More Newbie Disney Race Questions :)

[GeorgeAndDiana]

Couple of questions for the experts out there.

1) You know those big race time clocks that people are always posing next to at mile markers? I assume that time is the actual race time for the first Corral to be released? Or is it adjusted for each start?

2) Is "Host Hotel" transportation more convenient than renting a car? Over the years, I've moved away from Disney transportation while at the World, since driving provides so much flexibility, especially while park hopping. However, I imagine on Race Day, we'd rather be more relaxed and not worrying about traffic/parking/etc. I assume the buses must be crowded, with how many race participants that must be staying at the hotels.

3) How long is a typical character wait? It seems a big draw of Disney races in particular is being able to stop and take pictures with characters, but being my first race, I'm naturally nervous to lose too much time to "unnecessary" stops. What are your personal experiences? Do you stop at every character you can, or build a healthy start, and then stop when convenient?

Have a great weekend, everyone!
George

 

[FireDancer]

Couple of questions for the experts out there.

1) You know those big race time clocks that people are always posing next to at mile markers? I assume that time is the actual race time for the first Corral to be released? Or is it adjusted for each start?

2) Is "Host Hotel" transportation more convenient than renting a car? Over the years, I've moved away from Disney transportation while at the World, since driving provides so much flexibility, especially while park hopping. However, I imagine on Race Day, we'd rather be more relaxed and not worrying about traffic/parking/etc. I assume the buses must be crowded, with how many race participants that must be staying at the hotels.

3) How long is a typical character wait? It seems a big draw of Disney races in particular is being able to stop and take pictures with characters, but being my first race, I'm naturally nervous to lose too much time to "unnecessary" stops. What are your personal experiences? Do you stop at every character you can, or build a healthy start, and then stop when convenient?

Have a great weekend, everyone!
George

1) Yes, that is the clock time of the race which is the same for every runner. You will have an adjusted chip time which starts when you cross the start line. If it takes you 20 minutes to get to the start line and 15 minutes to do the first mile the clock at mile 1 for you will read 35:00. If you finish the race in 2 hours your clock time will be 2:20:00 and you chip time 2:00:00. The finish clock will also display the clock time.

2) I wouldn't personally want to deal with driving to the races or to the parks during the races. Unless you are familiar enough with the roads to know alternative routes it can be a pain and because they close the roads you have to be up and in the parking lot extra early if you are driving. Even if you drive the rest of your trip I'd still take Disney transportation to and from the races and to the parks on Saturday or Sunday morning of marathon weekend.

3) I can't help you with this one as I don't stop for character pics.

 

[Disfan11]

Couple of questions for the experts out there.

1) You know those big race time clocks that people are always posing next to at mile markers? I assume that time is the actual race time for the first Corral to be released? Or is it adjusted for each start?

2) Is "Host Hotel" transportation more convenient than renting a car? Over the years, I've moved away from Disney transportation while at the World, since driving provides so much flexibility, especially while park hopping. However, I imagine on Race Day, we'd rather be more relaxed and not worrying about traffic/parking/etc. I assume the buses must be crowded, with how many race participants that must be staying at the hotels.

3) How long is a typical character wait? It seems a big draw of Disney races in particular is being able to stop and take pictures with characters, but being my first race, I'm naturally nervous to lose too much time to "unnecessary" stops. What are your personal experiences? Do you stop at every character you can, or build a healthy start, and then stop when convenient?

Have a great weekend, everyone!
George

Here's my answers:
1. The clock starts when the first person crosses the line in corral A. So if you aren't the first person, then your chip will be your time. And the big time clocks will show the first person/groups time. I'm not the first person (but I started in the first corral this year) so I kept track of my time via my Garmin watch. You could keep track via a application for your phone like Runkeeper also.
2. I stayed at a Host hotel, the Caribbean Beach Resort, and took the Disney buses everywhere. I would recommend this, especially because of the time to board the bus on the run morning. I got on the bus at 4:00AM. Plus they also had special buses that were for the Expo too. Another bus plug - it was fun being on the bus with everyone that was running and bonding/seeing their costumes and having fun conversations!
3. For the picture stops, because I was in the first corral, there were virtually no lines for the characters. That was a plus, but the minus was that I was running with most people that wanted to PR, so no one would stop to take my picture with the big clocks (only one of those was manned by a cast member). But the character stops mostly had cast members to take my picture so that was great. Even though I'm a faster runner, I wanted to enjoy this Disney run (my first) and I stopped for pictures at almost all of the characters. I carried my small camera in my hand and just ran up to the cast member, handed it to them, jumped into the picture and ran off with my camera. I got pretty good at it by the last half of the race. Also keep in mind that some of the characters will be on your way back as well. The pirates were both at the beginning of the run (in the dark) and on the way back (in the light). So I got pictures both times.
On a personal note, I would not worry about your time for this race, save that for another 1/2 that you may do. Enjoy this one and take lots of pictures because the other 1/2's (that aren't Disney races) don't have the fun characters to enjoy!
You will have a great time!!!

 

[GeorgeAndDiana]

Great, thanks for the responses so far! So, there were plenty of buses for all the runners to the expo and to the event? I imagined a gigantic crowd at the bus stops like the ones that you see after Fantasmic or Illuminations and got a little paranoid. Good point about bonding with the other runners.. that's a cool way to break the ice!

I'm interested in how long the character waits get for the further corals. Not knowing where I'd land on my first half, I took a friend's advice and went with a 3:00 estimate, so I imagine I'll be back a bit. I'm with you, I'll be enjoying the event as much as I can, without worry about breaking any records. I just want to make sure I'm not adding 10 minutes to my time per stop

 

[J3nn78]

I was one of the later middle corrals for the full last year. We only had to wait for a couple of the character pics-and the wait was maybe 2 minutes. All the others were run in and run out.

 

[stitchfan18]

Couple of questions for the experts out there.

1) You know those big race time clocks that people are always posing next to at mile markers? I assume that time is the actual race time for the first Corral to be released? Or is it adjusted for each start?

2) Is "Host Hotel" transportation more convenient than renting a car? Over the years, I've moved away from Disney transportation while at the World, since driving provides so much flexibility, especially while park hopping. However, I imagine on Race Day, we'd rather be more relaxed and not worrying about traffic/parking/etc. I assume the buses must be crowded, with how many race participants that must be staying at the hotels.

3) How long is a typical character wait? It seems a big draw of Disney races in particular is being able to stop and take pictures with characters, but being my first race, I'm naturally nervous to lose too much time to "unnecessary" stops. What are your personal experiences? Do you stop at every character you can, or build a healthy start, and then stop when convenient?

Have a great weekend, everyone!
George

1.)The clock starts when the gun goes off so to speak, so unless you are in the front of the first corral the time will be wrong. I don't really care about my time so much, so it doesn't bother me that they are off.

2.) I've never stayed at a host resort so I can't speak to it's benefits. When I ran wine and dine I had a friend staying at the Poly and met up with her before the race to catch the bus to the start. The line was super long, but the buses sent were charter buses, and they sent several once Disney figured out so many people were waiting to board. This year for the princess we were at BWV which wasn't a host resort, but one of the major charity groups was there and we lucked out because they had provided bus transportation and let us ride. It was great because there were no lines for the bus the morning of the 1/2 or going back to the resort after the race. We didn't know they were there ahead of time, but I would assume they provide the same transportation for their group every year/event. I'm almost tempted to figure out what resort they are at this year and stay there again!

3.) When I ran the wine and dine 1/2 relay last year I did the second leg, and my super speedy SIL ran the first. She got to me super quick and when i started most of my leg the people I was running with were interested in a speedy race instead of pictures. That being said, I had no wait for any picture that night. For the princess I was in corral B, and once I got to photo stops the lines were fairly long depending on the character. There were a couple of characters I didn't wait for, but most had 4-5 people in front of me. I'm hoping to get into corral A next year so my wait is even shorter. To give you an idea of how long I spent taking pictures, I ran a 2:38 princess 1/2 with all the character stops but 2, and about a month later I ran a 2:10 1/2 at home with no stops. There is no science between my pace from those events, but I ran them both after following the same training.

 

[GeorgeAndDiana]

Cool, this is great information, thank you. Sounds like all in all, the character stops aren't bad at all. I figured that each interaction should be short, since everyone is in the same boat.. get your picture, move on.

I'm at SSR, which is listed as a host resort, so hopefully the issues some folks reported last year from SSR were just an anomaly. I definitely don't cherish the idea of navigating closed roads and traffic to get there, so, we'll probably plan to use Disney's transportation, at least on race day.

I now understand chip time! Thanks everyone.. makes sense now that you've clarified. Just out of curiosity, how long does it take to get everyone started? With so many thousands of people, I'm curious how far behind the last corral is.

Happy Friday!
George

 

[stitchfan18]

Cool, this is great information, thank you. Sounds like all in all, the character stops aren't bad at all. I figured that each interaction should be short, since everyone is in the same boat.. get your picture, move on.

I'm at SSR, which is listed as a host resort, so hopefully the issues some folks reported last year from SSR were just an anomaly. I definitely don't cherish the idea of navigating closed roads and traffic to get there, so, we'll probably plan to use Disney's transportation, at least on race day.

I now understand chip time! Thanks everyone.. makes sense now that you've clarified. Just out of curiosity, how long does it take to get everyone started? With so many thousands of people, I'm curious how far behind the last corral is.

Happy Friday!
George

They let a corral start every 8 minutes. This past princess there were 6 corrals. Corral A left at 5:45, and corral F left at 6:25. If you don't have a proof of time from a 10k or longer before the race to show that you plan to finish before 2:45, then you should put your estimated finish as 2:46. That proof of time should put you in corral D, or would have put you in that corral this past year. Also keep in mind that if you plan to run with another person, you have to start in the lowest corral one of you is assigned to (IE: if you are in corral B, and you are running with someone in corral D, you have to start in corral D if you want to run together.) Closer to the event there will be a chance to sign friends and family up for text message updates of your time as you progress through the race. I signed myself up for the alerts so I knew my official chip time as I crossed the finish line since the clocks reflect the first people to start.

 

[GeorgeAndDiana]

Thanks, Heather! Great info on the corral start times!!

We've already both registered at 3:00, so we'll see how that works out. I should have thought about the 2:46, but similar to the whole "favorite princess" thing, we didn't really know what the implications were of the question

I definitely have friends/coworkers who will be interested in the text alerts, etc. Is it based on knowing your bib, or just your name?

 

[stitchfan18]

Thanks, Heather! Great info on the corral start times!!

We've already both registered at 3:00, so we'll see how that works out. I should have thought about the 2:46, but similar to the whole "favorite princess" thing, we didn't really know what the implications were of the question

I definitely have friends/coworkers who will be interested in the text alerts, etc. Is it based on knowing your bib, or just your name?

They can sign up just with your name closer to the race.

 

[RunRookie]

GerogeAndDiana: If you run a 10K or 15K prior to WDW, then you can bring the printout from the race results to the Expo. They can put you in a different corral if your finish time indicates you can finish faster than the 3:00 you registered with.


I did the same thing you did at registration. But I am hoping that I will get into an earlier corral based upon races I am running between now and December.

See you in January!