Disney Star Wars Dark Side Half Marathon 2017

The Star Wars Dark Side Half Marathon at Disney World on May 31, 2017, was my 10th half marathon and the second one that I ran by myself.

I signed up for this race because
1) I’m a huge Star Wars fan
2) Disney is only 3.5 hours drive from us
3) my mother was able to come along and watch C while I ran.

This was the earliest race I’ve ever run. The last shuttle from our Disney resort left at 4am. I caught an earlier shuttle and arrived at the race starting area right at 4am as recommended by the websites and blogs I read. I don’t quite understand why it was recommended; there wasn’t a far distance to walk if you came by shuttle and there is nothing to do once you get there. The first runners started at 5:30am but my corral didn’t start running until 6:00am. I had two full hours with nothing to do, waiting to start the race. It would have been slightly less boring had I been there with a friend or two.

Fireworks were set off every time a corral started running so there was a lot of smoke hanging in the thick humid air. It was still dark when my corral started the race. The sun rose at 6:45 so we ran over 30 minutes in the dark.

At about mile 1.3, we ran on a section of road that had woods lining both sides and had multiple fog machines and lasers set up. It was still dark, the air was warm and humid, and the fog was thick and smelly. There was no breeze or fresh air and I felt like I couldn’t get a deep breath. I started feeling dizzy and my neck started feeling thick.

I kept running until I was out of smoke and then I started walking. I felt anxious because of how I was feeling and also because I was all alone feeling this way. I came to the first water station at mile 1.7 and got drink of Powerade. After that, my heart started racing and I felt the full panic of an anxiety attack hit me. I kept walking slowly, kept watching for volunteers on side of road. I was absolutely convinced that I was going to die or at least pass out. I kept thinking of how I didn’t tell my mom where the car keys were in case she needed to meet me at the hospital. Panic attacks play with your mind like that; they are truly an awful experience.

At mile 4, after walking for 2 miles, I started to feel better so I started jogging again. I ran for the rest of the race, walking for short bursts every so often, keeping a slightly anxious eye out for med tents and race volunteers just in case. Needless to say, I was relieved to cross the finish line.

This was the first Disney race that I ever ran; I was very excited and high high expectations. Some aspects of the race were great while other aspects were disappointing. I don’t think I’ll ever run another race at Disney.

The thing that disappointed me most about this race was that we only ran approximately 2.1 miles within the actual Disney parks (about .42 in Animal Kingdom, .5 in Hollywood Studios, and 1.18 in Epcot). That means we ran 11 miles on the roads and highways in-between those parks. The park sections were awesome, except for the few smelly dumpsters and behind-the-scenes storage areas we passed. The road sections were long and boring. At times, we were running right next to car traffic, separated only by orange cones – that didn’t feel safe and breathing the exhaust fumes wasn’t pleasant either.

What I did like about the race: There were a ton of water stations, in fact there were extra stations because of the warm weather advisory. There were a lot of medical tents and tons of volunteers and emergency personnel, there were a lot of photographers, there were some characters near the parks (though they had long lines of people waiting to take photos with them), the costumes of runners were awesome, and running through the parks was great (even if it was only a small portion of the race).

This was a mentally challenging race for me… I faced the Dark Side (of my mind) and thankfully was able to overcome it.

After the race,  we spent the rest of the day at the Magic Kingdom. It was magical being there with C and her grandma; good times like that make the best memories.

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“Remember… the Force will be with you, always.”
– Obi Wan Kenobi