{"id":19300,"date":"2017-11-12T16:00:06","date_gmt":"2017-11-12T21:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=19300"},"modified":"2017-11-12T16:00:06","modified_gmt":"2017-11-12T21:00:06","slug":"november-12-2017-the-avengers-half-marathon-at-disneyland-the-hollow-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=19300","title":{"rendered":"November 12, 2017 – The Avengers Half Marathon at Disneyland… The Hollow Run"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the way runDisney ends in Anaheim. Not with a bang…or a biff… or a pow… but with a whimper.<\/p>\n

Friends, runners, countrymen, lend me your ears;
\nI come to bury runDisney in California, not to praise it.<\/p>\n

The final event to be held at the West Coast Disneyland Resorts was a weirdly anticlimactic affair. No mention was made that this was the end of the road for events here. Perhaps the wounds are too fresh in the on-going dispute between Disney and the city of Anaheim. And perhaps there’s still some hope that an eventual reboot is in the works.<\/p>\n

But given that all West Coast events have now officially been cancelled and given that today’s Super Hero Half Marathon is therefore the final event, I found the race to be… well, not so super.<\/p>\n

The West Coast events for runDisney always featured courses that had to leave the landlocked property of Disney and venture out onto the streets of Anaheim… one year I swear we used to run along a makeshift “riverwalk” that was more of a “ditchwalk” but that wasn’t the case this year… and I guess there’s more than a little pushback from area residents on road closures for races and other a myriad other theme park activities.\u00a0 Previously in these events during the long stretches on surface streets and through residential areas and shared space there’d be area high schools and community groups who would line sections cheering runners on.\u00a0 While a few schools still had cheerleaders and bands here and there, the cosplayers of yore and classic vintage automobiles that used to provide a sight to see and energizing effect were nowhere to be found today.<\/p>\n

I don’t mind running in lonely, desolate streets.\u00a0 I even kinda like it.\u00a0 But for folks who come to runDisney expecting a Cadillac of entertainment and support, well… this is always a mentally challenging closing 9-10 miles of a 13.1 mile route.\u00a0 And with less than usual course support, it’s even tougher.<\/p>\n

To be fair, the volunteers and people who DID line the streets today were awesome and wonderful and made the most of it.\u00a0 More than usual, I tried to especially thank the course marshals, law enforcement patrols, and the aid station workers, as well as anyone out cheering us on at the ungodly hours of this year’s event (the new start time for all races this year was 5 AM… again, not sure if this was a concession to the city of Anaheim to minimize street closures or if this was an effort by Disney to get runners out of the parks so they could open to guests; the cynical side of me suspects Disneyland would always prefer to replace the sound of footfalls with the sound of cash registers).<\/p>\n

Whatever the case, I donned my “I’m Karen’s Son” shirt to run the route, proudly proclaiming here and there that my Mom is my real superhero.\u00a0 When I told Thor this, he said she was his superhero too.\u00a0 So take that, Diana of Themyscira!<\/span><\/p>\n

I tried once again using my real Canon camera as opposed to my iPhone since it was mostly pitch black at 5 AM.\u00a0 I’m not sure I got “super” photos.\u00a0 But I at least got some mild mannered ones.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/a>\u00a0 \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\" <\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The race itself was a bit of a ho-hum and I could feel a nagging chronic pain building up after 7 miles… better than yesterday so maybe in two weeks when I run Bagan Temple I’ll be in better shape.<\/p>\n

But ya know what DID make today’s event super?\u00a0 My Mom and my brother.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As the West Coast runDisney adventure fizzled out, my super family assembled.<\/p>\n

Thanks, Mom.\u00a0 Thanks, Steve.\u00a0 You have been… and always will be… my two favorite superheroes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the way runDisney ends in Anaheim. Not with a bang…or a biff… or a pow… but with a whimper. Friends, runners, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury runDisney in California, not to praise it. The final event to be held at the West Coast Disneyland Resorts was a weirdly anticlimactic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}