This race weekend was one of my favorites so I really want to say again thank you Run Disney! The 10k was 1 of 3 races this weekend and it did not disappoint.
When we heard it was Pixar themed we immediately knew we’d be signing up. And what better race than a Monsters Inc theme would it be to reuse one of our favorite costumes. The Monster University Cheerleaders. We wore these last year for the Wine and Dine 5k and absolutely loved them and couldn’t wait to do again.
As with each day during this weekend this would be another scorcher. We contemplated ditching the furry leggings but they just made the look complete. Laura, Sarah, Leslie and I were ready to go, and Kimberly who we met the day before was dressing up as Sully so a perfect fit to go along with us.
We headed toward the race bright and early around 3:20am and we were so happy we did. The prerace atmosphere was just as fun as the day before. Our new favorite Announcer Kevin Gregg spotted us and asked us to hang by stage with others that were dressed up. And boy we’re people dressed up!! This was probably one of the best dressed races I’ve ever seen. The theming made it so easy!!
Soon Run Disney announcers came onstage dressed as Monsters University cheerleaders as well. They had fake silly gym coach on stage leading us in warm up exercises. I really appreciated these little touches Rundisney had to make it a bit special.
Soon we headed to our corrals where we watched an amazing performance of our national anthem and then got ready to run.
Kimberly, Laura and I started together. We made our way threw the roads leading to California Adventure. We could feel the sweat dripping off us immediately but we were enjoying ourselves too much to care.
Our first character stop was in Cars Land. It was a yellow car Cruz on one side of the road and Lightning McQueen on the other. I will say this was one flaw I saw in the race. In order to get a picture with the carbon opposite side of street you had to dodge runners “frogger style”. Let’s say I failed at this and irritated a runner. I apologize. Regardless I was totally stoked to get a pick with Cruz because I had never seen him before in parks and my boys were always huge Cars fans so anything Cars is near and dear to me.
Next we passed mile mark 1 and I immediately noticed was the bright colorful mile markers with the Monsters Inc theming. Each one throughout the race was so cute.
We made our way through Bugs Life land. We skipped the character stop there because the line was long and our photos never really turn out here.
Soon we made our way toward Paradise Pier. I just love this part of the race. It’s so beautiful. The Ferris wheel all lit up just takes your breath away. We decided to try and stop to get a #joyfuljumpshot. Yeah well that didn’t go so good. We couldn’t get a good one. Either blurry or not in sync, we kept getting back in line to get again. Oh well, we tried.
After that we saw a really long line and had no clue who it was for, one of us ran ahead and found out it was Roz!! I was so excited! I’ve never seen her before. Not only that she had a Monsters University pompom in her hand. We just had to wait in the long line and immediately regretted the time we wasted trying to get our jumpsuit. Bad decision. While in line we ran into a friend we had met the previous day at the Cigna event, Erin. She was dressed as Boo’s Door. Can you believe it? What an amazing costume and even more amazing she was doing a 10k wearing it especially in this hear. Erin of course was grinning ear to ear. Her friend was dressed as Boo so we all got a picture together. After this we headed toward “Hollywoodland” and spotted probably the longest character line the whole weekend. It was for Mike and Sully. We just had to stop. Luckily there was a bathroom near there and we were all able to take turns while the others stood in the line. Just as we were nearing the front, our friends Sarah and Leslie were approaching and we were so excited to all be there to get a picture together. Perfect timing.
After this we headed past Guardians of the Galaxy, and toward the backstage area of parks heading toward Disneyland. At this point we separated with Leslie and Sarah.
As we entered Disneyland they had a really cute tough. They had what looked like a giant piece of paper torn in half. Similar to what happens when a football team runs onto the field and rips through paper. It said MU on it. We ran by a bunch of offices backstage and they all had papers all over the doors and windows like you’d see at a college with Sorority and pleading information. Again another cute touch. We notice these things Rundisney and appreciate.
We entered Disneyland through Toontown. There are so many cute photo opportunies in this bright colorful portion of the park. One of my favorites. As we exited these area we saw an entire squad of Monsters University Cheerleaders. We were so excited to get one huge group shot and suddenly we see Leslie and Sarah approaching again. More perfect timing. We all got a huge group shot.
We headed toward fantasy land and stopped in front of the teacups and headed toward the castle. Us girls were all together and we all ran threw the castle together. Again it wasn’t very crowded and we got to really have space and enjoy it. After we stopped to attempt a joyful jump shot in front of the castle. We had better luck this time.
We made our way down Main Street USA and headed out of the parks. We wrapped around a backstage area. They had a great old time 40’s jazz band playing in the parking lot shortly before miles 6 and we soon were approaching the finish line. We all crossed together and got our gorgeous 10k medals.
This really was such a fantastic race and atomophere. I will say it again. Thank you Rundisney for an amazing race experience. We hope for many more
