Marathon Weekend 2017!

[Barca33Runner]

Right, exactly. I was really, really not impressed with what they did with Wine & Dine weekend - I'm still disappointed that they changed it from a night race (which, again - I have to think is financially motivated in some way), and them pushing back registration the day before it was supposed to begin was just crazy. And their customer service over phone, email, etc. is non-existent. I think their merchandise policies are ridiculous - letting everyone into the expo, whether they are registered for an event or not, is not unique to runDisney, but when stuff sells out and runners don't get access, and have been complaining about it a LOT, and would willingly pay for these items if they had access to them...couldn't runDisney figure out ways to make more stuff available? Expand pre-orders or something? And while I'm grateful that they offer deferrals, they are posting them later and later, along with other important race details (i.e. confirming next year's Dark Side weekend dates) - they KNOW how far in advance people need to plan for trips like this, they just make it so hard!

It just seems like, lately, they have gotten greedy (example: offering early expo access for an additional cost at some events) and have stopped figuring out ways to make the race weekend experience better for everyone. The revamping of the corral system a couple of years back, along with their announcement that they were actually going to limit entries a bit more for some of the races (i.e. WDW Half) was awesome, and I thought it was a true sign that they truly did care what we thought. But I think they've been resting on their laurels over the past year or so, and have continued to increase race entry fees (I'm cringing imagining what Dopey will cost for 2018) while not addressing common complaints...but it seems like some events aren't selling out as quickly, so who knows, maybe that'll knock them down a peg.

With race registrations falling, or at least not selling out as quickly, at rD and other events I think it may become incumbent upon them to stop resting on their laurels. That, of course, can go both ways. I am worried that their first instinct is going to be to cut costs to increase the profit per registration rather than revamp and improve their race experiences to maintain demand. Wine and Dine was certainly a bad sign when it comes to the worry that they are merely creating cookie cutter race weekends to streamline their process and minimize costs.

 

[Tardisblue]

With race registrations falling, or at least not selling out as quickly, at rD and other events I think it may become incumbent upon them to stop resting on their laurels. That, of course, can go both ways. I am worried that their first instinct is going to be to cut costs to increase the profit per registration rather than revamp and improve their race experiences to maintain demand. Wine and Dine was certainly a bad sign when it comes to the worry that they are merely creating cookie cutter race weekends to streamline their process and minimize costs.

This makes me crazy - Disney is going to make money, do they have to try to squeeze all the blood out of the turnip? Make money AND create a great experience for the runners. These are not mutually exclusive.

 

[camaker]

Agree with you so much, especially the portions in bold.

I can certainly understand the frustration with the removal of the night race, with its unique set-up and ambience. What I don't understand, though, is the dislike for the addition of the 10k and challenge. 10k races are very popular right now and they are among the first distances to sell out for rD events. To me, it seems like a no-brainer business decision to add the distance given the apparent market demand. Then once you've got the 10k there the challenge brings more revenue for very little added effort. If folks don't like or want to run the challenge they certainly don't have to. From my perspective, if I'm going to spend the time and $$$ to go all the way to WDW to run, I'd rather run more than one race.

 

[opusone]

It would mess up the bib numbering/order, wouldn't it?

It shouldn't, since the challenge participants get their own set of bib numbers. They would be put in order based on their PoT and then assigned to corrals for the two race distances independently. That allows rD to "draw the line" between the corrals differently for each race. For example, at the SWDSC my bib had A/B printed on it so I was in Corral A for the 10k and Corral B for the half. Seemed to work just fine.

I completely agree with @camaker that this shouldn't mess up bib number/order. Bib numbers are already ordered by expected speed, so dividing the numbers differently for the half and full shouldn't be an issue, just like with the other rD 10k/half challenges.

It's a great point because I think it would mess up the bib numbering for Goofy/Dopey on the basis of how they currently release the corral assignments. Because the current assignments release the order of bib #s associated and the POT estimate having a system where Goofy/Dopey runners would be slotted into different corrals wouldn't work. However, just number them by their full POT and then assign corrals based on POT estimate for the half as an individual race (as @camaker point out). However, if they just released the graphic of corral assignments by POT alone (and no bib #s) and then just put the corral assignments on the initial waiver screen it would solve the problem of their graphic not matching the assignments for people.

I'm pretty sure the bib numbers are already in equivalent POT order, so everything should work fine. Something like the table below could have worked for Dopey 2016 (and you could do similar for Goofy). Obviously, since we are overall moving Dopey runners up in the half corrals relative to the full corrals, you may need to adjust the time required numbers for the half marathon to get the proper number in each corral, but that wouldn't be hard.

 

[croach]

I can certainly understand the frustration with the removal of the night race, with its unique set-up and ambience. What I don't understand, though, is the dislike for the addition of the 10k and challenge. 10k races are very popular right now and they are among the first distances to sell out for rD events. To me, it seems like a no-brainer business decision to add the distance given the apparent market demand. Then once you've got the 10k there the challenge brings more revenue for very little added effort. If folks don't like or want to run the challenge they certainly don't have to. From my perspective, if I'm going to spend the time and $$$ to go all the way to WDW to run, I'd rather run more than one race.

For me it's more that they added the challenges to make more money because they know the medals will draw people in. And my guess is that adding the challenge caused them to move away from the night race. So the cash grab made something unique go away. Yes good business decision but they were already making money off the race(I'm guessing). But I totally understand getting more for your travel money and giving more options to people.

 

[Ariel484]

I can certainly understand the frustration with the removal of the night race, with its unique set-up and ambience. What I don't understand, though, is the dislike for the addition of the 10k and challenge. 10k races are very popular right now and they are among the first distances to sell out for rD events. To me, it seems like a no-brainer business decision to add the distance given the apparent market demand. Then once you've got the 10k there the challenge brings more revenue for very little added effort. If folks don't like or want to run the challenge they certainly don't have to. From my perspective, if I'm going to spend the time and $$$ to go all the way to WDW to run, I'd rather run more than one race.

Just because every weekend has the exact same set-up right now. And while the 10Ks are definitely popular, a lot of the entries are cannibalized by the challenge runners (if you have, say, 12,000 bibs available for the 10K but 7,000 of them go to challenge runners, there are only 5,000 available for 10K runners).

Also, it changed the schedule of the entire weekend. With both the 5K and half on Saturday, I think that opened the weekend up for a lot of people to get to WDW and not take as much time off of work or school (saw a post from a local that was planning on doing the 5K with her kiddo - who is not ready for 10K distance yet - but won't take him out of school for it, so now it doesn't work for them). In my case, I loved having the half on Saturday because I had all of Sunday for the parks and was able to fly home on Monday.

Just my opinion, I know not everyone agrees. It's not like I hate the idea of challenges (I'm signed up for this one) and I get why they do it ($$$$$$$) but it does take away the uniqueness of the weekend.

 

[Barca33Runner]

I can certainly understand the frustration with the removal of the night race, with its unique set-up and ambience. What I don't understand, though, is the dislike for the addition of the 10k and challenge. 10k races are very popular right now and they are among the first distances to sell out for rD events. To me, it seems like a no-brainer business decision to add the distance given the apparent market demand. Then once you've got the 10k there the challenge brings more revenue for very little added effort. If folks don't like or want to run the challenge they certainly don't have to. From my perspective, if I'm going to spend the time and $$$ to go all the way to WDW to run, I'd rather run more than one race.

I think, in this case, it is the totality of the decision and the logical assumption that adding the 10K and Challenge was part of the impetus to do away with the night race for the Half Marathon. When you link the addition of a Challenge to the subtraction of the unique aspect of the event, a link that I think is pretty fair to make, there can certainly be some frustration with making Wine & Dine just like every other rD Half Marathon Weekend. I think if the decision to move the race to the morning had been made independently and the 10K and Challenge came as an addition a few years later, the addition of races would have had a different reception.

 

[DopeyBadger]

I completely agree with @camaker that this shouldn't mess up bib number/order. Bib numbers are already ordered by expected speed, so dividing the numbers differently for the half and full shouldn't be an issue, just like with the other rD 10k/half challenges.



I'm pretty sure the bib numbers are already in equivalent POT order, so everything should work fine. Something like the table below could have worked for Dopey 2016 (and you could do similar for Goofy). Obviously, since we are overall moving Dopey runners up in the half corrals relative to the full corrals, you may need to adjust the time required numbers for the half marathon to get the proper number in each corral, but that wouldn't be hard.

View attachment 171336

Yep, we're in agreement (you just put it more eloquently than me). The numbering on the original graphic wouldn't work because some bib #s would be in different corrals (because the cutoff point for half and full is in different places with bib #s). Or more specifically having one assignment page wouldn't work.



But having a graphic like the one you laid out, with half and full corrals split with bib #s split as well for Goofy/Dopey Challenge participants would solve that problem. In yours, if I'm bib 20500 I could quickly see I'm in B for the half and C for the full. And then you use the population of non-challenge runners in both the half and the full to fill the total difference so that the same total number of runners exist in corral C of the half and full but the make-up of non-challenge and challenge runners can be different. Well done!

 

[dburg30]

This makes me crazy - Disney is going to make money, do they have to try to squeeze all the blood out of the turnip? Make money AND create a great experience for the runners. These are not mutually exclusive.

Sadly, with shareholders always wanting growth... yes they do need to squeeze as much as they can..

 

[sammykster]

This is a great point. In the end we're discussing a very small factor in the grand scheme of things. RD does do a great job. For instance, my coworker has been training for the last 18 weeks with Hansons for her first marathon. She just found out that the marathon didn't secure it's permits and is now cancelled. Now that sucks!

http://www.runnersworld.com/watchdog/minneapolis-marathon-organizer-scrambles-to-set-new-course
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/05/25/2016-minneapolis-marathon-cancelled-team-ortho-foundation

Although she said no matter what she's doing 26.2 miles next weekend. We weren't able to find any other marathons in a reasonable distance and it had to be this coming weekend because her BF is coming in town for one weekend to run his 1st marathon with her as well. So I told her that I would set up aid stations and cheering locations across the city if she wanted so that she can still complete her 26.2 goal.

I had a few friends that were supposed to do this as well and are really bummed! I also registered for one of their races last year before I realized the kind of money they actually do donate and it was one of the worst I have run. Not to mention I did a terrible job myself but it seemed so poorly put together and like they didn't think the course through at all. Turn arounds mixed in with other distances and the first 1.5 miles were downhill through construction. Not to mention that my watch said 1.6 miles when we hit the 1mile marker and there was no way it was a big enough course for that kind of difference! Never again.

 

[DopeyBadger]

I had a few friends that were supposed to do this as well and are really bummed! I also registered for one of their races last year before I realized the kind of money they actually do donate and it was one of the worst I have run. Not to mention I did a terrible job myself but it seemed so poorly put together and like they didn't think the course through at all. Turn arounds mixed in with other distances and the first 1.5 miles were downhill through construction. Not to mention that my watch said 1.6 miles when we hit the 1mile marker and there was no way it was a big enough course for that kind of difference! Never again.

Yea, they seem like a pretty crummy race organization. Let your friends know that if they're still interested in running that my friend is still running 26.2 in Minneapolis. She hasn't figured out the route they're doing yet.

 

[Waiting2goback]

Right, exactly. I was really, really not impressed with what they did with Wine & Dine weekend - I'm still disappointed that they changed it from a night race (which, again - I have to think is financially motivated in some way), and them pushing back registration the day before it was supposed to begin was just crazy. And their customer service over phone, email, etc. is non-existent. I think their merchandise policies are ridiculous - letting everyone into the expo, whether they are registered for an event or not, is not unique to runDisney, but when stuff sells out and runners don't get access, and have been complaining about it a LOT, and would willingly pay for these items if they had access to them...couldn't runDisney figure out ways to make more stuff available? Expand pre-orders or something? And while I'm grateful that they offer deferrals, they are posting them later and later, along with other important race details (i.e. confirming next year's Dark Side weekend dates) - they KNOW how far in advance people need to plan for trips like this, they just make it so hard!

It just seems like, lately, they have gotten greedy (example: offering early expo access for an additional cost at some events) and have stopped figuring out ways to make the race weekend experience better for everyone. The revamping of the corral system a couple of years back, along with their announcement that they were actually going to limit entries a bit more for some of the races (i.e. WDW Half) was awesome, and I thought it was a true sign that they truly did care what we thought. But I think they've been resting on their laurels over the past year or so, and have continued to increase race entry fees (I'm cringing imagining what Dopey will cost for 2018) while not addressing common complaints...but it seems like some events aren't selling out as quickly, so who knows, maybe that'll knock them down a peg.

I agree on the Wine and Dine being moved to a morning race. I hate that. Wine and Dine was on the top of my must-do race list until they did that. Now I think it is no different than any other race weekend. I loved ToT so much because it was at night and Wine and Dine, with that party afterwards, was so appealing.

As for customer service, I agree again. I emailed them about 3 weeks ago and I never heard back. I may not be one of these people that does every runDisney race but I am still a customer.

I am guessing Dopey will be $600 for 2018. That's just my thought, no reason for that number. Who knows, maybe they go as high as $650. As far as being knocked down a peg, even if they get knocked down a bit they won't lower prices. Once Disney adds a fee or raises a price they don't drop it. They make it up another way but they don't generally drop a price. Maybe they will just start putting stuff back in the bags when you pick up your packet.

And I will keep giving them my money, but at this point, only for Marathon Weekend. I just think the other weekends are all the same with different themes. Just my opinion.

 

[rteetz]

I agree on the Wine and Dine being moved to a morning race. I hate that. Wine and Dine was on the top of my must-do race list until they did that. Now I think it is no different than any other race weekend. I loved ToT so much because it was at night and Wine and Dine, with that party afterwards, was so appealing.

As for customer service, I agree again. I emailed them about 3 weeks ago and I never heard back. I may not be one of these people that does every runDisney race but I am still a customer.

I am guessing Dopey will be $600 for 2018. That's just my thought, no reason for that number. Who knows, maybe they go as high as $650. As far as being knocked down a peg, even if they get knocked down a bit they won't lower prices. Once Disney adds a fee or raises a price they don't drop it. They make it up another way but they don't generally drop a price. Maybe they will just start putting stuff back in the bags when you pick up your packet.

And I will keep giving them my money, but at this point, only for Marathon Weekend. I just think the other weekends are all the same with different themes. Just my opinion.

Considering we thought the pricing would be even higher than it was for Dopey this year I don't think it will go any higher than $600 in 2018. It was $580 this year, so maybe $590 next year with fees putting it over $600.

 

[Waiting2goback]

Ryan, you may be right. I just think with the 25th anniversary for the marathon, 5th anniversary for the 10K and Dopey, this will be a very popular race weekend. runDisney knows that, and I think they will try to get as much money as they can for it.

 

[lhermiston]

32 weeks!

I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend.

 

[TaraHumphrey]

Did they do the "I'm in training for the Walt Disney World _____ (fill in blank with appropriate race)" Tshirts this year? I just realized via Facebook that I received my training shirt on yesterday's date a year ago but I never even saw anything about it this year.

 

[camaker]

Did they do the "I'm in training for the Walt Disney World _____ (fill in blank with appropriate race)" Tshirts this year? I just realized via Facebook that I received my training shirt on yesterday's date a year ago but I never even saw anything about it this year.

They did not have them for sale during registration week, so at this point I'd say it's pretty unlikely that they'll have them this year.

 

[rteetz]

They did not have them for sale during registration week, so at this point I'd say it's pretty unlikely that they'll have them this year.

Yep doesn't look like they did them this year.

 

[TaraHumphrey]

They did not have them for sale during registration week, so at this point I'd say it's pretty unlikely that they'll have them this year.

Yep doesn't look like they did them this year.

Thanks...sometimes I feel like I don't receive all the runDisney emails and I wondered if I had just missed them.

Next question. Does anyone know if it's possible for my friend and I to upgrade our 10K and half registrations to Dopeys??? I can't believe I am asking that question!!!

 

[rteetz]

Thanks...sometimes I feel like I don't receive all the runDisney emails and I wondered if I had just missed them.

Next question. Does anyone know if it's possible for my friend and I to upgrade our 10K and half registrations to Dopeys??? I can't believe I am asking that question!!!

I'm not sure on that.