Faith, Trust, And 58% Less Pixie Dust: A 2016 Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend Trip Report!

[Ariel484]

Hey there, hi there, ho there!

Welcome to my trip report!

I'm Shannon, I’m 32 years old, and I love running Disney!

In fact, I love it so much that I signed up to participate in a race weekend featuring my least favorite Disney character - Tinker Bell!

Beyond my love of running Disney, my 3 big reasons for signing up for these races were:

1. An excuse to go back to Disneyland
2. The Tink courses are supposed to be among the best that runDisney has to offer, and
3. I wanted the special runDisney pink Coast-to-Coast medal - it's just like the blue one with the Partners Statue that I got last year, except that it's pink, and you can only get it by participating in both the Princess Half Marathon Weekend and Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend races (doing the half marathons or the challenges) in the same calendar year

The wheels were set in motion for this plan last summer: I registered for the Princess 5K and Glass Slipper Challenge in July, and the Never Land 5K and the Pixie Dust Challenge in August (I also signed my mom - Kriss - up for the Never Land 5K for Mother’s Day!). Great plan, right?

Well, plans change...

I ended up getting injured in January and made the difficult decision to defer my Glass Slipper Challenge entry to 2017. I also decided that I couldn't run the Tinker Bell Half Marathon and was able to defer my Pixie Dust Challenge entry to 2017...so hopefully 2017 will be the year of the pink C2C medal!

I was able to find a Tinker Bell 10K bib through a Travel Agent in March - so while I was sad that I couldn't do all 22.4 Tink miles as planned, and more than a little bummed that couldn't fully participate in both "lady weekends" as I'd hoped to this year, I sure as heck am grateful for the 9.3 miles I DID complete (58% less than originally planned for this weekend - if you round down - but still pretty awesome).

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Hey There, Hi There, Ho There!

Day 1: Thursday, May 5, 2016
How Do We Get To Never Land?
Expo, Part 1
Expo, Part 2
Walt's Park...Briefly
Checked In!

Day 2: Friday, May 6, 2016
2016 Never Land 5K! The Start!
2016 Never Land 5K! Mile 1!
2016 Never Land 5K! Mile 2!
2016 Never Land 5K! Mile 3!
2016 Never Land 5K! The Finish!
Post-5K Breakfast!
Rain, rain, go away!
Hop!

Day 3: Saturday, May 7, 2016
2016 Tinker Bell 10K! The Start
2016 Tinker Bell 10K! Miles 1 & 2
2016 Tinker Bell 10K! Mile 3
2016 Tinker Bell 10K! Miles 4 & 5
2016 Tinker Bell 10K! Mile 6 and the Finish!
Post-10K Solo Park Time!
Lost & Found
Revelation #3
Searching for Dinner

Day 4: Sunday, May 8, 2016
Spectating the Tinker Bell Half Marathon
Last Day in Disneyland
Hop!
Napa Rose

Day 5: Monday, May 9, 2016
Going home...eventually

Final Thoughts

 

[rteetz]

I'm here and excited to follow along! One of these days I'll run in Disneyland.

 

[pxefig]

Yay! A new trip report. I can't wait to get your in depth review of how the weekend went.

 

[wiscbugs]

I always love your reports...can't wait for this new one!

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

I'm not a big fan of Tinkerbell either, but I loved this weekend! I'm looking forward to reading your report

 

[DopeyBadger]

Looking forward to living vicariously through your Disneyland adventures. Been way too long since I've been there (like 30 years?).

 

[Sailormoon2]

So glad you have begun this directly upon returning. I LOVE your detailed race reports!!!

 

[cavepig]

Yay! Look forward to reading along!

 

[Ariel484]

I'm here and excited to follow along! One of these days I'll run in Disneyland.

Hellooooo. Yes you will!!

Yay! A new trip report. I can't wait to get your in depth review of how the weekend went.

Yay! I need to get my pictures in order over here!

I always love your reports...can't wait for this new one!

Thank you for reading my other reports!! Glad you are here!

I'm not a big fan of Tinkerbell either, but I loved this weekend! I'm looking forward to reading your report

That's pretty much my exact reaction - still not a fan of Tink but I enjoyed the weekend more than I expected!

Looking forward to living vicariously through your Disneyland adventures. Been way too long since I've been there (like 30 years?).

You need to get back!! Start planning!

So glad you have begun this directly upon returning. I LOVE your detailed race reports!!!

If I don't...I will forget it all. Well, not all, but a good chunk!

Yay! Look forward to reading along!

Yay! Thanks!!

 

[SarahDisney]

Hi Shannon!
I'm here and excited to follow along with your Tink & Disneyland adventures!

 

[LindseyJo22]

Following along!

 

[roxymama]

I heard you like , so I put a little in your recap.

 

[Mimsy Borogove]

I had a lot of fun at this race weekend - surprisingly because Tink is not my favorite, either. Following along!

 

[baxter24]

Looking forward to hearing about your latest trip!

 

[Ariel484]

Hi Shannon!
I'm here and excited to follow along with your Tink & Disneyland adventures!

Hi Sarah! Glad you are here!

Following along!

Yay! Thanks!

I heard you like , so I put a little in your recap.

Oh did you now?! ...

...just kidding, this made me LOL.

I had a lot of fun at this race weekend - surprisingly because Tink is not my favorite, either. Following along!

Weird, right? Not like I expected it to be awful or anything, but I was pleasantly surprised!

Looking forward to hearing about your latest trip!

Thanks!

 

[Ariel484]

Day 1: Thursday, May 5, 2016 - How Do We Get To Never Land?

Fly, of course!

Mini rant: I am NOT impressed with United after this trip. I'd booked my flights month ago and they were changed multiple times. Originally I had direct flights both ways - great! Eventually the return flight was changed to one with a connector - not so great! And the night before my flight to LAX I got a text that our plane had been changed and that my seat had been changed to "SEE AGENT." Um...what? Eventually I got my new seat assignment, but it was a middle seat. I'd specifically picked a window seat so that I could lean against said window and sleep, so I was not pleased about that. I ended up paying an upgrade fee to get the only window seat left - in Economy Plus, goodbye $60 - but at least the flights themselves had been free (booked on credit card points).

I was up around 4:30AM and said good-bye to my unconscious husband (Will, aka Mr. Ariel484). The drive to the airport and getting through security were both super easy, and my flight took off at about 7:15AM (the flight had been oversold and they were trying to get people to take a travel certificate to give up their seats...NOPE). Thanks to staying up pretty late the night before (1:30AM) I slept for the first couple of hours of the flight...not as long as I'd hoped, but better than nothing.

Mountains!

We landed a little after 9AM, California time, and I had a text message waiting for me from Super Shuttle. After taxiing, we deplaned and I headed to baggage claim. Once I grabbed my bag, I checked in for my shuttle, which came about 20 minutes later. I had great transportation luck that morning - I was the last pick-up on the shuttle and the first drop-off!

The ride only took 35 minutes - woohoo for the carpool lane! I was heading into the Disneyland Hotel by 10:30AM, only 1.5 hours after landing. Can't get much better than that.

I checked in, but my room wasn’t ready yet. No surprise there. I got our room keys and headed to Bell Services to drop off my luggage.

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

Expo, Part 1

EXPO TIME! But first, lemme take a selfie!

And revelation #1 of the trip...I feel like this weekend I came to some realizations about Disney races, Disneyland, etc. that are making me re-think how I will do things in the future. A very informative and educational trip.

Revelation #1: runDisney expos are much, much more enjoyable when you don’t care about the official merchandise.

Seriously. For Wine & Dine and Marathon Weekend in WDW, I had studied the preview merchandise posts on the Disney Parks Blog and had made lists made of what I wanted. I was right in the midst of the mad rush to grab things. For Disneyland in September, my BFF and I lined up almost 3 hours before the expo opened to make sure we had access to whatever merchandise we wanted.

And the bizarre thing is...it was NECESSARY to do those things to get the desired merchandise! And I am just OVER it - it’s just not worth it anymore! Between not being a big Tink fan and not running the half marathon (and thus not doing the challenge) I thought this would be a cheap expo for me, but it was so eye-opening to see how much better the expo experience could be when one really does not care about getting the race weekend jacket or the finisher shirt or whatever.

I mean...it’s just stuff. More money for other Disney merchandise!

Anyway, in we go!

Disneyland race expos are held in the Disneyland Hotel, unlike at WDW, where they are at ESPN Wide World of Sports. Super convenient - no bus needed!

Bib pick-up is in a parking garage under the hotel. This is where I got my first glimpse of how nice it was to NOT care about the merch. At WDW, merch is a free-for-all where you’re just let into the area to go wild (for an example of WDW runDisney Official Merchandise at its worst, google around for reports of this year’s Princess expo at opening. GOOD LORD). At Disneyland, the merch area is much smaller - people wait in a separate area (sometimes for hours) and are let into the merchandise area in small groups. Today, people were waiting down in the parking garage, separated from the bib pick-up area by a curtain. This was the crowd at about 10:45AM. NOPE.

The one thing I WAS interested in possibly getting was a Dooney wristlet for my mom - after all, Mother’s Day was on Sunday! And she LOVES Tink (I have tried to explain to her why Tink is awful...she won’t listen to reason ). The Dooneys are actually sold in the same area as bib pick-up, while the rest of the vendors and official merchandise are housed in a large conference room upstairs - so getting a Dooney means waiting in a line separate from the Official Merchandise waiting area.

Unfortunately, this was the Dooney line. There had been an option to pre-order the Dooneys, but I hadn’t taken advantage. I decided to check back later.

I made the two stops to pick up my 5K and 10K bibs - super quick. The only other thing I needed to take care of before heading upstairs was to get my pins. I had pre-ordered a Pixie Dust Challenge pin bundle and wasn’t sure where I was supposed to pick that up. Since I’d deferred the challenge and wasn’t doing the half marathon, I obviously wasn’t interested in keeping those pins (I ended up selling them on Facebook after I got home, so at least I didn’t totally lose that money!) but I did want the 5K and 10K pins. In light of the deferral it didn’t seem like the PDC bib pick-up area was the right place to check, and the desk marked “Commemorative Items” or something similar had a huge line, so I decided I’d take care of that later as well.

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

Expo, Part 2

In the meantime, I had an appointment! I headed upstairs and into the expo area…

...and to the New Balance booth! At 12:30AM EST the night (morning?) before I’d logged on to the New Balance website to secure a spot in the virtual queue (line was supposed to open at 7PM EST...someone was late!) and had gotten a text message back that my estimated return time was 11AM. I’d gotten the “you’re up!” message from New Balance as I was getting my bibs - perfect timing.

I’d done my homework by trying on a pair of the Vazee Pace shoes at home to figure out sizing, so I was ready to buy a pair of the Ariel shoes!

Along with a tube of Body Glide. How exciting!

I paid for my shoes and Glide, picked up my 5K and 10K shirts (and ended up exchanging both for smaller sizes - I HIGHLY recommend trying on your race shirts before you leave the expo!!!) and headed back to Bell Services to put my expo stuff in my luggage (room still wasn’t ready). From here I called a taxi to take me about 20 minutes south to Costa Mesa to visit my very favorite running apparel store - INKnBURN! I am an Ambassador for the brand and was hoping to meet the owner (which I did!) and pick up an order I had placed (which I also did!)...

...the “Better Be Great” hoodie! Look familiar?

Lemme say, I am SO glad I went to pick this thing up - I actually ended up wearing it a ton over the course of the weekend, because it was chilly in California! Why do temperatures in the 60s in California feel cold to me, but 60s in Ohio feels warm? Life is weird.

So - I chatted with some INB people before catching my return ride back to the Disneyland Hotel. I had lunch at Tangaroa Terrace.

Chicken sandwich - yum!

Peeked inside Trader Sam’s...

...and headed back into the expo. By now it was about 2PM...I think the merchandise line was still there, but the Dooney line was non-existent.

I was able to walk up and pick out a wristlet for my mom. I got 20% off with my AP!

The front doesn’t have any random limbs, but the back does.

From there I headed to the Commemorative Items booth to ask about my pins. The guy working the booth seemed truly stumped, but walked me over to the Pixie Dust Challenge booth. Here they actually had a PDC bib for me (could I have run the challenge even though I technically deferred? It sort of seems like they would have given me a bib if I’d had a signed waiver with me…) along with my pins. I’ve since sold the half and PDC pins on Facebook (I had a pair of people actually fighting over the challenge pin...good times. That’s what I get for being nice and selling the pins to other runners at cost!).

I headed back upstairs and looked around for a bit, but I don’t think I bought anything.

Up Next - I finally go to a park!

 

[LindseyJo22]

I'd booked my flights month ago and they were changed multiple times. Originally I had direct flights both ways - great! Eventually the return flight was changed to one with a connector - not so great! And the night before my flight to LAX I got a text that our plane had been changed and that my seat had been changed to "SEE AGENT."

That is so frustrating!!! Really, that stuff shouldn't happen. I mean, sometimes you need to change something about a flight, but multiple times? And connecting instead of direct? That just seems excessive.

I was the last pick-up on the shuttle and the first drop-off!

Awesome!! I'm jealous of this whole trip - I keep telling my husband we need to eventually go to Disneyland

I was able to walk up and pick out a wristlet for my mom. I got 20% off with my AP!

I don't care much for Tink, but I love this! The pattern is a million times better than most Dooney patterns I've seen.

Can't wait to read more!