Marathon Weekend 2025

[The Expert]

2016 was still rubber 5k medal for marathon weekend - I got one too.

I think metal 5k medals were introduced at either Tink or Disneyland Half in 2016. It was a big deal to get a metal 5k medal when I ran DLH that year and the 2016 inaugural SWDS still had the rubber 5k medal.

Yup right you are, I was off by a year. My first runDisney race after castaway key summer 2016 was the Princess 5k 2017 with my wife and daughter, we got metal medals.

Yep, the Princess 5K that year also had a rubber medal. That was my first race and I was pretty bummed I didn't get a "real" medal. Though it did motivate me to want try do longer distances! I did all three races at Princess 2017 and all those medals were metal.

 

[jrsharp21]

Just went out for my first run post MW. Yea, some of those blisters haven't fully healed yet. LOL. It was good to get back going. I almost felt guilty not running these past 12 days or so.

 

[fatmanatee]

As another example, 29k people finished the NYC marathon in 2000. Almost 56k finished last year. Can't find average time for either race but I suspect it's gotten longer. I'm definitely part of this! I wouldn't imagine doing a marathon in 2000 but over time I've seen it as more accessible and here we are.

 

[PrincessV]

Y’know, this entire conversation should be convincing me to save my money and my sanity and skip MW2026 altogether… but it’s having the opposite effect: I want to do ALL THE RACES now! What is wrong with us?! #cult

 

[Psymonds]

As another example, 29k people finished the NYC marathon in 2000. Almost 56k finished last year. Can't find average time for either race but I suspect it's gotten longer. I'm definitely part of this! I wouldn't imagine doing a marathon in 2000 but over time I've seen it as more accessible and here we are.

same is happnening with Boston etc.

I think there's a large part of this that is people seeing other's experience more readily on social media and seeking out cool experiences. RunDisney is certainly a better marathon than your average hometown marathon, and once word gets out there's more demand.

I still get the begging price increase soon emails from all the local runs I've done in the past, they're not seeing the big boom like the world majors, but there is a lottery for Big Sur here.

In that way anything cool is a victim of it's own success (like the wildflower trail down the street from us, now all the neighbors get uspet that people come to see the wildflowers, the wildflowers haven't changed but the popularity has made it an issue)

 

[princesspirateandrunner]

I’m just catching up on the thread, and I agree with a lot of the comments about how much has changed and been taken away. My first rD race was the Princess Half in 2013, which was its five year anniversary. Here’s a look at the bling (except the purple bag, which I think was from 2014):

We got ears at the finish, and a necklace and a bag at the expo. The medal was GORGEOUS. I’ve done a lot of rD events—here’s a pic of most of myDisney medals (minus this year’s 10k, which I need to still add). The PW bib even was printed with “Princess Tammy” in those early years.

My first MW was 2016. There were a lot more runners back then, but I definitely felt less course congestion, whatever the reason. I also really miss the special entertainment, like the big pirate ship, the trampoline and stilt people, and the fun surprises. I loved the nighttime W&D races, with the party after (well…maybe not Splash and Dash, but that was certainly an adventure). MW felt completely different from PW, which felt completely different from W&D. I still love rD, but it has definitely changed, particularly since Covid.

 

[Barca33Runner]

It’s really interesting to read everyone’s opinions on runDisney. The more I think about it, I do attribute a good amount of my personal disenchantment with rD recently as being a bit of familiarity breeding contempt. Many of the very good things that happen during rD races and race weekends don’t hit the same the 14th race weekend and I-don’t-know-how-many-th race.

I will, however, die on the hill that as they have streamlined their race weekend procedures that there is just a different, not as good/inviting/special, feel to the proceedings. I’ve done a terrible job of describing this sensation so I’m going to give up trying to explain it. I don’t think it’s just me imagining things though.

 

[pluto377]

As another example, 29k people finished the NYC marathon in 2000. Almost 56k finished last year. Can't find average time for either race but I suspect it's gotten longer. I'm definitely part of this! I wouldn't imagine doing a marathon in 2000 but over time I've seen it as more accessible and here we are.

Marathon guide says the average finish in 2000 was 4:24 and in 2024 it was 4:31. It seems like for most of the majors the average finish time has not changed much, certainly not as much as Disney.

 

[Mr_Incr3dible]

The guy that used to have the disneyrunning.com site told me that he lobbied to get the minimum pace increased from 15 min/mile to 16 at Disney, which really opened it up for the slower runners and walkers and made the rD races more doable. IMHO, it was and is a good thing and makes rD a bit more inclusive than some of the race with a quicker minimum pace.
OTOH, as note prior, sometimes when you build it, they will come. I love hitting my local greenway to run, and on the one hand I may get annoyed at all the people I'm maneuvering around, but on the other hand it gladdens my heart to see so many other people out running/walking/biking. We need more people out exercising.
So we're back to rD being a bit of a victim of its own success, but like the Peachtree Road Race, they can't start taking the runners for granted to where many of the loyal base get disenchanted and take their time and $$ elsewhere.

 

[FFigawi]

So we're back to rD being a bit of a victim of its own success, but like the Peachtree Road Race, they can't start taking the runners for granted to where many of the loyal base get disenchanted and take their time and $$ elsewhere.

I'm not so sure about that. The races, for the most part, are selling out within hours or days. Unless that changes and entries for marathon weekend are still available in October like they were in the past, for example, there's not much incentive for runDisney to make any drastic runner-first changes to what they're doing. Yes, I'm sure they're generally nice people and individually want the runners to have the best experience possible. As a business, though, as long as they're selling out their entries and their merchandise, do they really need to or want to make the improvements being discussed here? I'd say no, and I'll keep showing up anyway. I'd bet most of us will too. The race weekends are about the people we get to see and share it with, not the races themselves.

That said, I'd happily go back to any number of the old courses and leave the parking lot miles far behind.

 

[EPCOT-O.G.]

I meet a course photographer in the elevator at my hotel during MW and he said that rD no longer has any volunteers on the course.

I think there are tax implications to using volunteers (or “compensating” them with free tickets). In CA, I believe I heard that for-profit enterprises that run races cannot rely on volunteers.

As much as I bemoan the experience now, that labor cost alone may explain why things aren’t as magical or favored for runners vs. general public/park ops.

 

[Mr. Drauer]

I think there are tax implications to using volunteers (or “compensating” them with free tickets). In CA, I believe I heard that for-profit enterprises that run races cannot rely on volunteers.

As much as I bemoan the experience now, that labor cost alone may explain why things aren’t as magical or favored for runners vs. general public/park ops.

FYI - they still give out park tickets to the performers (high school choirs, bands, etc) for the races, and they give park tickets to the guest singers (local choirs, etc.) for Candlelight at WDW.

 

[Zutroy]

FYI - they still give out park tickets to the performers (high school choirs, bands, etc) for the races, and they give park tickets to the guest singers (local choirs, etc.) for Candlelight at WDW.

They used to give a full-day ticket to any park for every day of the event you volunteered for. Friends of mine would volunteer for MW, and then run Princess and use the free tickets then. Maybe two years ago RD changed it to a half-day ticket that could only be used the day of volunteering. Since the volunteers often had to be on the course at 2 am, that half-day ticket was basically worthless. RD also took away other perks, like a free runner’s box, and the volunteers had to bring their own food and drink with them. Again, emblematic of Disney chasing short-term gain in value for shareholders at the cost of long-term benefit of the consumers and company as a whole.

 

[Mr. Drauer]

They used to give a full-day ticket to any park for every day of the event you volunteered for. Friends of mine would volunteer for MW, and then run Princess and use the free tickets then. Maybe two years ago RD changed it to a half-day ticket that could only be used the day of volunteering. Since the volunteers often had to be on the course at 2 am, that half-day ticket was basically worthless. RD also took away other perks, like a free runner’s box, and the volunteers had to bring their own food and drink with them. Again, emblematic of Disney chasing short-term gain in value for shareholders at the cost of long-term benefit of the consumers and company as a whole.

Yeah - I understand that, but I was merely replying that it is not a tax situation and that they still give out full park tickets to certain groups. Our High School was the backstage choir for the Marathon, and call time for that was 2:30, but each kid got a full park hopper.

 

[EPCOT-O.G.]

Yeah - I understand that, but I was merely replying that it is not a tax situation and that they still give out full park tickets to certain groups. Our High School was the backstage choir for the Marathon, and call time for that was 2:30, but each kid got a full park hopper.

But I think it does create tax implications if the gift’s value exceeds $100. You can thank ever increasing ticket prices and variable pricing for this benefit going away.

 

[Kelkee]

Is rD ever going to explain what happened with the bibs during MW?

This was my wife's first marathon and first Dopey. My second marathon and second Dopey.

The experience of her times not being recorded for the 5 and 10 was a bit crushing in the moment, when you've put all this effort and training into a Dopey challenge. Emailing an explanation was not enough. On a vacation emails are a low priority and we were preoccupied with other things to even bother so they were completely missed.

I cant imagine if this happened at one of the major races, and the excuse was "oh well, nothing we can do."

 

[Mr. Drauer]

But I think it does create tax implications if the gift’s value exceeds $100. You can thank ever increasing ticket prices and variable pricing for this benefit going away.

Well, my daughter has performed as a student singer at Candlelight many times, including multiple shows in one night. They are given park hopper tickets for each performance they do. They have never indicated that there are any tax consequences evevn though the value of the tickets were many hundreds of dollars. I think that the volume of volunteers for a race is pretty high, but there were as many as 200 guest singers at each Candlelight performance - that is 3 times a night for about 35 days. So I am not sure if the free park tickets for volunteers is really at the heart of why RD stopped with volunteers. But if this is a hill you intend to defend, then go for it.

 

[GollyGadget]

Is rD ever going to explain what happened with the bibs during MW?

This was my wife's first marathon and first Dopey. My second marathon and second Dopey.

The experience of her times not being recorded for the 5 and 10 was a bit crushing in the moment, when you've put all this effort and training into a Dopey challenge. Emailing an explanation was not enough. On a vacation emails are a low priority and we were preoccupied with other things to even bother so they were completely missed.

I cant imagine if this happened at one of the major races, and the excuse was "oh well, nothing we can do."

What do you want them to do about it? I'm not saying they shouldn't do something, but it's not like they can go back in time to fix the issue.

Once you decide what you want, send them an email and ask for it.

 

[MissLiss279]

What do you want them to do about it? I'm not saying they shouldn't do something, but it's not like they can go back in time to fix the issue.

Once you decide what you want, send them an email and ask for it.

Yeah, I’m not sure what they can do for things that happened in the past, but maybe TrackShack and runDisney can outline a plan on how this will not happen again.
-runners walk over a mat at bib pickup
-a larger quantity spot checked after bibs printed/tags placed
-???

 

[jmasgat]

Is rD ever going to explain what happened with the bibs during MW?

No. I emailed them and specifically mentioned the lack of time to be used for a future PoT, and I got back a generic "We'll pass along your comments". No answer for the PoT question, and no further explanation of the issue/what caused it/corrective action.