The Force Was With This Race! The Inaugural Star Wars Half Marathon!

"The circle is now complete," the Inaugural Star War Half Marathon race was a success!

I have been looking forward to this race since its announcement!  The Galaxy far, far away was coming to runDisney, and I was going to be a part of the very first race!  And race day was so exciting!

It was awesome being up close and personal with our hosts for the start of this race!  Rudy Novotny and Carissa Bealert were joined by a Jedi Master and his trusty droids, R2D2 and C3PO.

The Jedi told us that we were all safe:  the course had been cleared of the Dark Side.
What a relief!!  No worries!   All that was left for me to do was stretch and watch clips from the original movies!  We had the best pre-race show ever!

I was also ecstatic that I made Corral A this year.  Serious athletes surrounded me; I could feel the Force of their Jedi concentration.  And to have the motivation and inspiration of Sean Astin right beside you, truly made this "a day long remembered"!

And with a "May the Force Be With You", and Rudy's signature starting announcement, this race was off to a galactic start!

Our race course took us first through Disneyland and then California Adventure!

 There were Star Wars Characters at many places throughout the parks.  The lines could be really long for the characters, especially Chewie, but I made sure to stop for Boba Fett!  After all, I was Zam, a fellow Bounty Hunter!

We left the parks and were off into the streets of Anaheim!  We were running a new route, one that took us to the Garden Park area:  a cute, historical town!   It turned out to be a wonderful running path with families stepping outside their homes to cheer us on!

And I found lots of interesting things along the way:  for one, Elvis!  Who knew he was alive and well in Anaheim?  Lucky Me!

And our gracious sponsor Clif Bar was at mile 8 handing out energy gels!

But, best of all, I found the 501st Legion between miles 8 and 9!  And they were absolutely awesome!  The 501st is always supporting the community, and I appreciate them being there to encourage us and spur the runners on!  It was truly an inspiration!

And then it was the home stretch! It was just 3 miles back to Disneyland!  The weather had been perfect and the entertainment along the way was stellar!

Very pleased indeed! Probably the best runDisney experienced so far!

And, as always, it was the atmosphere of runDisney, the commitment to excellence from their staff, the dedication of the volunteers, and the perseverance of fellow runners that created a memorable experience for us all! 

MTFBWY

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For more Star Wars Half Marathon Recaps Check out my blogs on the

Star Wars 5K

Star Wars 10K