Now I understand that this was a while ago now but I have been meaning to write a review of my experience at the runDisney marathon weekend in January for a while now. This was my first runDisney event. All of the races for this weekend were sold out and had been for a long time. The marathon weekend has four major races; 5 km, 10km, half marathon and full marathon. A separate kids race is also scheduled during the weekend. I only entered into the 10km race. Each race is scheduled early in the morning. The first race on the Thursday morning was the 5km with the last race being the full marathon on the Sunday morning.
The run expo starts on the Wednesday. This is where you collect your running bib and race pack. It’s also where you get the opportunity to buy the official race merchandise. The expo had two main areas for shopping. One area exclusively sold all the runDisney merchandise produced for the weekend. The other area was full of exhibitors selling sports equipment, sports supplements and other fitness related products.
I only went to the expo on the Wednesday but the organisation was very disappointing. The queue to get into the runDisney store was chaos and cast members seemed to have no control. A queuing area was set up for the store. However, many guests were able to cut into the store by sneaking into the building through unmanned doors. In my opinion, there should have been many more cast members helping organise the queue.
Due to other guests sneaking into the store, the queue did not move for over an hour. It wasn’t until other guests in the line started to take security into their own hands and stop people sneaking into the store that the line started to move. The lack of organisation from Disney was very surprising. This was not a good way to start the weekend.
Once inside the store, the organisation was much better. The store had some very nice products for sale. The other hall,full of exhibitors, was a lot quieter and had no queue to enter.
Collecting the bibs for the 10 km race was very easy. However, according to other guests I spoke too during the expo their experience at bib collection for other races was not as straightforward as mine.
Overall, I think that the expo had some very interesting things to see and some good products for sale. However, the whole experience at the expo was not fantastic due to the overall lack of organisation and large queue to enter the runDisney merchandise store.
My race, the 10km, started at around 5:30am on the Friday morning. During my weekend stay, I stopped at Disney’s Beach club hotel. A bus service was available at this hotel which took guests to the start point of the race. Buses started 2 hours before race time and all runners were advised to arrive at the race start point an hour before the race start time.
The race started and finished in the Epcot parking lot. While waiting for the race to start, you could meet Disney characters, such as Mickey and Minnie. Characters were specially dressed in running gear. A stage with a DJ was also set up in the parking lot. The DJ made continuous announcements keeping runners updated and also led guests through a warm up.
Depending on your running ability, guests were split into several different corrals. Once my corral was called to the start point, it took around 15 minutes from that point until I actually started the race. Each corral was further split into smaller groups to avoid too much congestion at the start of the race. Fireworks were set off from the start line each time a new group was set off.
Despite Disney releasing runners in groups, the first mile of the run was quite congested. The first part of the race consisted of running out of the car park and onto the roads. After running down the road for about a mile the race looped back around and you ran back towards Epcot. You then entered Epcot through a back stage area by Test track and then entered the world showcase through the Mexican pavilion.
You then ran around the showcase, out and around the boardwalk and then back into the park. The final stretch of the race consisted of running through the showcase from the boardwalk down to the Canadian pavilion and then through to Spaceship Earth. The finish line was located just past Spaceship Earth in the Epcot parking lot.
Throughout the run there was Disney characters that you could stop and meet. Big screens were setup playing Disney movies and music during the road section of the run. Within the park their was lots of cast memes cheering you on and along the board walk was many spectators doing the same.
At the end of the race you receive a very nice medal. Food and drink was also given out. The race day itself was a very well organised event and a very enjoyable experience. The race itself was very unique and it was quite special getting the chance to run through Epcot.
On a whole, I would say that the races are well worth doing despite the organisation at the expo being disappointing. I would definitely encourage anybody who has the opportunity to run a Disney race to give it a go.
