we thought it'd be fun

Ahoy,

After his final on Saturday we got to celebrating with some ice cream at Mateo's and a stop at the grocery to get food to cook for our night before half marathon dinner. Even though he said our bedtime was 8, we probably didn't crawl into bed until 10 or 11. This is what happens when he is in charge of the clock. Our wake-up time was 3am. And we were out of there by 3:30am. It takes little to no time to get to Disneyland at 3:30am, if anyone is wondering. That is an excellent time to go. The race starts at 5:30am, and we have to wait around in our corrals for everyone ahead of us to get out. We didn't end up crossing the start line until an hour into the race. The RRS drank tons of liquids and kept having to pee before we started. There were tons of people in costume, which made for really interesting people watching while we waited.

We were off right when the sun was coming up so we were running through Disneyland and California Adventure in the daylight. The route led us through some back entrances so we saw some behind the scene stuff, which is really not as fun as in front of the scene stuff. Most of the route was in Anaheim and they had entertainment along the way - cheerleaders, Mexican music and dancing, etc. Every so often, there would be Disney characters and a set on the roadside for you to take pictures with. My favorite were the streets lined with 300 classic cars. We ran past the Honda center, and ran on a trail for a bit. We got to run through Angels stadium with people watching from the stands. That was pretty neat. Daisy and Donald were waiting at the finish line. It was such a hot day, I'm really glad we finished when we did and not a moment later.

We wandered around downtown Disney for a bit. We ate some beignets and a breakfast burrito. I was so tempted to jump in any and all water fountains I saw. We left to check out some Labor Day sales at a nearby mall because we are fiscally responsible, and the RRS bought a whole bunch of things. He wanted to go shopping. Not my idea, but we knew there'd be sales this weekend, and he'd been shopping online so much I had to give in. We ran over to Irvine for boba and Vietnamese sandwiches, and headed back home to shower and lounge around. We spent our time with the air conditioning on and watching the IFSC competition videos until it was time to leave for dinner.

I'm so glad our friend E was willing to drive us. Not sure that we would have made it otherwise. We caught the last night of the 626 Night Market. There was so much good food to eat and not nearly enough space in my belly. The weather was just really the perfect summer night, warm and a little breezy. I really couldn't have expected a better day.

mildly winded,
jt