Carlsbad 5000

I was invited to participate in Carlsbad 5000; the world's fastest 5K! I told it was flat and fast.... I soon found out it's not flat, but it is fast. This would be my first money race (not to jump ahead, but... 1st place!), and my first hotel comp, I was given my own room at the Marriott along with the three guys that made up the male side of the push rim division. I got to the hotel about 6 after volunteering at Brazen's Lagoon Valley run that morning, and was able to join in on dinner with my friends.

The race is set up with many starts to basically have one division on the course at a time, and ours didn't go out until 10:20am. We did still get out there pretty early to get parking spots and a few of us still needed to pick up our bibs. When the start had cleared out, all the wheelchairs (this would the first time they were also allowing a cycling division, two trikes and a hand cycle joined us) headed out to warm up. I had been warned about the initial incline right after the start so I headed out to see how I would do on it. Turns out I would be just fine and I headed back to the start, thus concluding my warmup ;) I was then introduced to many of my new friends and talked to them until we got called back to the start. Due to some kind of backup from the previous start, the wheelchair division had been combined.. Push rims out first, then cycles a minute behind us. The course is a T so it's fairly easy to follow, but it was made even easier by basically just following my very own cyclist. As I said before, it wasn't flat, it was more rolling inclines and declines.. and it was easy to know what was coming up after I turned around because I had just done it in the opposite direction. Making it even faster, is the largest concentration of the crowd was at the center of the T so every time I passed through it got very loud; going up the first hill, I also had some friends cheering for me and making sure I made it up, going through the second time it was like a wave of cheers as I barreled through, and the final turn to head back to the finish was the loudest of all (especially since I didn't have to slow down for a train to go by!)

After I got through the finish, my bike escort ran over to give me a hug, then one of the volunteers came over and told me it was her job to help me however I needed and make sure I got back over for the awards ceremony. So she got to follow me over to my car so I could switch chairs and eat the food Saber was holding for me. The three guys were already there and one made the comment that they should have taken my keys so they could have brought Saber out to me... after he informed me that the volunteer was chasing me down and I told him that was my new friend for the next 20 minutes or so. Once I was settled, she took me back over to the finish area and checked me in, but it turned out they were waiting for the elite male's race to finish and I was released back into the wild for a while. I found the others and we went into the VIP area to grab some food before heading back to the finish. Since there were only four of us, we all won! And there were a lot of cameras pointed at us for a while.... Then I headed to Anaheim so I could go to Disneyland the next daaaay!!!

Back in the VIP area with my medals and 1st place mug!

Bonus Section: If you want some information on the new DAS (Disability Access Service) card at Disneyland, please read on. It's been rather upsetting to see all the information and varying opinions that are out there about this service. Not that this will really clear any of that up, but I wanted to at least add another good experience to the world. And as a disclaimer, while I'm familiar with it, I never used the old GAC (don't know exactly what the letters mean on that one).

Since I use a wheelchair, I have access to the alternate entrances when they're available, but due to my anxiety in crowds I get the DAS card for the rides that don't have that alternate entrance and may have a long line... and let's face it, it's Disney, other than rare days or times of the day, pretty much all the lines are long. I got my card at City Hall, they always start with telling me my wheelchair is my card until I tell them I cannot wait in long lines at rides that don't have an alternate entrance, then it's all good (except one time when I happened to get the "help" of someone less than sympathetic). This time I was told that since I'm an annual pass holder, my card can be good for 60 days aaaand if I bring in my old one, they'll just renew it the next time I'm there (I believe this part is in general, not special to pass holders). They also ask how many people you have with you; I was on my own, but told him I may have some friends with me later and he said without a head count, he could write in 4. They also wrote in my first ride right there.. of course I immediately asked for Big Thunder since it had just opened back up (spoiler alert: it is so cool, you must go check it out as soon as you can!).

Disneyland and California Adventure each have two kiosks where you go ask them to write in your next ride (be aware, they will cross off your last one if it hasn't been already), they'll give you the locations when you get your card. Since I already had mine, which was about 45 minutes away, I headed straight to the Haunted Mansion. The Mansion has an alternate wheelchair entrance, and they just give you a red or green card depending on wether you're taking your chair in or not. After that, I stopped to eat and go into a couple stores before going to Big Thunder, where I ran into a couple friends that were about to be written a pass to come back (when there's a long wait, the Cast Member at the alternate entrance will write out a pass according to the current wait time), but since my card was for up to four people, they let me take them with... He did innocently ask if we knew each other though. I followed up Big Thunder with the Carousel (alternate entrance), where I scared everyone in line by climbing on and off of a horse by hoisting myself with my "strong" leg and throwing the other one over. After a bit more wandering around Disneyland, I headed over to California Adventure and got Soarin' Over California written on my DAS card. I don't think I went on any other rides over there, just wandered in and out of stores, through Cars Land, and over the pier until my time came up for Soarin', then back over to Disneyland. I got Jungle Cruise on my DAS card and went to get a pass over at Pirates, both were an hour away so I grabbed some dinner and ended up running into my friends again, so I stayed with them for a while (even got to see them both become Ironman for a few minutes! For anyone that's curious you caaaan be Ironman in a wheelchair). We watched the Beatles tribute band, then they broke off to get dinner and call it a night, while I headed over to use my passes before I headed back to my hotel as well.

I was at the parks for almost 12 hours, and while I did have to wait, the longest time I spent in an actual line was to get my dinner. I also never resorted to getting a fast pass for any ride since my DAS card and wheelchair passes were sufficient because I planned ahead a bit as I went... I am also happy to wander around and stop for shows rather than go from ride to ride. And I would like to point out that this is purely my experience as someone with a physical disability and an anxiety disorder. Although, my best advice for everyone is to go in with a positive outlook rather already thinking it's going to be horrible... also, keep your explanations simple; Cast Members don't need or want your diagnoses, just your needs and how they can help.