Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend 2026

[DodgerGirlMissy]

Mile 7.5…

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I'm running the Ducks 5K next week, so I'm hoping this section of the half was a preview for next week's race

 

[fatmanatee]

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EDIT: trying to post a link to a vid of Carissa's last speech as the balloon ladies finished but it seems to be breaking? It's at @rundisneydpt on IG.

 

[AZMermaid]

This felt like a significant improvement in terms of crowd support. Not sure if it’s due to the route change, the fact that this is the last one for awhile, etc.

Loved the people sitting on their balconies cheering for us! Also appreciated the shade in this stretch.

 

[AZMermaid]

I saw the Carissa video. Interesting they seemed to hold the balloon ladies a second to be truly last. But I loved it. She’s talking like it’s never ever again.

I had a race. Haha. My knee almost gave out at mile 0.5 and I was like oh. No. It hurt so so so bad. I started walking and noted it didn’t hurt walking. But I also don’t walk fast enough to do that the whole time. I slightly panicked but realized I could do a 30/30 with short strides with a functional level of pain. So that’s what I did, one mile at a time. I didn’t stop for any characters because I was worried if I needed to move to a full walk, I’d regret stopping if that made the difference. In hindsight I could have stopped for at least one. I saw the balloon ladies when they were just past 7 and I was just past 9, so then I knew I’d make it! I was still relatively okay until mile 11 when the pain increased again. But I did it! I finished and got my C2C!

I went to the hotel, showered and headed to DL. I got lucky and caught the Small World spot with only one family ahead of me. He must have just gotten there. The partners and castle spots were way too long for me all day. Wish I had checked here and seen that tip! I did get some good main st shots.

I liked this course better than 2024 except for the overpasses at the end. Those sucked. I liked going around that park and there seemed to be less potholes. Someone did go down near me around 10ish but she was able to keep going. The out and back didn’t bother me as much as I thought it might. As a slower runner it was nice to be able to gauge how I was doing.

DL is a much easier trip for me so I’ll miss the opportunity to do these races. Hopefully they come back in a few years.

 

[MinnesotaDisneyFan]

Has it been noted that Disneyland Park opened at 8:30 AM on Sunday instead of the published 9 AM? I was with my party being pretty leisurely on Main Street at around 8:20 after rushing to shower and change and get back to the park after the race. At 8:30 I heard the “walk to your first destination” rope drop announcement and was pretty surprised. We had a VERY productive first hour as it was very quiet.

Was the published 9 AM opening just playing it safe depending on how race cleanup went? Or has earlier than published rope drop become more common since discontinuing the hotel guest early entry?

 

[LKing]

Was the published 9 AM opening just playing it safe depending on how race cleanup went? Or has earlier than published rope drop become more common since discontinuing the hotel guest early entry?

Rope drop is no earlier than 8 am.

During events like the half marathon or CHOC Walk, if they can clear the park early and be ready to open closer to 8 am, they will.

 

[jrsharp21]

Has it been noted that Disneyland Park opened at 8:30 AM on Sunday instead of the published 9 AM? I was with my party being pretty leisurely on Main Street at around 8:20 after rushing to shower and change and get back to the park after the race. At 8:30 I heard the “walk to your first destination” rope drop announcement and was pretty surprised. We had a VERY productive first hour as it was very quiet.

Was the published 9 AM opening just playing it safe depending on how race cleanup went? Or has earlier than published rope drop become more common since discontinuing the hotel guest early entry?

Hopefully you were able to do a lot of the rides early before they went down on Sunday. Rough day for DL as far as rides going down. Never got to get on Pirates on Sunday as it was down for pretty much the whole day. We eventually made use of LL and the "open" LL you get when rides are down, to get on everything. But we definitely did a lot of zig zagging through the park. While it felt like there was lots of people in the park, the wait time for rides wasn't bad at all.

 

[MinnesotaDisneyFan]

Hopefully you were able to do a lot of the rides early before they went down on Sunday. Rough day for DL as far as rides going down. Never got to get on Pirates on Sunday as it was down for pretty much the whole day. We eventually made use of LL and the "open" LL you get when rides are down, to get on everything. But we definitely did a lot of zig zagging through the park. While it felt like there was lots of people in the park, the wait time for rides wasn't bad at all.

Definitely a rough day for Pirates on Sunday. We never ended up going on it. Big Thunder was down during our LL return time but we ended up successfully riding it later. No other issues for us and a very productive day (but lots of zig zagging, a 52K step day with the half marathon).

 

[fatmanatee]

So RD is providing the wrong instructions about getting race photos on their website...

 

[MinnesotaDisneyFan]

So RD is providing the wrong instructions about getting race photos on their website...

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Adding to this confusion is that your expo check-in pass has your photo code on it...but only when you look at it on the website. If you add it to your apple wallet, the photo code isn't on the pass.

 

[Disneyhanna]

Had a really great weekend, everything was a vast improvement from the 2024 DL Half. Aside from the merch availability lol.

Some really bad photos in the half (overexposed/blurry) but at least I got wayyyy more than in 2024 overall.

 

[fatmanatee]

Oh! I have to give a special thanks to Jennifer Garner* for bringing her treats for us to try for free. Not sure I'll buy them regularly because they're a bit pricey but those oat bars and smoothie packs were GOOD.

*just to be clear she wasn't there and might have no clue that they were doing this promo

 

[jrsharp21]

Oh! I have to give a special thanks to Jennifer Garner* for bringing her treats for us to try for free. Not sure I'll buy them regularly because they're a bit pricey but those oat bars and smoothie packs were GOOD.

*just to be clear she wasn't there and might have no clue that they were doing this promo

Speaking of treats at the expo, at MW the people at the Bauducco booth just shove handfuls of the chocolate biscuits at you. At the DL, they were making people spin a wheel to see what free biscuit they got. I was cracking up about that. I wanted to grab a chocolate biscuit and saw the line that wasn't really moving, I was like what the heck. Then I saw they were making people spin a wheel each time, decided I didn't need the biscuit that bad. LOL.

 

[The Expert]

Speaking of treats at the expo, at MW the people at the Bauducco booth just shove handfuls of the chocolate biscuits at you. At the DL, they were making people spin a wheel to see what free biscuit they got. I was cracking up about that. I wanted to grab a chocolate biscuit and saw the line that wasn't really moving, I was like what the heck. Then I saw they were making people spin a wheel each time, decided I didn't need the biscuit that bad. LOL.

They started out at MW with the machine. I was one of the first folks in there on day one and they were still training everyone on it. Rumor has it, it kept landing so many times on "no prize" that they finally just ditched the whole thing and gave out samples.

 

[LKing]

At the last Disneyland expo, they were just handing them out. I was there to check out the Brooks shoes, walked through the expo to get to the Brooks tent and was handed a Bauducco.

 

[jrsharp21]

I think every year at MW I walked out with a handful of them. Now that is usually in the afternoon on day one. That is why I was shocked to see them being "stingy" with them. This was both on the first day of the DL expo and on Saturday when we went back to buy some Brooks.

 

[amazingact21]

Never got to get on Pirates on Sunday as it was down for pretty much the whole day.

I made the critical mistake of promising my daughter we would go on Pirates on Sunday. We were hanging out at DL Friday morning, and she said that was the one attraction she wanted to go on, but I thought it'd be a nice place to sit and rest after the Half. Rookie move!

 

[AZMermaid]

Speaking of treats at the expo, at MW the people at the Bauducco booth just shove handfuls of the chocolate biscuits at you. At the DL, they were making people spin a wheel to see what free biscuit they got. I was cracking up about that. I wanted to grab a chocolate biscuit and saw the line that wasn't really moving, I was like what the heck. Then I saw they were making people spin a wheel each time, decided I didn't need the biscuit that bad. LOL.

I went on Saturday and when I first walked by they were spinning. Then I had to go by again because I went to the wrong door to exit. Anyway, they had ditched the wheel and were handing out biscuits. This was around 11AM Saturday.

I have a ton of finish line photos and only one on course one. Luckily it’s on Main Street and pretty solid. No other photos!! At Galaxys Edge they were messing with the camera lens so I knew I wasn’t getting that one. The course was more crowded than I’d experienced before and I’m sure that was part of it. Ironically, in WDW I got tons of great course photos and not great (but acceptable) finish line and main st photos. So it averaged out!

 

[Bunkie1979]

Hi friends! Brooks shoes are up for sale - get them while you can: https://www.brooksrunning.com/en_us/run-disney/

Anyone know if the Disneyland style was available earlier, or maybe haven't been released yet???

 

[fatmanatee]

Hi friends! Brooks shoes are up for sale - get them while you can: https://www.brooksrunning.com/en_us/run-disney/

Anyone know if the Disneyland style was available earlier, or maybe haven't been released yet???

If this is the new drop and it doesn’t include DL that doesn’t bode well for its availability. That said I haven’t seen posts elsewhere about this drop.