Most popular races?

[BDK33]

This may be a weird question, but which races are more popular Disneyland or Disney World?

Seeing how spots opened up today for Lightside races is that because demand isnt as high for DL Races?

Thanks!

 

[Barca33Runner]

I don't know about the relative popularity of the two locations but the overall popularity of the races has cooled off a little recently. Very few of the races at either location seem to be selling out at the same pace that they were a couple years ago. This is likely because the road racing boom is cooling off as well.

 

[rteetz]

This may be a weird question, but which races are more popular Disneyland or Disney World?

Seeing how spots opened up today for Lightside races is that because demand isnt as high for DL Races?

Thanks!

runDisney as a whole has seen a decline recently.

Based on 2016 inaugural events seemed to be the most popular such as Dark Side or Wine and Dine because of the new challenge.

Avengers half had almost 4,000 less participants than some of the other DL halfs.

5K an 10K distances are the most popular between all the weekends, most of those are sold out. Its the larger races that are having trouble right now even challenges aren't selling out.

 

[DOOM1001]

Disneyland's races used to sell out super fast a couple of years ago due to Run Disney having a surge in popularity with everyone and their grandma running their races as well as there just not being that many races out there.Disney World then saw that surge in popularity with many races selling out within an hour or two,Wine and Dine was usually one of the fastest selling races along with the Dopey challenge and the smaller races in marathon weekend.During this time Disney World also removed the ToT 10 miler and then the Expedition Everest challenge,so with that rise in Run Disney popularity and fewer races some races were just very difficult to sign up for before selling out.Run Disney then started adding races,DL got Avengers and Star Wars and WDW also got Star Wars but probably for various reasons the races just stopped selling out as fast,DL definitely added more options but things like the price of the races,which are among the priciest out there and that many race weekends just seem identical to each other have eased off the overall popularity.Wine and Dine for example was a night race with an after race party in Epcot,now its another morning race and even with them adding a 10K it just feels like every other race weekend.ToT was another one that was a night race with an after race party and that race is now gone due to DHS construction.Some races still fill up fast especially for new challenges and anniversary years but the races overall need to get more unique in my opinion.

 

[PCFriar80]

Good analytics from PPs. I will add it is also not cheap to run individual races, needless to say the challenges. Factor in travel, lodging, food, gifts, etc. it can add up. I have never traveled to the west coast for an RD event and am perfectly happy with our annual run/vacation to run the 1/2 every January in WDW. Will that change? It's getting close after 12 years.

 

[Ariel484]

Princess is consistently pretty popular.

 

[Anisum]

I would say overall, the Anniversary years and new Challenges or events bring in the biggest crowd because at this point there is a subset of runners who have done all of the rD races they are interested in and now are only in doing their favorite races or trying something new when it becomes available. If you're asking about overall crowd levels I would say WDW races tend to be larger. This may be due in part to having more entries or the cap may be higher because of the amount of accommodations and space available for travelling runners. For example this year's DL races had between 7738 (Avengers) and 13084 (Disneyland) finishers for their half marathons. Compare that to Disney World which had 12660 (W&D) and 21506 (Marathon Weekend) with both Princess and Dark Side averaging around 18k.

As for which weekend is the biggest I would say Marathon given the amount of different distances BUT does that make it the most popular? I would say no, given their inability to sell out Goofy and to some extent Dopey. Where as a run like Princess, as @Ariel484 mentioned consistently sells out at all levels.

EDIT: I am curious how a challenge like a Daisy challenge during Marathon Weekend that combined either the 5k, 10k, Half or the 10k and Half would sell out given I think the largest barrier to selling Dopey and Goofy is the sheer magnitude of running a half marathon and then waking up the next day to run a marathon.

 

[Barca33Runner]

EDIT: I am curious how a challenge like a Daisy challenge during Marathon Weekend that combined either the 5k, 10k, Half or the 10k and Half would sell out given I think the largest barrier to selling Dopey and Goofy is the sheer magnitude of running a half marathon and then waking up the next day to run a marathon.

The 5K and 10K sold out in under 30 minutes this year and the Half didn't take much longer, so any challenge of those distances would sell out very quickly. Unfortunately, adding another challenge would eliminate even more individual entries and, IMO, be unnecessary with all of the other weekends that offer similar Challenges. I understand the appeal of doing a Challenge without running a full marathon and know that many people would be interested, but it would just be redistributing spots they already have no problem selling out.

 

[Anisum]

The 5K and 10K sold out in under 30 minutes this year and the Half didn't take much longer, so any challenge of those distances would sell out very quickly. Unfortunately, adding another challenge would eliminate even more individual entries and, IMO, be unnecessary with all of the other weekends that offer similar Challenges. I understand the appeal of doing a Challenge without running a full marathon and know that many people would be interested, but it would just be redistributing spots they already have no problem selling out.

That's very true, I'm not advocating for it since it is something you can do any of the other race weekends but given that those people may be running more than one of those races anyway, I could see Disney doing it for the $$$.

 

[rteetz]

The 5K and 10K sold out in under 30 minutes this year and the Half didn't take much longer, so any challenge of those distances would sell out very quickly. Unfortunately, adding another challenge would eliminate even more individual entries and, IMO, be unnecessary with all of the other weekends that offer similar Challenges. I understand the appeal of doing a Challenge without running a full marathon and know that many people would be interested, but it would just be redistributing spots they already have no problem selling out.

The half is now open again though likely because they took bibs from the challenges. I agree that adding another challenge like that would take more bibs away especially for those who want to just run the 5K or 10K.

 

[Barca33Runner]

The half is now open again though likely because they took bibs from the challenges. I agree that adding another challenge like that would take more bibs away especially for those who want to just run the 5K or 10K.

My point was mainly that the Marathon is the only race they have any difficulty selling out, whether in Challenge form or individually. Although I'm sure many runners would like to be able to run a shorter Challenge during Marathon Weekend it's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. I think they may continue to cut back on the number of Goofy bibs available at the start to give a few more individual openings for the Half; I am hoping they don't cut back on Dopey during the Anniversary year as a result of the difficulty selling them this year.

 

[rteetz]

My point was mainly that the Marathon is the only race they have any difficulty selling out, whether in Challenge form or individually. Although I'm sure many runners would like to be able to run a shorter Challenge during Marathon Weekend it's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. I think they may continue to cut back on the number of Goofy bibs available at the start to give a few more individual openings for the Half; I am hoping they don't cut back on Dopey during the Anniversary year as a result of the difficulty selling them this year.

True. Although since Dopey came around Goofy has had some trouble selling out as well. I don't think we see them cut back next year on Dopey but after 2018 they might unless they change things up to make people want to come run it again.

 

[cavepig]

Who knows which is more popular, seems Princess is the one that really has a following & attracts more newbies. The thing is without having the % on the main pages anymore we have no idea how long close anything really is to selling out or if anything ever truly sells out anymore. Heck, for Lumiere's Challenge, bibs popped up for sell a month out on rundisney after being sold out.
Or take the last Everest Challenge it sold out in like a day, where the year before it took months. So, being the last one made it very popular. Every year & race seems to be different on what is "popular".

As for Disneyland vs Disney World, I think overall you get more people vacationing to Disney World as their big destination tip they save for, so it may have an edge for people just finding RunDisney and picking a first race.

But I really have no idea, popularity is subjective to the year, race & personal preference. Avengers while didn't sell out has gotten rave reviews this year as being fantastic & people's favorite. Where Princess gets lots of negative feedback but people flock to it.

 

[BDK33]

I started doing Run Disney after Everest was gone. Do we think Everest or Tower of Terror runs will ever return? Im hearing that DHS construction moved those races, so does that mean they could possibly return?

I would love a 10 mile race. 10k for me is a little too short and Half is just a little too long... A 10 miler would be JUST RIGHT!

 

[rteetz]

I started doing Run Disney after Everest was gone. Do we think Everest or Tower of Terror runs will ever return? Im hearing that DHS construction moved those races, so does that mean they could possibly return?

I would love a 10 mile race. 10k for me is a little too short and Half is just a little too long... A 10 miler would be JUST RIGHT!

Personally I don't think ToT will ever return. They have moved away from night races. They could do a 10 miler again but it would likely be in the morning.

 

[cavepig]

I started doing Run Disney after Everest was gone. Do we think Everest or Tower of Terror runs will ever return? Im hearing that DHS construction moved those races, so does that mean they could possibly return?

I would love a 10 mile race. 10k for me is a little too short and Half is just a little too long... A 10 miler would be JUST RIGHT!

Yeah, I don't see them returning either. Everest was my first RunDisney event. Everest had nothing to do with Studios, just Animal Kingdom, and the rumor it ended was due to Avatar construction, which is almost done, but I still don't see it returning. Not sure if running nighttime races is harder logistically or not. The scavenger hunt/obstacles really made it unique (night time running is harder for me personally though).

 

[iheartglaciers]

I loved Everest! The scavenger hunt and obstacles did make it different... and since I'm not a morning person the evening race was perfect. Disney has such early start times for the regular races!

 

[Anisum]

I started doing Run Disney after Everest was gone. Do we think Everest or Tower of Terror runs will ever return? Im hearing that DHS construction moved those races, so does that mean they could possibly return?

I would love a 10 mile race. 10k for me is a little too short and Half is just a little too long... A 10 miler would be JUST RIGHT!

I agree with @rteetz, both ToT and Expedition Everest Challenge were night time runs. Everest in particular was in a park with poor night lighting because AK was only open to the public during the day at time time . While, rumors did suggest that ToT would come back following DHS construction (and really they have no races that time of year) the general move away from night time races, which I would guess maybe had to do with insurance or ability to set-up given parks are open until close to the start of the race, makes it less likely they'll return. Additionally Disney is struggling to sell out of most of their races right now so I would think they would want to get rid of a race before adding another one. It's difficult to say for sure though since every WDW race except W&D and Marathon Weekend (the only weekend with a marathon) is tied to a specific C2C challenge.

 

[rteetz]

I agree with @rteetz, both ToT and Expedition Everest Challenge were night time runs. Everest in particular was in a park with poor night lighting because AK was only open to the public during the day at time time . While, rumors did suggest that ToT would come back following DHS construction (and really they have no races that time of year) the general move away from night time races, which I would guess maybe had to do with insurance or ability to set-up given parks are open until close to the start of the race, makes it less likely they'll return. Additionally Disney is struggling to sell out of most of their races right now so I would think they would want to get rid of a race before adding another one. It's difficult to say for sure though since every WDW race except W&D and Marathon Weekend (the only weekend with a marathon) is tied to a specific C2C challenge.

And if they wanted to tie those together they could tie WDW weekend with DL weekend and Wine and Dine with Avengers. The second one would likely be harder to tie together.

 

[cavepig]

Everest in particular was in a park with poor night lighting because AK was only open to the public during the day at time time .

I just ran the Mickey's Holiday 5k and Wine & dine half at AK all in the dark so I don't think running in the dark insurance has anything to do with it. AK has like hardly any light in their Kali queue at night too just as a regular guest, so that would be the same problem. There's probably other reasons why they don't do them as those 2 were pretty dark with not a lot of light and they were morning races.