It’s D2D and C2C! After some fun (and very little sun) in Florida I returned home in the northeast to take care of some business, which included ungodly amounts of smelly laundry and a regroup for Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend. Despite the weather, it was a memorable weekend.
I don’t have a ton of wisdom to share. There were the usual gripes about merchandise at the expo, this time about jackets. I was slightly amused to learn that the theme of the weekend was the “60s through the 90s”. Nobody told us that ahead of time, and frankly, there was very little theming on the courses. Neither the music nor the characters that really punched it home, but, whatever. I was with my favorite people in my favorite place.
Of course the biggest news of the weekend is that the half marathon was cut short due to the weather forecast. Early on, lightning was predicted. That, never, (thankfully) materialized but there was rain which got progressively worse throughout the morning. So much worse, in fact, that the course was cut even shorter in-progress. Earlier starters got 7.1 miles. Later starters got 6-ish miles. I was in the “lucky” group that didn’t get pulled from the course, but it really wasn’t that much fun out there. It was wet. It was cold. It was slippery. Characters were pulled. Photographers were pulled. You get it. I risked getting in a bus for a pic with a beloved character (Marie!), and I don’t regret it one bit!
For me personally, I was really challenged by the marathon. I knew my training was a bit under-par going in, so I wasn’t whining too much when the Half Marathon was cut short. My running partner and I had some great costumes for the 5K and 10K, and I finally got my much-desired medal-haul pic in front of the castle. My slow pace denied my a chance to ride Everest during the marathon, and I guess I’ll just have to let that one go. Given how much this one hurt, I think 2024 might be the nail in the coffin for my full marathons. It was a good run.
So now I am looking ahead to Disneyland. Weather has been awful the last two days and many folks trying to get from Orlando to Anaheim have been diverted or stuck. Fingers crossed, I’ll be OK to fly tomorrow. There is still some time. And I still have a costume to make.
Were you at Marathon Weekend? Drop a comment! Joining for Coast to Coast? Let’s hear about your travels!!
So runDisney didn’t make a big splashy blog-post reveal of the marathon weekend merch, but they did trickle a few images to us on Instagram. For sure what they’re sharing is just a small portion of what technically should be available. With the perennial sellouts and shortages, maybe they’re trying to keep expectations low… who knows. That being said, it’s not a bad-looking batch of goodies.
We have the usual suspects: ears, shirts, jackets, Loungeflys, and a couple of newer offerings, including a cross-body bag that will hold a water bottle (Corksicle?).
There will of course be pins, ornaments, magnets, and various other items. You can count on anything that says “Dopey Challenge” to sell out in a hot second.
While I generally like the designs and the colors this year, I’m taking a very close look at the picture of those Marathon Weekend ears…the logo looks like it might be awkwardly crooked. Last year at Princess all the ears were crooked and they looked really dumb. I’d inspect these very carefully before dropping $35 on them!
Jan 3 update: I just saw the ears, and the logo is on a spring, so it will definitely always be crooked (on purpose)!
Remember, to shop on the first day of the expo, you’ll need to join the Virtual Queue, accessible thorugh the My Disney Experience app.
Hi runners! It’s been a minute. I just finished up my very busy season at work, and between that and training for Dopey, I haven’t had much time for writing. There has been a lot of news that’s come out in recent weeks. I decided to combine it all into a single post with all the important dates happening in the next season. Some of the 2025 races haven’t been confirmed yet, and I will at Proof-of-Time deadlines as they become available.
For informational purposes only, all dates & events subject to change.
Downloadable version below.
January, 2024
January 3, 2024 - WDW Marathon Weekend – Expo Opens
January 4, 2024 – WDW Marathon Weekend – 5K
January 5, 2024 – WDW Marathon Weekend – 10K
January 6, 2024 - WDW Marathon Weekend – Half Marathon
There was lots of news from runDisney this week. Probably most anticipated was the final reveal of all themes for the 2023 Springtime Surprise Weekend. We’ve known for a while that the Challenge theme was Stitch’s ‘Ohana Challenge, and now we know that the weekend theme is Embrace the Adventure. Without further ado, here are the rest of the themes. (Congrats to everyone who correctly guessed based on the teaser art released earlier!)
Neverland 5K
Friday, April 19, 2024
5:00 a.m.
$108
Tinkerbell fans, rejoice!!!
Adventure is Out There 10K
Saturday, April 20, 2024
5:00 a.m.
$151
Up! Is finally getting it’s runDisney moment
Hakuna Matata 10-Miler
Sunday, April 21, 2024
5:00 a.m.
$212
Race through the Pride Lands!
Stitch’s ‘Ohana Challenge
(5K+10K+10-Miler)
Friday-Sunday April 19-21, 2024
5:00 a.m.
I predict that the Challenge will sell out first, because everyone loves Stitch.
Splash
Sunday, April 21, 2021
7:00 p.m.
$85
New this year is an after-hours party at Typhoon Lagoon
Yoga
Thursday, April 18, 2024
5:00 a.m.
$112
So there’s the 411 on Springtime Surprise! Club runDisney Gold and Platinum members will be registering starting August 15, 2023. Listen up, general registration is Tuesday, August 22, at 10:00 a.m. ET on runDisney.com. As always, DON’T BE LATE!!!
Marathon Weekend 2024 Medal Reveal
I am personally loving the Half and Marathon designs. I also love the light-up feature on the Dopey medal. Which one is your favorite? Drop a comment and let me know.
It’s been a super busy week in the runDisney universe and I had to take a pause to decide what to comment on first. Springtime Surprise course maps were released, and I have plenty to say about that, but since 2024 Marathon Weekend is almost upon us, I figure it’s best to share my thoughts on that first.
Registration times:
Club runDisney Gold & Platinum: Begins Tuesday, April 4 (via email link)
General Registration: Tuesday April 11 at 10:00 a.m. ET
I’ve got to say that the artwork for Marathon Weekend is adorable! Our mascots remain the same as last year:
5K – Pluto
10K – Chip & Dale
Half Marathon – Donald & Daisy
Marathon – Mickey & Minnie
There doesn’t seem to be much of an obvious unifying weekend theme. All the images have park references, so I guess we’ll go with “running in the parks”.
One othe piece of good news is that the prices for most events have only increased a few dollars over last year. Still not cheap, but at least they are trying to keep the fees stable.
Even though I am part of Club runDisney, I am still battle-scarred from the Disneyland and Wine & Dine registrations. I attempted to get the Disneyland 5K for my daughter and myself during general registration. I really didn’t get great queue position, but did eventually get to the registration form. I got my info in, but when I went to add the second registration, I tried and tried but for some reason could not select a T-shirt size on the second person’s registration. I got error messages on the form and try as I might could not jigger things to get the T-shirt size option to appear. I took the form’s failure as a sign that registration was already sold out, and I gave up. Sure enough a few minutes later the race was sold out and I assumed that my hypothesis was correct.
Fast forward a few weeks later when I was again attempting to get my daughter and myself registered for the Wine & Dine 5K, and this time the pressure was immense. You see I’d promised my daughter that after missing out on Disneyland, I would do everything I possibly could to get her into WD. Well the stakes hit the stratosphere whe the themes were announced because the WD 5K was none other than Alice in Wonderland, her all-time favorite movie. The weight of responibility was heavy…
Even though I was traveling for work, I lugged an extra computer to Las Vegas with me to improve my chances of getting a good position in the virtual queue. I had to contend with 1 computer not connecting to the hotel wifi, running that computer on a hotspot, and trying to field a bunch of phone calls that came in at the exact same moment that registration opened.
I did get a decent queue position on one of my browsers and confidently jumped into the enrollment form. Except… I could not select a T-shirt size on the second person AGAIN!! Since I was within the first 10 min of the window opening, there was no way it was sold out yet. There was clearly a problem with the form, that seemed to be my special problem.
There are several ways to hack your way through the form quickly… most fields can be updated later. For example, the emergency contact name and phone number, and all those relevant extra questions … “Are you military divistion?”, “Are you traveling with children?”, “What is the velocity of a laden sparrow?” You can put anything in those fields just to get through the form faster, but I can’t for the life of me understand why the T-shirt is a showstopper, but it is.
I was getting form error messages that told me to refresh, and I’ll be honest I was absolutely terrified to do that. I was afraid I’d lose everything and be kicked back into the queue. I wrestled with this for at least 10 minutes, thinking my head was going to explode and ready to throw my still-ringing phone against the wall. Feeling like my daughter’s dream race was slipping through my fingers, I finally surrendered and hit the refresh button, expecting the worst.
And… success. The form reloaded all the T-shirt sizes were available for both people, and I submitted before I had an aneurysm.
That was my story, which seemed to be pretty unique to me. I read numerous accounts of people getting the error message when they go to “I’m ready to pay.” I sure don’t have a fix for that. I don’t know if the refresh would work at that point, but if you’re registering multiple people I’d say there’s quite a bit of risk refreshing then as you have to enter all the info again (insert eye-roll). The other thing that seems to happen is that every time you hit the pay button, your credit card is authorized, whether or not the transaction is successful. Usually those authorizations fall off the credit card in a day or two, but if you’re close to your credit limit or using a debit card, that could be a problem for you.
So to summarize my top tips of the moment:
Get through the form as fast as you can – don’t waste time on the accuracy of the extra questions (but be very precise on names and birth dates!)
If you get stuck on T-shirt size, refresh the form
NEVER refresh the waiting room page
Multiple devices / browsers are a must
Use a credit card with plenty of room on your credit limit in case you have to submit more than once to get a confirmation
I’ll be attempting to register some other folks as well on April 11, so I will be heading into the General Registration fray again. Maybe it will be smooth. I can always wish upon a star.
Do you have some registration tips? Drop a comment to share your wisdom!
I know I am not the only one who is excited to finally have the opportunity to not only run a race at Disneyland, California, but to get the coveted Coast to Coast medal! These were discontinued several years ago when Disneyland races were put on pause. I’m really hoping to add “all the medals” to my wall, and this is a giant leap forward!.
So what is Coast to Coast?
Simply put, Coast to Coast is a medal runDisney runners earn if they run a long race (10 mi+) at both Disneyland and Disney World in the same calendar year.
Runners do NOT have to register for the challenge; it’s automatic. (What’s that… no separate fee? Like really? Disney passed on a money-grab opportunity? Huzzah!)
So besides money, why is this tricky?
There are two factors (other than OMG I’m running races two weeks in a row?????) that look really important to consider right now:
Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend (Florida) and Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend (California) races are back-to-back in January, 2024. Yup Florida is January 3-7 and California is January 11-14. If you want to do both, you’d better be able to have 2 weeks in the bank or be willing to accept a really chaotic remote work schedule.
Registration for the Disneyland races is soon… SOON! Club runDisney members start their registration on Feb 7; general registration is on Feb 14. No time for general registration has been announced yet. I’m presuming it won’t be 10 a.m. ET just since they should be catering to the Pacific Time audience, but that is only my opinion. I’ll post more when I know it.
Keep in mind that it has been years since there has been a Disneyland race. If you thought Dopey 2023 registration was bad… you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. I predict instant bloodbath.
So what else do I need to know?
There will be two different versions of the C2C medal offered. One for those who complete a race during Marathon Weekend first, and one for those who complete a race at Disneyland first. Do we know the difference? No. Did runDisney make it clear that the medal for those who complete the Marathon Weekend first (thus doing back-to-back weekends) is special to 2024 ? Yes. Is that the money grab? To get marathoners to sign up for Disneyland one week later? Maybe.
You can only get one C2C medal per year. If you run Marathon Weekend then Disneyland, there’s your medal. No double-dipping if you head back to Florida for Princess.
Virtual races will not qualify. This makes perfect sense to me. The point of the medal is to go to California and then go to Florida. If you do it all on your treadmill, where’s the challenge in that?
So which races qualify?
Per the runDisney site, challenge or 10 mile races will qualify you in 2024. You must have a Florida and a California race/challenge:
Walt Disney World Half Marathon (FL)
Walt Disney World Marathon (FL)
Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge (FL)
Dopey Challenge (FL)
Disneyland Half Marathon (CA)
Dumbo Double Dare Challenge (CA)
Princess Half Marathon (FL)
Fairy Tale Challenge (FL)
Springtime Surprise 10-Miler (FL)
Springtime Surprise Challenge (FL)
Wine and Dine Half Marathon (FL)
Two-Course Challenge (FL)
I personally am beyond exited. Can I pay for this? No clue. I’ll have to make some choices and beg my boss for a lot of time off. But I am ready to charge forward.
Is it bad that I am simultameously thinking “Castle to Chateau????”
It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly a week since the great summit of runDisney fans convened in Orlando. I’m personally still on a cloud from a sucessful Dopey Challenge, and I see race memories every time I close my eyes. I’ve got 90s grooves on autoplay in my head (I2I and DuckTales, I’m looking at you).
As with all things, there were highs and lows, but for me at least, it was mostly highs.
The Expo
I was lucky enough to get into town on time and with all my luggage, so everything started out on the right foot. I had early access to the merchandise at the expo, so I headed there bright and early on Wednesday morning to take a look. I’ve never been to the very start of the expo before so it was a bit of a different experience from what I’ve seen in the past. I have heard rumors about the “eBay” shoppers that hit the merchandise hall at the start and wipe it out. I was hoping that description was a bit of an exaggeration, but unfortunately I walked into some madness that morning.
Club runDisney Platinum members got access to shopping at 8:30 and Gold members entered at 9:00. I was in the arena just after 9, and was a little unprepared for what I saw. People were just scooping up armloads of everything the could get their hands on and were retreating to a corner where they were trying things on and/or facetimeing their shopping clients for feedback on the loot. Cast Members were scrambling to restock the hoodies, jackets and Loungeflys that were flying off the racks. I’m not the kind of person that is going into this for the hassle of reselling items, so I grabbed the few things I wanted (which incedentally ended up selling out) and got out of there with my sanity in tact. There were lots of complaints on social media later in the day that people had missed out on choice items, and it’s was rather sad to see said items available on eBay at the same time. One example is the Mickey-shaped Dopey 48.6 car magnet I grabbed for $9.99. That same afternoon after they sold out, I saw one on eBay for $40. Sad face.
I skipped the vendors in the main expo area, so I don’t have any commentary to add there. Someone else will have to fill you in.
The line for bib pickup was unlike anything I’ve seen before. Not only did it extend out of the building and wrap around a courtyard, it then ran the full length of Wide World of Sports all the way to the parking lot. Whoa. This was a bit after 10:00 a.m. It was moving quite quickly, but wow am I glad I was there early. Note to self: never go to expo at 10:00 a.m. on day 1!
Race Conditions
We really lucked out with the weather over the course of the 4 days. Mornings were quite chilly at the start line, particularly on Saturday for the Half Marathon. I picked up a great pro tip observing some of the other racers. Sure, you can bring old clothes to discard at the start of the race or a mylar blanket, but the real winners were the ones that showed up with discardable bathrobes. Hats of to you, my friends! Living remotely, it might be tough for me to bring 4 disposable bathrobes on the plane if I keep flying Frontier. I still have a comic vision in my mind of wearing so many bathrobes on the plane that I can’t straighten my arms. It’s evoking of Ralphie’s little brother in A Christmas Story crying, “I can’t get my arms down!!!”
Race officials were concerned about Marathon heat and humidity on Sunday and “yellow flagged” the race. They’d had some challenges at previous races so they wanted to throw some caution out there proactively. I think this is why the corrals on Sunday seemed to be released quicker than on the previous days.
I drew some unfortunate corral placement for the weekend, and waited nearly an hour to start during the first 3 days, but on Sunday, I crossed the start line in about 40 minutes, so that supports my theory that they were trying to move runners through as quickly as possible.
Anyway – the weather turned out to be not so bad on Sunday, and they didn’t need to shorten the course or get overly watchful for heat exhaustion. There were lots of challenges on the course, but thankfully the weather really wasn’t a main contributor.
“Obstacle Courses”
Much has been already been bitched written about regarding the crowding on the courses, bad runner etiquette, etc. etc.. I’m not going to go there. If you’ve run a Disney race, you know it’s not about getting to the finish line as possible. It’s about music, fun, great costumes, meeting your spirit animals and general good vibes. I won’t be lining up in the complaint department, however I will say that I personally saw 2 runners go down tripping on uneven surfaces, and a few others who were being treated. runDisney does their best to move a LOT of people through a lot of fun experiences and don’t-miss locations. At the end of the day, though, running a race, any race, is not without some risk. That’s why we sign waivers.
The obstacle I really wanted to address though was the “hard sweeps”. Race officials were not playing around this time and there was very little leeway given to stragglers. There was an “unofficial” guideline (rumor? myth?) in the past that once you were inside Epcot you were safe. Not anymore. I don’t necessarily agree with this approach, but there was a hard sweep point set up about a quarter mile from the finish line, no joke. So it’s true that you’re really not safe until you’re in the finsih line chute. That being said, I read an unofficial stat that approximately 25% of the marathon registrants did not cross the finish line.That doesn’t mean that all of them even started. I did see another number with a bit more math behind it that said more than 5% of the starters were swept. That’s higher than in previous years. In that perspective, finishing really means something, no matter what the struggles or pace.
Lines for the character stops during the shorter races were ridiculously long. I know there is a mentality that once you’ve spent a certain amount of time in a line, you’re not going to give up. Honestly, that’s not a very sane approach if finishing the race is at all important to you. There was a line for Darkwing Duck (super rare character) somewhere in Epcot. Race officials warned people in line (I heard this with my own ears) that the Balloon Ladies were coming and runners would be swept if they fell behind. Unforunately I heard a number of stories where people in that line in particular didn’t heed the warnings and ended up with a DNF. For their sake, I hope they’re happy with their decision. If that happened to me, I’d just be mad every time I saw the picture.
All the Feels
I personally got everything I hoped for and more. Coming into this season, I had 2 goals beyond finishing:
Goal #1: Get some character stop photos
In the past, I was just too fearful at my turtle’s pace to risk stopping in a long line. Working with a faster partner, we devised a system that worked really well for us. He would run on ahead and look for character stops. If he found a good one, he’d wait in line until I got there and I could join him for the pic. I know that doesn’t work for everyone, but in our situation it was a great solution. Also, the lines for characters were plentiful and short on marathon day. I got more pics than I ever imagined possible – some of them I even dared to get on my own.
Goal #2: Cross the marathon finish line with a margarita in hand
This was only possible again thanks to my running partner. 3 years ago when I last ran the marathon I wanted a margarita and was sorely disappointed to see that everyone else wanted a margarita too. Getting in that line might have jeopardized my finish, so I passed. It was sad, but a picture, snack, or even a margarita is not even close to being worth risking a Dopey medal.
My fast-running friend surged ahead and grabbed the drinks and met me close to the exit of Mexico. It was orange in color, flavored like mango, a little melted, and everything I dreamed it would be. Knowing we were safe from the sweepers, we walked the last bit into Future World and took it all in. This was the emotional moment I’d dreamed of. Not my first Dopey, but let’s be real… Dopey is always a big deal. A lot can go wrong. By the time I got that glorious margarita, I knew there was no stopping me. My legs were on fire. No big deal. My feet hurt. No big deal….
I just ran 48.6 miles in 4 days in my Happy Place. With my people. With my friends. I got my challenge medals. So did my friends. I met thousands of amazing people. I saw costumes that made me ponder, “Why didn’t I think of that?” I heard stories of resilience and bravery. I found out that when people hear the DuckTales theme, there are thousands of other people (not just me!!) who also sing “woo-ooo” in response to the call of “DuckTales”! It was a fairy tale ending to nine months of planning and dreaming.
“Double Dopey”. My new designation. Way more significant to me than any professional credentials.
It was a slow rollout nationwide, but the 2022 Virtual Series – Celebrating Frozen medals are finally around the necks of happy virtual racers. The three 5k medals are snow globes featuring our favorite heroes from Frozen, and the challenge medal features Olaf and has a fun spinning feature. There’s a bonus trading pin for the challenge completers which is a mini replica of the challenge medal, but no snow included.
When mine arrived, the medals looked like they had been stacked on their sides for a while – all the snow was lodged on the left side of the medals. It took about 30 minutes of gentle tapping to get the snow blowing freely, but it was possible.
Kristoff and Sven – FrozenElsa and Anna – Frozen IIElsa – The Broadway Musical
Of course it’s all about Olaf – and he graces both sides of the challenge medal spinner:
Olaf – Challenge MedalOlaf – Challenge Medal
Click “play” to see Olaf in action!
I love when my medals arrive, but I’m not the only one who looks forward to getting a box!
It’s been a busy week for medal news! runDisney has revealed the medal designs for the 90s-themed 30th Anniversary Marathon Weekend. They’re colorful and so much fun!
Pluto – 5KChip and Dale – 10KDonald and Daisy – HalfMickey and Minnie – FullGoofy’s Race and a Half ChallengeDopey Challenge
Challenge medals usually bring some sort of surprise. I’m guessing Goofy and Dopey spin, but it’s hard to speculate what’s hiding behind Goofy’s retro sunglasses. I’m putting my money on some sort of TheGoofy Movie / Powerline tie-in, but I guess I’ll need to wait until January 8 to know for sure.
Which medals are your favorite? Leave a comment and let me know!
Disney Park Runner 