marathon weekend kids races

[Sheepdog23]

Has anyone done the kids races? My dd, age 6, is really interested in running one and I was wondering what they were like. She has become really interested in running races since she ran a school run a few months ago with all the school kids in our town. She has run a short race through preschool every year and this year was more about endurance. She is so proud of her medal from school jog this year and wants to get more so I thought that we might try Disney's since we will be there that weekend. I was going to run the 5K but I just had a baby and not feeling really up to training so I am sitting out this time. I think the price for the race is ok, but i just wanted to hear more about the chaos before we register. Thanks!

 

[disney_runner]

Picture this... Sicily, 1922... oh wait, wrong answer..
so easily amused...
I signed up all 3 of ours for the races in 2011. Because of the age groupings, my 6 (almost 7) year old was supposed to run with my brand new 4 year old in the 100 meter. My 8 year old ran the 200 meter. So you can imagine the different sizes of kids all over the place. Parents can run with their kids too. (or parents can do the running whilst holding their kid) And they run them in different "waves" because there are so many kids. But they are not organized with the "waves" whatsoever. They pretty much just count out about 40 or so kids, put up a rope behind the rest, and then say "ready, set, go" and they do this about 6 or 7 times until all the kids are done. There's no real placements of 1st, 2nd, etc. But every kid gets a medal, even if they're last place in their wave (and the next wave is coming in right behind them.... true story ). So as long as your DD is OK with that kind of race scenario, then I say go for it! My older DD placed maybe about 8th or so in her "wave" and she's pretty proud about that and still has her medal hanging on her bulletin board. I guess it's pretty cool for the kids. But it's like organized chaos for the adults.

 

[Fellowship9798]

If the race starts at 11:00, what time should we actually arrive at the WWoS? Are there pre-race activities for the kids we should be there early for?

 

[disney_runner]

There's no activities. Just insanely loud music and "DJ's" that talk too loud. We got there about 10:30 and stood around waiting, and waiting, and waiting..... I would recommend to figure out where your children should line up around the track, and wait on the track so hopefully you can be in the first wave and then get outta there!

 

[drdelsol]

It's Disney- get there early to line up in front and then at the last minute lots of parents will push their kids in front of you, just like at a parade, lol. It's great for the kids and for what they get a baragin, especially by Disney prices. Just be patient, they'll love it.

 

[jbucci]

We have done them a few times. I agree with the organized chaos part. Kids are grouped by age and run in very loose "waves" with parents often running alongside. My daughter wanted to run all by herself when she was 6, but I looked at the mass of people at the end and decided to run a few feet behind her so she could do it herself but not be lost in the crowd at the end. They do each get medals and the registration includes a cute shirt that says "I did it" on the back. They also got clif bars or something similar at the end.

The Mickey Mile was better organized and had "mile markers" at the .25, .5, and .75 points with a water station at the half mile. The kids started on one of the back fields and ended on the track, it was pretty cute! The kids in the mile race were mostly ones who looked like they had run before and knew what they were doing.

This year we are moving up to the 5K for our daughter although I'm a bit nervous about her making it that far, the one mile was more her speed, but she wants to try.

The kids races are fun and loud and a cool thing for them to do so they can show off their medal when the grown up s are wearing theirs. My daughter's only complaint was that it was not made of medal (which is wise watching how the kids toss them around). She stated they should call them "plastics", not "medals". She did however show it off proudly to any castmember who looked at her.