Official 2013 Tinker Bell Half Marathon Thread

[IMGONNABE40!]

Great picture, StarGirl!

[MotoXPrincess99]

Originally Posted by VickiHD

I'm with you on that !!! It was great !!!

No Cars Land photos either.

Did you get into Marri's ??? We were there for lunch on Saturday and they said they have been turning people away for reservations for days. So I guess we will stick to having a pre-race lunch there always instead of dinner. We love that place and they are always so nice.

We did for Saturday night. I called around 5pm and asked if we could be added to the wait list for 6:00pm. We didn't actually get called until closer to 6:30pm but it all worked out!

Originally Posted by longhorns2

Loved Marri's! Went there on Thur night and really enjoyed the meal. Great suggestion!

A few more pictures showed up for me- but no castle, no carsland... fingers crossed they show up.

Tink is my favorite race between PHM and Tink. I am a FAN!

Originally Posted by IMGONNABE40!

Oh yes....thanks for the heads up on Marri's, Vicki. We had a late dinner there Friday night-plenty of tables. I had rigatoni with the fra diavlo sauce with a side of meatballs. I had leftovers after the race and again on Monday night. Defiantly will go there again if we return to DL.

Originally Posted by VickiHD

Glad you liked it. I wish I had some of their food right now.

Marri's is so good! I took my left over's back to the hotel but never did end up eating them.

[longhorns2]

Yes- holy HUGE portions. My!!!! But wonderful.

[freepixie]

Originally Posted by StarGirl11

Hey guys! So I haven't ordered my photos yet so I don't have the full collection of my Minnie and me finish line thing, but I do have the one my Mom took. I'll post this one for now. And then later post the remaining photos (I'm counting about a half dozen so far and they probably haven't uploaded everything yet). Its been four days now and I am still in shock that this actually happened:

ETA: Concerning MarathonFoto, give them a few days. I know from past races that use them that they have a certain pattern that is a bit odd but its how they do things apparently. They always send an email out the day the photos first go online. Even if not all the photos are not up yet. Everything will go up in time. Also make ABSOLUTELY certain you don't have any photos in the LOST and FOUND section under partial matches. I have been able to track down a few photos via that section before. Usually its because me or my bib were in an odd position to the photographer and they weren't able to identify the runner. As I said before usually its only a few photos but make sure to check.

ETA 2: Also check to make sure you don't have anything listed under professional alignment photos. I just discovered about another dozen photos of my finish under there.

Oh and concerning other people in your photos. If you aren't anywhere in the photos there is a remove option on the photo to have it taken off your page. Sometimes they mix up bibs.

LOVE THE PIC! So adorable and what a great memory you will always have!! Just awesome, I love Disney!!

[booth22]

Finally have a race review up for those who care to look

Tinkerbell 1/2 Marathon Race Report

For those wondering what the runDisney meet up is like, the one featuring Jeff Galloway, a few celebs, and a few Disney surprises- we've got you covered there as well! runDisney Meet-up Recap

Thanks for looking and congrats everybody!

[niclodn]

Had a great time running! Such an awesome experience! Cannot wait for the Princess next month!

A little bummed about my pics though. No castle, no Lightning and Mater (the only characters we stopped for), no high-fiving Minnie just before the finish In fact, I think the only decent photo of me was as I crossed the finish and even that wasn't great since I crossed with a pack.

[longhorns2]

Yeah- not sure what's up with the pics. Not thrilled either.

[sunnygal041]

Originally Posted by longhorns2

Yeah- not sure what's up with the pics. Not thrilled either.

Hope the pics for the princess are better!

[dhowlan]

Congratulations to all who ran this race successfully. Thanks for all your pre-race input.

Hopefully this will help future participants know what to expect from the race. I know there were a few things that cropped up in my race experience that surprised me.

I've decided to divide this into pros and cons or rather cons and pros because going through it minute by minute would take rather a lot of space.

First the Cons:

1: It's expensive. I don't think there's any way around this but to say this race is pricy and I think it should be at least $30 less. I get that Disney makes it a premium because it's Disney, but that doesn't get it to 150 unless they start throwing in free (or at least significantly discounted) tickets to the park.

2: It's early. The start of this race was an hour and a half earlier than any race I've run. While it's nice to see Disneyland lit up, I can do that on an evening visit to the park. Also, some of you have commented on the pictures being subpar. I don't think the shooters were experienced enough in dealing with shooting people in the dark with a flash. I was surprised at where most of them were set up. They should have had full flash outfits (think remotes with strobes etc) to handle the distances and varying distances from the photographer to the people they were shooting. Sunlight would certainly help these people shoot better pictures.

3: Corrals. Being that I'm a male, I was in Corral C. I totally understand this since it's a female oriented race. I support the idea. Unfortunately, I was never informed of this until I got to the venue. (If this was in some of the online info, please let me know where.) More surprising was that my teammate, who is female, was put in Corral E even though she is a sub 2 hour runner and said so in her registration. We got the ok from a Disney person to start together in C, but I still wonder why that happened. The whole purpose of the corrals is to allow people to run at their own pace without running over or being run over by other runners. Having a C runner in the E corral doesn't help anybody. Which gets me back to the males in Corral C. I really think it would be helpful to put the males in their own corral to help the poor females in Corral C. Here you have ladies who are planning on running a 2:45 race and they have to deal with men who are running up to twice as fast. I know it wasn't stress free from my perspective, running in the dark and trying to politely run through about 5000 people. Perhaps a B-minus or C-minus corral of just the men. At least the field would be more spread out by the time the faster men caught up with the next group of women.

4: I never did get any of the email updates for this race, despite trying two different emails (with different isps). This is really inexcusable. I have participated in gigantic races (i.e. la marathon) and tiny races and never had a race not be able to send me info. I emailed and called Disney to get this sorted and didn't get anywhere. I believe this is a trackshack issue.

Now the Pros (see, isn't this shorter than if I described the whole race? )

1: The supporters on the race route were amazing. The fact that they were out there before dawn was incredible. Whoever the cheerleaders and bands were, I want to thank them for their incredible energy and volume. Also, the people with the signs. I can't remember many of them, but they had me laughing out loud more than once, which is hard when you are running.

2: Disney Characters. Always adds something to my day to have the Disney characters providing encouragement. I dressed as Peter Pan and got such a rush hearing "Go Peter. Go Peter." Great stuff.

3: I liked the course. It wasn't as "flat" as I was expecting, but it was still a really good course. I wish I could have seen more in the park that I could not see due to the sun not being out. I liked that you had a preview of the finish before the final curve. Nice to get that "I'm almost done" rush to set up your finish. Mickey and Minnie high fiving me at the finish, where else is that going to happen?

4: Massage. YAY. Thank god for the angel who massaged the cramps out of my calves. And it seemed like they had enough masseuses to handle the large numbers (you're perspective may be different depending on when you finished).

5: Medal. This is a close one. I was expecting a giant beautiful medal, and it is giant, but not as beautiful as I was expecting. Nicest medals I have are from the Surf City Marathon. Every one a work of art. This one is no slacker, but I was expecting more. (I know i'm inviting hate from this one. Just my honest opinion.)

Thanks to all the ladies who participated and gave the race such a nice atmosphere. Loved all the faeries and princesses .

[Cripey]

Originally Posted by dhowlan

Congratulations to all who ran this race successfully. Thanks for all your pre-race input.

Hopefully this will help future participants know what to expect from the race. I know there were a few things that cropped up in my race experience that surprised me.

I've decided to divide this into pros and cons or rather cons and pros because going through it minute by minute would take rather a lot of space.

First the Cons:

1: It's expensive. I don't think there's any way around this but to say this race is pricy and I think it should be at least $30 less. I get that Disney makes it a premium because it's Disney, but that doesn't get it to 150 unless they start throwing in free (or at least significantly discounted) tickets to the park.

2: It's early. The start of this race was an hour and a half earlier than any race I've run. While it's nice to see Disneyland lit up, I can do that on an evening visit to the park. Also, some of you have commented on the pictures being subpar. I don't think the shooters were experienced enough in dealing with shooting people in the dark with a flash. I was surprised at where most of them were set up. They should have had full flash outfits (think remotes with strobes etc) to handle the distances and varying distances from the photographer to the people they were shooting. Sunlight would certainly help these people shoot better pictures.

3: Corrals. Being that I'm a male, I was in Corral C. I totally understand this since it's a female oriented race. I support the idea. Unfortunately, I was never informed of this until I got to the venue. (If this was in some of the online info, please let me know where.) More surprising was that my teammate, who is female, was put in Corral E even though she is a sub 2 hour runner and said so in her registration. We got the ok from a Disney person to start together in C, but I still wonder why that happened. The whole purpose of the corrals is to allow people to run at their own pace without running over or being run over by other runners. Having a C runner in the E corral doesn't help anybody. Which gets me back to the males in Corral C. I really think it would be helpful to put the males in their own corral to help the poor females in Corral C. Here you have ladies who are planning on running a 2:45 race and they have to deal with men who are running up to twice as fast. I know it wasn't stress free from my perspective, running in the dark and trying to politely run through about 5000 people. Perhaps a B-minus or C-minus corral of just the men. At least the field would be more spread out by the time the faster men caught up with the next group of women.

4: I never did get any of the email updates for this race, despite trying two different emails (with different isps). This is really inexcusable. I have participated in gigantic races (i.e. la marathon) and tiny races and never had a race not be able to send me info. I emailed and called Disney to get this sorted and didn't get anywhere. I believe this is a trackshack issue.

Now the Pros (see, isn't this shorter than if I described the whole race? )

1: The supporters on the race route were amazing. The fact that they were out there before dawn was incredible. Whoever the cheerleaders and bands were, I want to thank them for their incredible energy and volume. Also, the people with the signs. I can't remember many of them, but they had me laughing out loud more than once, which is hard when you are running.

2: Disney Characters. Always adds something to my day to have the Disney characters providing encouragement. I dressed as Peter Pan and got such a rush hearing "Go Peter. Go Peter." Great stuff.

3: I liked the course. It wasn't as "flat" as I was expecting, but it was still a really good course. I wish I could have seen more in the park that I could not see due to the sun not being out. I liked that you had a preview of the finish before the final curve. Nice to get that "I'm almost done" rush to set up your finish. Mickey and Minnie high fiving me at the finish, where else is that going to happen?

4: Massage. YAY. Thank god for the angel who massaged the cramps out of my calves. And it seemed like they had enough masseuses to handle the large numbers (you're perspective may be different depending on when you finished).

5: Medal. This is a close one. I was expecting a giant beautiful medal, and it is giant, but not as beautiful as I was expecting. Nicest medals I have are from the Surf City Marathon. Every one a work of art. This one is no slacker, but I was expecting more. (I know i'm inviting hate from this one. Just my honest opinion.)

Thanks to all the ladies who participated and gave the race such a nice atmosphere. Loved all the faeries and princesses .

Great summary...I agree with you on alot of it myself...well except for the medal...my Tink medals are my favs!!! And I liked the early start, I'm definitely more of a morning person, but I agree that it kind of messes with most of the good photo ops. I was NOT impressed with this photo company though. And don't even get me started on not getting the runDisney emails... You're in good company there with ALOT of folks.

Question about your friend in corral E though...did she provide valid proof of her finishing time? If you submit a 2:45 or faster estimated finishing time, you have to provide valid proof from a race of 10k or longer from a certain date or later...I can't remember what the date was though. They usually give you a couple of years though, I think. Anyway, if she didn't provide correct proof, that could explain why she was not corralled correctly. If she did have proof that could be found online somewhere, she could have gone to the runner relations booth at packet pick up and had her corral changed accordingly. Just for future reference

[dhowlan]

Originally Posted by Cripey

Great summary...I agree with you on alot of it myself...well except for the medal...my Tink medals are my favs!!! And I liked the early start, I'm definitely more of a morning person, but I agree that it kind of messes with most of the good photo ops. I was NOT impressed with this photo company though. And don't even get me started on not getting the runDisney emails... You're in good company there with ALOT of folks.

Question about your friend in corral E though...did she provide valid proof of her finishing time? If you submit a 2:45 or faster estimated finishing time, you have to provide valid proof from a race of 10k or longer from a certain date or later...I can't remember what the date was though. They usually give you a couple of years though, I think. Anyway, if she didn't provide correct proof, that could explain why she was not corralled correctly. If she did have proof that could be found online somewhere, she could have gone to the runner relations booth at packet pick up and had her corral changed accordingly. Just for future reference

Yep. Her race to get her into corral A was a Disney half, so it should have been simple for them to verify. I don't know the year of that race so certainly could have been outside the time they allow.

The point you make about correcting it is valid and brings up another minor issue. It would have been nice if the people handing out the bibs pointed out to us the corral letter. Neither of us thought about it until we were back at our hotel and it was far too late to do anything about it. Even if the corral letters were without issue, it would be nice for them to make sure all the participants knew where they were headed in the morning, especially us men who may be clueless that we were in C, even though it was obvious after I noticed it. and that gets me back to communication. If my friend put a 2 hour time down and they couldn't verify it, how about an email to that effect? I think my high expectations from Disney plus the high pricetag left me feeling that these details that were missed shouldn't have been. If they didn't do so many things so well, I'd probably cut them more slack.

[freepixie]

OK, dragging this back up for one more question

When they opened up registration for the Tink last summer, did they open up registration early for Disney visa card holders? I know they have done that for the Marathon and the Everest challenge, but not the TOT 10-miler.

If they did, how did you find out about it? I just signed up for the card and it arrived in the mail yesterday Very exciting day!!

I'm just hoping/praying I can register early for next year's Tink!! I'm having anxiety after how fast the DDD and Disneyland half sold out! I REALLY want to do the Tink next year, and any way of getting in early, I sure will try!!

Thanks for any advice!!

[longhorns2]

I dont remember seeing anything about Visa and Tink last year. Or Princess. And we are card holders. I did get the email regarding it with DDD --- but it was a good week after the news hit the websites I was affiliated with!

The Visa website for your card will have a section with the special offers listed. Just check this often starting 6 weeks to a month before the registration opens to the public. As long as you register day of or with early entry, I think you will be good!

[freepixie]

Originally Posted by longhorns2

I dont remember seeing anything about Visa and Tink last year. Or Princess. And we are card holders. I did get the email regarding it with DDD --- but it was a good week after the news hit the websites I was affiliated with!

The Visa website for your card will have a section with the special offers listed. Just check this often starting 6 weeks to a month before the registration opens to the public. As long as you register day of or with early entry, I think you will be good!

Awesome!! Thank you so much!! I'm going to check the website out later this evening to see what it is all about

[kirstie101]

Originally Posted by freepixie

OK, dragging this back up for one more question

When they opened up registration for the Tink last summer, did they open up registration early for Disney visa card holders? I know they have done that for the Marathon and the Everest challenge, but not the TOT 10-miler.

If they did, how did you find out about it? I just signed up for the card and it arrived in the mail yesterday Very exciting day!!

I'm just hoping/praying I can register early for next year's Tink!! I'm having anxiety after how fast the DDD and Disneyland half sold out! I REALLY want to do the Tink next year, and any way of getting in early, I sure will try!!

Thanks for any advice!!

Patty's right! They definitely did not open Tink reg up early for Visa card holders last year. Im hoping maybe they will this year though!