My friend and I didn't wait in the corral very long for the half in January... We got to the start area at 4:50am, waited in the porta potty line for a good while and then made our way to the corral. (Just looked at the time info on my pictures from then and I think we got in our corral a bit before 6am. We crossed the Start line at 6:15.) And therefore we were far back in it. So I definitely want to get into it earlier this time. But waiting in the corral for an hour sounds like a lot...?? How early do people start getting into them?