Disneyland Half Marathon

Not sure how smart it was, but a mere 5 days after flying home from Paris, we hopped on another plane and headed to SoCal to run the Disneyland Half Marathon. This is the 3rd running of this race, and we've done them all, so we just had to keep the streak going.

The day before we left for Anaheim, I started feeling the onset of a cold, and by the time we got to the hotel, my sinuses were "fully engaged". Even though I had done one semi-hard run on Thursday with Steve, my body was still feeling the after effects of jet lag. Adding a cold on top of that was not a good sign.

I tried to tell myself that my goals were still achievable, mainly hoping that I could tough out 90 minutes and then let my body fall apart. This race is huge (over 10,000) but it is super anti-competitive. Most people run it for the scenery and chance to run through the Disneyland theme parks, and the last 2 years I have placed pretty high. Last year, I was 10th in my age group, so this year my goal was to try and get in the top 5 so I could get an award. I was a bit suspect of my training (or lack thereof) in Europe, and when I started feeling sick, the quiet voice in the back of my head saying "don't count on a top 5 this year" started getting louder.

Even so, I decided I would try and go out fast and try and hold on for as long as I could. Uh, bad move. Turns out that after a 6:40 first mile (which, assuming I was in good shape would have been my goal pace), it was all downhill after that. Or maybe that's uphill. Whatever is harder. I knew by mile 4 that I was in trouble and had no shot to break 1:30, so I began to ease off and not fall apart too fast. It was very frustrating watching runner after runner fly by me, but I knew that it just wasn't going to happen. Didn't matter how "tough" I tried to be. Sometimes, it just isn't there.

By Mile 9, I started to feel a little better, maybe because of the few aid stations that I walked thru. In the last half of the race, there were a ton of groups of boy/girl scouts, cheerleaders, bands, etc out cheering, and that gave me a nice boost to keep plugging along. As we went around Angel Stadium, I found that I was actually keeping up with and, *gasp* gaining on a few other runners. Maybe they went out too fast too, and just died a little later than I did. I'm not sure how many people were stupid enough to go out so fast that they died 4 miles into a half marathon. I know of at least one! :) I did end up passing a few folks, which buoyed my spirits somewhat, and by Mile 11 I decided maybe I should try and pick it up for the last 2 miles. Not really sure how much I actually picked it up, but it felt like I was running faster. At least there's that! Coming into the park for the last time, there were cast members and characters out cheering, and all I could do was give a little "oh well, that sucked" shrug of the shoulders. I think I may have even said that to a few people.

In the end, I somehow (ha ha ha) managed to run a 1:41:32, which considering how darn sick I was isn't too bad. Just way slower than I had hoped to run. Oh well. I was 333rd overall out of 10,000+ and 37th in my age group. I still think its kind of weird to be disappointed in finishing that high, but it is definitely my worst performance at this race. I managed to get over it pretty quick though, mainly because the 3 days after the race I couldn't get out of bed. Yeah, guess I was pretty freaking sick. And maybe still a bit jet lagged too :) Here's hoping for a better race next year!