Official 2016 Star Wars Half Marthon - The Dark Side Weekend

[Dis_Yoda]

I had 13.37 miles

 

[opusone]

Does anyone know how many ran the 10k?

12,169 finishers

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

My garmin says 13.38, I find mine is always about .2 off

 

[camaker]

Does anyone know how many ran the 10k?

I know it sounds silly, but what do you mean "ran the 10k"? If you want to know how many started the race, I don't know any way to get that number other than by estimating from the bib number charts for the corrals and then you have no way of knowing how many of them actually started the race due to deferrals and no-shows.

If you want to know how many finished the race, that info can be found through the results link on the runDisney site. For this weekend:

10k: 12,169 finishers (5,250 men, 6,919 women)
Half: 18,171 finishers (8,124 men, 10,047 women)

 

[MonkeyDishwasher]

They should be able to link their own. I have someone else's pics in mine, too. Complete stranger but a bib number close to mine. I want to try to unlink the pics, has anyone done this?

I accidentally entered the wrong number too. It's pretty easy to delete them from your account- you just have to do it one by one.

 

[EEsloveDis]

I guess I meant started the race.

 

[Ariel484]

Re: GPS devices "measuring long" - when the courses are certified, those that measure do it in such a way that the shortest route one can possibly take will be the advertised route for the race (or within 1/10 of a mile). So you'd have to perfectly run the shortest route possible to get your device to hit 13.1 miles...which will pretty much never happen at a Disney race thanks to weaving, etc. Or really at any race.

 

[VAfamily1998]

I accidentally entered the wrong number too. It's pretty easy to delete them from your account- you just have to do it one by one.

Thanks! I will try that. I won't be permanently deleting this other persons photos? They can still link like normal? I'd feel bad deleting someone else's memories!!!

 

[FFigawi]

Re: GPS devices "measuring long" - when the courses are certified, those that measure do it in such a way that the shortest route one can possibly take will be the advertised route for the race (or within 1/10 of a mile). So you'd have to perfectly run the shortest route possible to get your device to hit 13.1 miles...which will pretty much never happen at a Disney race thanks to weaving, etc. Or really at any race.

Running the exact course is very tough unless you're doing London or one of the very few other races that shows the minimum route on the ground using blue paint. For those interested in how much distance/time you're losing by not running the tangents as best you can, here's a good article for you.

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2009/03/racing-line-understanding-how-courses.html

 

[Chasing Dopey]

One question the runDisney crew needs to meet with the standard Disney crew to evaluate is this question: Are they delivering 'Disney Value' to their customers? For some people, the answer is definitely yes. If you show early on the first day of the expo, and if you're in the first half of the corrals. So for most, they could use some work.

The merchandising crew should simply plan ahead, include some pics of merchandise, and allow for more pre-orders of race specific stuff. (There are obviously local poachers at the expo. They could require bibs to get into the race merch, but I don't see them considering that.)

For the races... They know there are significant numbers in the front half with no intention of running it, and they are there for a variety of reasons. That's fine, but those corrals don't need to be as small as they are. For the 10K especially, the back half of the field are treated to a fairly miserable race. (Someone recommended more character spots near the end. This seems a no-brainer.)

I still had a great time, and had a blast yesterday as a buddy who finished a 50 miler the week before somehow ended up in the last corral with me. (Something got messed up with his POT.) So we just chatted up the whole way, and saw how many thousands of people we could pass. That was satisfying.

 

[Nole95]

One question the runDisney crew needs to meet with the standard Disney crew to evaluate is this question: Are they delivering 'Disney Value' to their customers? For some people, the answer is definitely yes. If you show early on the first day of the expo, and if you're in the first half of the corrals. So for most, they could use some work.

The merchandising crew should simply plan ahead, include some pics of merchandise, and allow for more pre-orders of race specific stuff. (There are obviously local poachers at the expo. They could require bibs to get into the race merch, but I don't see them considering that.)

For the races... They know there are significant numbers in the front half with no intention of running it, and they are there for a variety of reasons. That's fine, but those corrals don't need to be as small as they are. For the 10K especially, the back half of the field are treated to a fairly miserable race. (Someone recommended more character spots near the end. This seems a no-brainer.)

I still had a great time, and had a blast yesterday as a buddy who finished a 50 miler the week before somehow ended up in the last corral with me. (Something got messed up with his POT.) So we just chatted up the whole way, and saw how many thousands of people we could pass. That was satisfying.

Pretty much agree with all of this. I think all the issues that people had are pretty easily solved if RD really listens to feedback from their runners. I have already sent my email this morning, and I encourage everyone to do the same.

As for merchandise, more items available for pre-order is a no brainer. It might actually help to shorten some of the lines at the expo if they did more of this. Once at the expo, allow only a certain amount of high demand items to be purchased by one person. Using magnets as an example, there is no reason anyone should need more than say three of the same magnet.

My other issue was with the characters not being available pre-race when I was on the first bus out of my resort and in the staging area more than 90 minutes before the race. Just no acceptable to me when cast members were not letting anyone else get in line. My suggestion was to make more characters available at the expo. BB8 was in that big air conditioned arena tent all by himself. They could have set up multiple characters in there and run it like Epcot does the character spot. You go right down the line and get them all at once. This would probably help shorten lines before, during and after the race because runners would have gotten all those popular characters out of the way already.

Overall. my family had a great time this weekend, hopefully RD can iron out some of the kinks.

 

[Figment1990]

So my two cents on my experience. I ran the 10k with a friend. This was not my first Disney 10k or Disney race. I did the light side 10k in January, the enchanted 10k in 2014 and have done wine and dine several times, princess, tink.

I was disappointed in the starting area. We got to the bus stop at the yacht club at 3:35 and sat on the bus waiting for at least 10 min. By the Tim we got to the staging area, it was 4. The character lines were too long and they announced they were closing them shortly after we got there. I have always been on the first wine and dine bus and always gotten character pics before the race. I cannot get up much earlier tha we already did (2:40)! So I'm glad I didn't care too much about pics. Unfortunately I spent nearly a alf hour waiting for a port a potty after searching for the water for 10 minutes and not finding any. Turns out, there was a whole line up of port o potties with no waits in the "runners only" area, along with water. This didnt match the map in the program. There were no big flags showing where water was. I think this was a major oversight for runDisney communication.

I personally liked the concept of the course on paper but I swear they made it as "hilly" as possible. I don't mind hilly as I run on hills at home but I was not expecting that at all. The ramp of/on the highway was the biggest but there was also the hill before the international gateway, up onto the boardwalk, up to fantasmic area, and even beside the path to the studios. Having run that path several times in races I don't think they gained much width. Only the narrow twist that would have happened to get onto the path is what I would have feared. Otherwise, I prefer the path down by the green railing.

However, it was crowded. We were accurately corraled and I felt at ease withe people moving at our speed. But there was no breathing room which I don't love in a race. They didnt even open it up on the highways. They kept the lanes very narrow. Had I been at the back trying to move up, I would have been frustrated. I actually really loved the entrance path to espn. I run on trails like that at home and it kinda made me feel like I was running thru a set from a Star Wars or other movie. So, I didn't mind that.

Finally, I didn't stop for any pics. My friend was worried about finishing in time with the long lines but I think we could have done maybe one and been ok. I thought the character lineup at the entrance of Hollywood studios and the finish line was awesome tho! But I didn't realize they didnt have an organized line at t studios or we would have stopped.

I personally wanted powerade. It was very humid and warm and I do better with electrolytes. My error though for not catching that in the program.

I also think they need more merch- so we couldn't fly in until Friday and there was little left. Fortunately we preordered jackets. I would have liked a cup or magnet or mug though.

I LOVED the marching band. Tht would have been nice at the end also. And using the speakers in Epcot to play the music would be cool. And maybe going the other direction to be in Epcot longer and therefore skipping that narrow turn around before Osceola to WWoS.

I hope the half runners did well and enjoyed it! I was so warm on Saturday I'm glad I skipped the challenge this time.

 

[Nole95]

Saturday was warm and humid for the 10K, but the half yesterday was much better. There were no clouds, a slight breeze and a little cooler, which meant less humidity. I felt much better after the first few miles than I did during the 10K.

As for the course, I run on hills a lot as well, and knew they would be there transitioning to the various roads. It is the steep angle of those roads that bothers me. I know I added some extra mileage to my runs trying to get to the flattest surface possible when swinging around those ramps. Also, during the half, I was able to turn onto the dirt path right before the sun became much of an issue. I feel bad for those in later corrals who probably had to run directly into that sunrise for a few miles.

I would copy and paste everything you said into an email to RD. The more feedback they get, the more inclined they might be to make corrections next year.

From my perspective, if they can just fix the merchandise issues and make it easier to access some of the more popular characters, that would go a long way.

 

[Z-Knight]

I felt like crap for the half. Had to see doctor last night because all day I had a fever of 104. Turns out I got the flu - perfect. Now on 3 sets of meds. Ruled out for strep throat so that's good. At least I didn't pass out. Ughh...still had an awesome time. Ok, I'm gonna go pass out now.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I felt like crap for the half. Had to see doctor last night because all day I had a fever of 104. Turns out I got the flu - perfect. Now on 3 sets of meds. Ruled out for strep throat so that's good. At least I didn't pass out. Ughh...still had an awesome time. Ok, I'm gonna go pass out now.

Hate that you got the flu, but 3 meds for something that cannot be mitigated with meds?

Hope that you feel better soon.

 

[opusone]

I felt like crap for the half. Had to see doctor last night because all day I had a fever of 104. Turns out I got the flu - perfect. Now on 3 sets of meds. Ruled out for strep throat so that's good. At least I didn't pass out. Ughh...still had an awesome time. Ok, I'm gonna go pass out now.

Yuck!

3 meds... hey, that's the same number of meds you got for the Dark Side Challenge. I know, I know, you also got the 5k and Kessel Run medals as well.

 

[Z-Knight]

Hehe, yeah. That's all that counts...I got my awesome medals.

At least I'll get to use my sick days - ughh, I feel like crap.

Congrats on the PR, @opusone.

 

[Z-Knight]

My only complaint would be that they didn't give out those milar blankets at the finish. I know I got worse because I froze on the bus going back to the hotel. I understand they can't turn the heat on because it will fog the windows but that milar blanket would be great. Next time I'm bringing a shirt/jacket and storing it.

Ok, back to passing out.

 

[officer tigger]

This was my first RunDisney event and ran the 1/2 on Sunday. I had no POT so I started in the last corral which I believe the amount posted was around 4000. The first 8 miles were trying to get around people and staring at a lot of feet trying not to trip and walking at a lot of choke points. THe amount of people that started in earlier corrals that I passed was incedible. I shouldn't be passing someone doing a power walk at mile marker 7.
Lesson learned for me and I'll give POT for the next one. Overall I had an ok run as I was expecting to walk at some points, but did enjoy being in Disney for the weekend.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

That I'm through my first day of work since the races my thoughts:

1) Expo - I wasn't there at opening and arrived around 2PM on Thursday. I found that most of the things I wanted were still there - I still managed to spend almost $200 in addition to the $77 dollars I owe someone here for picking up for me at the opening as I had a feeling it would sell out at least in my size (I was correct with that!) The Pre-Purchased Pick Up of my Dooney went well & I do like that they have that merch area at the Bib Center in addition to the Expo even if the selection is a little smaller. It was less mad-house. We were in and out in an hour.

2) 10K - We were on the first bus that left Grand Floridian. When we arrived at the race start - the lines for the characters were already closed sadly so no Boba Fett w/ Han Solo for us. At that point we went to the corrals and waited for them to open so we could get to the front. My husband is a strong Corral A/B runner. He got really annoyed at the "Stormtrooper" crew that pushed their way to the front for the photo ops of the start line when they started out extremely slow. He said he passed most of them in the first quarter mile and never saw them again.

3) Half - The morning of the half started with a panic attack for me. The monorail wasn't running when it was supposed to and didn't start until after 3AM. We didn't end up getting to the race area until almost 4AM which caused me to miss saying hello to anyone I would have known as I felt I needed to get to my corral. I proceeded to get there and try to calm down as I did not want that added stress. This was my worst half performance to date but all those reasons for it are of my own doing & I can only blame myself. My husband had a great experience in Corral B for the race. I apologize to anyone that saw me getting sick while waiting for the bus back to the hotel but thank you to the nice lady that gave me a peppermint to try to balance my system back out. It worked just well enough to get me back to the room where I could chug some Gatorade while taking a bath.

We enjoyed the entertainment out on the courses for what there was. I kinda wish they had the 501st out along Osceola rather than at Park Entrances and ESPN Zone but thats just a personal preference.

We didn't enjoy the bankments on the course. Doing that Hollywood Studios bankment both days killed us. The left side of my body is a disaster today. My husband is hurting from the knees down hard. We don't train like that, but we live in Southwest Florida where life is pretty flat around here. I did find the hills overall to be less of an issue for me than the Princess hills since they are in the middle of the course rather than being all at the last 3.1 miles.

My husband and I are split on which races we like better. I like Disneyland's more but he liked WDW's more - but seeing as we'll do both in 2017 - I guess that doesn't matter much.