On your marks, Get set, GO!

When school started, I thought the fun and games of the summer were over. Until, along came the 2006 Inaugural Disneyland Half-Marathon! Everyone in my family ran in at least one race over the weekend and even one of Mom's long-time friends, Stacie, joined us all the way from Ham Lake, Minnesota!

Well since the race was at Disneyland Mom and Stacie thought it'd be fun to make a weekend out of it so we got to stay at the Disneyland hotel and everything! The first day was nothing but fun at the park! Here we are meeting Pooh!

Sissy is still asking us today, "Where Pooh go?" (at least I think she's talking about the bear).

Of course we rode the new Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Sissy was kinda tired and was crying at first but she stopped crying the first time we saw Captain Jack Sparrow - Mom said he has that effect on girls.

But we had the most fun in Toontown! We went through Minnie's and Mickey's houses. Sissy was so excited to sit in Mickey's chair.

I pretended I was his loveable pet, Pluto!

Sis could not believe that at the end of the tour through Mickey's house that he would be there to greet us! He was filming a movie in his barn and we got to see the set.


We stayed into the evening and Auntie Annelise even joined us to watch the fantastic fireworks!

Despite our late night, we bounced out of bed the next morning for our races! Lauren and I had our races on Saturday inside the Disney's California Adventure Park Hollywood Backlot area. There were 1,000 kids overall in various age groups. Lauren's 100-yard race was first, with Daddy by her side. Before the start he lifted her up so she could survey the course and finalize her strategy. She just barrelled straight forward to the end swinging her elbows with sheer determination!

My race came right after and was 200 yards! My race had so many runners that they ran it in heats. I was in the first heat and took off like Dash (who was on my lucky racing socks), darting between people to get ahead, and finished strong! I was kinda confused as to what heats, personal records, and all that meant but either way, everyone said I did great, and I know it felt great to finish! That's me in my black pirate shirt leaning into the finish!

The theme for the race was The Pirates of the Caribbean and many of the characters along the way were dressed as pirates plus our medals had cool skeletons on them!

It was so fun to be cheered on by so many supporters! Lauren's favorite was "Dama Guk". Can you guess what that is? It took us a few guesses too but we finally realized it's Donald Duck!

After a swim in Neverland pool (which Mom has been promising me since I started learning how to swim) that night we got to order room service dinner at the hotel and eat dinner in bed! I've never tasted a better hot dog!

Then we spent the night with Daddy at his hotel because Mommy and Stacie had to wake up early the next morning for their half-marathon! They had to be up at 4:30am to run at 6am with 10,000 other people. Mommy is not a morning person, I'm not sure how she did it but I'm glad I didn't have to wake her up.

Stacie is our hero because she ran even though she was really sick the week leading right up to the race. Together they ran through Disneyland Park, Disney's California Adventure, the Pond of Anaheim, and Angel's Stadium.

Where else do you see these guys at mile 12 along the running route? Can you believe Mom and Stacie are still smiling, much less standing?

They got incredible medals for their 13.1 mile effort!

Already that afternoon, people were offering to buy them from around their necks! Mom said "Nodda Chancin Hello". That must be Disney-ese Pin Trading talk for "No thank you, hellOOoo!"

It was a fantastic weekend and I loved it so much I am going to start running with Mommy more regularly! We'll start with a 1/2 mile which is no problem. I blew through that distance in my first race back in July!