DL Half Marathon... The set up & race

[Disney4us2]

We ended up leaving just a few minutes later than I expected.

We finally arrived in Anaheim just before 2:30AM. I got off at my usual Disneyland Drive exit and we had no option but to enter the Mickey and Friends parking structure. The road leading to the DL Hotel was blocked off for the marathon.

We finally found our round about way to the Hotel, Checked in, and gave our bags to bell services. The tents were up for the runners right in the DTD parking lot. It looked very festive and alive for almost 3am. Made our way to M & F parking to check in. We got our name tag lanyards, picked up the tee shirts and our boxed food. That was mainly protein bars, crackers, peanutbutter. I think this was more for the runners. We ended up taking ours home.

It was over an hour wait before we were escorted backstage. Some of the groups were being taken by bus to the further locations. We were stationed backstage right behind the big doors in Toontown.

We had a nice large group. There were several large trucks that had the tables and water etc. The men mostly set up the tables on either side of the backstage street. We then put the tablecloths on and started setting up the cups, pouring the water. We were to make 3 levels of water cups. That accomplished we were just waiting for the runners.

A few wheelchair runners were first, but didn't take any water or powerade. The runners would soon be following and they did. For the next hour plus they kept coming and coming. We were told there were 15 thousand runners. Some of the costumes on the runners were so cute, and some bizarre. Jessica was handing out the water and I stayed behind the table filling more cups as they were being taken just to keep up.

Clean up was not that bad. Just did everything in reverse and then escorted back to M & F to check out. We got to see the ranch where the animals were kept and some pumpkins were getting ready to be put out for Halloween Time.

We check out and were given complimentry 1day 1park tickets. I was hoping to be able to use those to pay down my next AP renewal in January. No such luck. They were non upgradable, no cash value and had to be used by 12/15/12.

By the time we finished it was close to 9am. Time to head over to the hotel.

More to come later

[badkitty]

Thanks so much for volunteering! It was a great race. So much fun!

[Lacy]

Agree - thanks so much for volunteering! I thought it was a great race this year and it seems like that would have been a good place to be stationed. The run though the parks and backstage is so much fun - the whole race is great but that and the stadium are the highlights.

We loved our stay at the DLH and hope you enjoyed your quick stay!