Disneyland Star Wars Half Marathon Trip Report – Part 3: A First and a FavoriteDisneyland Star Wars Half Marathon Trip Report – Part 3: A First and a FavoriteI’m a big a Star Wars fan. Last year Disneyland held the initial Star Wars half marathon and I was bummed I missed out on the festivities. I told myself I’d try to get in to this year’s race if I could. Now I’m not what you would call ‘active’. Exercise is hard work and food is so delicious and beds are very comfortable. For reasons that still elude me I signed up for the race when registration opened up in June. I did have grand plans to spend the six months training. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Arizona in the summer, but imagine heat, then times that by three. Nightfall isn’t much of a reprieve since it can still be triple digits when the sun goes down. Suffice it to say, my training plans were shot. I didn’t really start training in earnest until December; a month before the event. Still I was like 90% confident in my ability to finish in the recommended pacing requirements.
If you’ve read any of my previous trip reports, you know that my Mom is usually along for the fun and this time would be no different. The race was Sunday morning and we would be leaving Friday, switching hotels on Saturday and coming home on Monday.
Friday’s drive up was fortunately uneventful. We were staying in Tustin tonight before moving closer to Disneyland for the rest of the weekend. We often do this and get a slightly cheaper room for this first non-full day of our trips. Moms really wanted to go to Newport Beach to check out some makeup store. So after dropping our stuff in the room we headed out. Fashion Island was only about a 20 minute drive from our hotel and traffic was pretty light. After parking we headed straight to something called Urban Decay.
There wasn’t much in the mall that interested me so I just waited outside for Moms to finish. Next door to her store was a bakery, so I popped in and popped out with an apple turnover. It was very good. Moms eventually came out of her store completely euphoric. I guess this is the only stand alone Urban Decay in the country or something and they had some stuff she wanted that she couldn’t get anywhere else.
– there was one store that had my interest, but their stuff was far too expensive
– the view from the mall entrance
– Koi pond
We had passed a store on the way called ‘Lemonade’. I’m also a big fan of lemonades, any kind really. I just had to stop in for a refreshing drink. They had some food items, but nothing we were dying to have. I was really just there for the lemonade and all this food was getting in my way. I had a couple samples and eventually went with my first choice – a blood orange lemonade. It was excellent; I could really go for one right now. We were getting hungry and looked around but nothing was too appealing. We saw a sign for a burger place in the mall and thought burgers sounded good. The restaurant was called Hopdoddy and was excellent. It really hit the spot. Moms had the class & I went with the chili cheese burger; it had just enough chili to taste it, but not overpower the burger. This is important stuff for chili cheese burgers.
– green chile queso fries 
– the Terlingua
After dinner Moms was tired and I wanted to head to the Marathon Expo to pick up my race bib. I dropped her off at the room and headed Disneyland way. The traffic was thick the entire way there and to park. The expo was closing at 8 and I didn’t get there until about 7:30.
– entry way to pick up the race bibs
I got my bib and headed into the expo to get my shirt. The expo was just about to close so I didn’t spend much time there. I headed to D-Street in Downtown Disney and noticed they still had some of the BB-8 & Kylo Ren Christmas ornaments left. I skipped them for now, but did pick up one of the Force Awakens vinylmations – and I got BB-8! Some friends were in town for a convention and I was either going to meet up with them or pop into Disneyland for a little bit. Thing is, I was parked in the Expo parking space and since the Expo was now closed I wasn’t sure how long I could stay there. I figured I’d move the car real quick and meet up with my friends, but when I was leaving the line to get into parking was super long and was getting kinda tired. I decided to just head back to the room and sleep. I had to be up fairly early the next day to drive out to Hollywood.
Disneyland Star Wars Half Marathon Trip Report – Part 1: What Was I Thinking?
Disneyland Star Wars Half Marathon Trip Report – Part 2: I Wake the Force Up for the Fourth Time
Disneyland Star Wars Half Marathon Trip Report – Part 3: A First and a Favorite
Disneyland Star Wars Half Marathon Trip Report – Part 4: Where I Accidentally Meet Thor
Disneyland Star Wars Half Marathon Trip Report – Part 5: Remind Me Again Why I didn’t Do the 10k?
Disneyland Star Wars Half Marathon Trip Report – Part 6: Celebratory Visit to the Disney Parks
Disneyland Star Wars Half Marathon Trip Report – Part 7: A Quick Visit to DCA
Utini! 