Marathon Weekend Expo. What If I can't pick up my bib in time?

[Pmm_]

Hi All,

We're coming down for our first half marathon at Disney this January. Here's my question, we fly in the Friday night before and probably won't get to SSR until 9 PM.

The Expo says it's ours are Friday, January 11, 2019 – 9:30 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, January 12, 2019 – 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. while we're there. It also says we must go to it to get our bibs.

How can we pick up our bibs if we get there after it closes on Friday and the race starts at 5:30 AM Saturday?

Thanks!

 

[camaker]

Hi All,

We're coming down for our first half marathon at Disney this January. Here's my question, we fly in the Friday night before and probably won't get to SSR until 9 PM.

The Expo says it's ours are Friday, January 11, 2019 – 9:30 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, January 12, 2019 – 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. while we're there. It also says we must go to it to get our bibs.

How can we pick up our bibs if we get there after it closes on Friday and the race starts at 5:30 AM Saturday?

Thanks!

RunDisney has had an unadvertised, non-guaranteed emergency bib pick up the morning of the race in the past. There's no guarantee that they will have it for these races and if you contact them they will not confirm or guarantee it. It's really intended for emergency issues (flight delays, weather, etc), not for planning issues, though. I would suggest altering your flight to something that allows you to make it to the Expo to be on the safe side. It will save a lot of stress on race morning.

 

[Pmm_]

RunDisney has had an unadvertised, non-guaranteed emergency bib pick up the morning of the race in the past. There's no guarantee that they will have it for these races and if you contact them they will not confirm or guarantee it. It's really intended for emergency issues (flight delays, weather, etc), not for planning issues, though. I would suggest altering your flight to something that allows you to make it to the Expo to be on the safe side. It will save a lot of stress on race morning.

Thanks. I definitely agree. Unfortunately, the other (reasonable) flight is in the AM which calls for missing a full day of work. We have some friends that are CM's, so maybe they can help us out or grab them for us.

 

[cavepig]

Thanks. I definitely agree. Unfortunately, the other (reasonable) flight is in the AM which calls for missing a full day of work. We have some friends that are CM's, so maybe they can help us out or grab them for us.

You can't have someone pick it up for you though. You have to be the one to get it with your ID. Unless something changes, but it's been this way for a few years now.

 

[camaker]

Thanks. I definitely agree. Unfortunately, the other (reasonable) flight is in the AM which calls for missing a full day of work. We have some friends that are CM's, so maybe they can help us out or grab them for us.

They are pretty strict about not letting anyone other than the actual runner pick up the bibs. It's also not CMs running the bib pick up, it's volunteers that RunDisney brings in. If that works out, great, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

[rteetz]

Thanks. I definitely agree. Unfortunately, the other (reasonable) flight is in the AM which calls for missing a full day of work. We have some friends that are CM's, so maybe they can help us out or grab them for us.

Unfortunately they likely won't be able to grab them for you. Disney's policy is only you the runner can pick them up.

 

[cavepig]

Ha, we all posted at the same time, that's funny!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

I would see if you could change the flight. There is no guarantee you can pick up the bib the morning of. Even then, its supposed to only be for true emergencies and not because you didn't want to use vacation hours.

 

[GreatLakes]

The absolute latest I would fly into town for a Saturday race is Thursday morning. I want the padding in case of a cancelled or severely delayed flight. I would look into at least moving up to a Thursday night race. Even a move up to a early morning Friday flight would be cutting it too close for me.

You can probably get the packet the day of the race but there will be a race weekend at some point where they stop doing this and people will be out of luck. This isn't something they want to keep supporting and if people keep using the emergency packet pickup for non emergencies it will happen quicker rather than later.

 

[bumbershoot]

I would suggest altering your flight to something that allows you to make it to the Expo to be on the safe side. It will save a lot of stress on race morning.

Yep.

And you don't want to get to the resort at 9pm for a 5:30am start! You'll get a couple hours of sleep.* That's no way to do your first half marathon; respect the experience and take the day off and be there earlier.

You can probably get the packet the day of the race but there will be a race weekend at some point where they stop doing this and people will be out of luck.

Agreed.


*(for a half at WDW I'm up at 2ish and heading to that bus at 3 to make SURE I'm there for my start)
(and that's with me being on pacific time, so it's even worse!)

 

[Bree]

I’d change my flight. Getting in at 9pm and settled into your room and then getting up a couple hours later sounds like no fun. Yes, the race starts at 5:30, but they want all the runners in their corrals by 5am. Buses start transporting runners at 3am and it’s recommended you be on a bus by 4am. Yes, those hours are insanely early! The buses that transport runners are run by a third party. They are not the buses that take you to and from the parks. The bus drivers don’t always know where they are going and get lost. Sometimes there are car accidents with runners driving themselves to the race.

Everyone responding to you are experienced Disney runners. It’s a unique race experience and you paid a lot of money for it! It stinks to have to take another day off from work, but I think you can benefit from it. You’ll land earlier, get to the expo in time for your bib and get a good night’s sleep.

 

[Pmm_]

Thank you, everyone. I appreciate the input and we totally would have flown down earlier, but teachers really can't take off those days especially at the beginning of a new semester.

Fortunately, it's not our first half marathons so we'll be good when it comes to rest. Unfortunately, we're just going to have to bank on them hopefully handing out bibs before the race. I'll also call Disney later today to speak with someone about this.

I'm sure we're not the only people out of the massive amount of runners who can't pick it up on Thursday or Friday, lol.

 

[jennamfeo]

 

[AFwifelife]

I mean there are a ton of people who can't pick up their packet in advance but most of them also just don't sign up for the race.

 

[Princess KP]

I'm sure we're not the only people out of the massive amount of runners who can't pick it up on Thursday or Friday, lol.

Probably not but most of us actually looked at the website to see what the bib pickup hours and made our travel plans based on that.

 

[Keels]

I’m always fascinated by threads like this - you asked a question, were given advice and information from many experienced people and it wasn’t what you wanted to hear. You dredged up a thread from over two years ago trying to get the answer you wanted hear, and now you’re just going to do what you wanted to anyway. Seems like such a waste of time.

Speaking of waste of time - calling Disney to get information about races. Good luck with that.

 

[Pmm_]

I’m always fascinated by threads like this - you asked a question, were given advice and information from many experienced people and it wasn’t what you wanted to hear. You dredged up a thread from over two years ago trying to get the answer you wanted hear, and now you’re just going to do what you wanted to anyway. Seems like such a waste of time.

Speaking of waste of time - calling Disney to get information about races. Good luck with that.

Lol, why do you all think I was being negative!

 

[Disney at Heart]

Thank you, everyone. I appreciate the input and we totally would have flown down earlier, but teachers really can't take off those days especially at the beginning of a new semester.

Fortunately, it's not our first half marathons so we'll be good when it comes to rest. Unfortunately, we're just going to have to bank on them hopefully handing out bibs before the race. I'll also call Disney later today to speak with someone about this.

I'm sure we're not the only people out of the massive amount of runners who can't pick it up on Thursday or Friday, lol.

I've been to Marathon Weekend about 20/25 times with DH, although I've actually run it myself the last 5 of those years. I am now a retired h.s. teacher. While it is difficult for a teacher to take days off at the beginning of a semester, I always bit the bullet, made detailed lesson plans and activities, and took personal leave days to be there in time for the Expo and the races (and then had tons of things to grade when I got back, yuck). We teachers feel like the school can't go on without us for a day, but I learned that it could when my family came into play. I don't know your situation or where you are coming from, but I wouldn't take the chance. What would you do if weather or mechanical problems delayed your flight for 4-6 hours?
DH ran the very first marathon and is perfectly Goofy and Dopey right now, and he would NEVER take the chance that if we arrived too late for bib pick up that he wouldn't be allowed to run.

 

[jmasgat]

Lol, why do you all think I was being negative!

Not negative, but perhaps a bit unrealistic. It's one thing when things happen to cause an unexpected problem with bib pickup (e.g. weather-induced flight delays). As others have noted, this happens, and Disney has made accommodations. It's another thing to actually plan not to be there in time to pick it up and expect to have it work out.

Perhaps those of us who have done multiple Disney races just have the rules ingrained in our heads by now. But, speaking just for myself, I also familiarized myself with the race rules before I signed up to make sure I could plan accordingly.

 

[BurleyGirl]

Thank you to the OP for this post; I was needing the same info. (And thanks to the Disers for your candid answers.)

I'm wanting to run the January 2020 half marathon (because we'll be coming during that time and it would be a way for me to finally get to run one without making a separate trip, and money is a factor for us). I wanted my DH to run with me (as I'm frankly very intimidated by going through this by myself--all the unknowns, etc.), but he cannot take an extra day of vacation to arrive on the Friday, and we thought there must be a way, but now I see there actually isn't--you just need to view/accept the bib pickup as part of the race whole. I'm disappointed with the answer, but I get it.

Now to convince myself that I can indeed do this (more concerned with all the prerace logistics than the actual run!)