Official Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend - The Dark Side 2017

[opusone]

Do I get the Kessel Run medal and the Coast to Coast medal both? Or just the Kessel run medal? Do I register at the expo?

Also, any idea if the start on Floridian Way means you could walk to the race start from the Poly or Grand Floridian? I realize it's hard to say for sure until we get the map but educated guesses are appreciated.

Last year, folks received both Kessel Run and C2C medals; however, I don't think that guarantees the same result this year.

I would expect that, yes, you could walk from Poly, Shades of Green, or Grand Floridian, but again, they may not allow this (like they don't allow people to walk from POFQ to the Epcot race starts).

 

[PrincessV]

Added the 5K - I'm now all in for another (unofficial) Triple Sith Challenge!

 

[bcarey2k]

Last year, folks received both Kessel Run and C2C medals; however, I don't think that guarantees the same result this year.

I would expect that, yes, you could walk from Poly, Shades of Green, or Grand Floridian, but again, they may not allow this (like they don't allow people to walk from POFQ to the Epcot race starts).

Or it could be 3 miles away and it starts at the turn ... which would displease me, but be typical rD

 

[opusone]

Or it could be 3 miles away and it starts at the turn ... which would displease me, but be typical rD

Sure, it's possible, but I believe that is highly unlikely given that they need a big staging area, and the parking lot is really the only place for this. It could still be a good ways from the Grand Floridian, but it shouldn't be too bad from Poly or Shades of Green.

 

[cavepig]

Yeah I agree I'm assuming no walking to the start no matter how close to any resort as they don't allow for any race at WDW.

Added the 5K - I'm now all in for another (unofficial) Triple Sith Challenge!

I like that, Triple Sith!!! It's funny cause at registration time we just registered for the Darkside challenge but 2 hours later added the 5k cause we didn't want to miss out, but for WDW '18 we just registered for the marathon and I don't feel like I'll miss out just doing one race then.

 

[ywgckp]

Hard to understand why they wouldn't want to encourage people to walk from the Poly at least, provided it can be done in an orderly fashion without interfering with the buses. I think that would be easy to do here, and assuming the staging area is in the parking lot, they would have to actively block people from walking.

I guess we'll see.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I registered for the Dark Side Challenge over the weekend - wasn't planning on running it but I saw it was still open for registration and couldn't help myself... I did the Light Side half in January so I hope training won't be a big challenge.

I scanned through this thread but I have a couple questions...

Do I get the Kessel Run medal and the Coast to Coast medal both? Or just the Kessel run medal? Do I register at the expo

At the Light Side expo at Disneyland in January, I was looking at the runDisney medals and without me asking a runDisney rep told me that Kessel Run finishers also receive the Coast to Coast medal. That said, they could change their minds, but the website wording

At the expo, they will have some sort of check in process. At the 2012 Wine & Dine 1/2, they gave me a wristband that I needed to wear until I finished the 1/2. At the past 3 Light Side weekends, they have taken a photo of all Challenge participants when they pick up their bibs and then checked the photo and bib number after a runner has completed the 1/2 to verify they also completed the 10K.

 

[*DisneyDreamer]

I'm all set to book my Fastpasses tomorrow morning! I'm not too worried about getting what I want but the biggest challenges will be Rivers of Light and Frozen. But if I miss out on either I'll be fine. I got to do Frozen during Wine and Dine weekend and I know I'll be back again within the next year to hopefully see Rivers of Light (as long as it doesn't encounter more problems and has to close down).

 

[maw]

I'm all set to book my Fastpasses tomorrow morning! I'm not too worried about getting what I want but the biggest challenges will be Rivers of Light and Frozen. But if I miss out on either I'll be fine. I got to do Frozen during Wine and Dine weekend and I know I'll be back again within the next year to hopefully see Rivers of Light (as long as it doesn't encounter more problems and has to close down).

Fingers crossed you find what you are looking for!

I'm pretty convinced we won't get frozen. Hope we can jump on at an off time one of the days we are there.

 

[mbwhitti]

We are staying off property so we have a while until fastpasses. Fortunately we go often enough that there isn't a must get fastpass. DH hates frozen and gave up his fastpass the last two trips to someone else in our group. My only must try is ROL and Soarin. I just hate waiting in the line for Soarin.

 

[cavepig]

I'm all set to book my Fastpasses tomorrow morning! I'm not too worried about getting what I want but the biggest challenges will be Rivers of Light and Frozen. But if I miss out on either I'll be fine. I got to do Frozen during Wine and Dine weekend and I know I'll be back again within the next year to hopefully see Rivers of Light (as long as it doesn't encounter more problems and has to close down).

Hope you get what you want. We do FP the 18th & ROL will be a priority as well.

We are staying off property so we have a while until fastpasses. Fortunately we go often enough that there isn't a must get fastpass. DH hates frozen and gave up his fastpass the last two trips to someone else in our group. My only must try is ROL and Soarin. I just hate waiting in the line for Soarin.

Yeah Soarin's queue line is awful, the tall walls and just long corridor sucks the life out of you! But we did choose to wait in it once for close to 50 min because it was very warm and we were freezing! But otherwise first thing at rope drop of a FP for Soarin is a must.

 

[lovingeire]

I'm so excited that we're getting to FastPass time! We have a Tiffins dining package for ROL so we don't have to worry about that thankfully. Soarin' is a priority for us and we'll probably do either Frozen or Test Track on our departure day just because we are eating breakfast in Epcot. Other than that I just like to get my mountains in MK and Mine Train and Peter Pan (because the line always seems ridiculous for those two.) We make our FP reservations on Saturday.

 

[mbwhitti]

Yeah Soarin's queue line is awful, the tall walls and just long corridor sucks the life out of you! But we did choose to wait in it once for close to 50 min because it was very warm and we were freezing! But otherwise first thing at rope drop of a FP for Soarin is a must.

All of this... and they won't let you bring open drinks in the line...so no grabbing a beverage for the wait. Boo.

 

[croach]

So from what you all saying, there is a fastpass option for ROL? I'm avoiding doing much googling on it because I don't want spoilers. I think if so I'll go fastpass option since I want to change ROL to Friday night and the dining options are all to early.

I definitely want to get a fastpass for Soarin since I skipped it in January. Make some others to have some place holders.

 

[mbwhitti]

So from what you all saying, there is a fastpass option for ROL? .

I have no idea... just an assumption. I went as far out as I could with my AP and it says Rivers of Light FP+ services unavailable.. so maybe not?

 

[cavepig]

So from what you all saying, there is a fastpass option for ROL? I'm avoiding doing much googling on it because I don't want spoilers. I think if so I'll go fastpass option since I want to change ROL to Friday night and the dining options are all to early.

I definitely want to get a fastpass for Soarin since I skipped it in January. Make some others to have some place holders.

Yes there is ROL fastpass, from the official website

Rivers of Light
Stage Shows, FastPass+
Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park, Asia

 

[opusone]

I just looked, and the 5k is finally sold out.

 

[mbwhitti]

I just looked, and the 5k is finally sold out.

Funny, it was open this morning when I looked because someone asked in one of my fb groups. She said it was sold out yesterday when she looked but was open when I looked this morning. Crazy.

 

[Mimsy Borogove]

Added the 5K - I'm now all in for another (unofficial) Triple Sith Challenge!

Me, too! And DH is joining me for the 5K.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I think I want the 5K to be sold out. Mostly so I can stop considering signing up for it.