!
We finished up the day by grabbing one last picture by the Partners statue, before making our way back over to the hotel to pack up before heading back to Atlanta the next day. It was a wonderful trip to the “Happiest Place on Earth!”