Last weekend I was able to run in the Disneyland 10K with Team Muscle Makers! It was awesome! I came in contact with Team Muscle Makers shortly after I moved to California and I knew I had to join up with them. They run to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. This little team raises over $300,000 every year! They do 4-5 events each year, and for this Disneyland 10k/half marathon, the team raised nearly $65,000 for muscular dystrophy research. Pretty awesome! I was able to raise $500 for the MDA, and it was really neat being able to meet these people who all run in honor of loved ones who have muscular dystrophy.
Of course I ran in honor of my mom! Thank you to everyone who sponsored me in this! Here is the awesome Team Muscle Makers at O'Dark Thirty on race morning!
This was by far the biggest race I have ever done in my life. There were probably at least 10,000 runners. There were 5 total waves and I was in the 5th wave. I didn't even get to the starting line until about 25 minutes after the start of the race.
They had music and stuff in the waiting area at the start line.
And the Disney villians came out and announced that they had taken over the park. It was great!
Finally getting closer to the start line!
The first 2 miles or so were around Anaheim, outside of the parks. Then just after Mile 2 we entered California Adventure. My favorite part was running through Cars Land. They had fun Villian signs at every mile marker and several characters throughout the course. There was also a couple different college bands playing on the course.
After running through California Adventure, we made our way over to Disneyland. There were night shift custodians cheering us on. We also ran through some of the "backstage" parts of the parks. We saw the costuming building, employee restaurants, the barns where the Main Street horses are kept, and some nurseries for the plants.
There were so many great costumes! It was so fun to see. There were a few Russells (from UP), lots of princesses, lots of Minnies, several Toy Story characters, some Mikes and Sullys, I saw an Alice and a Mad Hatter in teacups...that was pretty awesome, a magic mirror, and even someone dressed as a churro!
The course was pretty crowded. At some points you couldn't even run there were so many people. But it was fun being around that much energy and excitement. The medals were pretty awesome, featuring the magic mirror and evil queen from Snow White.
They had these food boxes at the finish line that they gave everyone. Overall, it was a really neat experience and I'm really glad I did it!
And the shirts and numbers were pretty awesome too.
Team Muscle Makers had an amazing lunch for the team after the race at Naples in Downtown Disney. Emily and I went and had fun meeting more runners. I would definitely recommend joining up with Team Muscle Makers. Not only were they well-organized and lots of fun, they represent a great cause, raise lots of money for muscular dystrophy research, and got me finally running again!
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