Disneyland Paris -- 5k

Last year I flew to Paris for the inaugural Disneyland Paris Semi Marathon.  The plan had been for Don to fly out with me and also run the race. His doctors had a different idea. Open heart surgery to repair his mitrol valve prolapse. When it came time to sign up for the race this year, I was thinking "been there, done that." Don, though, wanted to prove to himself he could do it.

We made some changes from the year earlier. I flew out and spent some time with my host families in Liege, Belgium. We decided to stay on property (at the Hotel Cheyenne). I also decided to do all three races instead of only the semi marathon.

The first race in the series was an evening 5k. Don and Ashley went back into Disneyland Paris to ride rides. Based on the number of runners I saw, I bet it was quiet. 

I lined up early. There were three corrals -- A for the super fast people, B for families and groups, and C for the rest of us. There were a lot of "rest of us." The race is untimed, so it really did not matter where we ended up.

We waited. And we waited. And we waited. If memory serves me correctly, we started 15 minutes late. I suppose there were people still hanging out in Disney's Studios theme park, or they were still busy setting up cones. It certainly wasn't because they were turning on extra lights. The lack of lighting was my biggest complaint about the race.

They had bunches of characters out for photos. The lines were pretty long, but did move quickly -- especially when we heard characters were about to go in for the night.

Other people have much more creativity than I do. The costumes at the 5k were the best of the weekend.

The Balloon MAN, not the Balloon LADY

I heard later they ran out of medals. Fortunately I did collect mine after the race.

Overall my running pace was pretty good -- about my normal pace. Add in stopping for characters and photo ops, well it was about an hour-long 5k. Running time was 35:52 (I'm now a sub-35 5k runner, so not too far off). Using the Nike+ app, I can't tell what time I started and ended, only the overall running time.

I've wanted to do a Disney 5k over the years, but the logistics have not been in my favor, nor the price. It was far cheaper at DLP than in the States. Go figure!