Oh boy, oh boy! Registration is coming up fast for the 2024 Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend! In fact it’s on Tuesday, March 12 at 10:00 a.m., ET! If you’ve been through the registration process before you know that you need to be online and logged in to your runDisney account ahead of that, really no later than 9:45 before the games begin. If this is your first time through, I recommend checking out my post about registration.
I’m registered for the chal lenge already through Club runDisney, and I told myself that for the 2024-25 season, I don’t need to run all the races, I need to save up some cash. But flerdyschnerkenhoopy torp, they had to trot out the Swedish Chef for the 5K mascot, and this child of the 70s cannot resist, bork, bork, bork! So it looks like I get the great joy of joining the masses for general registration on Tuesday to try to score that race. To my knowledge, this is the first-ever Muppet-themed race, so I’m expecting a lot of shenanigans.
Post-Race Party – November 3, 2024 – $110 (remember that if you run the Half Marathon/Challenge, your Post-Race Party ticket is included. This is for extra tickets for guests and those not running the Half).
Some race merchandise is available at the time of checkout, though I recommend you actually complete your checkout first and then go back and buy the merch, if you want. Check out this adorable chef’s hat:
Got questions? I can help! Drop a comment, and good luck on registration day!
It’s only been a week since the 2024 Princess Half Marathon weekend, but it feels like a lifetime. Even though I was on a solo trip (and working in my hotel room most of the time) I had a blast and want to share some of the good vibes!
The Expo was pretty much typical stuff. Lots of photo opps (lucky princesses got pictures with Cinderella’s coach and some hawwwt footmen), merch that sold out quickly, as per usual, and lots of smiles pumping through the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. I was on a very tight timeline for work, so I didn’t really get to explore much. I guess I dodged a bullet on the expo floor as there was a curling iron vendor that was apparently insulting people and holding them hostage for long periods of time. Yeesh. I hope they’re not invited back!
I did purchase my very first Pandora charms (pro tip for next year: buy them at the main expo rather than at the Advent Health Arena where the runDisney merch is – the line is much shorter at the main expo). Pandora only does runDisney charms at WDW for the Princess Weekend, so I think it will be a very long time before my bracelet is at capacity!
It was great to be back at the well-oiled machine of runDisney in Florida. I feel like I am starting to recognize the event staff, and I know everyone working these events knows exactly what is going on!
I had some really fun costumes this time around. Since I was running alone, I knew I probably wouldn’t be getting too many photo stops on the courses, so I got to Epcot early for some pre-race pics with our princesses.
Character photo lines were epically long during the 5K, of course but I grabbed a couple of non-character photos as I “sped” my way around Epcot. I loved the 10K course and had lots of fun running as Mother Gothel. I didn’t see many people dressed as her, so I felt pretty unique.
The Half Marathon was my most ambitious costume – when I attempted to run as Ray from The Princess and the Frog. I am happy to say I pulled it off. The costume worked particularly well in the dark, and I’ve never had so many compliments on my butt before! Of course it may be that people just couldn’t believe that I was committed to running 13.1 miles with a giant glowing beach ball attached to my backside. It honestly wasn’t that annoying. The worst part was that it was attached at the shoulders (via a laundry bag) to a vest. The vest of course was pulled by the ball, with a lovely strangling effect, so I had to keep pulling the vest down to ensure I continued breathing. Yes, I know rule #1 of running in a costume is always do a test run, but, whatever…. Oh, and those incredible Ray eyes were painted by my daughter!
I had the misfortune of drawing corral E, but luckily was in the first wave. I stuck to my 30:30 intervals, and fortunatley never saw the balloon ladies. It was really a great sense of relief when I knew I was “safe”. Starting in the back is always scary, but now I really know that I can make the best of it. I didn’t stop for any photos, but at some point I probably could have. I was just on a mission!
Speaking of starting in the back, I really would be remiss if I didn’t give a huge shout-out to the Dead Last Start crew. What is DLS? In short it’s a bunch of crazy people who start last, with the Balloon Ladies and see how many people they can pass. Usually they do it for fun, but sometimes they do it for charity, and this weekend, they made a huge impact. You see, sadly, one of the Balloon Ladies lost her son suddenly and unexpectedly just after the Disneyland Half Marathon. The only silver lining was that Trevor Doyle’s organs were donated to four individuals. The Dead Last Start runners created a fundraiser, that last time I checked had raised over $39,000 to support organ donor families. Holy cow. That gives me chills just thinking about it. If you would like to donate in Trevor’s memory, here’s the link:
So.. the dust from yesterday’s Disneyland Halloween Half Marathon registration is hopefully settling a bit. Congrats to those who got the races they wanted. If you were one of the many who were disappointed, I feel you, and I am so sorry. I’ve been there. If you’re up for fundraising, I’ll offer up some fundraising options the week after Princess. But today’s task at hand is… PRINCESS!
The maps have been released, so I’ll share them here, with my very brief commentary. In general I have one over-arching comment. Other than January’s impromptu “half of a half”, I don’t think I’ve ever seen less park time during a challenge that doesn’t include the 5K.
5K
This is pretty standard 5K stuff. What’s new lately is a diversion through the newly-reopened center of World Celebration and a photo op with the “Dreamer’s Point” statue of Walt. There’s also a quick jog past the queue for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. That’s just a tease of course. Getting a virtual queue for that is as hard as getting a registration for this race.
10K
I have to be honest here. I’ve done plenty of 10Ks at Disney World where we have hit two parks, but unless I have early onset alzheimer’s, I am pretty sure there was way more park time than this.
From the start line the first 3 miles are all highway until we get to the “Studios.” I put that in quotes because if you happen to sneeze while running down Sunset Boulevard, you might miss the whole thing. That’s it. “Rockin’ Roller Coaster on your right, Tower of Terror on your left, Photopass, Photopass, please exit, buh-bye!” 
Then it’s the Narrows of Death to the Boardwalk, and not even a loop of the World Showcase (WTF??), a drive-by of United Kingdom and Canada, and a very fast exit out the usual way…
Sorry, just feeling a little empty here…
Half Marathon
So first of all, I apologize these images are so small. This is all that runDisney makes available. The huge posters will be on view at the expo. For now, you’re stuck with my memory, or alternatively, you can use Google maps, which could potentially be more accurate…
Anyway. We are launched from the start in the darkness into lots and lots and lots (6 miles) of highway running.
We have a euphoric 10-20 minutes in Magic Kingdom.
We return to highway running for 6 miles.
We do not run the World Showcase Lagoon.
We get some medals.
The end.
I’ll be honest, of all the runDinsey races I have run, this one has my head scratching the most. Disclaimer: I never ran Princess Half before, but I have run many runDisney races. I don’t have time to go and research all the past courses. Maybe this is normal. But I’m already feeling a little gypped looking at the courses. I’m not sure if that’s coming from being a veteran runner. I am trying to put myself in the sneakers of someone who has never done this before: that princess/prince is probably excited no matter what they see. I, on the other hand am mapping out every square inch of park time and calculating my value per registration dollar. Probably not the right approach for someone who loves this as much as I do.
*New* Tips
OK, I’ve been ranting about the courses. I apologize. I do have a couple of new tips to share. Hoping someone finds them useful:
Driving in? Stay to the left as you enter Epcot. As left as you can. This gives you the best chance of parking in the lots on the left. Your feet will thank you after the race.
Get there EARLY for great photos there will be Photopass ops with major characters before the race, but the lines will be impossible by 4:15 or so. if you want a really great photo, get there earlier than that and score.
Want to be interviewed on the big screen? Do you have a great costume, story or just want to say hello to the whole runDisney community? Stay to the far right of the corral. I mean farrrrr right, and hug the barrier. No guarantees, of course, but if you’re on the other side, they’ll never see you. 
OK, that’s all my pre-Princess wisdom. With a foot of snow surrounding me, I really can’t wait to get to Orlando next week. Please drop a comment if you’ll be there!
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!!
We’re only two weeks out from the Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend! If you’re headed to Orlando it’s time to start your checklist! There’s a lot that’s the same about this year’s event but there are a few updates to share, so I’ll focus on what’s new for Wine & Dine 2023:
Course maps have been released. They have been published in the Virtual Expo. They are not terribly different from courses in the past, so I will spare you the detailed commentary. What I am foreseeing, looking at the Half Marathon map is a massive bottleneck between the Boardwalk and Hollywood Studios between miles 3 and 4. Best to just plan on walking this stretch and making some new friends!
Costume Guidelines have been updated (and are the source of much controversy and angst). An initial, and very vague email was sent to runners, but fortunately has recently been clarified. I know that the new guidelines are in the interest of safety, but I have to admit that I am disappointed that we may not be treated to some of the extravagant get-ups we’ve seen in the past.
Here’s what runDisney has to say about costumes (from an email dated 10/18):
Layered costumes,  such as ball gowns, hoop skirts, those that have an infrastructure with metal components or hard edges, costumes that do not follow the natural contour of the human body, and/or. costumes that could conceal prohibited items are not permitted.
Layered clothing, including tutus over running shorts, cold-weather gear such as sweatshirts or sweatpants, and clothing that follows the natural contour of the body are permitted unless they present a safety hazard (e.g. dragging on the ground). 
Costume or large props including, without limitation, those that surround the entire body (e.g. cardboard, plastic or other wearable costumes with hard edges, such as a house from Disney-Pixar’s Up), those that are inflatable, or those that physically connect multiple participants to each other are not permitted.
Small, inflatable or soft-bodied, handheld props (e.g. an inflatable Toy Story ball) are permitted.  Foam swords and all-plastic lightsabers may be permitted, however, they may not exceed 36″ in length.
Now I think there’s a whole lot of grey area between what’s a “costume” and what is “clothing”. Ultimately it will be up to the volunteers to decide what will and won’t fly that day. My suggestion is that you have a backup plan if you get flagged for a costume. That is, make sure you’re wearing something you can run in (publicly!) under your costume if you need to ditch your creation. Looks like I need to pull out the sewing machine and see if I can hack a few yards of material off my “ball gowns”.
Bling Honestly there’s too much to cover in this post between medals and merch! I’ll cover these later this week!
Epcot at Night
After-Party The much-awaited after party takes place at Epcot the evenig after the Half Marathon on November 5. It’s a ticketed event, and in true runDisney style is sold out. All Half Marathon runners should have received a hard ticket in the mail by now. They come in plain white envelopes and are pretty easy to miss if you’re not paying attention. If you purchased an extra ticket at the time of registration, your ticket came in an email with your confirmation. You may need to scroll waaaay back in your email to find it.
So, as with all sold-out events, there is a scramble for party tickets on the secondary market. People are selling tickets on the various runDisney Facebook marketplaces from face value ($105) up to about $120. For what you get at the party, I’d really think carefully about how much I am willing to spend, especially if you want to snag multiple tickets.
Party Ticket
Although a letter mailed with the tickets said that you must bring the hard ticket with you, I’m doubting they will enforce that if you have the ticket linked to the My Disney Experience app. I haven’t done this myself yet, but I have heard that linked party tickets are showing up in the app as “magic bands”. I think once a ticket is linked it becomes much more difficult, if not impossible, to transfer to another person. So my advice is to wait to the last minute to link your tickets to your profile, just in case you have the need to sell/transfer.
If you lost or never received your ticket, you can go to the box office at the Advent Health Arena during the expo to get a replacement. Heads up that this might be a difficult process. Last year I had to do this for a friend with a Canadian address, and I wasn’t sure they were actually going to give it to us, although we eventually did get the missing ticket.
Sheila E
So what do you get at the afterparty?
Early entry to Epcot at 5:00 p.m. I did this last year and I totally regret it. I’ve never seen Epcot so crowded, and it wasn’t very much fun
The private party that starts at 10:00 p.m. and goes till 1:00 a.m. I was so tired I barely made it to 10:00 last year, but by 9:00, the park started clearing out and crowds were more manageable
Many attractions (including Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind!) with much shorter wait times than normal
Character meet-and-greets
Epcot International Food and Wine Festival food booths. Half Marathon runners will get a $15 gift card shortly before the race, but other than that, bring your money cause none of it is free 😦
There has not been any mention of a special concert at the after-party (boo!) but if they do announce one, I am putting my money on the artist being Sheila E, who will be performing November 5 & 6 at the Eat to the Beat Concert Series. If you have your heart set on hearing her, DO get to Epcot early as she has shows scheduled at 5:30, 6:45 and 8:00.
So there’s lots more, but too much to cover here! Got questions? Drop me a comment! Want to meet up during race weekend? Drop me a comment! Have more info? Drop me a comment! I can’t wait to see you all in Orlando!
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.
runDisney dropped a big holiday surprise on us avid runners this week! They announced the first ever 12Ks of Christmas virtual series. Details are still pretty vague, but what we do know is that this is a series of three 4K virtual runs with a holiday theme. There will also be a challenge available. No details have been released on themes, price or timing, but we do know, that registration opens on July 25. We’ll keep you updated as we know more.
Princess Half Marathon Weekend 2023 Registration
If your calendar isn’t marked already, mark it now!! General registration for all Princess Half Marathon Weekend races and challenge starts at 10 a.m. ET this coming Tuesday, June 20. If you’re trying for a bib, make sure you’re logged in on rundisney.com at least 10-15 minutes before registration. Spots are going to go fast. Just try to keep your cool. Be ready with your credit card, and don’t panic if the form doesn’t open up exactly at 10:00 a.m. The last few registrations have started a little late.
Park and Resort Discounts
In a sure sign that demand is finally easing at the parks, Dinsey is now offering some ticket and resort discounts. The 4-Day 4-Park Magic ticket offers admission to 1 park per day for $396 plus tax. There are also a number of active offers for resort discounts for general Disney enthusiasts and Annual Passholders. Details are available at https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/special-offers/. I perused what’s available, and noted that there are a lot of blackout dates, including – and most importantly – on weekends, inclcudine Wine & Dine Weekend. Make sure you check the fine print carefully, but you may be able to snag yourself a deal if your dates ar flexible, you’re a Disney+ subscriber (like who isn’t??), in the military or have Annual Passes.
Hear ye, hear ye! The royal proclamation has been made and the Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend themes have been revealed. At last we can be excited. Or disappointed. Or apathetic. There are only so many princesses in the rotation, so it’s no surprise that the line-up is similar to previous years. I’m pretty pleased with the choices, and the artwork reminds me of my beloved fairy tale record album covers from the 1970s.
Registration for Club runDisney Gold and Platinum members begins on June 13.
General registration is June 20, 2023 at 10:00 a.m ET. Dont. Be. Late.
Virtual race registration June 23, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. ET
In a bit of a departure from recent weekends, Princess Yoga in front of the castle will be offered, but it will be held on the Monday following the races instead of the day before the 5k.
So with out further ado, here’s the breakdown:
5K
Ariel
February 23, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.
$108
10K
Rapunzel
February 24, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.
$151
Half Marathon
Tiana
February 25, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.
$232
Disney Fairy Tale Challenge (10K+ Half Marathon)
Elsa & Anna
February 24-25, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.
$232
Princess Yoga
February 26, 2024 at 5:30 a.m.
$117
I figured Ariel being in the line-up was a no-brainer, with the recent live action release of The Little Mermaid. I’m expecting to see thousands of glorious mermaid tails on the course. We’ll see how the running goes for them. I personally think I’ll be leaning more towards tentacles. I hope your favorite princess is in the lineup! Drop a comment and let me know what you think of the themes!
The Pixar-themed Springtime Surprise weekend raced into the history books April 13-16 and it was an epic weekend of fun with all the trimmings, rare character stops, and some of that famous Central Florida humidity! I’ll be honest that I was a little ambivalent when the Pixar theme was announced, but it ended up being loads of fun.
My adventures actually started on the day of the expo, a day I also planned to spend at Epcot celebrating my daughter’s birthday. Paramount to the day would be getting a Virtual Queue spot on Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind and dinner at Space 220. I’ve had varying luck with the GoG Virtual Queue in the past, so I was elated to get a spot this time around. Except somehow we snagged boarding group 12, which was a guaranteed conflict with my 9 a.m. shopping window at the expo. I was staying on property at Port Orleans, so the expo buses were not going to get me to ESPN by 9. I jumped in an Uber to get there ($10. Fine.) and sent the kids off to Epcot, which also opened at 9.
Well… at 8:40 I got the notification that our GoG boarding group had already been called. Whaaat? With a sense of extreme urgency I power-shopped for the few items I was looking for and headed for the exit trying to get an Uber to the park. Except the Uber app was glitching and wouldn’t perform any searches. The only thing that saved me was that I had Epcot in my history and was able to use that reference to request the ride. This time the ride (roughly the same distance as my previous ride a few minutes before) was $30. Womp-womp! The whole time my teenager was texting me.. “Mom, are you here yet? WHERE ARE YOU???” I got to Epcot a few minutes after our Guardians window technically closed, but the Cast Members allowed our party on to the ride, and we were off to save the galaxy! Big fun!
At this point I had my merch, I had my ride but I was still missing something… Oh. My bib! I still needed to get back to the expo to pick up my bib. So we poked around Epcot for a bit, rode the Three Caballeros ride in Mexico, and then Frozen Ever After, and I headed out the back of Epcot and grabbed an Expo bus from the Dolphin to get my bib. By the time I got back to the Expo, lines were gone, and it was another quick in-and-out. I dropped my stuff back at the resort and finally rejoined the family for a fun-filled day capped off by dinner in space. Totally worth it!
Race days felt a bit different for me because I was running solo for the first time all season. I decided on a new approach and instead of bolting for the corral on the morning of the 5K, I decided to stand in line for a pre-race character stop with Mater. Lines are long, and I was actually behind the “end of line” sign, which marked the cutoff for pre-race photos. I decided to chance it and ended up with my photo, and still managed to get a fairly decent spot in my corral D. They did 5 corrals for all the races this time around. Honestly I didn’t wait very long to start, even being towards the back. I think I started by 5:25 a.m. I was expecting to go closer to 5:45 so the shorter wait time was very welcome.
The race itself was a bit of a blur to me – the 5Ks happen so fast, it feels like you blink and they’re over. I remember some light rain, and hearing “Life is a Highway” on repeat! Character stop lines were crazy-long so I bypassed all of those and just held to my run-walk-run intervals. I finished before the sun was even up (that might be a first) and headed straight to my resort bus.
The Monsters, Inc. theme for the 10K brought out some of the best costumes of the weekend… I so much loved seeing the interpretations of Roz, the Monsters U. cheerleaders, Oozma Kappa brothers, and of course Mike, Sully, and all their pals. My race felt pretty good, but knowing I had 10 miles ahead of me the next day kept me a bit on edge. I was decidedly undertrained this time around. Even though I have Dopey under my belt, 10 miles felt like a reach and was looming in the back of my consiousness.
Can we talk for a minute about the character stop in Canada? None other than the boy band 4*Town from Turning Red! They were everything you dreamed the boy band could be, and they were singing live. 4*Town 4-Ever!
Sunday came and the capstone Toy Story 10-Miler was a run thorough thick pea soup. I struggled a bit lot with the humidity, and didn’t really enjoy the course, which placed all the highway miles at the end. That being said, with the close quarters of running in the parks, I was actually a bit relieved to hit the highway and have some space during the second half. As rough as I felt, I never caught sight of the balloon ladies. With shorter character lines today, I got a few pics and finished a sweaty, smelly mess. My body was telling me “no celebrating”, so I headed straight for the resort buses to go shower and put myself out of misery. And just like that my season was over.
Reflecting back on my nearly-perfect season (I missed 2 Princess races), I have to say I would – and will do it all again! If I have one regret, it’s that I didn’t interact with more people. Even though I write and put my thoughts out on the internet for the world to see, I am a complete introvert, so starting new social interactions is kind of tough for me. The runDisney community is an amazing, generous and caring community! And I am so proud to be part of it. So for the close of the racing season, I’ll just sign off with “To Next Season, and Beyond!!!”
They waited until the last minute, but runDisney has released the merchandise preview for the Springtime Surprise expo, available starting Thursday!
As per ususal, plenty of shirts, jackets, Spirit Jerseys, and of course ears and Loungeflys!
See anything you like? I have so many shirts and jackets, I don’t think I need anymore. I do like the Spirit Jersey and Loungefly.
All this merch and more will be available at the Official Race Merchandise location in the Advent Health Arena. Remember that access on Thursday is by Virtual Queue. The queue opens up at 8:30 in the My Disney Experience app. There is no Virtual Queue on Friday or Saturday.
Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you like! See you next weekend!
Disney Park Runner 