Olympic Challenge: The inaugural Disneyland Paris 5km (and kids races)

I love Disney. It feels very nostalgic every time I visit one of the parks. I think back to the first time I went to one of the parks way back in 1990 when my parents took my sister and I to Florida. Good times then as well as every visit to one of the parks since.

I have done a couple of half marathons and a marathon in the two respective US parks in Los Angeles and Orlando and I knew that the Run Disney business was a popular one. At the start line of the Tinkerbell Half Marathon in L.A. (look back to May 2015 on the blog to read a report) a fellow competitor mentioned to me that 2016 would mark the first time Disney would hold a race in the Paris resort. I was sold already regardless of when it was.

The date was announced. The half marathon clashed (date wise) with the Ealing half marathon which was one I was already entered into. Don’t panic. I realised Disney would be holding a 5km race on the Saturday meaning I could do that instead and travel back to London in time for the Ealing half the next day. Phew.

So I signed up. I convinced my sister Natalie to join me on the 5km and to also sign up my niece Jessica for the 100m kids race which would also be on the same day. Jessica is a keen runner and at the age of 3 and three quarters she makes me race her through the park from nursery to her house every Tuesday when I pick her up. I love Tuesday nights because of her. So she was game too and was uber excited to be going to Disneyland as well. The Tuesday before we went when I picked her up from nursery the staff told me that she pretty much had been exclusively talking about the land of Disney all day. I had been doing almost the same to my team at work I thought to myself.

So Thursday night my sister, Jessica and I made our way on the Eurostar to Paris to spend the night before heading to Disney the next morning. As you can tell from above Jessica is a wonderful little girl and I love spending time with her and her typically angelic temperament. So how can I describe the Thursday night journey? A fucking nightmare would probably be fairly accurate.

Whilst she is a well-travelled three year old and has most recently just returned from a long haul flight from the Maldives, she didn’t quite grasp that the Eurostar should be treated in all intents and purposes the same as a plane journey. Ants. In. Her. Pants. She was all over the shop and quite vocal when being told to sit down. We arrived in Paris and she calmed down. She was excited to be in the hotel and jumped onto the bed promptly to be propelled off the other side onto the floor. Tears. Shouting. Meltdown. Eventually my sister and I pretended to go to sleep and she ran out of energy, stopped crying and was asleep. Yikes. Was this what it would be like all weekend?

Thankfully I can say with absolute safety it wasn’t. She got all the overexcitement out of her system and the weekend has been one of my favourites ever.

Steven had joined us later the night before (missing the Oscar winning performance by Jessica in “Toddler loses it”) and would be allowing Natalie, Jessica and I to indulge in Disney even though he didn’t quite get it. Kudos to him for supporting us.

We made our way to Disney in time for a breakfast with the characters. We met Mickey (no need for his surname), Gepetto (same again), Goofy (same again), Chip and Dale (same again) and Pluto (same again.) It’s just occurred to me that each of them don’t require a second name. Puts them in the same realm as Madonna and Cher. Jessica (also no surname needed) loved it. We had photos with them all.

We registered at the race and were all set for the 5km and 100m the next day. Paula Radcliffe was doing some talks at race registration but due to timings we missed it. Gutted. She’s one of my running heroes.

We spent the day in the Magic Kingdom and met even more characters. At each meet and greet Jessica was getting more confident and not so scarred when we were up close to the (mostly) furry creatures. My favourite was when she met Buzz Lightyear and showed him her new Toy Story cap she had bought in the park. Very cute.

After a long day on many rides and my favourite part of any Disney day (the parade) we made our way to Rainforest Café for a spot of pre-race nourishment. Can you tell the sarcasm? I will add that it is a great place to dine with young kids but I am pretty sure Paula wouldn’t have been there pre-race in 2003 when she broke the marathon world record. Still, we were only doing a 5km so a quick beer was on the cards.

Jessica was quite taken with the model gorillas in the restaurant which meant after each break in our meal we would need to go and watch them (quietly she told me) to see if they would move. Eventually I had to say we could only do it one more time as the ladies sat at the table directly in front of the gorillas may like to eat their meals without us standing aimlessly at the end of their table.

We adjourned to our quad room and Jessica went to sleep. Steven said he couldn’t understand how it had been such trouble the night before. Thin ice mister. Sometimes bedtime doesn’t go so swimmingly. Or maybe he should just be in charge of bedtime every day? He may be the answer?

So race day was here. Natalie and I were up at 6am and made our way to the start line for 7am. It was dark. The atmosphere was good. There were a lot of runners. I was in starting group B. Natalie was in group A. We parted ways and said if we didn’t see each other before we would meet at the finish.

The countdown happened. Some small fireworks went off. The crowd was filled with many Run Disney fans who had travelled from all over the world to be here. I’m not judging, after all I had done the same.

We were off. Down into the Magic Kingdom. Past the castle. Past our first character, Jafar. At the 1km mark I caught up with Natalie. We ran the rest of the race together going through Fantasyland, Discoveryland, Frontierland and the Walt Disney Studios park. We saw Chewbacca, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet & Thumper. That’s quite a celebrity line up I think you will agree? We stopped to meet Roger Rabbit, Jessie and Woody from Toy Story and Spider-Man. As we approached the last 400m Chariots of Fire was playing. We picked up the pace and crossed the line into the arms of Donald and Daisy Duck.

What a superb way to spend the first 40 minutes of the morning on a Saturday. I think so anyway.

We made it back to the hotel where Steven and Jessica were watching Disney Juniors (in French) which Jessica seemed to be enjoying and Steven was enduring.

We breakfasted, showered and were on our way to the 100m for Jessica’s race. I was excited but

wondered whether she would get stage fright and have to pull out. However; waiting for the start line she seemed excited and when I realised Paula Radcliffe was stood in front of us I exceeded her levels of excitement while hers turned to confusion. I said “hello, how are you” to Paula as casually as though she were my next door neighbour. She replied with “fine thanks, you?” and then we parted ways. I will expect a Facebook friend request any moment now. She’s still a hero.

So Jessica and I made our way to the start line. Just as we were heading into the pens Steven handed me a vanilla latte from Starbucks. He’s a superstar but it did cross my mind that now I would look like the hipster parent that couldn’t run 100m without having a coffee in my hand. Oh well, who cares? Not me.

We went into the third start wave. There were quite a few crying children. Fortunately Jessica was not one of them. She was excited. We counted down from three several times to practice and then to set off the waves in front of us. Then it was our turn. She asked to hold my hand whilst we ran. Too cute.

She sped off. I kept up guiding her around the few children and parents that had been in front of us. We were clear of the crowd. She was racing with nothing to stop her, not even my hand at this point as she broke away. I saw Steven and Natalie in the crowd. Jessica didn’t, she had one focus….Mickey Mouse (I’ll use his full title this time) at the finish line. She made it just as the commentator said her name and she high fived the mouse and got her medal. I was proud. What a super girl. I have no doubt it is the first medal of many in her running career.

Post-race we went on more rides (exiting each one via the gift shop and having to deal with pester power) but it was another fun day.

I sit now on the Eurostar on my way back to London for the race tomorrow but a lot of me wishes I were still in Disneyland with Natalie, Steven and Jessica for one more night.

It was a super weekend and one which I hope we can do again very soon.

Jessica leading the pack in the 100m