Marathon Weekend 2024

[John VN]

DW and I dipped our toes into the WDW MW Water's on a cold and windy Friday morning in 2010 for the 5K. Pretty sure a MW Veteran would remember that weekend. Got hooked so in 2011 we WALKED the 5K and Half Marathon together then I WALKED the FULL to complete the Unofficial Dopey.

Following my 2019 MW Marathon I've had some not good for walking distance occurrences that have resulted in aching knees just while walking across a parking lot but I think it's time to dip the toes back into a FULL in 2024. Managed a 1.23 mile walk yesterday with few issues so it's back to one foot in front of the other and I'll see how well things go before registration.

McFlurry John

 

[dobball23]

SAFD: My first RunDisney race occurred in 2013. I did the half marathon because my wife was doing it. She had negotiated that if she could do a half marathon then we would go on a Disney Cruise. She did an awesome job losing weight and completing the half. And the next day we went on the Disney Dream. I had always been a treadmill runner going 3-4-5 miles per day and didn't vary my training in preparation for my first half. I finished in what would now be a very disappointing 1:53.

Fast forward a couple of years. I spent about 18 months trying to diagnose some knee pain. Finally, it was determined I would need surgery. I had some cartilage removed in the fall of 2015. During my recovery, I watched a live stream of the Disney Marathon. I saw all these people finishing in under 4 hours and I thought, "I can do that!" So I set my sights on Dopey 2018.

I have now completed three Dopeys (2018, 2020, 2022) and one marathon (2023). I have only participated in Marathon Weekend because I'm a "go big" type of person.

We are big Disney fans and love taking Disney vacations, so the appeal of being able to combine running with some time at Disney World has kept me focused on RunDisney. Plus they're just fun and I enjoy them. I do races other places, but Disney is my true focus and likely will be until I don't enjoy them or they price me out.

 

[Let's Get Kronk]

Well y'all, the registration stress dreams have started early. I had a dream last night where registration opened for MW and I was trying to register for Dopey, but all of my devices were freaking out and I couldn't get anything to load. Then, I couldn't even find runDisney's webpage to try again once I got functionality back. I was frantically Googling "runDisney" and even trying to find this page for a potential link. Time was ticking away and I was getting more and more frantic and angry. So, there's that. These next few months are going to be a blast.

 

[Dopey 2020]

SAFD: running behind this week(see what I did there?). Add me to the list of never running before runDisney. Well one year of track in HS that I hated, had always played soccer before that but was out for a year after a knee injury. End of high school and after were party time, but with non stop physical activity besides running. Started building houses and changed to a career with a utility company climbing poles for the next thirty years. Outside of work was more work whether yard or house, I’ve done all my own remodeling and landscape. For play was hunting, hiking, rock climbing, off road racing, skiing, pretty much anything that beat me up. I can’t think of any time that I sat on the couch, never followed any sports, always would rather be doing something. Of course in that time anything my DD wanted was my cue to jump, Enter WDW, our first trip when she was 4 led to multiple trips per year(she’s now in college and we are still bringing her).
Let’s cut a long story short, when my father used to say “you’ll pay for that later” he was right. At 45 after years of nonstop physical work and play both shoulders were torn up and I spent over a year between the couch and PT after a couple surgeries. When I could finally get out and about, the only exercise I could do was walk so I started walking - a lot.
Dumb luck at the same time we were planning a Disney cruise and saw the CC 5K as an activity and thought why not do it as a family?
Started running a little with the walks, getting the daughter out with me a couple times and took 45 minutes to run the island for my first 5K. Talking with a couple of people at the onboard pre race meeting I was told about runDisney going through the parks and that was all I needed to hear.
Princess 5K 2017 was our first in the parks race followed by SW a couple months later, which is where I did my first 10K as well. That is when DW and DD decided Disney is fine without the running but in my usual I need to challenge myself fashion I signed up for the W&D 2017 2 course challenge. The rest is history and even though they are getting a bit $$ and I’ve had to cut out two weekends, Disney still makes it fun so I hope to continue.

 

[BikeFan]

Well y'all, the registration stress dreams have started early. I had a dream last night where registration opened for MW and I was trying to register for Dopey, but all of my devices were freaking out and I couldn't get anything to load. Then, I couldn't even find runDisney's webpage to try again once I got functionality back. I was frantically Googling "runDisney" and even trying to find this page for a potential link. Time was ticking away and I was getting more and more frantic and angry. So, there's that. These next few months are going to be a blast.

I just wish we had some idea of how many entries they're allowing this time around. As discussed previously in this thread (thanks for the actual numbers, @DopeyBadger ), entries for Marathon Weekend have varied significantly over the years. As someone who usually goes for a Dopey or Goofy entry, I've gotten pretty used to entries being available well after registration opened. Heck, one year (2016? 2017?) I didn't register until November and still got a place for Goofy. Last year's registration circus was a shock, obviously. This year's registration is certainly going to be interesting!

 

[Herding_Cats]

This year's registration is certainly going to be interesting!

I have a theory about this, but it hinges on a lot of suppositions, and posts on social media, which we know can be somewhat of an echo chamber.
I think it's going to be crazy again this year because:
-Coast2Coast medal (this will be determined by how large they allow the fields for the DL races to be)
-How many people were "shut out" of registration for the '23 race
-Likely increased number of Club rD members having registration perks
-Running popularity skyrocketed during the pandemic and IMO there are probably a lot of people who are "finally ready" to take on a marathon (or half or one of the challenges) PLUS the age-demographic of the elder millennials who seem willing to spend Disney money.
-How close it is to New Year again and school breaks

Refuting my theory is the fact that the SS 10mi is still not sold out, and possible feelings about the economy.

 

[BikeFan]

I have a theory about this, but it hinges on a lot of suppositions, and posts on social media, which we know can be somewhat of an echo chamber.
I think it's going to be crazy again this year because:
-Coast2Coast medal (this will be determined by how large they allow the fields for the DL races to be)
-How many people were "shut out" of registration for the '23 race
-Likely increased number of Club rD members having registration perks
-Running popularity skyrocketed during the pandemic and IMO there are probably a lot of people who are "finally ready" to take on a marathon (or half or one of the challenges) PLUS the age-demographic of the elder millennials who seem willing to spend Disney money.
-How close it is to New Year again and school breaks

Refuting my theory is the fact that the SS 10mi is still not sold out, and possible feelings about the economy.

I hope you're wrong but a lot of that makes sense. I guess it's just wait-and-see time until then.

 

[DopeyRunner486]

I have a theory about this, but it hinges on a lot of suppositions, and posts on social media, which we know can be somewhat of an echo chamber.
I think it's going to be crazy again this year because:
-Coast2Coast medal (this will be determined by how large they allow the fields for the DL races to be)
-How many people were "shut out" of registration for the '23 race
-Likely increased number of Club rD members having registration perks
-Running popularity skyrocketed during the pandemic and IMO there are probably a lot of people who are "finally ready" to take on a marathon (or half or one of the challenges) PLUS the age-demographic of the elder millennials who seem willing to spend Disney money.
-How close it is to New Year again and school breaks

Refuting my theory is the fact that the SS 10mi is still not sold out, and possible feelings about the economy.

1. We don't have full details yet but in order to get coast to coast prior you just had to run a half or greater on each coast in the same calendar year. I actually think this will have the reverse impact and people are stuck to choose between Marathon Weekend and Disneyland since they are only a week apart. Vacation time is limited for most people.
2. I've been doing this a long time. Every year people are shut out. I don't see this impacting this that much either.
3. Club rD did grow yes from year 1 to year 2 but its still not significant enough to make a major difference.
4. The running popularity has ebbed and flowed several times. This also hasn't seemed to really impact runDisney that much. We always see the most popular years being the anniversary years.
5. This of all the things you mentioned will probably have the biggest impact.

And to add as for the Springtime 10-Miler, Springtime is during the Spring break-ish period. Again with vacation times people are limited. This race weekend even when Star Wars had always struggled at times to sell out given the time of year.

 

[Bree]

1. We don't have full details yet but in order to get coast to coast prior you just had to run a half or greater on each coast in the same calendar year. I actually think this will have the reverse impact and people are stuck to choose between Marathon Weekend and Disneyland since they are only a week apart. Vacation time is limited for most people.
2. I've been doing this a long time. Every year people are shut out. I don't see this impacting this that much either.
3. Club rD did grow yes from year 1 to year 2 but its still not significant enough to make a major difference.
4. The running popularity has ebbed and flowed several times. This also hasn't seemed to really impact runDisney that much. We always see the most popular years being the anniversary years.
5. This of all the things you mentioned will probably have the biggest impact.

And to add as for the Springtime 10-Miler, Springtime is during the Spring break-ish period. Again with vacation times people are limited. This race weekend even when Star Wars had always struggled at times to sell out given the time of year.

agree with all this!

Club RunDisney replaced the early sign ups for DVC and AP, but I don’t think it’s made a significant impact. There were A LOT more DVC/AP fighting for those spots and if you do a search you will see lots of people that were shut out during early registration and even sometimes general registration.

April is a hard month to sell. The weather is hot hot hot, Easter, Spring Breaks not lining up, high school and college graduations on the horizon, wedding season beginning, etc. I signed up for the April 2018 Star Wars Darkside challenge in January 2018 with a $50 discount, free RunDisney backpack and a reusable RunDisney shopping bag. I don’t think the race ever sold out.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Oh yeah! I completely forgot about the DVC/AP/TA bib allotment!

I really do hope I'm wrong. Last year's registration debacle was way more stressful than it should ever be.

 

[DopeyRunner486]

Oh yeah! I completely forgot about the DVC/AP/TA bib allotment!

I really do hope I'm wrong. Last year's registration debacle was way more stressful than it should ever be.

A lot of that was due to their systems going down. Numbers of registrants were much closer to pre-pandemic numbers otherwise.

 

[Herding_Cats]

A lot of that was due to their systems going down. Numbers of registrants were much closer to pre-pandemic numbers otherwise.

Right. But also, charities had waitlists. And theming/anniversary aside, there seems like there was just a lot more demand for the '23 MW. Revenge travel? New runners?

 

[DopeyRunner486]

Right. But also, charities had waitlists. And theming/anniversary aside, there seems like there was just a lot more demand for the '23 MW. Revenge travel? New runners?

Charities having waitlists is not unusual. It was also mostly for Dopey. Other distances did not have those waitlists. Yes there was some new runner and "revenge travel" or pent up demand. Its a combination of a lot of things. I just don't see why 2024 would be the same in terms of craziness.

If we look at 2018 to 2019 the last major anniversary.
2018 had over 20,000 finishers for both the half and full marathons. 2019? About 18,000 for the half and only 12,000 for the full. I don't think the full ever sold out that year. Dopey in 2018 had over 7600 finishers. In 2019, 5226 finishers.

Now I am not saying these races will not sell out or stay open for months. I think they very much will sell out within a day or so. I just don't think it will be 2023 registration level.

 

[BikeFan]

If we look at 2018 to 2019 the last major anniversary.
2018 had over 20,000 finishers for both the half and full marathons. 2019? About 18,000 for the half and only 12,000 for the full. I don't think the full ever sold out that year. Dopey in 2018 had over 7600 finishers. In 2019, 5226 finishers.

The big question to me is why runDisney scaled back the field in 2023 when the demand is clearly there (at least in anniversary years). If they have in the past accommodated 20K+ runners for the half and/or the full, why don't they take that many runners every year? I've seen suggestions that they've heard the complaints about course crowding, but I don't think that's it. It's not much different at Disney than other big marathons, and while runners (understandably) complain about it, they clearly keep coming back. There has to be a greater reason Disney turned away so many runners who just wanted to give them more money.

 

[DopeyRunner486]

The big question to me is why runDisney scaled back the field in 2023 when the demand is clearly there (at least in anniversary years). If they have in the past accommodated 20K+ runners for the half and/or the full, why don't they take that many runners every year? I've seen suggestions that they've heard the complaints about course crowding, but I don't think that's it. It's not much different at Disney than other big marathons, and while runners (understandably) complain about it, they clearly keep coming back. There has to be a greater reason Disney turned away so many runners who just wanted to give them more money.

I think a big reason is crowds. Every year, even in smaller years, people complain about course crowding. This year there was plenty of complaints. Adding even more runners creates even more problems. It also adds to the amount of time these races take especially at the start. This year it took roughly 45-50 minutes for the balloons to start the marathon. That would be even longer with more people. I think Disney doesn't want to expand past that hour mark. Look at the parks themselves. They are wading that fine line. The parks are not dead but they aren't letting as many as they could in every day either. The park reservations are a control system much like registration numbers are. runDisney may even want to go bigger but it could be Disney telling them no we need courses cleared by X time and this and that. runDisney can't just do whatever they want.

 

[The Expert]

The big question to me is why runDisney scaled back the field in 2023 when the demand is clearly there (at least in anniversary years). If they have in the past accommodated 20K+ runners for the half and/or the full, why don't they take that many runners every year?

I agree course crowding probably played into this decision, but I think it also has to do with resort capacity. And I bet we see the same thing for 2024. Any time the races are this close to the holidays, the resorts are already going to be full of non-runners and people who stay into the MW timeframe. Just a guess.

 

[marty3d]

I agree course crowding probably played into this decision, but I think it also has to do with resort capacity. And I bet we see the same thing for 2024. Any time the races are this close to the holidays, the resorts are already going to be full of non-runners and people who stay into the MW timeframe. Just a guess.

And those holiday visitors are more likely to be going to the parks, spending money on passes, food, souvenirs than the runners (not all but on average).

 

[DopeyBadger]

It also adds to the amount of time these races take especially at the start. This year it took roughly 45-50 minutes for the balloons to start the marathon. That would be even longer with more people. I think Disney doesn't want to expand past that hour mark.

Even when there have been ~20,000 finishers/27,000 bib numbers (which was near their peak registration acceptance) they still had the field gun time to balloon time be around 60 min. They just increased the rate of release for the runners (which does cause more course crowding). See the 2018 data from this tableau (link).

 

[DopeyRunner486]

Even when there have been ~20,000 finishers/27,000 bib numbers (which was near their peak registration acceptance) they still had the field gun time to balloon time be around 60 min. They just increased the rate of release for the runners (which does cause more course crowding). See the 2018 data from this tableau (link).

Sure but given this it may seem like they want it under an hour. Like I said it was closer to 45-50 minutes this year. They also have changed corralling systems since 2018 as well. We aren't in the days of corrals A through K or whatever it was.

 

[Desdemona924]

https://www.rundisney.com/coast-to-coast/

Coast to Coast details. Sounds just like it was before, and the 10-miler will count, so it's not just half or longer.