Quick 2016 DLR Star Wars Half Report

[Texas84]

A few notes about the DLR Star Wars Half. When I heard about the new Star Wars race weekend at WDW and the Kessel Run medal I had to figure out how to get back to DLR. Checked the travel agents on the runDisney site and found one that still had half registrations. The Challenges were all sold out.

Booked a cheap flight with Southwest to John Wayne and started looking at hotels. Checked the DLR hotels. Ha-ha, way out of my price range. Found a brand new Holiday Inn Express that was being refurbed from an older hotel off of Harbor and booked it. This wasn't open when I booked it so I watched for reviews. Saw a few reviews saying people showed up and it still wasn't open and they weren't even told. Checked their web site and they now listed an opening of the end of January and no one had contacted me. So cancelled that and got in at the Fairfield by Marriott on Harbor after reading some reviews here.

 

[Texas84]

Flight from ATL continuing to SNA (John Wayne) stopped in St. Louis on a dreary day. They said we could get off the plane for 30 minutes but I decided to stay. Traffic and security were both horrible in ATL so I missed breakfast. Luckily I had some Clif bars and SWA actually had some decent snacks on the flight to SNA.

Took the Gray Line Disneyland bus to Harbor and checked in early to the hotel which had some of the friendliest staff ever. Even rivaled Disney CMs. Had some great views.

The Fairfield is obviously an older hotel but it was very clean and the service was great all weekend. The Pizza Hut Express on the third floor was very convenient and had a decent quick breakfast. My only complaint was that the room doors are on the outside of the building and I don't do well with heights. I was on the seventh floor.

 

[Texas84]

Grabbed my waiver and headed to the long walk to the Expo at the Disneyland Hotel. I usually stay at the Holiday Inn on Walnut and I've decided that is the better location for race day. But if this was a non-running trip I think I would go back to Harbor for the park access.

I was so hungry at this point I was ready to start chewing on my arm. Turned towards the McDonalds and saw some shady characters there so kept going and decided to stop in Downtown Disney. Glad I did. Got a shrimp po-boy, overflowing with delicious shrimp, and beignets at Ralph Brennan's Express. That's a must-do from now on. Maybe I'll try the main restaurant.

This was Friday afternoon so no problem at all with packet pick-up. In and out quickly. Wanted to look at the official merchandise but forget it. The line just to get in to the area was way out the door of the Disneyland Hotel.

Got some park time in and saw some guests wearing their 5K medals. Headed to Hyperspace Mountain and the FastPasses were long gone. Wanted to stay on eastern time for the Sunday 0300 wake-up so went back to the hotel early. The fireworks were early tonight so I was able to watch from my hotel room. Amazing show. The grand finale was so loud a bunch of car alarms were going off.

 

[Texas84]

Thought about getting up early to watch the 10K but changed my mind and went down to the third floor for breakfast and got to the parks early. Went to Hyperspace Mountain and got a FastPass. Had to re-learn my mad paper FP skills. Thought if this was any good I'll get another after the ride. Got out (it was freaking amazing) and the return was already past 6:00 PM and I wasn't staying out that late. So decided to do it again Sunday.

The great thing about Disneyland races is that Haunted Mansion is always closed (sarcasm). It's closed during the DLR Half for the Christmas overlay and closed again during Star Wars to remove the overlay.

And they were also recording for the 60th anniversary special coming up in February.

 

[Texas84]

The parks were absolutely slammed all weekend but I was able to do most of what I wanted with FastPass and single rider on Matterhorn and Indy. It was beautiful weather all weekend, mostly light sweatshirt weather all day. Bought a cheap (by Disney standards) zippered hoodie for a race throw away. Saturday night fireworks were later, about 2045 I think. So, yes, they woke me up, but I knew it was coming.

Got up at 0300 Sunday to see the pre-race festivities. They had First Order Stormtroopers marching around and stopping for pictures. Last year they did a recurring skit with Darth Vader trying to capture Rudy. This year they had three people acting like Star Wars fans that was kind of corny, but at the start line the one that went by Kwame (spelling?) did a comedy act that was pretty funny. All three were on the course later urging on the runners.

One change this year, the path to the corrals ran from A to the back. Last year you had to walk around the hotels to somewhere in the middle of the corrals. So I had a short walk to A.

 

[Texas84]

Can't tell you much about characters because I was focused on getting the heck out of the parks and try to PR. Saw a Fett and random patrols of Troopers. I like the way the Troopers actually look like they are patrolling and watching you instead of just lining up for pictures. You have to be a bit careful at DLR because it's very dark and there are a lot of changes on the path such as cobbles and wood. The tunnel with Vader's breathing is a bit scary. In a fun way.

So like last year I get out on the road and take off on the straightaway down Harbor to Garden Grove. Then a loop through Garden Grove and down Chapman back to Harbor at mile 11. This is where you see the mass of humanity making up the back of the pack still around mile 5. Before I took the turn to the Disneyland hotel at mile 12 I could see the sweepers and the bike riders talking to the people in the very back. It's a ego boost to see runners still at mile 5 when you're at mile 12.

Crossed the finish line, got a Mylar, my half and C2C medals then headed back to the hotel. Body temp was dropping and really needed that Mylar. Had to go through park security this time and they were shaking the runDisney snack boxes. To check them for weapons I guess. Silly. At least they didn't make any runners (that I saw) go through the metal detectors.

 

[Texas84]

Finished the runDisney snack box, got cleaned up and headed back to the parks. Got a HSM FP then got in the standby line because I had to ride this at least two more times. The wait was listed at 50 minutes already and I was starving. Ended up being 70 minutes. Tried to get some lunch but everything was slammed. I had to go all the way over to Hungry Bear so I could get a table and sit down for a while. Did a few rides over there then back to HSM for my FastPass. By that time it was 120 minutes and people were still getting in the standby line!

Oh, and Small World was still in Christmas overlay.

Went in to Launch Bay and, look, you can buy the medal I just earned!

 

[Texas84]

Early wake-up Monday before sunrise for the flight back to ATL. Couldn't sit at the Harbor bus stop because the homeless were sleeping on the benches. There was a power washing truck with two guys washing the sidewalks and they had to wake them up and send them on their way so they could clean. Sad. Disneyland Express bus dropped me off right at Southwest, changed planes in Phoenix and back to horrible ATL traffic. Took me an extra hour to get home. First world problems.

Next up: WDW Dark Side!

Sorry, that wasn't as quick as I thought.

 

[surfsupdon]

Cool. Congrats. Thanks for sharing. This Tuesday I am hoping to book my space at DLR Half and get my first C2C. With this years Princess as my 16th runDisney Weekend, I am long overdue to head to the left coast.

 

[aERonAUtical96]

I hope you don't mind me tagging along on this thread...

This was my first DL run, but have done 6 runDisney events at DW since I'm local CFL. It was a typical runDisney event. Great pre and post race activities. Great finishing hardware as usual. I did the 10k and 1/2 while my wife did the 5k and son did the kids race, so we achieved all the medals.

I was disappointed in the course. I had originally gone out there to try for a PR, but a 24 hr flu on Thursday night changed that thought to just finishing. I slept for about 20 hours from Thursday night to Saturday morning. Broke my fever at 11pm Friday only to get up at 330 to get to the starting line for the 10k.

Back to the course... it was tight... in fact too tight. A lot of bottlenecks. Unless you were in A or maybe even upfront in B, there were numerous locations were you had no choice but to stop and walk to get through the bottleneck. Most of these were in and around DL itself. One thing I found annoying was around 1 mile on both the 10k and 1/2 you run through a service tunnel. The CM were trying to keep everyone in a single car lane. No one listened of course. It was shoulder to shoulder on 2 lanes let alone what they wanted to compress everyone to a single lane. The 5k and 10k were mostly in the parks. Some service road sections,but you never left the property.

As I said earlier... bottlenecks. I did not like the fact that they didn't take down the security tents near the entrance to DL/CA to allow the runners more room. Forced everyone to stop and single file through. You were also forced to stop/walk when entering DL. The first 5 miles of the 1/2 were in DL and CA... great... the next 8 were outside on public streets. I just like to finish in the parks vs starting in the parks. I understand logistically, DL can't handle the runners and public like Epcot and DHS can, but seeing the parks early in the run vs late is disappointing.

I stayed at the Residence Inn off of Clementine, east of the parks. Was a 2.3 mile walk from hotel to starting corral. I had originally planned to stay at the Fairfield like you, but switched to Residence Inn for the free breakfast. The walk allowed me to warm up, but still a lengthy walk pre-run especially when u r sick. I never found the shuttles that were running, but oh well. Would recommend staying on the west side of DL/CA, closer to the start/finish line.

The other thing that I was disappointed in... a couple of the rides in DL had just been closed for refurb. Really Disney... you couldn't have kept them open one more weekend. This was my first DL/CA visit so I was sad things like Haunted Mansion, jungle cruise, railroad, MT riverboat, Tom Sawyer Island, the petting zoo, etc. Most of these rides closed the weekend before. I was pleasantly surprised with CA. Think we had the most fun at that park.

Would have been a better experience if I had not gotten sick. Not sure I would do another event on the west coast. The course just isn't as open as they are here at DW.

 

[Texas84]

Back to the course... it was tight... in fact too tight. A lot of bottlenecks. Unless you were in A or maybe even upfront in B, there were numerous locations were you had no choice but to stop and walk to get through the bottleneck.

I can definitely see what you're saying about the potential bottlenecks. But, yes, no issues at all from A. Just a few tight turns to slow you down. Outside the park is definitely dull but it's fast and flat. The fall Disneyland Half has the 'river' path and the stadium.

 

[Texas84]

There is a run report with great pictures in the Disneyland forum. Check it out.

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/what-was-i-thinking-star-wars-half-marathon-trip-report.909337/

 

[Greenlawler]

I am curious about the characters, I have not seen any post on who was out aside from BB-8, First Order StormTroopers, and Boba Fett

 

[aERonAUtical96]

Inside the parks I remember Chewbacca, storm troopers, bb8, r2d2, fett... outside the park starting at mile 8ish through 10ish, a lot of local groups came out dressed up. A local 501st group, Finn, Rey, Kylo (If I remember correctly, there were 2... the first one right after the Cliff station... that guy was huge... 6' 6"+ and the other with the 501st). The 501st group between mile 9 and 10 were great. About 40+ of them were out if full dress.

 

[Texas84]

Inside the parks I remember Chewbacca, storm troopers, bb8, r2d2, fett... outside the park starting at mile 8ish through 10ish, a lot of local groups came out dressed up. A local 501st group, Finn, Rey, Kylo (If I remember correctly, there were 2... the first one right after the Cliff station... that guy was huge... 6' 6"+ and the other with the 501st). The 501st group between mile 9 and 10 were great. About 40+ of them were out if full dress.

I saw a group of Kylo, about 5 or 6 including that huge guy. But yeah, there were a bunch of cool characters at that location. Not that much in the parks. The WDW version coming up will need to add more. They may not allow non-Disney masked characters on the WDW course.