It's January and that means it's time for runDisney races including the one and only Disneyland Half Marathon! I'm headed out to California to run it!
And when I say I'm going, I mean just me and not Theresa, Alli, or Ian. I registered for the race all the way back in April 2025, not knowing that Alli would have a gymnastics competition on that weekend.
I'm not completely alone though. Jacob is flying out with me (but hanging out with other friends when we get there). Florida to California! Here we go!
It was an uneventful, but very long, direct flight. But here we are in the Golden State.
Getting the rental car was a frustrating experience. On a Thursday afternoon, I wasn't expecting it to be busy, and it really wasn't. I waited maybe 10 minutes to get to the rental agent, but when they sent me out to the garage to find the car, that was another matter. They didn't know what space it was in. I was just told to look for a Jeep with a certain license plate. There were hundreds of other cars on all the other rows, but I was only looking for this one. It wasn't in the row they said. Okay... I joined a long line of others who also couldn't find their cars. Once I got to the front, they took my rental agreement and told me to wait. 25 minutes later, I was finally called back to the front to get a car. Not the Jeep they'd said, but an unwashed and dirty Mazda. I wasn't the only one in this situation either, and people were getting very vocal with the staff. A car rental place with hundreds of visible cars, waiting for specific cars that were just checked in but not cleaned was not good.
It made us late for our next stop which was...
Driving to Pasadena to see Ruston! We're meeting up with him for dinner!
He recommended a place called Noodle St.
Well if I'm here, I've got to order something with noodles. I saw them making fresh noodles through the glassed off kitchen. I asked Ruston what his favorite was and decided to also order that.
Egg with Tomato Noodle - Scrambled eggs, tomatoes and green onions served with knife cut noodles. It was hearty and very filling. It was sweetened (Ruston said with sugar), and Ruston thought it was reminiscent of Spaghetti-Os. I can see that. It was good regardless.
Anyone have a sweet tooth afterwards?
We walked over to a gelato shop called Hello Gelato and all found something we'd enjoy.
Like a Tiramisu and Chocolate gelato. Yum!
We spent the next hour chatting and catching up on things that have been going on since we last got to hang out. It was good to be back together again, even if only briefly.
From there, Jacob and I hopped back in the car and headed towards Anaheim. At the hotel, his friend Ryan picked him up to hang out for the rest of the weekend.
Here's my room! It's huge! A large living room, which I didn't end up using the entire trip.
And the bedroom.
Friday 2026/01/30
The next day, I woke up early (by California time, late by my Florida internal clock), and headed down to breakfast. It's included here and I could either get the buffet or order from the menu. The buffet was the standard continental breakfast with a few hot dishes and an omelet station. I instead chose the crispy potatoes, steak, sausage, poached eggs, and spicy hollandaise. It was delicious!
I've got a little bit of shopping to do and I'm headed out for the day to get some snacks for while I'm here. Ah! An 85C! I picked out a few of my favorites, but didn't see my most favorite, the Cheese Bread. I asked if they had any in the back or anything coming out soon. I was told that Cheese Bread was discontinued a couple months ago... NOOOOO! Horrible news! That was the best thing!
Now I'll just have to make them myself, like the recipe I came up with back in 2021 - 85C Cheese Bread.
Next, it's time to go to Disneyland and pick up my stuff for the race this weekend. Can you believe parking is $40 now? Luckily, with my race checkin email, I was able to get parking here for $10 instead. Much better.
No trams today. We're walking towards the Disneyland Hotel.
Pausing under the familiar Mickey Hat.
It's not quite time for race check-in. It starts at noon, and from past experience, I don't need to be there first. The lines can get super long, so I'll give it some time.
Since the day is my own, and wide open, I headed to a spot where the Flowers Family had lots of good memories.
Back when the kids were little, after a few hours of walking around Disneyland, but before driving home, we'd head to this little gazebo at the Disneyland Hotel.
In this fenced off area, we'd let the kids run and race around as much as they wanted, tiring themselves out before taking the car ride home.
It was very nostalgic as I brought up old videos of them when they were tiny. We'd have races to run to certain trees and back. I laughed again, watching as Alli would start running on TWO then come back giggling when we caught her leaving early. Sigh... I wish they could have been out here this year.
After hanging out in the gazebo for a while, reading my book and looking at pictures, it was finally time to head in to the race expo.
First things first, I need to pick up my bib. Hey! I got a nice starting corral too, based on my time from last year. I ran a 2:11 half marathon last year, which is good enough to get me into the B corral, which should get me out in front of quite a few people. And I'm happy to see that it still shows my Legacy status, having run the event every year since they started.
Downstairs from race check-in is the race expo, held in the main conference room of the Disneyland Hotel.
Here I'd go pick up my race shirt.
They rip off the top of your bib, which shows your bib number and shirt size, and hand you a bag with your shirt and safety pins. I like the purple color this year! Anything is better than white!
I wandered around the race floor, looking at what all the vendors had to offer. I'm never really tempted to buy anything though. I'm not a big collector of "things" and anything I need for a run, I pretty much already have.
Getting a look at the course for the half marathon this year, it's different than an course we've done before. After exiting Disneyland, we're headed north on a really long out and back. I guess the days of running through Angels stadium around the warning track, or beside the Duck Pond on the Anaheim Mighty Ducks hockey team are long gone. This is just houses and strip malls.
From the start, it's about 1.5 miles until we enter Disneyland around Cars Land. And then a little before mile 5, we exit Star Wars Land and start running towards the streets of Anaheim. 3.5 miles or so in Disneyland property (not counting the parking lots or executive buildings). Florida really is blessed to have all that land going for it, where you're running along Disney property and seeing Disney characters and things the entire time.
And that really long out and back from mile 6 to mile 10.5 looks like a prime location to cut the course. Hopefully things don't get too ugly.
Looking through the official race merchandise, I'm too late for anything interesting. The expo opened yesterday, and that's when all the die-hards and ebay-resellers snatched up all the good stuff. They do have these giant signs though (which were above all that merchandise, but taken down now that it's gone) and we can pose with them. I later learned that they actually started SELLING the signs a short time later for $75. That's definitely not going to fit in a bag on the plane.
Back when I signed up last April, I also signed Ian and Alli up for the kids races. We have some really adorable pictures of them in costumes doing the runs when they were little, and even Alli doing the Diaper Dash.
With all that completed, now I really don't have anything left that I need to do today.
I wandered over to the esplanade to check in with our Disney stone.
Looking its age, but still there. I believe we bought it in 2005 or so for Disneyland's 50th anniversary. It's 20 years old and has seen more foot traffic than I could imagine, but still looking good.
I opted not to buy a ticket to the parks this time. At $184 for a single day, it's a little rich for me. Instead, I'll take in the simple and quiet things that you rush right by sometimes. Like the beautiful Grand Californian lobby.
Where a pianist is playing live Disney music. Always entertaining.
And if you're really really lucky, or just very patient, you can get a prime seat in front of the warm fireplace in a rocking chair.
Instead, I grabbed something quick for dinner and headed back to the hotel for the night.
Saturday 2026/01/31
I woke up around 8am and headed down to breakfast. Skipping the buffet again, I opted for bruleed bananas and candied walnut pancakes. They're so filling, I could only eat half before deciding that any more and I might make myself sick. Can't have that before race day.
I also heard from Theresa that Alli's gymnastics competition had gone really well!
Not only did Alli's team win first place overall at the meet...
Time to start my day. I've got a few things to do, and they're all up at the Disneyland Resort. I could drive again, and get $10 parking, but all that sitting around isn't good for you. I need to stretch my legs.
And stretch my legs, I certainly did. From the hotel to the entrance to Disneyland it's a 1.6 mile walk.
Arriving at the security checkpoint. I'm surprised they haven't gone to the Disney World style, where everyone walks through with all their bags. Here, each bag is manually searched and people go through airport style metal detectors one at a time.
I don't miss these long entrance lines either.
Today, I'm meeting up with a bunch of other Legacy Runners that keep in touch through a Facebook group.
But Alli took First Place for her age group! And 3rd place overall for the entire meet! Super proud of you Alli! All that hard work and practice is paying off!
Way back in 2015, for the 10th year of the race, runDisney celebrated the Legacy Runners by giving them a free shirt with "Legacy Runner" and a "10" printed on it. Since then, many of the Legacy Runners have worn it as a means of identifying other legacy runners. We were all secretly hoping that something special would be done for the 15th anniversary, but we soon found that besides the call-out on the bib, there'd be nothing else.
And so, a while ago, I recreated the graphics that were on the shirt along with the correct year, and with the help of a cricut, people could make their own with iron-on vinyl.
This year though, one of the members of the group offered to make them for anyone who wanted one, and brought them all to the meet-up!
He welcomed us all back to this, the 15th year of running the half marathon.
Ariel - We'll be right back here in less than 12 hours.
Sure enough! We parted ways and I walked back to the hotel room, hoping that sleep would claim me and I'd be rested for the next day. It's almost time to run!
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