The Tinker Bell Race Weekend is a part of the runDisney Race series that happens during Mother's Day weekend at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim , California. The weekend consists of a Race EXPO at the Disneyland Hotel, Neverland 5K on Friday, Tinker Bell 10K on Saturday, and the Tinker Bell Half Marathon on Sunday (Mother's Day).
I had been looking forward to this trip for over a year... pretty much since the last day of my trip to the Tinker Bell Race Weekend in 2015. This was my 4th Tinker Bell Race Weekend... BUT my first taking one of my children along. My 10 year old daughter has shown lots of interest in running and has done several local races with me over the past few years. So... we put our sights and our pennies in a jar for over a year to save up for this trip.
A girl's trip to Disneyland for Mother's Day weekend and lets throw a few races in for fun!
We flew out of Seattle VERY early Thursday morning May 5th... we were traveling with my friend Merritt... who has done Tinker Bell twice before and had been my travel partner in 2015. She was game to do the trip with us... not minding having Makenna join us!
On the plane and ready to go!
We traveled down early because the Race EXPO at Disneyland opened on Thursday... we needed to be there to get a full day in at the EXPO and rest up for our early start of races the next day! The Neverland 5K at Disneyland had a 5am start time on Friday morning. We had planned to not go into the Parks on Thursday so it was EXPO, lunch, and rest up for the next morning! Makenna was excited about the pool at our hotel too so we made time for that.
The EXPO which was located at the Disneyland Hotel was fun (crowded) ... Our flight out of Seattle was at 6am... we arrived in Orange County by 9am... at our hotel and headed to the EXPO by 10:30am... we dropped our things at the hotel and headed over to the EXPO. We acquired our bibs, had a chance to shop the EXPO merchandise, and successfully checked into our hotel room. We stayed at the Best Western Stovalls which is a Good Neighbor hotel just off official Disney property located on the corner of Katella and Disneyland Drive. I have stayed at the Stovalls for the Tinker Bell Race weekend every year since 2013... a good location for access to the EXPO and the Parks.
Official line for the TINK Merchandise... "Pack your patience!"
Found Chip for a selfie in the lobby of the Disneyland Hotel!
Jeff Galloway and his wife Barb (not pictured) - always genuine and inspiring!
Honda is a new sponsor of Autopia so they had a fun Photo Op at the EXPO!
View from our room at the Best Western Stovalls - you can see California Adventure...
We had lots of fun looking around the EXPO... had lunch at Trader Sam's (restaurant at the Disneyland Hotel), and headed back to our hotel to check into our room and enjoy some down time. Later on that evening we headed over to Downtown Disney and had dinner at Earl of Sandwich. After a yummy dinner we went back to our hotel to lay out our things for the Neverland 5K in the morning!
Up next... Neverland 5K Race Recap!
If you could dream of a destination race... where would you go???
