Tales of the Flowers: Preparing for the 2025 Disneyland Half Marathon

It's that time of year again! The beginning of January and it's time for the Disneyland Half Marathon! I've run it all the years they've held it, so of course I'll be running it again this year. One small problem is that when I started running it back in 2006, I lived in California. Now, we've moved all the way across the country to Florida! It's a bit of travel to get back!

But, bright and early on Thursday morning, we headed to the Orlando Airport.

Took a quick hop over to Atlanta.

Riding the Atlanta tram to the different terminals.

Then we took a really really long flight all the way to Los Angeles. I don't know how sitting like this is comfortable, but she'll do it for a really long time.

Welcome to LA! For some reason, Frontier dropped us off at the International terminal.

Which means it's literally at least a half mile walk to get out to ground transportation.

Grabbing our rental car. First time seeing covered parking for the cars here at the airport.

And by this point, we were all super hungry for dinner! It's 6:30pm here, but it's 9:30pm back in Florida! I can't think of any place better to go than our favorite Korean restaurant, the Old Time Noodle House.

We order reasonable portions for the four of us. Theresa and Alli really like the side dishes, especially the purple kimchi.

But it's sushi day here and our friend the owner brought us out some. I even had a few pieces (with the beef filling, not the fish)!

They make such good spicy pork. I love it.

And knowing I love it so much, Mrs. Lisa brought out a large bowl of japchae too!

Thank you so much! Always so good to see you! Thank you for feeding us so well!

Even though we were completely stuffed, our favorite bakery, 85C, was so close by.

It's getting late, but they still have a few of our favorites.

Sad to see that the chocolate chip bowl has shrunk so considerably. I remember it being 2x as large.

Just next door was a McDonalds and everyone was feeling a little thirsty. We stopped in for a 99 cent iced coffee. While waiting, I overheard a voice I recognized and looked over, and there was one of our boss's boss when we used to work out here! It's been years! We chatted for a few minutes and caught up on things. Good to see you Clyde!

It wasn't until 9:30pm when we finally got checked into our hotel. Fortunately for us, Theresa was able to get an upgrade to the suite where the kids have a separate bedroom! And bunkbeds!

The next morning we woke up late, appreciating the fact that their breakfast goes until 11:30am. No need to rush in the morning just to get breakfast. And here, you can get the buffet or order off the menu. Everyone tried something from the menu, and for the most part, we liked it a lot more. The only disappointment was Ian's Mickey Waffles, turned out to be a single waffle that looked more like a pancake and wasn't fluffy at all. Oh well.

We've got places to be today! It's Friday and the race isn't until Sunday, but I need to go pick up my runner's bib and look around the expo for goodies. It's Disney so there's no free parking, but at the Pixal Pals lot you get $10 parking instead of $35 parking. I'll take it.

Look at the decorations they have for us! Those are some pretty cute little Mickey balloons.

The bib pickup is in the Disneyland Hotel above Goofy's Kitchen. We have some good memories here, and we like seeing the old Autopia car. The kids have had their picture in here a few times.

Well... don't come right when they open. The line to pick up the runner's bibs was super long. Let's go elsewhere for now.

Like the Runner's Expo! The kids were super excited to see that Jelly Belly Sports Beans was a sponsor again this year. All during the walk they were asking which flavor beans I wanted, so when they spun the prize wheel they could get the right ones. Except this year, Jelly Belly wasn't on the expo floor. There was no prize wheel.

Instead we got some wafer cookies but that's about all. We're not too much into merchandise.

Off to Downtown Disney next where we saw the new sweet shop. It's a lot bigger than before and we liked seeing the new Werther's Caramel Popcorn being made, similar to Epcot. Unlike Epcot though, it's made in a room with glass walls so you can see it but you definitely can't smell it. Shame.

Ian said he has good memories of these suckers.

Gotta go visit our stone to make sure it's still here. Yep! A little weather worn, but it's been in this location for a lot longer than we ever expected.

Ian - Remember seeing those hidden Mickey cakes at the Grand Californian? We should go check it out!

For sure! We had some good times finding all those Hidden Mickeys. But are there any events going on right now?

Yes! It's Lunar New Year! It's the year of the snake!

And to celebrate there's a giant snake in the middle of the lobby, twisted and turned into the shape of a Mickey!

And there aren't any signs that say how many we need to find, but we looks around quite a bit and found a bunch.

Having fun pointing them all out and finding new ones.

Ah, on the Koi fish. Love it.

We found this sign showing the ways different cultures celebrate. Ian read how the Koreans do it and was very excited.

He formally stood back and gave a low bow to Theresa and I (after seeing that elders were supposed to give kids paper money when they bowed as a sign of respect).

By 4pm the line to pick up bibs was completely gone and I walked right up. My Legacy bib is a different color and has a tiny little bubble saying "Legacy" on it. I was happy to see that there was a place to check the chip in your bib, to make sure your official time was tracked. There were issues 2 weeks ago at Disney World with a entire blocks of bib numbers not working. Mine was good and we were good to go!

The next day, after another tasty breakfast, we stretched our legs by walking to the nearby Target and getting a treat. Nice that the suite comes with a mini fridge/freezer.

Hoping for good weather tomorrow, but that smoggy haze and dirty air from the fires looks ugly.

We're headed back to Downtown Disney today for a couple things, but first we've got to find a place to park! Seems like everyone is trying to park at the Pixar Pals structure today! The entire floor was full, and everyone was crawling along through the rows, hoping for someone to pull out. It was 20 minutes before we were able to cut over to the Mickey and Friends side of the structure where the line was again super slow until you got to the exit. Then a few different spots opened up and we finally got parked.

Here's what we're here for today! A Legacy Runner meet-up! The Facebook group scheduled a group picture of all the current legacy runners! It's great to see people year after year and make some new friends too!

Before this weekend, there are 226 people who have run all 13 Disneyland Half Marathons.

Afterwards, I grabbed a few treats from Wetzels and met back up with the family hanging out at the Grand Californian lobby.

Alli found a squashed pretzel bit that looks like a Mickey!

And here's my friend Ariel who is also running this year! We got to sit and chat for a little while before we decided it was time to head back to our hotels. It's going to be an early morning tomorrow for the run!

Best carb heavy meal? Why not pizza?

Theresa and the kids are planning to cheer for me (and others) on the course too!

Theresa - I've never made a sign like this before! These bubble letters are time consuming! If anyone ever makes you a sign like this, you better appreciate it!