Disney Park Runner

So after two solid weeks of travel I’ve been home sweet home for a week and happy to say I have run zero miles in that time. The weather during Marathon Weekend in Orlando was unsettled and not exactly warm. The weather in Anaheim was downright cold and I feel like I needed to come home, stay inside and thaw out after way too many early mornings shivering at the start line.

So first things first, it was wonderful to finally run a race at Disneyland and feel like a more “complete” runDisney runner. I expected lots of things to be new and different. But I didn’t expect everything to be new and different. In fact the only thing that really felt familiar at all was Carissa Galloway’s face. She was not joined by her usual announcing crew but a southern California local, by the name of Matt Starkey. It was a noticably smaller event with a much, much different vibe.

Now I want to give the Disneyland team some grace, because a race has not been held there in seven years, but it felt like they hadn’t spent much time talking to the runDisney team in Florida, or anyone who had organized Disneyland races in the past. This year’s events were critically understaffed, the castmembers unprepared, and there were some GLARING safety misses. I imagine there was a hell of a post-mortem meeting on Monday morning.

I don’t want to focus on just the negative though, because there was really lots to love about the race weekend. The 5K started inside Disneyland Park! We were lined up along Main Street, which was lit with projections, and the whole street lit up with fireworks at the start. Unfortunately that was the only time we saw fireworks the whole weekend, which is pretty understandable, considering the other races started in a parking lot in a downtown area ringed by hotels.

The 5K course was entirely contained within the two parks (and some backstage areas), so it was basically all fun and new to me. Unfortunately there were VERY few Photopass photgraphers on the course. A lot of the photo stops for the whole weekend were the type where you had to pass your phone to someone and hope for the best. And those safety issues I was mentioning –at one point we were running thorugh a completely dark corridor (wasn’t quite a tunnel, because there was no roof). Like almost pitch black. I saw so many people taking tumbles over the weekend, with unannounced hazards everywhere. Not once did we ever hear “Caution, runners….”

The 10K and Half were staged along a street and in a parking lot, which had their own issues, all self-inflicted unfortunately. The first challenge was security. Disneyland has yet to invest in the high-tech scanners that allow most bags to pass through without a hand-check. So every single bag going in had to be hand-checked. To make matters worse, many of the metal detectors they brought in were not working, so the backup at security was lengthy. I heard that later they relaxed the process because otherwise they never would have gotten everyone through before the start time.

Apparently I actually got there too early because the corrals were not open, and I was told I needed to walk all the way around the perimeter of the enormous parking lot (which was fenced in) to enter the staging area. I was not particularly thrilled about any extra walking since it was already a long cold walk from my hotel that I would have to reverse after my race. To make matters worse, I was passed by other participants who had walked all the way around and were told to turn around and walk back the other way. WHAT???? This is going back to my point about the cast members being unprepared. Frankly it felt like no one really knew what was going on. I trudged forward and entered the staging area, and did get a nice surprise. 

I literally had a front row view of Carissa and Matt introducing Daisy and Donald (who overslept and showed up in his pajamas). In Florida, I would never have the opportunity to be anywhere near the stage, so this was a bit of a treat! After their intro, the corrals were open, so I trudged all the way back to where I had come in and found my way to the last corral. Boo. We were such second-class citizens back there, there weren’t any speakers. With no fireworks, or anything, I didn’t even know when the race started. For real. One thing I did like was that they pretty much let the entire corral go at once – none of these interminal wave 1, wave 2, wave 10, etc. Even being in the last corral, I was over the start line by 5:25, which is good, because I think my toes were starting to freeze off!

The 10K was totally duck-themed, which I loved. Apparently I missed seeing Ludwig von Drake on the course, which I am a bit bummed about, but oh well. I didn’re really have time for character stops anyway. There was a bit of street running, which is to be expected. Overall, I have the same feedback. Not enough photographers. Not enough volunteers. Not enough safety precautions.

The biggest complaint you’ll probably hear from anyone about the weekend was the now infamous mile 3 water stop during the half marathon. Traffic ground to a halt and backed up as the volunteers couldn’t keep up as they placed a water stop in a very confined space, presumably to contain the paper cup waste to a small area. The problem got worse as the morning wore on, but I probably got through in 3 minutes, according to my Garmin. I did grab a photo, for posterity.

The rest of the half marathon was a bit of a different story since there were several miles of street running after the parks. Even though I heard a host of complaints, honestly it didn’t bother me much. Running in the parks was always confined and a bit dangerous. It was nice to be able to spread out and let down the concentration factor a bit. Most of the streets we ran were in industrial neighborhoods. I’m pretty sure we weren’t bothering anyone at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning. 

We ran to the Honda Center where the Anaheim Ducks play. Here I was educated that the appropriate response to the song “Sweet Caroline” is not “bah, bah, bah…” but “quack, quack, quack…” Who knew??? Just past the Honda Center was Blizzard Beach. I mean Angels Stadium. Oof. They didn’t properly prepare us for the torture of the winding course that was hidden in the parking lot behind the stadium, like an extra room or two in an E-ticket attraction queue that you’ve already been standing in for an hour and a half. They tried to make it more cheerful with a band, some representatives from the Tournament of Roses Parade (who looked quite splendid in their sharp white suits) and a bunch of classic cars, but we all saw it for what it really was. Just another damn Blizzard Beach.

Finally, I want to give a shout out to some of the spectators who really cheered us up along the way. Unfortunately I didn’t grab any pics. There were some black stormtroopers holding signs demanding the return of the Star Wars races, and someone set up their own character stop on the sidewalk that looked like the house from Up. Bravi, and thank you for bringing some joy to the city streets!

I know a lot of this sounded negative. Overall, it was a great experience, but the west coast does have a lot of work to do before their next races to bring it up to the level we deserve (and pay for). These were just my experiences. I also heard some other horror stories, particularly from athletes with disabilites – but those aren’t my stories to tell since I didn’t experience them first-hand. I am confident they can learn from this, but they need to hire a whole lot more people and be willing to admit where the mistakes were made.

If you were at the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend and want to share your experience, please drop a comment!