Disneyland 2016 Part 3: Star Wars 10k

When you run multiple races in a weekend one is bound to stand out as the best.

Well for me it was the Star Wars 10k!

Of course I had fun during the Star Wars 5k, but some special guests during the 10k put the race leaps above the other two.

My girl Sarah from Mom Running On Empty and her son Colin crashed with the wife and I the night before the 10k, which was awesome. We were able to spend Friday afternoon and evening together. 

Alarms rang through the room starting at 4am! I guess that is going to happen when you have 4 people setting multiple alarms... just in case! Yes I am that neurotic that I will oversleep for a race. :P

I was going for a cross-over costume for the 10k, which led me to be...

DUCK SOLO!

I had a plastic duck nose to wear but I thought that would be against the costume policy so we opted for the Donald hat. Which I think is even better. :)

Sarah and Colin had awesome Leia and C3PO costumes, respectively.

It looks like we planned this group theme. Right?

Since the wife wasn't racing, we left her in the hotel room while we headed to the Start Line just after 4:30am. I built in extra time to make sure we had plenty of time to get ourselves into the corral.

None of us had any issue getting through security so we spent the long walk to the corral we were pumping Colin up for his first 10k. His previous long run was 5 miles so this would be a PR in distance! What a first 10k to have??? Sweet.

Colin and Sarah did a great job bobbing and weaving with me to get to pretty far up in the corral. I love being that close to Rudy and Carissa's pre-race entertainment. The only downside is most of it is the same each morning, which I understand since not everyone is doing all 3 races like me. :P

We could actually see the wheelchair participants lining up! How cool is that?

They actually changed the 10k course from 2015 so it would be "in the parks" more. Now for those that haven't run a Disney race before a lot of the "in the parks" is in the backlot areas. Which in my opinion is still cool and features a ton of amazing cast members up at crazy early hours to cheer on the racers. 

Once the wheelchairs were off it was our turn. I wished Sarah and Colin a good race and we were off. We hadn't talked about running the race together so it was kind of an odd alright guys peace out. I wanted to hang back and run with them, but I also wanted to get in the line quickly for photos because I knew with more people racing the 10k they would be even longer than Friday.

Luckily I got to do both... but more on that later.

The 10k begins the same exact way as the 5k and features the first character stop in the same spot. :) Just this time it was a different character: Boba Fett instead of Chewie.

Now the MarathonFoto folks there weren't actually taking any pictures. Well that was odd. Thank goodness I 1) wasn't paying for photos and 2) brought my phone with me. Otherwise I would've been upset.

(Note: I learned later on the MarathonFoto cameras weren't working and they were waiting on replacements. They started taking photos once that was resolved.)

Note to self the hat causes some serious shadow. Since I post my photos while running I didn't really notice until I reviewed them after the race.

And yes I am one of those people that post to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook mid-race. No shame in this game. I love to share with folks where I am. Especially my wife who we would be meeting up with afterwards.

Mile 1: 8:57

The second mile was pretty boring as it was all on the backlot side of the Parks and it didn't feature a character stop. Hence the faster pace as well. ;) 

Mile 2: 8:20

But Mile 3 made up for it with the Castle, Chewie, Small World and the Rebels from Star Wars Rebels. 

The lines weren't too long for Chewie and the Rebels. I think once folks heard BB-8 might be on the course again they were all rushing to get in that line. I hate missing a character stop so I wait in all the lines. :)

Mile 3: 13:02

Just before we headed out of Adventureland I realized it was potty break time. And when in Disney you opt for an actual bathroom rather than a port-o-potty.

I did my best to make Kristin of BamaGirlRuns proud with my mid-run potty selfie.

After waving good bye to the Castle, it was time to run down Main Street. Oh boy do I love running down the middle of Main Street in either Disney World or Disneyland. Both are so magical.

Stormtrooper selfie! 

Once we exited the park...

it was time to go across the plaza again and over to California Adventure.

And wait in a long line for BB-8. But this is where the magic happened...

Sarah and Colin found me! YAY! So they joined me in line because we promised the folks behind us we would still only take one photo. I am not about line jumping the way some people do it in races.

While in line we made a plan, I would run ahead, grab us a spot in line and they would come up and meet me. That way we could get pics together and make sure we got all the character stops!

This is my favorite picture of the entire weekend too!

The Mile 4 marker was just after Tower of Terror and before the entrance to A Bug's Land.

Mile 4: 21:16

So I sprinted off to get a good spot in whatever stop was next, which was the trash compactor from the first movie.

I didn't really know what it was, but I had to stop. :P 

Then it was on to Cars Land. Nothing like running through Cars Land with the sun rising.

We hit the Mile 5 marker just after leaving Cars Land.

Mile 5: 12:46

Then it was Paradise Pier and Ferris Wheel time. I can't help but smile when I see that sight.

Following the Ferris Wheel was the other biggest draw of the race: R2D2 and CP3O! Yes I would get C3PO this time!!

This is my other favorite photo. It's like we planned this awesome Millennium Falcon crew pic.

After exiting California Adventure, we once again finished by running through Downtown Disney. We stayed together as a crew to finish the race together.

But first we need to stop and take a pic with the Speeder Bike and the Mile 6 marker. Duh!

Mile 6: 21:47

I love the final stretch through Downtown Disney with spectators on both sides and the spectators did NOT disappoint with signs this year. They were rocking it.

As we made our way closer to the Finish, Colin spotted another kid around his age and decided to kick it up a notch and push it into the Finish. Sarah and I... did not. :P We let him do his thing!

We were able to cross our third finish line together.

FINAL TIME: 1:37:45 (15:46 min/mile pace)
GUN TIME: 1:37:50

How crazy is that that I started 5 seconds after the race did? I am NEVER that close to the front... except when I am in Corral A at a Disney race.

Wicked proud of Colin for ROCKING his first 10k! He had a positive attitude the entire time and showed he could've pushed the pace with how fresh he looked at the end. :) I was excited to be a part of his first 10k.

After collecting our medals, water, and Finisher's snack box, we headed towards Starbucks to meet up with the wife. Once caffeinated, we headed back to the hotel so we could all shower and head out to the Parks for the day. Oh and the sweet We Run Social tweetup I was hosting with Linzie from Sharp Endurance.

Overall the race was well put on, great volunteers, energetic cast members, full water stops and lots of photo ops (even outside of character stops). But I was disappointed with the MarathonFoto presence and like I said happy I didn't purchase the photo package.

Next Up: We Run Social Tweetup