When we left off, yesterday, we were heading into the Esplanade. Y’all, this will be an exciting little part of the course. There are usually a lot of people out to cheer us on…

See what I mean? There is some wiggle room on the route to pass people who might be going slower than you.

Once inside, the route heads to the left. So, it puts you in a great place to stop for a pic like this….or a selfie.

A few steps later, you’re on Main Street U.S.A!!!!! If you’re used to running the Walt Disney World races, you’ll probably complain about the lack of a crowd here. The difference between the Walt Disney World races and Disneyland is that, at Walt Disney World, they open up Main Street to the public to watch. This isn’t the case at Disneyland. As you’re running up Main Street U.S.A. beware of the tracks in the ground that are used for the Main Street transportation. You don’t want to twist an ankle in mile 3.

We will head in this direction through Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. This part could get pretty crowded depending on what corral you are in. The latter corrals will have a lot of crowding going through the castle. You might decide to just walk through it and add an extra run interval on the other side.

The course goes through the Fantasyland, past Peter Pan, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and King Arthur’s Carousel. It turns by the Tea Cups and runs by Alice in Wonderland. This part of the route is narrow. Keep that in mind. Try not to be frustrated.

To the right side, right near the restrooms is this guy. He might be a fun picture to take. Also, notice the real restrooms.

Once getting back to Main Street U.S.A., we will veer to the left and head down Tomorrowland. Be careful in this little stretch. There are some tricky curbs you’ll have to maneuver. There will be plenty of room to run in Tomorrowland. We’ll pass by the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Star Tours and Space Mountain…

We’ll turn by the Star Wars Launch Bay and head to the Finding Nemo Subs.

Then, you’re making your way towards the Matterhorn.

We’ll wrap around the lagoon whee the Nemo Subs operate. The course is narrow as we run between the lagoon and the Mattorhorn. So, be prepared for slowing.

The course heads towards It’s A Small World. I’m not sure how the timing will work. If you get there before the sun comes up, you’ll get to see It’s A Small World all decked up for the Holidays.

 

From It’s A Small World, we turn to the left and head to Toontown. There is a slight downhill and uphill as we go under the train tracks.

Toontown has plenty of fun things to get race pictures with. It’s also a place where you shouldn’t worry too much about course crowding.

This is where we’ll exit Disneyland and head backstage. The course will be a little narrow in the first part backstage. So, be prepared for that. The Mile 3 marker is pretty close to where we start our backstage journey. So, if you’re wanting visual queues to gravitate towards, the leaving of Toontown will be what you’ll want to remember about the mile 3 marker.

Backstage, we’ll run by the parade float building. They always seem to have some floats set up for pics. We will make our way around the parking lot of TDA (Team Disney Anaheim). Eventually, making our way over part of the Star Wars Half Marathon Course…

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In the Star Wars Half Marathon, this is in mile 1. So, it’s much darker than it will be when we run it at Avengers.

Just like Star Wars, we’ll follow this rather narrow path. Hopefully, since this is mile 4 instead of mile 2 (like it is at Star Wars), it won’t be as crowded. However, if you’re trying to make a good time on this race, be prepared to say a lot of “excuse me’s” on this stretch.

As you can see, I needed to go to another map to finish our time at the Disneyland portion.

Our backstage journey continues to the dreaded tunnel. Watch yourself on the downhill portion. It is a little steep. Not San Francisco hills steep, but steep. When I ran the Inaugural Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon, this tunnel was part of mile 12. Someone pretty much face planted near me. So, be careful. For some reason, the cast members want you to only use one lane in the tunnel and going down into it. You’ll see plenty of runners pretty much ignoring the cast members here. It makes no sense for them to limit us to the one lane.

They’ve started playing music in this tunnel lately. That makes it much more fun.

At the top of the other side, you’ll likely come to the mile 4 marker. The map makes it hard to pinpoint exactly where the mile 4 marker will be. So, it could also be at the top of the tunnel.

We will head out of backstage DCA at this point…

Then, it’s on to Harbor Blvd. From there the street portion begins. I’ll be back tomorrow to take you to Angel Stadium. I think that this route will be an improvement for those that like time in the theme parks. In the previous versions of the Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon, we got on the streets towards the end of mile 3. This time, it will be at the start of mile 5!