I think I'm a border case. I had this response from runDisney comparing a 3:45:30 Full and 1:44:25 Half POT for the marathon
Thank you for reaching out. We have our verifier calculate the times for you and posted them below:
- 1:44:25 half marathon time would calculate to a 3:40 marathon. Either time would place you in the same corral.
I submitted the Half time and have a 4xx bib number in corral A
Thanks for the data! Looks to be off by about 23 seconds from the cutoff I had. Was your bib # really close to the cutoff?
For the 5k - is it always just 3 corrals? Is it crazy at race start then with three bigger corrals?
Having 3 corrals for the 5k is new to marathon weekend. In the recent past, there were 6 corrals. I anticipate they will have mini-waves which will make it "seem" like the same number of waves. My guess is that they just combined A-B, C-D, and E-F from 2018 and made three 2019 corrals. The biggest difference is that someone who could potentially be at the front of 2018 B, can now be at the front of 2019 A. So if corral positioning matters in anyway to a person, then earlier timing is better. But if you planned to be at the back of B (if it were like 2018), then being at the back of 2019 A would be roughly the same in theory. The rate at which people cross the line will be roughly the same regardless of the number of corrals though. 2017 Marathon with 16 corrals vs 2018 Marathon with 8 corrals showed that to be true.
My friend and I have PoTs that are 35 seconds apart. I'm in the first 20 bibs of C and she's in the middle of D for Goofy, so that part is way off.
That's interesting. Can you share the two POTs? Are you both doing Goofy? That certainly seems way off.
I'm in F for the half! Anyone have any idea what time the first wave of F will start around?
Here are 2018 Marathon start times. I would guess the HM was very close to this. This chart was made using a combination of my own personal start time and a difference of gun time to chip time for runners in various further back corrals. It's not absolutely perfect, but very close.
Would it be too crowded for me to find my own pace if I plan on keeping 9min/miles, or after the first mile or so it should be less crowded?
It'll be crowded, but it will eventually thin out somewhat. There's good data to show it's possible to run all sorts of times from all the corrals. Be patient, be courteous, and make your move when you have space. The biggest problem area will probably be in the theme parks and around mile 7 in cone alley.
Also, is there a corral placement for the 5/10k? (I read there's only 3) so is it first come, first corral, or also based on time?
There is corral placement for the 5k and 10k. You won't find it out until you get your bib. It was based on your estimated pace you entered at registration. I believe this below chart is somewhat close to reality. Since the 2019 5k has three corrals, then combine A/B, C/D, and E/F.
Quick observation on the corrals and start. Does anyone anticipate that the decrease in numbers will impact the cut on the back end. So does that mean the final wave will get running only 30 minutes behind the 5:30 start, as opposed to 45 minutes later? If the balloon ladies get going that much earlier, the cushion on the back end could be slimmer than in the past.
It's a fair question. In my experience at looking at the data, it seems the start time of the last people is relatively consistent amongst all race weekends even though the number of runners fluctuates. What I think you'll see is a continued regimented release of mini-waves. So the timing of those waves remains constant (see above), but the number of runners within the waves would go down. This is purely a guess though as I certainly can't be sure. It would be a bummer though for those on the back end to lose more of their cushion.
@DopeyBadger I submitted a POT for her, even though it didn't equate to a sub 530 time... but it would've equated to the 530s. Her bib number starts with a 3, so they may have sorta taken her POT into consideration when giving her a number in the proper corral. Doesn't really matter, just more data for you.
Makes sense to me. I believe I saw a case of that last year as well. Where someone submitted a POT very close to the POT cutoff and was given one of the first bib #s in the first non-POT corral (F).
