What a week this has been! I honestly think that it’s not a week where words will do it justice. As you all know, this was the week of the Inaugural Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend at the Disneyland Resort. Not only did I finish the Inaugural Star Wars Rebel Challenge, but I had the most fun ever in doing so! I set a new runDisney 10K PR on Saturday! To top it all off, I lost nearly 3 lbs. this week and 4% body fat! Yes, Darth Vader, this will be a day (and week) long remembered!

This week was not only about runDisney and the Inaugural Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend. I am still training for the Los Angeles Marathon. So, the training cannot stop because it’s a race week. On Tuesday, I was out the door early in the morning again for 3 more miles before work. I wasn’t as fast as I was the Tuesday before. However, it was another sub 35 minute 3 mile training run before work! I should have started writing this post as the week went along. Honestly, I don’t remember much about the run because I’ve still got all the Star Wars Half Marathon excitement going on today. As you can see, it was a fantastic run. I was able to switch back to the 1 minute run/1 minute walk ratios in the last mile and ran the last-minute and a half or so to keep my time a little quicker. As I was walking down this alley on the way back to my apartment, an older gentleman was driving behind me. He stopped as he caught up with me and asked if I was training for anything. I told him that I was training for the LA Marathon and he wished me the best of luck with my training! Fun times!

I was going to get up Wednesday morning and run, but did not get to sleep in time to do so. Thursday morning, I briefly flirted with getting up early and doing a run but changed my mind on Wednesday evening. So, Thursday started with a trip down to the Disneyland Hotel for the Inaugural Star Wars Half Marathon Health & Fitness Expo!

As you can see, I was not alone. I already posted a little about the Expo on Friday. So, I won’t rehash all of that here. The Expo was so much fun and didn’t seem as crowded as other runDisney Expo’s I’ve been to. I was successful in purchasing all the runDisney merch I wanted and had some fun wandering around the Expo.

By Expo’s end, I was ready to take on the Dark Side of the Force and complete my Rebel Challenge!

The Expo was not the end of my day, however. I still needed to get in a run. So, I headed off for my first night-time training run in what seems like forever. Hard to believe that I used to train only at night on the weeknights. I was inspired by all the runDisney magic and had a blast running 3 miles in Pasadena. I ran in the shoes I had planned on running with for the Star Wars 10K to see how they would work out for me. After all, if they were going to leave me with blisters, it’s better to have a day to recover and choose other shoes. The shoes were the ones I first ran with. Since they were black, they fit the costume idea I had for the 10K…

My red, Brooks Ravenna 5’s wouldn’t work too well. While my old shoes were much heavier than the Brooks shoes, they worked out fine. No blisters, no other issues. So, I was set for the Inaugural Star Wars 10K!

On Friday, Brooke and I headed down to the Expo to get our race bibs. Since I can no longer pick her bib up for her, I decided to wait until Friday to get my Bib as well. I love the logos on the carpet going in to the race packet pick up…

And the one you see as you exit!

After we left the Expo, we headed to the Annabella Hotel to get checked in. Originally, we had planned on heading off to a theme park for our pre-Star Wars 10K meal. Once we got into our room, we decided to check out the hotel’s restaurant to see what they had first. This “extreme” mac and cheese dish looked too good to pass up. So, we enjoyed a nice relaxed meal and got back to our room with plenty of time to get ready for bed.

Saturday, I was up before the sun, as we all are if you’re running a runDisney race. Endor Luke Skywalker was ready to run. Unfortunately, Brooke was not going to be able to run with me. She was up all night, sick. While I’m not comparing my well-being to hers, Brooke’s sickness caused me to lose lots of sleep. Now, she was way worse off than me. So, I’m not complaining at all. Brooke was miserable but wanted me to go run.

Since Brooke wasn’t running with me, I started in corral I was assigned to…Corral C! I’ll cover this in more detail when I do my race recap for the Star Wars 10K, but, with Brooke not with me, it changed everything about this race for me. All race, I was trying to figure out how fast to go.

It was so much fun running through Disneyland…

and Disney California Adventure!

We ran a different route through Cars Land which I loved!

It was a fantastic race and I finished with my fastest runDisney 10K finish time yet! It was my 3rd fastest 10K overall! So, even though, I was getting a little freaked out about how fast I was going with a half marathon the next day, I was really happy with my finish time.

While Brooke rested and tried to be able to withstand a 1 hour drive home, I was off in the theme parks (by Brooke’s request). That meant taking my shiny new runDisney medal on a tour of Disneyland! Buzz Lightyear was pleased! Just after lunch, Brooke was feeling well enough for me to take her home. So, our Saturday plans took a huge change as I left the parks and drove her back to Pasadena. Sometimes in life, the best laid plans find a way to get messed up by the unexpected. After getting Brooke settled back at home, I drove back to Anaheim.

I made my way to DCA for another carbo loading kind of meal. The cool thing about the evening is that I got to see a friend of mine who I haven’t seen since 1991 when we toured on the Continental Singers Tour L! We’ve been Facebook friends for years and he always has seemed to be back in So Cal at a time where I couldn’t see him. However, he was at DCA on Saturday night with his wife. So, we were able to get together for about a half hour and chat. So much fun getting all caught up!

Sunday morning, I was up again before the sun to recruit some more Rebels to join the challenge!

I absolutely loved all the Star Wars theming in this race! Even the start line was very well themed.

Then, it was time to run! I’ll go into way more detail in my race recaps (and a ton of pictures). Let me just say that the Inaugural Star Wars Half Marathon was the funnest half marathon I’ve ever run! Rudy, our race announcer, was correct in saying that I shouldn’t run this race for time. So much about this race left me smiling. I do believe that this is the flattest course runDisney offers. So, if you didn’t want to take in all the Star Wars goodness, a PR is very attainable (and a friend of mine did just that!).

Look! Luke and Leia! The lines were out of this world kind of long for these characters that you just don’t see in the theme parks. So, I got several selfies like this one. The line for Darth Vader by Star Tours looked like it was at least 20 minutes long (maybe more).

In a stroke of genius, the folks at runDisney had 2 sets of 2 Storm Troopers set up close to each other in DCA. The second set didn’t have a very long line. So, I actually got a character picture in a theme park! Score!

The sun was coming up as I was leaving DCA. Awesome picture. Don’t you think?

In the streets of Garden Grove, the race went from awesome to LEGENDARY! The Cos Players were out again (like they were with the Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon). However, the costumes were epic. I got a pic with Obi Wan Kenobi!

Loved this parent/child pairing of Tie Fighter pilots! They train them young in the Dark Side of the Force.

My favorite picture from the entire weekend is this one! The line to get this picture lasted like 2 minutes! Who needs to wait in line for 20 minutes for the Darth Vader in Disneyland? I got this one and sacrificed only a couple of minutes. This photo is not only awesome to me because I got a Darth Vader picture, but because of what happened while the photo was being taken. One of the Imperial Guards wasn’t too happy with my “Rebel propaganda.” As I was leaving he asked me…”Do you know how many people died in the Death Star?” I couldn’t stop from laughing. If I wasn’t running a half marathon, I might have replied…”Do you know how many people died on Alderaan when the Death Star blew the planet up?”

I also got this selfie with some of my rebel buddies!

Before I knew it, the Inaugural Star Wars Half Marathon was over. From the moment we first encountered the Cos Players to the finish line, I couldn’t help but smile. It was all so much fun! I have no idea how I’m going to condense the whole experience into race recaps right now. It was all so epic. My finish time was 3 hours, 6 minutes, 45 seconds. That’s 3 minutes, 30 seconds slower than the Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon. Considering how many more photos I took and how many more character pictures I got on this race, I’d say I ran this race much faster. So, I’m completely fine with my finish time.

After the race, I had to take the new runDisney bling on a tour of the Disneyland Resort. It seems all runners like to get this picture.

Since Star Wars was the theme, I had to add some….Star Tours!

Jedi Training Academy! I’d say this Jedi’s Training is Complete!

Thank you Walt and Mickey for starting this whole Disney company!

So, this week, I got in 4 runs! There were no gym workouts because I had the two runs over the weekend…..and… check out the weight loss progress! I lost nearly 3 pounds this week! I also dropped 4% body fat!

Running Mileage

Week 3 – 25.3 miles

This Month – 58.47 miles

Miles Left to Cover for 2015 – 942.53 miles

I want to close this recap with a big, huge THANK YOU to all of the readers of this blog whom I got to meet over the Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend!!!!!!!!!!! It’s truly humbling to think that anyone reads what I write to begin with. So, all of the kind words you all had for me this weekend amazingly encouraging. I’m glad to have met each and every one of you. I do have some pictures of the bloggers and non-blogging runners I got to meet this weekend. Although, I didn’t get pictures with everyone, it was truly awesome to meet some of you in real life! By the way, once the Tinker Bell Half Marathon route is released, I will find a weekend to do a long run over the race course like I have with all the other runDisney races at Disneyland. I heard so many words of appreciation for the blog posts I’ve done with the Disneyland Half Marathon, Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon, and Star Wars Half Marathon, that I need to finish out the races offered. Since they have seemed to be helpful to those coming out to race, I will do another long run over the Tinker Bell Half Marathon route for those that will be running that race as well.

Have a fantastic week y’all! Week 4 of 2015 doesn’t have the awesomeness that Week 3 had. However, I’ve still got this marathon to get ready for. While Week 3 will be a week long remembered, I’ve got to keep moving forward in week 4!