Disneyland Star Wars Half Marathon

It seems a little crazy to go from posting about the ebola outbreak in Liberia to the Star Wars Half Marathon, but such is life.

I was going to fly into Orange County the Thursday before the race and is it got closer I got more and more excited.  My plan was to hit the expo Friday morning and then head straight to Disneyland afterwards.  My mom was coming to stay with me Friday night so we would take it easy on Saturday so I didn't burn too much energy before the race.

My flight got in early and my shuttle was ready to go right when I came out of the airport so I was checked into my room at the Fairfield Inn Anaheim Resort by 7 pm.  My room was decorated with a very girly Disney princess theme.

Because of my early arrival, I had plenty of time to walk over to the expo at the Disneyland Hotel to pick up my packet.  Walking by Disneyland and through Downtown Disney got be very excited for for the weekend.

Olaf is worth melting for

Lego Beauty and the Beast!

I got a little lost finding packet pickup, thanks to someone giving me incorrect directions and the actual bib pickup in a place different location than the expo (somewhere in a the bowels of the hotel).

The material of the long sleeve official shirt was much better than what they use for the shirts from Disney World races and the design was great!  I also got a short sleeve shirt because CHEWBACCA!

25 years since I have been here!

I finished up at the expo and wanted to hang out in Downtown Disney, but figured it was best to get back to the room and to bed early.  As I was heading back, the parks were closing.  There were so many people leaving I felt like I was salmon swimming upstream.  I really don't like large crowds of people.  Maybe going to the park wasn't such a great idea...

Because I was on east coast time, I woke up really early (too early) on Friday.  I was able to see a beautiful sunrise and got some breakfast at IHOP.  Next I met my coworker, Renee, and her kids at the park.  I was very excited to see Disneyland since the last time I was there was for senior ditch day in high school in 1990.  25 years!  How time flies.  The park was not as I remembered it.  When did it get so small?  Also, Sleeping Beauty's castle is TINY!  If I was her I would be really upset that Cinderella's castle is so much bigger.

This photo of the tiny castle was taken during the race

There were no crowds in the park at 8 am and we were able to do a majority of the rides by 10:30.  I even got some photos with a few characters!

We also got to see the inspirations behind our costumes for the race at the Star Tours ride...

My favorite! 

Saturday was a day of relaxation.  Mom and I went to a movie in the afternoon and then had dinner at the Anaheim Packing District.  The renovated building had a wide selection of food to eat, I highly recommend it if you are in the area.  I had a very delicious crepe from a vendor downstairs for dessert.

Anaheim Packing District

Saturday night I was in bed by 8 pm in preparation for the 5:30 am start the next day.  The huge advantage of the Disneyland races over Disney World is that you don't have to take a shuttle by 3:30 am to the start by 4:00 am (or whatever awful time it is they recommend).  The start was walking distance from our hotel.  Also, being on east coast made it much easier. to wake up at 4:00 am.  Renee, another coworker of mine, and I met in the hotel lobby at 4:45 so we could walk over together.

These are not the droids you are looking for

The temperature outside was perfect for the race, but it could heat up once the sun came up.  We made it to our corrals with about 5 or 10 minutes before the start.  It was perfect timing.

Immediately I saw the first of many great (although horrible to run in) costumes.

That is some serious dedication to a costume

And we were off!  For the first mile or so we were in the backlot of Disney but soon things got exciting when we entered the park.

me and the tiny castle

The mile marker signs were very cool!

Between miles 2 and 3 was the best part of the course because of Chewbacca and Darth Vadar.  I ended up waiting about 50 minutes or so to get photos with them, but it was definitely worth it!  One of the stormtroopers gave me some attitude so I had to put him in his place.

As I was leaving the area with Darth Vadar at Star Tours the sun was beginning to rise. It was a beautiful morning.

On the way to California Adventure Park I saw some more great costumes.

I had never been to California Adventure Park, but some of the rides looked really fun.

Radiator Springs Racers looked amazing

Miles 4 until about 12.5 was outside of the park in the Anaheim/Garden Grove area.  It was kind of a let down to run through the park first and then spend the rest of the race on city streets, but the crowd support, bands, and cheerleaders made it better than I was expecting.  Around miles 8 and 9 was the best part of the course through the city.  There were about 30-40 (or maybe more) cosplayers in Star Wars outfits at the turnaround point in Garden Grove and they were amazing!!!!

This guy looked and sounded like Obe Wan Kenobe

Seeing all of the people out supporting us in their Star Wars costumes made the last part of the course so much better and although the sun had come up it was still cool out.  Soon I was at the finish line collecting my medal.

All in all it was a great race, although it would have been nice to have more Disney characters out on the course.  It was worth it to blow my race time standing in line to get photos.  My final time was 3:03:55.  I did some calculations based on my mile 2 photo and split times to figure out how much time I spent on the different parts of the course:

Start to 5K     1:14:18 23.9 minute/mile      51 minutes of that was spent on the last mile (and in line)
5K to 10K      33:18 10.7 minute/mile        miles 3.1-4.2 were in California Adventure Park
10K to 15K    37:12 12.0 minute mile        miles 8-9 is where the cosplayers were
15K to finish  39:07 10.3 minute/mile        last 3.8 miles, no stopping for photos here

Once I got cleaned up I got my next reward for finishing the race (and visiting California)...

Life after Liberia

Hand wash station at Emergency Operations
Center in Monrovia: Ebola is Real

I have been putting off this last post on Liberia, but am finally forcing myself to write about what life was like after leaving Liberia.  This post is probably the most important for me to discuss because it touches on the emotional toll of the outbreak and stigma associated with ebola.  Articulating my thoughts and feelings is difficult since I don't entirely understand them myself, so my writing may ramble a bit.

I had heard hat folks returning from west Africa were having feelings of survivor's guilt and potentially some PTSD.  I had also heard that it took some time to process things once you return.  The first few days I was back in Atlanta I was glad to be home with my family and I was feeling very happy.  I thought that maybe my return would be easy, but my first day back at work (two days after arriving in the United States) ended up being very difficult.  There was a lot I had to do for the post-deployment process and I also had to transition back into my regular job, but everything seemed to be so trivial after being in Liberia where there was such urgency in stopping the outbreak.  When I was researching information for my blog I came across this interview with some people from CDC and one of them said something that really explained how I felt when I got back.   When asked what it was like returning to the United States one of the women responded:

"...and you're not really here and you're not really there."

This perfectly summed up how I felt when I returned, I just wanted to get back to west Africa to help.

Saniquellie gas station

In the video it also touches on the emotional toll of the outbreak for those involved.  I thought that because I was not hands on with sick people or out investigating deaths that I would be fine.  I was lucky because I did not see any of the real suffering that was happening during the outbreak.  The people out there caring for ebola patients, tracing cases and contacts, and burying bodies, I do not know how they do it.  I think I would just want to cry most of the day if I witnessed the things they had witnessed.   One of my coworkers in Liberia said that some days you just had to have a good cry and then move on to the next task at hand.  

Despite not witnessing these things, after 3 or 4 days of being back, I started to feel really emotional about everything and could not help but cry when I thought about it or talked about things with other people.  I am normally a crier, but it was worse than normal for me.  Sometimes I did not even really know why I was crying.  I guess this is what everyone had meant when they said they needed time to process things once they got back.  While you are there you don't have the time to think and reflect about some of the awful things that are going on because every bit of energy has to be focused on the job you are there to do.   Once you come back you begin to realize the magnitude of things. 

Not happy about bath time

While I was there it was always in the this thing in my subconscious reminding me I had to be cautious so I did not get ebola.  There were times when it seemed like things were "normal" but then something would remind me that they were not normal.  They were far from normal.  One day when we were driving to the Ministry of Health I saw a man laying on the sidewalk, propping himself up and talking to two men that were near him.  He looked lethargic and unable to get up.  I do not know if the two men were trying to help him or if they were harassing him.  Another time, when driving back to the hotel, there was a man laying face down on the sidewalk and he was not moving.  People were walking by him, not doing anything.  I don't know if he was dead, but I could not do anything to help other than call the national hotline to report it.  Another shocking thing that happened was on a drive back to the hotel and traffic was backed up more than usual.  One of the lanes was shutdown because of two ambulances and in between them was a person in full protective gear being sprayed down with bleach.  I have no idea what happened, but it reminded me of the reality of the situation at hand.  You just have to always assume that all of the situations are due to ebola and take the necessary precautions.

There have been more new cases in Sierra Leone in the last week than
total number of cases in most outbreaks of Ebola since it was discovered.

Now that I am back I think about these events and stories I heard from people working in the field.  People were (and still are) dying every day.  Children are left homeless and alone.  Adults are left with nothing because their entire families have died.   People have so little and then even more is taken from them when their family members die.  And even though all of this still continues, ebola is no longer front page news like it was before I left in October.  People have moved on to the next tragedy even though this one is still very much ongoing and it frustrates me.  How can people not seem to care or want to help stop this?  

A week after I got back CDC had some TEDMED style talks from people that had been deployed in Sierra Leone and Liberia.  Many of the speakers broke down in tears discussing their experiences during the ebola response.  Many audience members also cried hearing the speakers and maybe thinking about their own experiences in west Africa.  I notice about 30 minutes into the talks that there were Kleenex boxes placed around the room of the auditorium.  This sort of emotional response is not even close to normal when attending talks at CDC.

After about three weeks of thinking  and talking about ebola everyday and crying when thinking about things, I began to feel better and more connected to my job (although I do think about going back almost everyday).  I feel guilty that I can return to "normal" life in the United States while life will not be normal for those living in west Africa for a very long time.  I also feel guilty about the sadness I have experiences because others have seen so much worse than I have.  Yet, those that have seen worse than I have feel guilty about their feelings because the ebola victims and survivors have it worse.

Life for the the people that have survived ebola or family members that have lost loved ones to ebola must be beyond difficult.  Many also have to deal with the stigma of ebola, whether they had it or a family member died from it.  People have been chased from their villages when they are sick and some end up dying alone in the jungle.  Children with parents that have died from ebola are often left to fend for themselves because no one will take them in.  Survivors return to their villages to find that their house has been looted, boarded up, or burned down and they are no longer welcome.  

If you would like to help the fight against ebola in west Africa and those affected by it, there many organizations you can donate to (or even volunteer for) if you would like to help.

Children of Fish Town