Disneyland’s Star Wars marketing machine has another well-publicized notch under its Wookie belt — if Wookies wear belts.
A Star Wars Half Marathon with more than 12,000 runners completed the course that began and ended in Disneyland Sunday.
And, of course, this wasn’t your average athletic event, as runners honored Star Wars with light sabers and costumes.
Adam Roach of Pebble Beach was the men’s winner of the Star Wars Half Marathon — The Light Side by six seconds, a year after finishing second.
The 32-year-old Roach completed the 13.1-mile course that began and ended at Disneyland Resort in one hour, 10 minutes, 31 seconds. Bradley Apodaca of Santa Barbara was second in 1:10:37 and Robert Hernandez of Fresno was third in 1:11:32
Two-time defending champion Nick Arciniaga of Fountain Valley was sixth in 1:13:24.
Jennifer Brill of Washington was the women’s winner in 1:24:15. Lindsey Carter of Huntington Beach was second in 1:25:20 and Kaili Zink-Hernandez of Fresno third in 1:26:54.
There were 12,434 finishers — 7,028 females and 5,406 males — according to organizers.
—City News Service