The Disneyland Paris 5K – A Dangerous Land (Recap from September 22, 2017)

The Disneyland Paris 5K was their inaugural night run. It was scheduled for 8 pm; I was stuck in the last corral, Corral C, so I decided I had better get there early in the hopes of at least being in the front of the back.

This was my POV at 6:39 pm.

And this was my panoramic from about 7:34 PM.  The end of Corral C is on the other side of the water, on the far right of the photo… I’m not even sure I got all of Corral C in there.

It was a three point one mile run (converted in my head on the fly, as it was obviously a 5K), and was mainly through the Disney Village shopping district and through the Walt Disney Studios park. In planning our rendez-vous post-race, I had previously told mom to enjoy the fireworks.  Not of my finishing, far from it.  I told her to enjoy the night time spectacular at Disneyland Paris’s closing of 8:30 because even in a best case scenario I wouldn’t be finished before then; and since I find myself unsure if we were starting en masse or in waves or what, I had no idea or even sense as to when Corral C would start. Assuming waves, I couldn’t foresee even starting before 8:15 or 8:30. That meant even if I rushed past photo opps and hurried along to meet Mom, we could still catch the 9:40 PM bus back to the hotel.  However, those logistics of getting back to the hotel that night and then back to Disneyland Paris bright and early in the following morning for the 10K weighed heavily on my mind.

But who can be too worried after spending the day with one’s Mom roaming the Parisian Disneyland? A few photos from that trip around the DL with the best Mom ever:

         

Editor’s Note: Everything above this sentence was tapped out on my iPhone in the starting corral as I waited to start.

***

Fin.

The following was written AFTER THE RACE.

This was one of the ten most dangerous races I’ve ever done. They had put all kids and all the families with young ones in Corral B. No matter what your pace, even an hour a mile, you will catch up to a gaggle of melt-downing kids at the 1 km mark who are whinging, “but how much farther?!”

What ensues then is a ducking, weaving, long queue for photos, shoving, and just generally unpleasant wave of hysteria as I and most runners tried to find any room to maneuver safely. On top of that, there were long stretches of darkness on the course so you couldn’t see where you were putting your foot on solid ground, let along if you were going to trample the young. At one point the street lamps turned off completely as their automated timers must not have been reset for the run.

Ultimately I skipped four or five photo opp stops because the lines were so daunting… and after passing a long line there were moments when I did see who folks were queueing for and wished maybe I had stopped.  But as tempted as I was to endure the long line, it would then have required me swimming back upstream quite a ways to get into line. Again, though, the queues were one thing I wasn’t happy about but could accept in a race; the darkness and pace issues however were flat out dangerous.  Not just for me, and not just because of me, but for every one on that ill-lit, ill conceived in corral seeding course.

After the race, and after the fireworks, Mom couldn’t get cell connections so she didn’t see any of my texts; she was worried she’d missed me but the truth was my corral had barely begun.  She staked out a spot at our agreed meeting place but was constantly worried she had missed me but because of zero cell connections or WiFi access, she didn’t know for sure.  She spotted my red beret and blue stripped shirt just as she was contemplating heading to a secondary spot we KNEW had WiFi, so it all worked out.  But I’m sorry she had trouble.  I’d gladly endure the darkened gauntlet of literally underfoot children but Mom having problems is a problem too far.

Despite all the issues, a few good photos along the way nonetheless!  So I’m trying to keep it positive.  But if you ever decide to do a race at the Disneyland Paris weekend, Id say skip the 5K and save yourself the trouble of pinballing around children; you’ll get enough of that in the theme parks.