It’s time for the 10th Annual Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend!. In this blog I thought I’d take a look back at the very first Disneyland Half Marathon and some of the changes over the years. I remember how excited we were for the Inaugural race weekend nine years ago, on September 15-17, 2006. At the time Disneyland was still celebrating its 50th anniversary, and this year it’s the 60th anniversary Diamond Celebration!

A lot of things have changed since that first Disneyland Half Marathon. The very next year the race weekend was moved from the third weekend of September to Labor Day, where it has remained ever since. In 2008 the first Coast-to-Coast medals were awarded to those who had finished the WDW Half Marathon or WDW Marathon in January, then finished the Disneyland Half Marathon that same year. With the addition of the Disneyland 10K in 2013, the race weekend has been extended a day, and now starts on Thursday. The year 2013 also introduced the Dumbo Double Dare race challenge, with an additional medal awarded to those who finish the 10K and the half marathon.

There are many more participants – according to runDisney, more than 29,000 people will participate in the events of this year’s half marathon weekend. The Inaugural half marathon was capped at 12,000 runners, while this year’s race will have more than 18,000 runners.

The first half marathon took about five months to sell out…this year’s race was sold out within hours. In 2006 the registration fee for the half marathon was $85 and the 5K was only $25. The kid’s races were $5 per child. Seems like a bargain compared to this year’s $199/$75/$20 fees – though the price certainly does not seem to have discouraged people from signing up.

I think that first year was a bit of an experiment, and the race organizers weren’t sure how well it would go over. There were a few signs of that, like the mile markers. A lot different than what we are used to now.

I think they really outdid themselves when it came to Disney characters along the course. I have photos from 16 different character stops! In that first race, long before the days of cell phone cameras, I was one the few people who carried a small camera with me. This was also before the advent of PhotoPass, so there weren’t a bunch of Disney photographers with the characters, and it meant that not very many people stopped to have their photos taken with them. We stopped for all of them in that first race – and some of them featured multiple characters, too – like five Alice in Wonderland characters, Sleeping Beauty, Prince Phillip and the three fairies, and Lilo and Stitch. And my estimate was that the photo stops only added 10 minutes to my finish time…you sure can’t do that now.

The race experience itself was excellent that first year. I didn’t notice any major first-year glitches. I think my biggest complaint was that the race shirt had long sleeves – why would you do that for a race held in southern California in September?

Here’s a comment I wrote about the refreshments in 2006: “In the refreshment area there were drinks, as well as fruit, bagels, muffins, and yogurt parfaits.” I really wish they would bring THOSE sorts of refreshments back rather than those runDisney MRE boxes…

One thing that hasn’t changed is the tremendous community support the half marathon receives from the city of Anaheim. Even in that very first race we were cheered on by high school bands, cheerleaders, and Boy and Girl Scouts. And we were entertained by two large dance groups – a Polynesian group and a mariachi group. Both of these featured participants of all ages. All of those groups have continued to be a presence on the course every year, and I always look forward to seeing them.

And I must put in a good word for the amazing and hard-working volunteers and cast members, also. They are essential to the success of this race weekend, and have been wonderful every single year.

The medals were just as gorgeous then as they are now – that first castle medal was pretty special. This year, in honor of the 10th race and the 60th anniversary, there’s a new medal that goes along with the diamond anniversary theme. I’ll be happy to add that one to my collection, too.

This will be the 8th time that Lee and I have run the Disneyland Half Marathon. Each of them has been memorable in some way and I’m looking forward to this year’s race.