Do your rD finish times impact future corral placement?

[iheartglaciers]

So I always thought that aside from official POT, they use your self-reported finish times to assign corals (recognizing that more people report low finish times than they can fit in Corrals B/C... so some peope are just going to get Corral D/E even if you have a low self-reported finish time). But I saw some people mention they were hoping their recent race time would help them get into a better corral next time. Is that a thing? Does rD factor past finish times into your corral placement? My first two rD races (many years ago) I was in the last corral and more recently have been in Corral B/C. But I figured that was just luck.

 

[Herding_Cats]

runDisney will not go look up your race results on their own to help you out, or assign you to a corral. Those runners likely ran a qualifying time to meet the cutoff for one of the 10mi/half/full races. In that case, they would be allowed to submit a "proof of time" and link their results for rundisney/trackshack to verify. Corrals A and B are for these faster runners, so what you're probably seeing is runners who were just short of having a qualifying time (corral C) being fast enough to submit a time that would get them into corral B, or a runner who now has an even faster proof of time to submit that may bump them from corral B to corral A.

If you don't meet the requirements to submit a proof of time (POT) then you just select the most accurate pace per mile (5k and 10k races) or total finish time (10mi/half/full) for you. That's what the vast majority of runners at rD races do.

 

[Pizzaman12]

Just ran my first rD 5K. Man, is it rough out of Corral D.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

If you self report certain finish times that will place you in a faster corral, runDisney will require proof by a certain date that you actually achieved that finish time in a race. Otherwise, you get put in the last corral.

If you only race at Disney, then your finish time will absolutely impact your corral. I know I'll be in the last corral, so I have to plan accordingly. While I only stop for characters that I really like or from movies that I love, I go into a race knowing that I may not be able to make any character stops.

While the last corral can cover a very wide estimated finish times (I've seen up to 4 different pace groups in one corral and the pace groups have 15 minute spreads, just remember that if you run a mile in 10 minutes and spend 10 minutes in line during that mile, you actually ran it in 20 minutes. With runDisney's 16 minute per mile pace rule, you may not have cushion to stop for characters.

 

[Let's Get Kronk]

If you self report certain finish times that will place you in a faster corral, runDisney will require proof by a certain date that you actually achieved that finish time in a race. Otherwise, you get put in the last corral.

The bolded above is not true. I have never submitted a POT for any runDisney race and for Goofy last year I got put in C corral for both races (I believe E or F was the last one?) and I just did W&D and got B corral for the 5K (D was last corral) and C for the challenge (E was last corral). I think they base it off of the times you estimate and I estimate mine to be just outside of the POT windows.

 

[camaker]

The bolded above is not true. I have never submitted a POT for any runDisney race and for Goofy last year I got put in C corral for both races (I believe E or F was the last one?) and I just did W&D and got B corral for the 5K (D was last corral) and C for the challenge (E was last corral). I think they base it off of the times you estimate and I estimate mine to be just outside of the POT windows.

I think what @Sleepless Knight is saying there is that if you put in that you expect to finish in a time that requires PoT to be submitted and fail to submit a valid PoT by the due date, you will be put into the last corral.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Just ran my first rD 5K. Man, is it rough out of Corral D.

the course is a lot more congested in the back, which is largely influenced by the fact that most of the runners are in C or later. (And the fact that the 5k is untimed and some runners take as much time as possible, hitting up all of the character stops, selfie spots, etc. Which is part of the fun of the 5k, but it does result in more people being on a smaller course for longer.) The 5k especially is congested because there just isn't a lot of race distance for people to spread out, and everyone wants to run *in the parks* which makes the available running areas more narrow than being 4 lanes wide on the highway. In the longer races, after about the 10k mark the course (usually) gets significantly wider, and the variation in paces has had time to influence how spread out the masses are.

 

[DopeyBadger]

To date I have seen no evidence that runDisney uses past runDisney race information not submitted by you for the purpose of seeding. Additionally, I vaguely remember that the “I acknowledge” statement about POT included some verbiage about how runDisney doesn’t independently pull that POT data for you. Lastly, it generally calls this out in the POT information area of every race weekend with the following:



“Past runDisney races may be used as POT; however you will need to submit them with your race registration.” Implying they won’t do the work for you.

 

[fatmanatee]

I don’t think it would be helpful for RD to use past races anyway. Paces are warped bc people sometimes end up in long lines for character photos. I probably lost a good 15 min on lines halfway through my last race, but my pace when running matched my estimate. Better to use POT and otherwise trust peoples judgment on their estimates.

 

[Zutroy]

Here’s my anecdotal evidence. I had taken several years off from runDisney, and did the 2017 Wine and Dine from corral F. Somehow I finished the half from there in 1:40. My next race was the 2019 Star Wars race. I didn‘t submit my POT, but was shocked when I got my bib and saw I was placed in corral A. I ran other races after that submitting a POT until the 2021 W&D when my SO registered me and forgot to submit my POT. I was placed in corral B for both the 10k and half. Does RD have an algorithm for placement based on past performance? No idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a hamster in a maze running to corral numbers for assignment, except I doubt they’d spend the money to buy a hamster.

 

[Grabnar]

Here’s my anecdotal evidence. I had taken several years off from runDisney, and did the 2017 Wine and Dine from corral F. Somehow I finished the half from there in 1:40. My next race was the 2019 Star Wars race. I didn‘t submit my POT, but was shocked when I got my bib and saw I was placed in corral A. I ran other races after that submitting a POT until the 2021 W&D when my SO registered me and forgot to submit my POT. I was placed in corral B for both the 10k and half. Does RD have an algorithm for placement based on past performance? No idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a hamster in a maze running to corral numbers for assignment, except I doubt they’d spend the money to buy a hamster.

I imagine that most of Disney's IT is a cross between HAL and a plinko machine.

 

[Mr_Incr3dible]

I imagine that most of Disney's IT is a cross between HAL and a plinko machine.

With HAL being friendlier in comparison…