Have we reached the saturation point?

[Ariel484]

True but there aren't separate threads for the other challenges. I think Dopey has its own thread because of how big that challenge is. 48.6 isn't no easy task. It also is an incredibly popular challenge with 2017 being the only year it didn't sell out (I might be wrong here but it normally sold out before this).

There were separate treads for other challenges at one point (Goofy, GSC).

 

[rteetz]

There were separate treads for other challenges at one point (Goofy, GSC).

That must've been before I was on this board. I just feel the Dopey gets that attention because of its magnitude in endurance and popularity. Now every race should be looked at as a feat in itself because everyone is at different levels some people only do 5Ks which is great, some only do 10K, or halfs, and some only do the marathon. Whatever race a person does is awesome because they are getting out there and running or walking. That's one thing we all share in common at runDisney events. We are there to move, because we love Disney, and to have fun.

 

[roxymama]

That must've been before I was on this board. I just feel the Dopey gets that attention because of its magnitude in endurance and popularity. Now every race should be looked at as a feat in itself because everyone is at different levels some people only do 5Ks which is great, some only do 10K, or halfs, and some only do the marathon. Whatever race a person does is awesome because they are getting out there and running or walking. That's one thing we all share in common at runDisney events. We are there to move, because we love Disney, and to have fun.

And some of us only run a few RD races and then lurk on all the other threads and trip reports to vicariously live through everyone else because we WOULD go to EVERY race and run every race if our work-schedule/wallets/family/and bodies were up to it. But all those things don't always align.
#lurkerforlife

 

[rteetz]

And some of us only run a few RD races and then lurk on all the other threads and trip reports to vicariously live through everyone else because we WOULD go to EVERY race and run every race if our work-schedule/wallets/family/and bodies were up to it. But all those things don't always align.
#lurkerforlife

I'm with ya there! I'd love to run every race. But I'd be broke after my second weekend. Not that I'm already broke because I'm in college.

 

[FFigawi]

I'm with ya there! I'd love to run every race. But I'd be broke after my second weekend. Not that I'm already broke because I'm in college.

Ramen, 5 for $1. Just sayin.

 

[roxymama]

I'm with ya there! I'd love to run every race. But I'd be broke after my second weekend. Not that I'm already broke because I'm in college.

I'd be broke in the monetary sense, but also the physical sense too

 

[rteetz]

Ramen, 5 for $1. Just sayin.

I already paid for the meal plan so I'll save by doing ramen next semester.

 

[cavepig]

Interesting here so my sister in law asked what the wine & dine 10k course is, I said probably the same Jan 10k course since it says at EPCOT. Well, she just ran that a few weeks ago so decided not to sign up, she is local so it wouldn't be a vacation trip like for myself & isn't obsessed with RunDisney like myself. So, I guess it seems being oversaturated with the same courses makes sense as if it was a different course somewhat she would sign up. It does seem they are trying to vary some courses for Wine & Dine and Darkside but they really need to put the course descriptions up. I don't care what the course is as I'll be on vacation and it's icing to do a race too, but I can see how the same ol' courses prevent some from signing up. Like the Fall Feast for Wine & Dine's 5k without a description I bet people are holding off that are more choosy on what they do, where my parents are doing it but they just did their first races last Darkside so don't care what the course will be. More random thoughts for ya!

 

[minniebeth]

Interesting discussion!
My family has participated in runDisney races for over 7 years. We are all runners (well, some of us more than others, lol) and as my kids have grown, so has their desire to run more of the races. My DS21 has already run Dopey, several Goofys and 1/2 marathons. We've done many of the various races over the years (including Expedition Everest and ToT) on both the east and west coasts. We do Marathon Weekend each year with a charity group, so that will always be a constant each year. My "bucket list" was to run all of the race weekends eventually, and then check the box and move on. We've done several of the race weekends a few times (WDW, Disneyland and Avengers). I did W&D 2015 and had to sign up again to really check the box and of course, they added the 10K for 2016. I did all 3 races in November and now I'm satisfied to check the box and move on from that weekend, especially since it was no longer a night race. We will definitely continue to do Disney races, but now that 2/3 kids are in college, financially, we need to put the brakes on vacations. Which when we do a runcation, it pretty much becomes our only vacation. As much as we love it, there are other family vacations we would like to take. So I guess we can say, that while we will continue to run Disney, but scale back, we have reached the price (as a vacation overall) saturation.

For the first time, I did a local 1/2 marathon (as a training run for W&D, ha!) and fell in love with it! It was awesome and so well run, it gave me second thoughts about doing more local races.
And.... I noticed that more local races are becoming more walker and new-to-running friendly! I think this may make a difference in people sticking only to Disney for the non-serious runners. For example, the Columbus (OH) 1/2 Marathon just increased their time limit of the 1/2 course to 4 hours (18:20 pace). That is really generous.

I know that Disney has also made it harder for the charity groups to participate in the run weekends. Over the 7 years we have participated with a charity, many things have changed and not for the better. That's a whole separate conversation, but I know that our charity has said they have lost a significant number of families participating because of the changes. This goes back to the "corporateness" that someone else talked about. while I'm sure the charities are not a huge number overall in the race weekends, I feel like they were the heart and soul of the races for many years.

I really hope that Disney can continue to find a balance between the "business" and customer service, because the race weekends are truly a unique experience!

 

[Violet Parr]

Active.com (handles runDisney race registrations) has insurance options for every local race I do. If that had that for Disney races, that would go a long way for me. I know you can get insurance if you book through a TA or runDisney but I have an AP and like to rent DVC points, so those booking options don't work for me.

The functionality is there, Disney just doesn't seem to want to use it.

I wonder if the 2017 half cancellation will change runDisney's minds on offering insurance/deferrals. They refunded an estimated 3+ million dollars in the form of gift cards, deferred registrations, etc. last week, even though there was a no-refunds-for-weather-cancellations disclaimer. Now they won't ever be able to get away with NOT refunding in the event of a future cancellation. Rather than draw on their own insurance policies in the future, I wouldn't be surprised if they open up the option for runners to purchase their own insurance. (I'm just talking out of my **** here because I have zero business/insurance savvy.)

VP

 

[minniebeth]

One more thought:
We are Disney lovers and travel there frequently~ so, we love new experiences...
we've done things like the Disneyland 1/2 marathon 10th anniversary party, W&D pre-race taste, Pasta In the Park, etc.
We like doing those things on race weekends instead of repeating parks over and over. Since they've done away with a lot of these special experiences, the weekends do tend to be generically all the same as others have said.
I wish they would do more of those special events.
(We did do the Star Wars Dessert Party 2 weeks ago which was AWESOME!)

 

[minniebeth]

I wonder if the 2017 half cancellation will change runDisney's minds on offering insurance/deferrals. They refunded an estimated 3+ million dollars in the form of gift cards, deferred registrations, etc. last week, even though there was a no-refunds-for-weather-cancellations disclaimer. Now they won't ever be able to get away with NOT refunding in the event of a future cancellation. Rather than draw on their own insurance policies in the future, I wouldn't be surprised if they open up the option for runners to purchase their own insurance. (I'm just talking out of my **** here because I have zero business/insurance savvy.)

VP

I agree! We run with a charity and were all together at a group dinner function when the cancellation of the 1/2 was announced. When the refund/park ticket offer/defer option was announced everyone was so surprised and thought Disney was AWESOME for doing this. But setting a future precedence for sure!

 

[Violet Parr]

One more thought:
We are Disney lovers and travel there frequently~ so, we love new experiences...
we've done things like the Disneyland 1/2 marathon 10th anniversary party, W&D pre-race taste, Pasta In the Park, etc.
We like doing those things on race weekends instead of repeating parks over and over. Since they've done away with a lot of these special experiences, the weekends do tend to be generically all the same as others have said.
I wish they would do more of those special events.
(We did do the Star Wars Dessert Party 2 weeks ago which was AWESOME!)

We stuck around long enough last week to do the first day of the Epcot Intl. Fest of the Arts. It was really enjoyable. It was raining, so a lot of the artists and musicians weren't able to be out, but it was nice to be at Epcot for a festival.

I wish every race had an after party. I like celebrating with other runners.

VP

 

[minniebeth]

I wish every race had an after party. I like celebrating with other runners.

VP

YES! This! EXACTLY!

 

[GreatLakes]

I think the tendency for any race weekend is for the longest race/challenge to overshadow the other events. I think it is more pronounced at Disney because of the "bubble"; with such a high percentage of everyone you see participating in the Weekend. I ran Cleveland and was barely even aware the Challenge existed (I don't know whether this is a good or bad thing). I also think the race announcers at Disney, because they have so much more time to fill and, relatively, so few things to talk about, tend to fall back on their "how many Dopey's do we have out there?", "how many Goofy's?", "who here is running in their first 10K?" schtick to the point that it's driven into the ground.

I don't disagree that RunDisney turns me off with all of the blatant profiteering they do (high-priced races, challenges that cost more than the sum of their parts, their attempt at the micro-transaction model with all of the add-ons, etc.). The big one that bothered me recently was the virtual races where they seemed to advertise the races as being for charity, but the only donations being made to charity were the voluntary extra donations made by participants when they registered.

It's tough, I think we are all pretty aware of the short-comings of RD and I think it's sometimes difficult to reconcile those short-comings. For me, I know that I would never have started running if it hadn't been to train for an RD race and I probably would have been one and done if it wasn't for the fun I had while running it. I also know that it's not the same for everyone and can fully understand the turn-offs that would make someone not want to RunDisney anymore.

There are things RunDisney does extremely well and bringing new runners into the sport is one of them.

The challenges overshadow the other events everywhere - look at this message board. There's a Marathon Weekend thread, but there's also a Dopey Challenge thread.

I haven't experienced that for any non-Disney challenge events I've done. At the Illinois marathon it would be easy to not even realize there was a multi-race challenge at all. None of the other challenges I've done felt like such an up-sell. Besides the RunDisney events the only other events I've done that felt like up-sells have been the Rock N Roll series events and I've stopped doing those entirely.

 

[GreatLakes]

Interesting here so my sister in law asked what the wine & dine 10k course is, I said probably the same Jan 10k course since it says at EPCOT. Well, she just ran that a few weeks ago so decided not to sign up, she is local so it wouldn't be a vacation trip like for myself & isn't obsessed with RunDisney like myself. So, I guess it seems being oversaturated with the same courses makes sense as if it was a different course somewhat she would sign up. It does seem they are trying to vary some courses for Wine & Dine and Darkside but they really need to put the course descriptions up. I don't care what the course is as I'll be on vacation and it's icing to do a race too, but I can see how the same ol' courses prevent some from signing up. Like the Fall Feast for Wine & Dine's 5k without a description I bet people are holding off that are more choosy on what they do, where my parents are doing it but they just did their first races last Darkside so don't care what the course will be. More random thoughts for ya!

This is also something I think they need to look at. There is a lot of property and if they get more creative they can have a larger inventory of courses. I also think they need to venture out and offer different types of races. The return of a night race is one easy aspect but I think adding an obstacle race along the lines of the Urbanathlon would be a great addition. The return of a triathlon would be another good idea and if Disney just can't get past allowing people to swim in one of their lakes (ignoring the fact that Florida has triathlons everywhere else) why not a biathlon/dualthon event? Disney used to have an inline marathon weekend, bring that back. Will any of these events be as big as the running events? Almost certainly not but that isn't a bad thing.

 

[Nole95]

I wish every race had an after party. I like celebrating with other runners.

VP

This is something I really wish RD would do. I can see where it would work better at WDW rather than DL due to the number of parks to use. They have only four race weekends a year at WDW now. For one (W&D), they already close a park down early for the after party. Would it really hurt them to have after parties those other three weekends, or hurt Disney's bottom line? We're talking about three nights a year in what are usually slower times of the year anyway.

It could run something like this:

Marathon - Anyone who runs the half, full or one of the challenges gets entry into Epcot. There are more people in town for Marathon Weekend than any other race weekend, so Epcot would make the most sense.
Princess - Anyone who has signed up for the half or challenge gets entry into an after party at MK Sunday evening.
Dark Side - Anyone who has signed up for the half or challenge gets entry into an after party at DHS Sunday evening.

RD can sell extra tickets for family members who want to attend, thus increasing their profit. The added incentive of an after party would probably increase interest in the race weekends as well.

 

[camaker]

I haven't experienced that for any non-Disney challenge events I've done. At the Illinois marathon it would be easy to not even realize there was a multi-race challenge at all. None of the other challenges I've done felt like such an up-sell. Besides the RunDisney events the only other events I've done that felt like up-sells have been the Rock N Roll series events and I've stopped doing those entirely.

How are the challenges an up-sell? The communications I've gotten from RunDisney and the advertisements focus on the overall event itself and not the challenge aspect. If you look at the event pages on rundisney.com, the challenges aren't emphasized. To use WDWMW as an example, the marathon is listed, then the half, then Goofy. That's followed by the 10k and 5k and finally Dopey. The order is similar for the other race weekends. Now, granted, once you're at the event, the challenge gets a lot of love. I think that's only natural. The challenge runners are going above and beyond the individual race distances and that deserves some acknowledgement. Now, do they get the balance wrong in that acknowledgement sometimes? Sure. But that's not up-sell. There's no option to upgrade from the individual races to the challenge at that point.

 

[GreatLakes]

How are the challenges an up-sell? The communications I've gotten from RunDisney and the advertisements focus on the overall event itself and not the challenge aspect. If you look at the event pages on rundisney.com, the challenges aren't emphasized. To use WDWMW as an example, the marathon is listed, then the half, then Goofy. That's followed by the 10k and 5k and finally Dopey. The order is similar for the other race weekends. Now, granted, once you're at the event, the challenge gets a lot of love. I think that's only natural. The challenge runners are going above and beyond the individual race distances and that deserves some acknowledgement. Now, do they get the balance wrong in that acknowledgement sometimes? Sure. But that's not up-sell. There's no option to upgrade from the individual races to the challenge at that point.

It is just an overall feeling I get. Hard to put into words.

 

[rteetz]

How are the challenges an up-sell? The communications I've gotten from RunDisney and the advertisements focus on the overall event itself and not the challenge aspect. If you look at the event pages on rundisney.com, the challenges aren't emphasized. To use WDWMW as an example, the marathon is listed, then the half, then Goofy. That's followed by the 10k and 5k and finally Dopey. The order is similar for the other race weekends. Now, granted, once you're at the event, the challenge gets a lot of love. I think that's only natural. The challenge runners are going above and beyond the individual race distances and that deserves some acknowledgement. Now, do they get the balance wrong in that acknowledgement sometimes? Sure. But that's not up-sell. There's no option to upgrade from the individual races to the challenge at that point.

Completely agree here. Disney does a ton of upsells right now but I don't find race challenges to be one of them.