Race Retreat 1/2 advice please!

[kappyfamily]

Reading about the traffic nightmares this last weekend for the races has me wondering what the best way to get to the race retreat for the princess is...

I believe the tent for the retreat opens at 3am. I'm staying at CR and would love to be able to "enjoy" the tent before the race. What is the best way to get there and when should I leave? Is it 2:30 and take a cab? I dont think the monorail will be working is my guess. Just dont want to leave too late and only be in the tent for 5 minutes....

Any advice is much appreciated! If you ran, great job this weekend!

 

[EddieMccoy2]

I did the race retreat and my advice is to be at the bus stop at by 3am, when the first bus will pull out. I stayed at POFQ, which is basically in walking distance, but I caught the first bus out at 2:45 and had no problems and a lot of other racers were there from further resorts than mine.

If you are at the bus stop by 3am, you should be in retreat close to 3:30, which is 2 hours before the race.

One thing I learned the hard way, give yourself 25 minutes to get the corral. That's how long it took me to get from Race Retreat to Corral A. Made it there at 5:10, but no issue in getting in.

 

[Disneychix]

I did the race retreat and my advice is to be at the bus stop at by 3am, when the first bus will pull out. I stayed at POFQ, which is basically in walking distance, but I caught the first bus out at 2:45 and had no problems and a lot of other racers were there from further resorts than mine.

If you are at the bus stop by 3am, you should be in retreat close to 3:30, which is 2 hours before the race.

One thing I learned the hard way, give yourself 25 minutes to get the corral. That's how long it took me to get from Race Retreat to Corral A. Made it there at 5:10, but no issue in getting in.

What time do you rec getting to the corral? or At what time is too late to get into the corral?

 

[tragicallynuts]

We jumped on a bus at the All-Star hotel around 3:50 am and when the driver pulled on to the highway I got seriously worried. Traffic was insane. The guy did a great job getting everyone to the race in time. I think we had just gotten to our corral when the announcer gave the 5 minute warning. Follow the advice above and get on a bus at or before 3 am.

 

[flatlandcycle]

What time do you rec getting to the corral? or At what time is too late to get into the corral?

Officially you are supposed to be in your corral by 5:00 a.m. Practically no one gets there because the gates near the baggage claim aren't opened until 4:30. After these gates are opened, it can take nearly 30 minutes to walk the 1/2 mile to the start corrals. The choice is yours as to when you go to your corral. If you want good placement within your corral you should leave earlier. If you don't care, or you know you won't be swept you can leave a little later. I have heard that at a certain point you must get into the last corral irregardless of your assignment "letter", but I have yet to see this in practice. The earlier you get there, the more warm, throw away clothing you might want. The temps continue to drop until about sunrise. Anything below 65-70deg F can really cause a chill. The start consists of three main staging areas. The Family Reunion Area, The Baggage Claim Area, and the Corral/Start Line Area which is about a 1/2 mile walk from Baggage Claim. There is a wait at each of these points.

 

[EddieMccoy2]

Flatlandcycle hit it on the head. Get there at the time you want. Just know that it takes 25-30 minutes to walk there with the crowd. Also, don't make the mistake I did and walk just off the road next to the crowd. Got sand all in one of my shoes. I wanted a good placement in the corrall because I was going for a fast time, so arriving at the corral 5-10 minutes late, and being in A had me worried. I had to weave my way to where I needed to start from.

 

[Disneychix]

Officially you are supposed to be in your corral by 5:00 a.m. Practically no one gets there because the gates near the baggage claim aren't opened until 4:30. After these gates are opened, it can take nearly 30 minutes to walk the 1/2 mile to the start corrals. The choice is yours as to when you go to your corral. If you want good placement within your corral you should leave earlier. If you don't care, or you know you won't be swept you can leave a little later. I have heard that at a certain point you must get into the last corral irregardless of your assignment "letter", but I have yet to see this in practice. The earlier you get there, the more warm, throw away clothing you might want. The temps continue to drop until about sunrise. Anything below 65-70deg F can really cause a chill. The start consists of three main staging areas. The Family Reunion Area, The Baggage Claim Area, and the Corral/Start Line Area which is about a 1/2 mile walk from Baggage Claim. There is a wait at each of these points.

Thanks for the info!
If we have the Race Retreat can we skip the bag check lines or do we get caught up in that anyway?

Flatlandcycle hit it on the head. Get there at the time you want. Just know that it takes 25-30 minutes to walk there with the crowd. Also, don't make the mistake I did and walk just off the road next to the crowd. Got sand all in one of my shoes. I wanted a good placement in the corrall because I was going for a fast time, so arriving at the corral 5-10 minutes late, and being in A had me worried. I had to weave my way to where I needed to start from.

I now plan on leaving AKL by 3am. We have the Race Retreat so I guess we will plan on leaving that area at 4:30ish. We will be no doubt in the last corral, will this matter?

 

[flatlandcycle]

Thanks for the info!
If we have the Race Retreat can we skip the bag check lines or do we get caught up in that anyway?

The Race Retreat has its own bag check.

I now plan on leaving AKL by 3am. We have the Race Retreat so I guess we will plan on leaving that area at 4:30ish. We will be no doubt in the last corral, will this matter?

You probably could leave the Race Retreat tent a little later. The benefit of the race retreat is it offers shelter if the weather is nasty. The Sweeper Bus is tied to the last person that crosses the start line. If you get to the front of your corral you will have something like a five minute cushion. If you have no pacing worries and there is bad weather you could leave the comfort of the Retreat Tent a little later. You will still need to make the 20-30 minute hike to the start corrals completely exposed to the weather, and then wait in the corrals until the gun goes off. People wear throw away clothing from thrift stores, this stuff gets donated after the race.

Here are the final instructions for the Race Retreat at the 2012 marathon:
http://espnwwos.disney.go.com/media...2-final-race-instructions-Race-RetreatFRI.pdf

The Princess 1/2 should have similar instructions.