Just got home yesterday from an AMAZING weekend running the Run Disney Star Wars Half Marathon!! There is so much to tell and it was just lovely, but I’m going to go ahead and go out on a limb here, knowing it may make my registration for next year that much harder: you’re gonna wanna go ahead and run this race.

Originally, this was supposed to be a trip for Scott and I but he had some work conflicts and it wouldn’t work with his schedule, so when my 18 year old offered to come and be my sherpa (ya know, carry my bags and such) in exchange for a free trip, I jumped at the chance! He’s pretty awesome and I love that he still wants to spend time with me.

I just adore the little castle.

It was a crazy fast trip – just two nights – but we crammed a TON of fun into that time!

Where We Stayed!

We stayed at The Disneyland Hotel and I mostly ADORE this hotel, especially for race weekends. The Expo was quite literally in the building we were staying in (we were in the Fantasia Tower) and the start was maybe a quarter of a block (not a mile, a block!) away from the lobby. For convenience, cannot be beat.

There are a couple things about this hotel that aren’t all that dandy, though.

1. the price – you’d be hard pressed to get a room here for less than $350. There are tons of other hotels in the area that are much cheaper and aside from location, many are just as nice.

2. No outlets next to the bed! This drives me BATTY. Yes, I realize maybe I’m addicted to my phone but it’s what I use as an alarm clock and not having a place to charge it by the bed was highly annoying! And such an easy fix.

3. They have those motion sensor A/C units. What that means is that while you’re sleeping, the air will go off and won’t come back on. I understand saving energy, I really do, but when I’m paying that much for a room it feels like I should be able to expect the environmental controls to work while I’m sleeping, yes?? Disney, please figure out an easy way to instruct guests on how to turn the motion thingy off.

But those few things aside, I don’t regret our choice. I stayed there for the first time several renovations ago, in 1979 I believe, and it’s just magical to me.

Oh, and the monorail into Disneyland Park was awesome when all the monorails were working (yes, there were a couple times during our stay when one was out of commission which made for very long waits. In those instances, we walked instead. Still a very short stroll compared with WDW!).

The Expo

I went on Friday evening and it was very uncrowded. No lines for anything! There was still a good amount of merchandise, although I’m sure I missed out on a lot, and I was able to get a couple fun shirts and a new magnet for the car. Since I had just been at the expo at Disney World the week before, I didn’t feel the need to hang around and shop much. It was a MUCH SMALLER expo than marathon weekend, but it’s also a much smaller race so that makes sense.

Jack and I thoroughly enjoyed Disneyland Park and California Adventure on Friday – crowds were very manageable and we were able to get around easily.

Saturday, however, it was packed! We had a great couple hours in the early morning when we took advantage of the Extra Magic hours available to on-property hotel guests, but about noon it started getting unbearable.

Jack below decks on the sailing ship Columbia!

But no worries! I could use some time off my feet anyway! So off to the hotel pool. Jack hung out in the room and napped and I soaked up some vitamin D. Quite lovely.

We had dinner that night at the Blue Bayou which I adore! Have been there many times over the years and I’m never disappointed. I had the salmon and Jack had the filet. Both our meals were amazing.

THE RACE!

Here’s where Disneyland races win every time. At Disney World, I have to be up at 2am for a 5:30 race start in order to be on the bus by 3:15 and at the staging area by 4 (what Run Disney requires). At Disneyland, I didn’t even leave my room until 4:45 and could have left later than that! I met up with Sara (who I “racecationed” with last weekend in FL) and we headed to the very brief walk to our corrals. So. Stinking. Easy.

The Star Wars theming was EVERYWHERE. I couldn’t get over how people dressed up! It just made the whole weekend feel special.

The course was CRAZY flat and fast and I only felt crowded a couple of times in the beginning. This was a new course for Run Disney and I absolutely loved it. We didn’t go through the industrial areas like past Disneyland Halfs and running through historic Garden Grove was really fun. Having grown up in this area, I saw many familiar sites and that made it even more fun!

The cosplay (“costume play” for those of you new to this phenomenon) were amazing. I even got a selfie with a storm trooper. I sort of wished I had stopped for more pictures but honestly, I was having so much fun running I didn’t want to stop!

I ran/walk this race after just doing the marathon the Sunday before, and went back to what I did years ago, 3/1 intervals (3 minutes of running, one minute of walking) and most of my walk breaks were closer to 30 seconds. I felt AMAZING. The 50 degree weather and the flat roads were certainly my friend, and although I didn’t have my garmin or Run Keeper going, I felt like I was going at a pretty good clip! I was almost surprised that I hadn’t PR’d, but really, when you have that much fun and feel like you’re being carried on a race course, who cares about time??

I crossed the finish line with a huge smile and still with tons left in the tank (that’s what marathon training will do for your half;), and headed back to our room which was a quick 7 minute walk from the family reunion area. Again TOTALLY different than the process at the end of a race t Disney World where you feel like you have another marathon in front of you to get back to the hotel!

Jack and I then headed to Magic Kingdom for a few hours before we were whisked back to the hotel.

I am hoping to do this race again next year as there was just nothing about it I didn’t love.

But because it was so awesome, if you’re interested, sign up right away. I have no doubt it will sell out quickly.

May the course be with you.

Jen