Corral Placement Question from a rundisney newbie

[prncssjas]

I apologize if this has been asked before but I searched and searched threads and don't see an answer. I have just successfully registered for the Disney Half in January (woot!) and I would like to submit proof of time for a faster corral placement. I am curious what type of paces place you where for this race. For example, my DH, who is also running, runs a fast 10k and half marathon pace (about 7-8 minutes per mile). I am sure he will end up in corral A or B, correct? Is there any place to find this information? I am working on a 9:30-10 min pace and didn't know if this would land me in corral C, D, E, or later? Anyone run the half in January and can tell me this? We run certified races through the year so luckily, I have enough to choose from but I am wondering how this will all pan out. Thank you SO much!

 

[Keels]

If you google any of the recent races, you'll see how corral placement has been broken down - ie. WDW Half Marathon Corrals 2015

 

[prncssjas]

Thank you so much! This is perfect--found exactly what I needed.

 

[VAfamily1998]

Also, while looking at past years corrals will give you an idea, it isn't always absolute. After I registered for the 2014 Wine and Dine, I looked at the 2013 corrals to see where I would be. It appeared that with my proof of time, I would just squeeze into the corral I wanted! But when the 2014 corrals were published, you needed a time 3 minutes faster than the previous years, and that was enough that I didn't get in.

 

[Keels]

I would look at past years and also different races in those years on the same coast. That way, you're not super surprised or disappointed, especially if they change corrals allocation.

 

[prncssjas]

Thanks to you both--that's good to know and think about! I keep reading that this is *not* the race to attempt any kind of PR, which I totally understand. I just hear it's less congested towards the faster corrals so that's all I am shooting for, if that makes sense. I appreciate all the insight! I am very excited about doing this race.

 

[Keels]

If you look at most of the races, HISTORICALLY the first four or five corrals will be small. You'll see a large jump (I'm talking from 500 runners to something like 1700 runners). If there are challenges, you'll need to factor that in as well.

Also, you can Google for the race program and in there it will show you the staging setup with corrals.

Again - just to give you a better idea!

 

[FFigawi]

Thanks to you both--that's good to know and think about! I keep reading that this is *not* the race to attempt any kind of PR, which I totally understand. I just hear it's less congested towards the faster corrals so that's all I am shooting for, if that makes sense. I appreciate all the insight! I am very excited about doing this race.

It's possible to get a PR at Disney if you're in one of the early corrals and you don't mind skipping all the character photo stops. I set a PR in the half a few years ago because I was running Goofy and knew all the characters would be out again the next day. Not how I normally run Goofy or Dopey, but I somehow landed in corral B and figured what the hell.

 

[prncssjas]

Thank you John! I will keep that in mind and see where I end up.

 

[Nole95]

My wife submitted a 2:10 half for the 2015 half. I believe she was in corral F.

 

[Nole95]

Thanks to you both--that's good to know and think about! I keep reading that this is *not* the race to attempt any kind of PR, which I totally understand. I just hear it's less congested towards the faster corrals so that's all I am shooting for, if that makes sense. I appreciate all the insight! I am very excited about doing this race.

You can get a PR if you position yourself well and do not stop. Get as near to the front of your corral as possible. I ran Goofy this year and was in corral J. I got a PR in both races.

For the half I just found someone running about the same pace I wanted to go and went with them. For the full I ran with a pace group for awhile before settling into my own pace.

 

[DOOM1001]

Did they change the way you submit your times,I'm pretty certain they used to ask you when you registered to put your time from a race as well as your anticipated finish time but I just submitted my time for Wine and Dine and there's no place for anticipated finish time.Am I correct that that used to be something they did and removed it this year.I never really understood why they did that as you could put your actual finish time for a race as 3:20 for a half and you could put that you expect to finish this half in 2:20,they're not going to put you in the 2:20 corral when you haven't proved you can run it in 2:20 so why did they even ask that before,or am I wrong and I'm thinking about another race who does that?

 

[FFigawi]

Maybe they stopped asking because you'd get people at the other end of the spectrum submitting a 1:45 race with a 2:30 expected time who cause problems in their corral too?

 

[prncssjas]

When I registered for the WDW Half for January 2016 this week, there was no place to indicate expected finish. Instead, it was a "yes" or "no" question if I anticipated being faster than 3:14 (or something like that) and I stated yes. After I submitted my registration, in my email confirmation, it said I would need to certify my time by October 6th. This is my first official disney race so I can't speak to what has been done in the past.

 

[Nole95]

I believe I saw somewhere that a link will appear on the RunDisney page at some point in the future. At that time you can submit your proof of time.

 

[VAfamily1998]

Maybe they stopped asking because you'd get people at the other end of the spectrum submitting a 1:45 race with a 2:30 expected time who cause problems in their corral too?

But why would someone do that? Anyone is allowed to go back a corral--so if someone capable of a 1:45 wants to run in the corral with the 2:20s, no one will stop them...

 

[DOOM1001]

I believe I saw somewhere that a link will appear on the RunDisney page at some point in the future. At that time you can submit your proof of time.

It's up!

 

[FFigawi]

But why would someone do that? Anyone is allowed to go back a corral--so if someone capable of a 1:45 wants to run in the corral with the 2:20s, no one will stop them...

Right, there's no problem going back several corrals to run with the slower group. The issue would be where someone seeded for 1:45 is in corral B, starts in corral B, and runs a 2:30 pace. That will cause problems for other people in corral B who are now having to weave around someone going much slower than the rest of the corral. I'm not saying this is why they changed the entry form, just pointing out one problem they face when trying to place people in corrals. It's not a job I'd want to have, that's for sure.

 

[Warm Hugs]

Right, there's no problem going back several corrals to run with the slower group. The issue would be where someone seeded for 1:45 is in corral B, starts in corral B, and runs a 2:30 pace. That will cause problems for other people in corral B who are now having to weave around someone going much slower than the rest of the corral. I'm not saying this is why they changed the entry form, just pointing out one problem they face when trying to place people in corrals. It's not a job I'd want to have, that's for sure.

I think the problem is more of people who feel they may be swept thinking they need an earlier corral. A person with a 2:30 would have no problems finishing and there would be no real benefit to misrepresent your finish time. On the other hand, people who have problems meeting the minimum pace requirement but want to do the half have a great incentive to mispresent their time by trying to move up one or more corrals as the time does not start until the last person crosses the start line. These people probably shouldn't be in the half in the first place but want the medal.

They probably don't have time to check all proofs of time. But by forcing people to provide links, randomly choosing people and checking those links, and use the threat of banning these people who purposely lie from all future races if the do get caught may be enough incentive for people to not risk mispresenting their time and instead sign up for the 5k or 10k that they can finish on time.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I was one of the people in 2014 who submitted a sub 2 hour half time but estimated a finish time in the half of 3 hours. Why? Because I ran the half with my wife. They must have adjusted my starting corral backwards based on my estimated finish time based on discussions that I had with other runners in my corral.

My estimated finish time for the full was 4:30 because I knew that I was going to stop for pictures.

Disney puts in character stops. They know that people are going to stop. Unless you pass up those stops, you are going to run a much slower race than you otherwise would. I include that in my estimates. Apparently not everyone does.