It is a dark time for the Rebellion. (5:30 is really early.) Although the Out-of-Breath Star has been destroyed, Imperial troops have driven the Rebel runners from their hidden fitness expo and pursued them across 6.2 miles. Evading the dreaded Imperial Sweeper Bikes, a group of Rebel Challengers, led by run/walkers, have established a new secret race retreat near the icy world of Frozen Fun.

The evil Lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding the run/walkers, has dispatched official photographers into the far reaches of the course in an attempt to find runners and lure them to the Park side…

Saturday, January 17

Our alarm went off at 3:30 a.m. Since at Disneyland we can walk to the start line and don’t need to drive or take a bus, we don’t have to get up quite as early, even though the race still starts at 5:30.

We planned to leave the room about 4:30, but we still needed that hour to have something to eat and to put on our costumes.

I hadn’t originally planned to run in costume. When the race was first announced I had something in mind, but could never really get inspired and figure out how to do it, and between the holidays and Marathon weekend I just ran out of time. But then on Wednesday, inspiration hit, and I decided to run the 10K as Queen Amidala. I went shopping Wednesday after work, started on some of the cutting and sewing, and finished it on Thursday night. The costume was actually very comfortable – it was essentially a tech shirt (men’s size large) with some ribbon sewn on, and a black running skirt underneath. I made the collar and decorative piece out of red felt, painted with gold fabric paint. The most time-consuming part in the morning was putting on the make-up (and I hadn’t had a chance to do a trial run on it), but it worked out ok, I think.

Lee had adapted a Jedi costume that he has worn in the past to something he could run in, replacing the vest/belt with a grey tech shirt and his regular running belt. He was a little warm in it, but otherwise very happy with it.

Getting to the pre-race area was more challenging than usual. Since this was a new race we didn’t know where everything was going to be! We walked out of the Grand Californian onto Disneyland Drive, but that put us right into the corrals, because this race starts by going north and not south. We eventually went out to Downtown Disney and managed to get to the pre-race area, which is in the same place used for the Disneyland and Avengers races. It’s a longer walk to the start corrals from there for this race than for the other two, though, since corral access is south of the Paradise Pier.

I really enjoyed the graphics and the way the stage looked. The DJ was even in Jedi attire.

We met up with Eddie and Brad, who were going to be running with us, and then went back to our start corral – because of where we were staying it would’ve been a lot easier to just go straight to the corral from the hotel! 🙂

We were in Corral B. While we waited they played some clips from Star Wars movies on the big screens, including the trailer for the new movie that is supposed to be released in December. R2D2 and C-3PO joined the race announcers on stage.

The wheelchair athletes started first – no fireworks, though. Corral A started a few minutes later, and then our corral. We started almost 9 minutes after the official start. The course goes north on Disneyland Drive, then east on Ball, then south on Harbor. All of those are nice wide roads, and we weren’t crowded at all.

The temperature was great – about 50 degrees at the start. I was glad that I had l arm sleeves, but I was pretty comfortable for the entire race.

Once we entered Disneyland’s backstage area at about mile 1.5 we were on Disney property for the rest of the race, though a lot of it was backstage.

When we ran through the tunnel that goes down under the bus/tram area we heard the spooky sound of Darth Vader breathing, as well as his occasional admonitions that our destiny lies with the Dark Side. I think not, Darth! 🙂

The first water stop was just after that, and then we ran across the esplanade and through Disneyland’s main entrance onto Main Street. The first character stop was a Jedi master, but he had a pretty long line. There was even a line to take photos with the mile 2 sign at the end of Main Street! I liked the mile signs – they all had different images from the Star Wars movies.

We went left into Frontierland. Chewbacca was set up just in front of the Mark Twain, and a a HUGE line. There were several cast members just managing the queue, in addition to those who were taking photos! We didn’t stop, but I asked a woman who had just gotten her photo how long she had waited, and she said 20 minutes – and she had started in Corral A!

We went around Big Thunder Mountain and into Fantasyland. This course did not go through the castle: instead we went out of Fantasyland next to the teacups and by Alice in Wonderland back to the hub, then made a left and went into Tomorrowland. For a Star Wars themed race of course you have to run through Tomorrowland!

We stopped for a photo in front of Star Tours.

Darth Vader was in front of Innoventions, with another huge line, though not as long as the line for Chewbacca. There were Storm Troopers patrolling the Innoventions ramp, so we were able to get a quick photo of them.

We ran past the submarine lagoon and the Matterhorn and then back towards “it’s a small world”. There were several Jedi on the terraced area overlooking the course, but apparently “these are not the Jedi available for photos”, because we were chased off when we tried to take photos of them. Not even WITH them, just OF them. They were miked, and were offering Jedi-appropriate encouragement to the runners.

“It’s a small world” is undergoing refurbishment and was largely covered, but some of the holiday lights were still turned on.

We ran backstage again to the mile 3 sign and the second water stop. We were having a great time and the race had gone very fast and we were surprised that we were halfway done already! I’d hoped that we would hear a lot of Star Wars music along the course and we did – I can’t tell you the names, but I recognized a number of different pieces.

In the backstage areas there were some cast members to cheer us on, but it was pretty quiet. There were projections on some of the buildings that looked good, but I had a cast member tell me “no photos backstage” when I tried to take a photo of the Death Star projection.

We ran around the outside of about 2/3 of Disneyland before entering the Esplanade again and running across through the main entrance of DCA, and down Buena Vista Street and past the mile 4 sign.

At the end of Hollywood Blvd near the Hyperion Theater were two characters from the Star Wars Rebels animated series. Finally a short line, so we posed with them. We ran past the Tower of Terror and into Flik’s Fun Fair. The Mos Eisley Cantina music was playing there – that was fun to hear.

From “a bug’s land” we went towards Paradise Pier. Boba Fett was posing for photos near the entrance to Paradise Pier. Another pretty long line there. And I thought the cast members were being a little overzealous in not allowing runners to just stop and take a photo or selfie from the edge of the race course.

World of Color is undergoing refurbishment so the lagoon is mostly drained and the fountains weren’t running. We’ve gotten very used to seeing them during races and it was strange not to see them this time. Hopefully next year!

There were several Jedi in the Midway area, and they also had a very short line. They appropriately acknowledged me in my costume. 🙂

We went backstage at the parade gate near Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta and ran back behind California Screamin’, and re-entered the park at the Pacific Wharf, just in time to run through the arch and into Cars Land. And the mile 5 sign.

We ran by Luigi’s Flying Tires and then backstage again onto the perimeter road. The route from here to the finish was quite familiar, as a number of the Disneyland races finish this way: across Disneyland Drive and past the Paradise Pier and Disneyland Hotels to the finish line.

The volunteers gave us our lovely Inaugural Star Wars 10K medals. We were wondering if there was something we had to do for the Rebel Challenge, to show we’d finished the 10K (such as a wrist band), but there wasn’t.

After we exited into the Family Reunion area we met up with some other friends who had finished earlier. It was just after 7:00, and still only 52 degrees, so we started getting chilled just standing around, and soon headed back to our hotel for a warm beverage and a hot shower.

We received the usual runDisney MRE box. Meh. I still don’t like these. There wasn’t even any chocolate in them this time – at the Disneyland races we have usually had some Almond Roca in them.

The 6.2 miles really flew by – I didn’t feel like I’d run that far at all. And in spite of the photo stops, we still finished in 1:16:07. We really had a great time – up until now last year’s Tinker Bell 10K had been my most fun race, but now it’s this one. I still smile thinking about it!

I REALLY love the 10K distance – it is by far my favorite. I can travel very light since I don’t have to carry a hydration belt or anything with me other than my room key and phone, which fit into pockets of my running skirt. And it’s really nice to be done in less than 90 minutes, and still have the rest of the day left! We actually had time to shower, walk to Disneyland, and still make the last 30 minutes of Magic Morning! (And we rode Star Tours, of course!)

This was a new 10K course, and I enjoyed it. I never felt crowded at all, not even in the early part of the race – it was really a very pleasant running experience. Of the Disney 10Ks I think I still like the Disneyland 10K course the best because of the finish through Downtown Disney, but this one is really good. It’s all on Disney property after the first 1.5 miles, but because a lot of that is backstage, to me it feels more isolated from the spectators. But it was a whole lot easier to get back to our hotel (the Grand Californian) after this 10K than the Disneyland 10K since we didn’t have to get across the race course. On the other hand, it was a lot harder this time for those staying at the Disneyland Hotel. They had to go left out of the finish area away from the hotel, then left on Magic Way, and left again back toward the hotel. Eddie said it was .35 miles.

The runners (and the spectators) embraced the Star Wars theme, and there were lots of runners in costume. I expected to see lots of Jedi, but actually i saw a lot more X-wing fighter pilots and Princess Leias. R2D2 was also very well represented.

As you can tell, I had a great time. For an Inaugural event I thought it went off extremely well – I didn’t really see any major problems. They even did a pretty good job of anticipating the lines for the characters, and having personnel available to manage the lines. There were over 10,000 entered in the 10K, with 9195 finishers. That’s a pretty good-sized field.

I suppose my only disappointment is the characters. I was REALLY hoping to see the Disney characters in their Star Wars attire out on the course. Besides, having more character opportunities would have helped shorten the lines by spreading people out more.

This event was a lot of fun, and we hope to do it again next year!

Learn more about my runDisney experiences on AllEarsNet TV Show #33:

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