Remember when I said that I was only going to run the 2015 Disneyland 10K? Well, the lure of a 10th Anniversary Disneyland Half Marathon medal proved too much for me to resist. Before I knew it, this happened…

Yep, I’m going Dumbo Double Dare again!

In 2013, I ran the Inaugural Disneyland 10K…

And the Disneyland Half Marathon…

However, I only earned 2 medals. Why? I didn’t register in time for the Inaugural Dumbo Double Dare. So, I did 19.3 miles, just like all those official Dumbo Double Dare runners. Only, I didn’t get the extra bling. So….

I came back and ran in the 2014 Disneyland 10K…

Then, I ran the 2014 Disneyland Half Marathon…

This time, I got the extra bling…plus a Coast to Coast Medal!

I doubled the medals for 2014! An official Dumbo Double Dare finisher at last!

All the talk of the 10th Anniversary Disneyland Half Marathon medal is what tipped me to register for Dumbo. After all, I really want to continue running the Disneyland 10K. So, if I’m going to add the half to that, I might as well make it officially Dumbo. You know what I mean?

This year has been an interesting one in registering for Dumbo. Last year, I had been planning on registering for the Dumbo Double Dare for a long time. I wanted the extra medal since I missed out the year before. This year, it was more of a last-minute decision. Last year, I had a job with the kind of down time that allowed me to no only register for the race, but to bask in the glory of it all and watch the excitement as the race neared selling out! I got to watch other people share their excitement over getting into whatever races they registered for that day. It made the process so much fun! This year, I had to pretty much bow out once I got in. After all, I have a very busy job this year. Last year, I wrote my blog post with the announcement of getting in right after all the excitement died down. This year, I had to wait until the next day to post this announcement. So, I don’t feel all the “magic” I felt last year.

I also noticed this year how quickly the excitement fades. This is my third time to prepare to run the Disneyland 10K and Disneyland Half Marathon on back to back days. We’ve got more than 200 days until everything happens. So, there’s a lot of time before we will actually be running. RunDisney does a great job at building excitement over the first day of registration. The online frenzy over those that want to run is an event unto itself. So, you wait until 9am PDT/ Noon EDT and try your best to get registered as quickly as possible. When races sell out in a half hour, there is no time to waste. The race you want to run in could sell out while you’re filling out the information. I read online of how others had internet issues. The runDisney web site crashed. You could feel the panic. If you haven’t done so already, you should join the Team #runDisney Facebook group page now. There is always someone who will post the link directly to the page where you register. It eliminates some steps. I got on the registration site right at 9am and was officially doing the Dumbo Double Dare by 9:03am.

After you get in, you want to see how long it takes for the races to sell out. It’s a sporting event unto itself. Once the races are full, the excitement dies within an hour. What next? With over 200 days until race day, it’s too early to begin training. As a matter of fact, the Jeff Galloway designed plans won’t come out until sometime in April. The Dumbo Double Dare and Disneyland Half Marathon training plans will begin at the end of April/beginning of May. If you are a big time planner, you can take the plan that’s on the runDisney web site now and adjust for when the race day is. After all, the plan is based on weeks before the race. This will give you an idea of what’s in store.

What you have signed up for is training for a half marathon at the end of summer. So, you’ll get to do lots of long runs in the hottest months of the year. When the temps get to their highest, so will your long run distances. Sound fun? Don’t shy away from the high temps though. The race is Labor Day Weekend, when temps are usually pretty high in Southern California. The more you train in the heat, the better off you’ll be come race day. The training in the heat part is why I wasn’t planning on running this race. However, the potentially cool 10th Anniversary medal have overcome that, though. So, I registered.

If you want to get a start on planning for this race, I’ve posted a number of posts to help you out. Click on the “runDisney at Disneyland Planning” tab for the posts I did last year on planning a runDisney race-cation at the Disneyland Resort.  If you want a preview of what the Disneyland Half Marathon course might be like, click on the “runDisney Half Marathon Courses” tab and check the links for the Disneyland Half Marathon. If the folks at runDisney change the course for the 10th Anniversary, you know I’ll go out and check it out with a brand new series on that course. If you want to know all there is to do at the Disneyland Resort Theme Parks, click on the “Virtual Disney Theme Parks” tab and check out the virtual trips I’ve taken to the theme parks.

Good luck to all of you who will be running the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend races! It’s going to be fun! What races are you running (if you’re running)?