A Pink Pixie Princess...FINALLY! A 2017 Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend Trip Report!

Ariel484

DIS Veteran
Joined
Dec 27, 2011
Hello Pixies! Are you ready to fly to the finish? :tinker::tinker::tinker:

The cast for this report is just little ol’ me! Shannon, 33 years old.

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I am fully, 100% addicted to runDisney races. I started off mostly sticking with races in Florida, but in 2015 I finally did something I had been dreaming of since my first runDisney race back in 2011 - I took my first-ever trip to Disneyland, ran the Disneyland Half Marathon and earned my Coast-to-Coast medal!

See the medal closest to Mickey...the one with the Partners Statue? That’s the Coast-to-Coast (C2C) medal, and you get it by doing one race in Walt Disney World and one race in Disneyland in the same calendar year (races must be half marathon distance or longer...or a challenge where you do multiple races on consecutive days). It’s basically the greatest medal ever.

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Well, it turns out that there is another version of the C2C medal, and it’s PINK! (From runDisney’s twitter account):

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I know, I know...what kind of sucker would get a medal they already have, just because it’s a different color?...

*points to self*

THIS GUY! :banana:

The pink C2C medal only happens when one does the Princess Half Marathon/Glass Slipper Challenge and the Tinker Bell Half Marathon/Pixie Dust Challenge in the same calendar year. I am not a very princess-y girl, and I really don’t like Tink much at all...but I do love me some runDisney bling. So I decided 2016 would be the year of the pink C2C! I registered for the Glass Slipper and Pixie Dust Challenges, along with the 5Ks, booked flights, and hotels...

And then everything came to a screeching halt, courtesy of a back injury. I had to stop running altogether for about 2.5 months...no pink C2C for me in 2016. Wahhh!!

Thankfully, I was able to defer my Glass Slipper and Pixie Dust Challenge entries to this year (runDisney doesn’t offer this service anymore, so I got REALLY lucky). More importantly, I (mostly) healed and was able to resume running again, completing the Never Land 5K and the Tinker Bell 10K in May of 2016.

When I was feeling sorry for myself during my running layoff, I coped by signing up for races and planning Disney trips! Sort of like retail therapy. I participated in races during Wine & Dine Weekend (November 2016) and Marathon Weekend (January 2017), and they went pretty well!

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The exciting thing about participating in Marathon Weekend earlier this year is that this qualified me to get another blue C2C medal at Tink weekend...this one a special 10th anniversary version!

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My training for Princess wasn’t what I wanted it to be thanks to a small hip strain (why am I so injury-plagued all of a sudden?!) but I was able to complete all 3 races that weekend! The last 5 miles or so of the half were a little dicey, but still...part 1 of the 2017 pink C2C...check!

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And less than 3 months later...it was Tink time! And time to get the pink C2C medal that I had been denied in 2016...FINALLY!!
 
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So exited to read about your trip and your runs! I'm signed up for the Princess challenge in 2018. Been having trouble getting motivated recently so hoping maybe you'll help bump my butt into gear!
 
So exited to read about your trip and your runs! I'm signed up for the Princess challenge in 2018. Been having trouble getting motivated recently so hoping maybe you'll help bump my butt into gear!
Hey thanks! You'll love Princess...lots of fun! That was my first runDisney race and the one that started the addiction for me. :)
 


Day 1: Thursday, May 11, 2017

I'm strung out on John Wayne


Yeehaw, it’s Disneyland day! :banana:

This would be my 4th visit to Disneyland as an adult (apparently I also went once when I was 1.5 years old or something...don’t remember that at all, obviously), and there were a lot of “firsts” on this trip. For starters: first solo trip, and first time flying into a different airport! For my other trips I had booked flights that went into LAX, but this time I decided to try flying into John Wayne in Santa Ana.

"Hello there, it's meeeeeee"
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I did not get direct flights, unfortunately, but they were free (and free checked bags since they were on Southwest), so no complaints!

I was on the road by 4:30 AM...I seem to have become a little stupid with flying, because it’s been a trend with me to not leave home early enough and not realize I have not left home early enough until I get to the airport. That trend continued on this trip. I’d gotten an email from Southwest before the trip that they made some kind of change to their ticketing system and they suggested arriving early - I guess I didn’t understand the change because I assumed all would be well when I successfully checked in the day before and got my boarding pass. I’m an idiot.

The change ended up being at the airport - self-service kiosks had been installed and I needed to use one to print my bag check info. The line wasn’t terrible, but it was slow (for anyone who remembers my issues with over-packing...Big Purple weighed in at 43.5 pounds! I am so proud). Between that and a longer-than-expected line at security, I had just enough time to buy a granola bar and arrive at my gate at 5:45...exactly when boarding started. :faint: Ack!!

Flight #1 took me to Denver...I had just enough time to get *real* breakfast there before boarding for flight #2 began! I felt like I had *just barely* enough time for everything that morning...so it was a short, quick travel day (as short/quick as flying across the country can be), but also a little more frantic than I would have preferred!

Breakfast...steel-cut oatmeal with peanut butter and banana. Once I stirred it up, it didn’t seem like such an insane amount of peanut butter. It was really good!
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Our plane sat for a bit before taking off, but we still ended up landing early at 9:15AM PST...hello California!

So, like I said - first time flying into John Wayne, and after this trip I am a HUGE fan. My plane landed at 9:15 and I was off the plane, through baggage claim and on my Super Shuttle by 9:45!! Another 30 minutes later, I was walking into the lobby of Paradise Pier. SO much quicker and easier than LAX!
 
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Back to Paradise!

A quick note about staying at Paradise Pier - yes, there are off-property hotels around that are cheaper. I drove myself nuts over debating whether or not to try one. Ultimately I ended up sticking with Paradise Pier because I was on this trip by myself and wanted to stay somewhere that I was 100% familiar with (this would be my 3rd trip staying there). In the future, I don’t think I’d hesitate to try an “off-site” hotel, but this trip - by myself walking around at weird hours - didn’t seem like the time to do it.

Not surprisingly, my room wasn’t ready yet. I headed into the Paradise Pier lobby bathroom to freshen up before dropping my bags with bell services. I had an 11:30 appointment to get to, but right now I had just enough time to pop into the expo at the Disneyland Hotel to grab my race bibs and shirts (something I feared I’d forget to do that day, for whatever reason).

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And this is where I got what has the be the least-cohesive set of shirts ever. The colors are so random - where did that raspberry 10K shirt and blindingly neon challenge shirt (which I totally hate) come from? I was expecting/hoping for blue and green shirts, since the race bibs and medal ribbons were all in blues and greens. Sigh.
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On the bright side...I did get THESE! The entire reason for signing up for this race weekend! :hyper:
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I also got the race pins I had pre-ordered.
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Up next: Venturing out of the bubble! :eek:
 
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Such a HUGE accomplishment! I'm so sad it's over but so happy to read along! wah! I must have been anticipating this report because last night I had a dream that a college friend, you and I were at marathon weekend! Lol! I hope that's not too creepy! We had a huge 'ohana meal the night before, I forgot all my gear...pretty much a nightmare! Lol!

I'm hoping to grab a coast to coast medal 2018 as I'll be running the marathon and @MommaoffherRocker asked me to join her at pretty much any Disneyland race! Yay!
 
Following too. I gotta start turning my notes into my own report soon before I forget things!!!

Ps big thumbs up from me on the John Wayne to hotel ease as well!
 
Yay! Trip report time!! I'm so happy we got to spend some time with you on this trip and play yo-yo with you during the 10K. :D
 
That PB coated oatmeal looks amazing!! I can't believe you got that in the airport?!

least-cohesive set of shirts ever.
Seriously, go to admit, they are not my style at all, and DO NOT match the colour scheme of the medal ribbons/advertising in the slightest. Obvious mis-communication between departments there. They could have been so beautiful, and feminine, and spring-like. Right?
 
Trip report time! Yay!

I gotta say ... I'm with you on those shirts. They make no sense to me. The 5K and Half are fine, but the 10K and Pixie Dust ... I feel like they must have gotten some sort of discount for picking unpopular colors or something. I can't see any other reason for raspberry and radioactive yellow.
But yay for two C2C bracelets!
 
Yay yay yay for a trip report! I've heard so many great things about flying into John Wayne instead of LAX. I just hope you didn't get in any of those Santa Ana winds- who knows how your weekend would've turned out! :rotfl2:
I understand about wanting to say on-site when doing a solo rD trip. That's what I've thought I would do with the early dark hours you're walking around!
And yeah those shirt colors really are random! I'm sorry you ended up with some you didn't love.

Can't wait to read more!
 

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