• Disneyland,
    California,
    United States
  • January
  • 3 miles/5K, 6 miles/10K, 13.1 miles/Half Marathon
  • Road Race
  • Event Website

Erin

Sydney, Australia
82 35
2016
"Another fun half on a flat, fast course"
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Erin 's thoughts:

Expo: Significantly smaller than WDW, you'll find all the major exhibitors here without the walking! Packet pickup is located underneath the Disneyland Hotel Convention Centre, with gear pick up located in the main expo room (along with the Speaker stage and the general race merchandise). All race bib, pre-ordered commemorative items, park tickets are charity tables are in one place which is extremely convenient, however can become crowded. As per runDisney guidelines, challenge runners need to get their picture taken at pickup so they're able to cross reference at the end of the final event.

Swag: You'll get the technical race shirt for the half (Challenge runners will get 3 shirts overall), gear bag and a mini Clif Bar. There's plenty of product samples from painkillers to Clif products to bananas from the exhibitors on the floor.

Course: This weekend's events all start the opposite way from the Disneyland Half & Tinkerbell Half start - heading up Disneyland Drive rather down towards Katella Ave. There's some slight road running before you turn off backstage past the Disneyland Admin buildings, down the side of Disneyland Park (look to your left and you'll see Harbor Blvd!) and coming out in Tomorrowland. It's a run through through Fantasyland and the "Darth Vader" tunnel (for the second time if you're a challenge runner) down to Big Thunder Mountain. You'll run up through the castle, around the Matterhorn and back down through Main Street.

Then onto California Adventure! Crossing into the second park you'll run past Grizzly River Run, around Paradise Pier and up towards Tower of Terror. This is the final park kilometres before heading out to Harbor Blvd and completing the rest of the course on the streets of Anaheim.

When you hit Katella Ave, you'll notice that the course is an out and back type - the race leaders are making their return on your right. You keep on Harbour until you get to Garden Grove, where you complete a loop including making your way down a different kind of Main St (it's really cute) and then back along Euclid Ave, Chapman Ave and finally back onto Harbor Blvd for the remaining 2.1 miles. I do prefer this entry to the finish line from Disneyland Drive and through Downtown Drive than the Disneyland Half course that takes you through the Simba car park.

NOTE: This course is pre-Star Wars land construction.

Aid Stations: There were nine water/Powerade stops and one Clif Shot Gel stop at mile 8. There are 4 medical stops.
There were plenty of portaloos before the corrals, on the course near the water stops and all restrooms are open in the park.

Atmosphere: There was atmospheric sounds being played through the park's speaker system (Star Wars themed of course) and a selected amount of characters were spread throughout the course (some static like R2D2 & BB8). These character stops were incredibly popular and the lines were closed earlier to ensure all runners weren't going to be swept. Additional to the character stops were prop scenes where you could put yourself in the movie - these had shorter lines.
There was also Star Wars themed projections on buildings which added to the overall theming of the event.

Once out on the streets there were high-school dancers & bands however there were a lot less than what you experience at the Disneyland Half. I don't know if the residential area that you're running through has anything to do with it.

Around mile 9 the 501st Legion lines the streets in costume, so if you don't get your chance in the park you'll be certain to get a pic here. In fact, there's volunteers on hand to take your pic for you!

Crowd support is awesome as per usual at a Disneyland event, you'll find that people have set up stations on the later part of the course handing out mini-pretzels, red vines and oranges for runners.

Post-race: Disney are great for herding runners through the finish line area. Once you pickup your medal you're encouraged to continue through to photos, medical and food. Challenge runners (and those getting their Coast-to-Coast medal) need to go through the appropriate tents to pick up their additional medals once all requirements have been checked. Food-wise you do get a runner's box full of goodies plus a water (and Powerade if you please).

Since the race area is central to the overall resort area there's no transportation required to get back.

This is a flat and fast course. If you are looking to PR a half marathon at a Disney race this is definitely the one to do it at. At no point did the course feel narrow, or overcrowded and once onto the road you had all the room in the world. One thing I did notice upon getting my results was that this course - perhaps due to the theme - does seem to attract the 3hr+ half runner.

2016 additional notes: runDisney has changed the process in getting to the corrals at Disneyland and all runners must clear through bag check prior to entering the corrals. Where previously you could just walk straight to the corral, you must now enter through Downtown Disney and loop back down Disneyland Drive.

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