Race Report: Disneyland 1/2 Marathon 2011

Two years ago I ran my first stand-alone 1/2 marathon at Disneyland. If you're looking for a fun race, this is the one. You start on Disneyland Drive, run through California Adventure, head over to Disneyland, run down to the Honda Center, run on the Santa Ana River Trail (my training ground), run through Angel Stadium, and back to Disneyland for the finish. Along the way everyone is cheering you on: high school bands, cheerleading squads, mariachi bands, polynesian dancers, boy scouts, and many more. I love this race, so after missing a year I had to sign up again.

Since this is such a popular race, you have to sign up at least 6 months in advance. I signed up in February. I found out I was pregnant in March. I didn't expect to run this race, but I left it up in the air. As each week went by, I hoped I would be able to race, but my body was slowing down more and more every day. About a month before the race, I made the decision to do it. I hadn't run further than 6 miles since finding out about the baby, but I knew I still had my endurance so I could finish...it would just be really slow.

Team Sparkle decided to make it's first Disney appearance at the race expo for the Disneyland 1/2 marathon. Carrie, Kelly, and I had a blast selling our skirts. Disney is a great race for our skirts because so many people like to dress up. Kelly was Tinker Bell, I was Minnie Mouse, and Carrie was Snow White. All of our costumes were made with our Team Sparkle skirts. The funniest part about the expo was that three people asked me if I was really pregnant. They thought I was modeling what a pregnant lady would look like in the skirt. Compliment? I'll take it.

The one thing I don't like about this race is how early you have to wake up to get there. The race starts at 6:00, so they advise you to get there by 4:30am. That's technically still the middle of the night!

The race began and we started running. That's the last time I saw Carrie and Kelly. They have both improved their running so much this year. I told them they had to run their fastest since I couldn't. Running the first mile felt great. So much adrenaline and so many people cheering us on. I looked down at my watch and noticed that my heart rate monitor wasn't working. Wearing the HRM was the only way Skyler would let me run this race. I stopped along the side of the street to fix it. It took me a few minutes to fix it. It's hard to get a HRM to fit just right on top of a big baby bump.

By the time I finished the street was empty. This was bizarre because there were 15,000 racers. Well, I was in Corral A and I guess they release the corrals at certain times. So everyone in Corral A had run past me and Corral B was soon to be on their way. It was just weird because I'm used to being surrounded by other runners at all times.

During the first few miles I had to stop for a bathroom break. I wasn't worried about getting a fast time, so why not? I also stopped to take pictures with the Disney characters in the park. I had my cell phone with me so I called Skyler to tell him I was doing ok. I also tweeted my progress along the way. I figure this is the only race where I can skip along at an easy pace, so why not take advantage? I ran at a pace that kept my heart rate below a certain number. I had to walk whenever it would get too high. I didn't mind the breaks though.

Around mile 6 I got a horrible side cramp. It was just a running side cramp as far as I knew, but it made me stop and bend over. Several people stopped to ask if I needed help. One guy asked if I was in labor. I'm not that crazy!

Before I knew it I was running on the Santa Ana River Trail (mile 8), where I knew Skyler would be. He graciously offered to take pictures of all of the Team Sparkle skirts. I spotted him and Pumpkin and got a little teary-eyed. I was so excited to see them! I stopped to say hi, but Skyler wouldn't let me stop for long. I was on my way again and running through Angel Stadium. That is the coolest part about the race course.

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful and I started to feel the pain. My knees and feet aren't used to supporting so much weight. I knew I would finish, but how long was the question. I tried to keep up my pace because I knew the faster I finished, the sooner I could stop running.

At the mile 12 marker, I met up with a guy that started asking about my pregnancy. Turns out that he's an OB/GYN. He assured me that I'd recover from labor quickly because of my running. He also said that he compared running a half-marathon to giving birth. I'm so happy to know that having a baby will be as easy as running a half-marathon. I thought it would be more painful. Right...

I crossed the finish line and was excited to see Carrie and Kelly waiting for me. I was even more excited to find out that they both PRed. Kelly finished in 1:43 and Carrie in 1:49. I'm so proud of them.

As for me, my finish time was 2:42 (12:21 pace). Hard to believe that just 7 months prior I had run a 1:44 at the Surf City 1/2. The hardest part about being pregnant is that I can't be competitive, I can't push myself. That's what makes swimming/running/biking fun for me. Without a goal, everything just gets boring. That being said, I'm MORE excited about our little guy. Just a few more weeks until he gets here. I hope he's proud of his active mama.

I did it! I ran a half-marathon at 27-1/2 weeks pregnant!

P.S. The Orange County Register wrote a little story about my race. Check it out here.