Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend 2025

[MissLiss279]

If the challenge is still available when I get my reimbursement from a very expensive vet bill, I might sign up. Hopefully it will be in the next week - it’s been processing for 5 weeks and they said it could be 42 days.
I hadn’t planned on doing this race, but maybe!! Flight prices aren’t too bad for me.

 

[disneyrunnergrl]

If the challenge is still available when I get my reimbursement from a very expensive vet bill, I might sign up. Hopefully it will be in the next week - it’s been processing for 5 weeks and they said it could be 42 days.
I hadn’t planned on doing this race, but maybe!! Flight prices aren’t too bad for me.

I was really surprised I was able to find a decent price for a flight. It was part of what made me impulse register. I assume flight times will change between now and January, but typically if they change drastically I can change without an additional fee.

 

[MinnesotaDisneyFan]

FYI about on-site hotels. Last year Disney allowed race participants to book hotels prior to rates and availability being released for 2024. I called yesterday and was told this is not the case this year. The friendly cast member I spoke to had a memo they received yesterday explicitly spelling out that it was a change from last year and runners will have to wait for the general public 2025 release (which she said could be mid to late July).

 

[Herding_Cats]

I was really surprised I was able to find a decent price for a flight. It was part of what made me impulse register. I assume flight times will change between now and January, but typically if they change drastically I can change without an additional fee.

unless the new law changed things, if they change ANYTHING about the flight you can change it without a fee. We are planning on changing our flight home on MW once we get closer to the date are are more confident they won't change/cancel the one we want, because they changed the flight number of our current flight.

 

[disneyrunnergrl]

unless the new law changed things, if they change ANYTHING about the flight you can change it without a fee. We are planning on changing our flight home on MW once we get closer to the date are are more confident they won't change/cancel the one we want, because they changed the flight number of our current flight.

Oh wow! Good to know. American in the past has told me it’s if the change is more than 2 hours.

 

[disneyrunnergrl]

Dumbo finally sold out some time this morning.

 

[nekonekoneko]

According to @RunDisneyAlerts on Xitter, Dumbo closed at 10:51.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Oh wow! Good to know. American in the past has told me it’s if the change is more than 2 hours.

hmmm....that might be their specific policy, but we've never had an issue changing flights

 

[ShoeCello]

Dumbo finally sold out some time this morning.

Interesting that the HM is still open - is this normal for Dumbo or other challenges to sell out before the M or HM?

 

[edna mode]

following

 

[nekonekoneko]

Interesting that the HM is still open - is this normal for Dumbo or other challenges to sell out before the M or HM?

The longest race in a challenge will usually hang on for longer than the challenge it is part of. So the half still being open after Dumbo being full is normal.

This happens with Fairy Tale and their half for Princess as well as the full marathon and Goofy/Dopey

 

[Sleepless Knight]

Interesting that the HM is still open - is this normal for Dumbo or other challenges to sell out before the M or HM?

I think this is because the people who are ready to take on the challenge register for the challenge so the longest distance is available longer because it's a bigger commitment for anyone looking to run "only" one race. When I decided to register for my first 10K/Half Challenge, I had already worked through my training strategies and mental plan for recovering from the 10K for the Half. Likewise, when I decided to tackle Dopey as part of my first marathon, I had already worked through the mental part of why I wanted to attempt the marathon.

Speaking for myself, one of the biggest things I always struggled with during a race was questioning what was I thinking when I registered for this during the first 2-3 miles of the race. No matter how well trained I was, I always struggled with that. Well, I still have to deal with that, only now that I run the challenges I get all of those bad thoughts out of the way during the first race and then I'm all settled in for the longer races that lie ahead.

 

[StarGirl11]

Interesting that the HM is still open - is this normal for Dumbo or other challenges to sell out before the M or HM?

Admittedly on top of what everyone else has said the challenges usually have less bibs allotted for them. So there’s that as well

 

[fatmanatee]

I'll add to previous commentary to say that since my first RD race I've only done challenges. If I'm going to travel for these things I'm going to get as much as I can out of the actual races.

 

[DisneyParrothead]

I think this is because the people who are ready to take on the challenge register for the challenge so the longest distance is available longer because it's a bigger commitment for anyone looking to run "only" one race. When I decided to register for my first 10K/Half Challenge, I had already worked through my training strategies and mental plan for recovering from the 10K for the Half. Likewise, when I decided to tackle Dopey as part of my first marathon, I had already worked through the mental part of why I wanted to attempt the marathon.

Speaking for myself, one of the biggest things I always struggled with during a race was questioning what was I thinking when I registered for this during the first 2-3 miles of the race. No matter how well trained I was, I always struggled with that. Well, I still have to deal with that, only now that I run the challenges I get all of those bad thoughts out of the way during the first race and then I'm all settled in for the longer races that lie ahead.

I'm feeling this way now. I have a charity bib for Fairytale, and I haven't done a half in over ten years. I'm already questioning how I'm going to make it, and training doesn't start until October. I know I can do it, and thankfully in the fall and winter I'll have cooler weather.

 

[TinkAgainU]

Part of me wonders if the change in registration date is part of it. I imagine many people have to take off time to register, and switching the date last minute means maybe they can't make the new date/time work. If it sells out tonight or after lunch time on the west coast, that could be part of it.

I personally know people who signed up for Oggie Boogie (which they'd not first considered) when they could not sign up for runDisney due to the website challenges. OBB was a fair amount of money to spend just six days ago, so they could not bring themselves to also commit to the funds to run in January. They also mentioned the "theming" for OBB is predicable, while the theming for this race (including offsite start, offsite course etc) seemed less magical. I signed up for both, but frankly, was simply less excited about getting my runDisney registration this time around. I can almost guarantee this will be my last unless a friend or family member wants to try it for the first time together.

 

[nekonekoneko]

FYI about on-site hotels. Last year Disney allowed race participants to book hotels prior to rates and availability being released for 2024. I called yesterday and was told this is not the case this year. The friendly cast member I spoke to had a memo they received yesterday explicitly spelling out that it was a change from last year and runners will have to wait for the general public 2025 release (which she said could be mid to late July).

I'm cool staying right across the street on Harbor. If the start is at the same spot in 2025, they will be plenty closer, as well.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I'm feeling this way now. I have a charity bib for Fairytale, and I haven't done a half in over ten years. I'm already questioning how I'm going to make it, and training doesn't start until October. I know I can do it, and thankfully in the fall and winter I'll have cooler weather.

In the event this helps, here's my thought process leading up to why I decided to take on a challenge and eventually Dopey.

In 2012, I ran the Wine & Dine Half on a Saturday night after being in Disney World since Tuesday having done my usual rope drop to park close every day, including a late decision to stay in the Magic Kingdom until 1:00am when it announced a last minute later closure. For what it's worth, I was days removed from a pretty bad cold when I left for Disney World. Finished the half just fine, and I even spent a couple of hours in Epcot the afternoon of the Half Marathon (which started at 10:00pm back then) after I started to go stir crazy attempting to rest in my hotel room. That was my 3rd half marathon and 3rd race of any kind. I had thought about registering for the 5K that year (no challenge back then), but feared that my legs would not hold up during the half, so I skipped the 5K. Little did I know. Little did I know. . . .

And in 2014, Disney announced Star Wars races in Disneyland with a challenge component. My 2012 Wine & Dine experience told me that if I could finish a 10:00pm half marathon on the back end of my usual Disney World vacation, my legs would be just fine handling the back to back races if I trained properly and paced myself accordingly. So I signed up for the Star Wars Rebel Challenge in 2015. And things went off just fine.

This same kind of process combined with vacations where I spent 5 days in Disney World immediately after a 10K/Half challenge weekend led me to feel more confident in my body's ability to handle the marathon and Dopey. I have since finished Dopey 5 times and run all 5 marathons as part of Dopey, including this year where I was in the in the hospital with pneumonia 3 months to the days of Marathon Weekend and thus had to skip running for the entire month of October in order to recover.

I don't believe that muscle memory will magically make someone fast enough to finish if they aren't already there. But I do think that muscle memory reminds that you've done this before and that you're prepared "enough", so you can indeed do it again.

 

[LilyJC]

Which goes back to my original question as to why the HM and Dumbo are still not sold out as of right now?

Another factor that might be at play for So Cal locals is that rD moved this weekend to the same dates as another incredibly popular race - Surf City half/full. Surf City has thousands of runners every year, and is also a reasonably popular destination race. We definitely debated which race to do and opted for 5k+Dumbo while registering for the virtual Surf City 1/2 to keep our legacy status. Many friends chose Surf City Perhaps part of a plausible explanation…

 

[Sleepless Knight]

Another factor that might be at play for So Cal locals is that rD moved this weekend to the same dates as another incredibly popular race - Surf City half/full. Surf City has thousands of runners every year, and is also a reasonably popular destination race. We definitely debated which race to do and opted for 5k+Dumbo while registering for the virtual Surf City 1/2 to keep our legacy status. Many friends chose Surf City Perhaps part of a plausible explanation…

I think this could also be a part of it. It's fair to say that people have certain expectations of what a runDisney race will be. I ran 6 half marathons at Disneyland and 3 10Ks there before the hiatus. 2 Disneyland race weekends, all 3 Star Wars race weekends, and the last Avengers Half.

And some of those reasonable expectations were definitely not met this year.

There were a lot fewer characters along the course and fewer photographers in the parks this year. There were some issues during the races such as the 10K snafu in which a cast member was sharing what turned out to be very erroneous information about a sweep point at the 10K that caused some chaos and a lot of stress at the end of that race. The mile 3 marker combined with water stop and extremely narrow choke point during the half was an absolute mess. And that's just what I experienced.

I only heard about the security lines for runners heading back to the onsite hotels after the 10K and Half.

In short, I think runDisney wants to make sure they put on a good event in September and address what can be addressed. They'll get some grace because it was the first race weekend back and so much institutional memory had been lost after over 5 years with no races, but there comes the expectation that things will be improved.