Run Newbie Qs

[Sleepless Knight]

There are really two “bag checks” at a RunDisney race. The first is a security check of any bag you bring with you, including running belts and similar. That moves very quickly despite the crowds and rarely takes a significant amount of time.

At recent Disney races, I've heard them state very clearly that a running belt does not constitute a bag that you need to take through security.

GOOD LUCK, and warn your wallet, because you will now want to do them all.

This is perhaps the best warning to give a potential new runDisney participant. I gave myself permission to run one race. One became three because I wanted the Coast to Coast medal back when there were races at Disneyland as well. But then I wound up really enjoying the races and it all cascaded from there until Dopey 2019 went from a potential one and done to Dopey 2020.

And to think 2 years ago at this time I was actually wondering if I had run my last race. Not even close as it turns out.

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

Punctuation is your friend.

Yes, you can bring a hydration backpack to the race.

Not sure if there’s another question in there or not.

Sorry not a hyderation backpack

I carry a backpack with mio water bottles in, a thought my dad as one of those

 

[tigger536]

Sorry to jump on I am considering the race for 2025 my current time is not as bad as I thought it was can I bring my Disney pack back I keep water in it thanks right now my time is a little over 17 min but that was 2 or 3 weeks walking a average of 10,00 to 20,000 steps a day

If you mean a regular backpack with water bottles in it, that could be uncomfortable to run with and its really not necessary given the number of water/power aide stops disney puts on course.

If you mean a camel bak type situation with a bladder, many use these and they are fine. Again though, given the amount of water disney provides, its overkill.

 

[mum of two pirates]

I am thinking of doing a 5k, so these sweeper People you talk about, that means if I’m walking I might to slow and not get my medal. From finishing

 

[challada]

You guys and gals are seriously the best! My fear has definitely dissipated since this original post. I have read a lot and worked a lot on becoming an informed newbie.

To update:
1. I've submitted a sub-58 minute 10K for POT.
2. I have a half marathon next month to train for this Disney half marathon (this is addicting).
3. I train hills at least 2 times per week now.
4. I'm EXCITED to do this!

Thanks to everyone!

 

[tigger536]

I am thinking of doing a 5k, so these sweeper People you talk about, that means if I’m walking I might to slow and not get my medal. From finishing

The 5ks are the most relaxed of all the races. They aren't even timed. Many people walk the whole thing. As long as you are moving forward you are likely fine.

 

[tigger536]

You guys and gals are seriously the best! My fear has definitely dissipated since this original post. I have read a lot and worked a lot on becoming an informed newbie.

To update:
1. I've submitted a sub-58 minute 10K for POT.
2. I have a half marathon next month to train for this Disney half marathon (this is addicting).
3. I train hills at least 2 times per week now.
4. I'm EXCITED to do this!

Thanks to everyone!

FANTASTIC!!!! Congrats on your POT! And yes, it is seriously addicting. Happy running!

 

[PurpleHaze]

I have a newbie question as well, actually more of tell me if my thinking is right. I registered for the Star Wars Half Marathon in April. Ive been running for a while and can comfortably do a 5k or a little longer, but agin just do this for health reasons. Ive never done anything official before. When I registered since I have no proof of time I just picked the 2:45 to 3:00 hour slot to give me a little cushion on the pace requirement.

Now, am I correct in thinking that I can at some point before the cutoff for proof of time submissions, run a 10k and submit that as an updated registration. Also if I go out and do a 10k and just push it as hard as I can, that will move me up in these corrals to give me even more cushion on the pace requirements to enjoy things along the course.

 

[tigger536]

I have a newbie question as well, actually more of tell me if my thinking is right. I registered for the Star Wars Half Marathon in April. Ive been running for a while and can comfortably do a 5k or a little longer, but agin just do this for health reasons. Ive never done anything official before. When I registered since I have no proof of time I just picked the 2:45 to 3:00 hour slot to give me a little cushion on the pace requirement.

Now, am I correct in thinking that I can at some point before the cutoff for proof of time submissions, run a 10k and submit that as an updated registration. Also if I go out and do a 10k and just push it as hard as I can, that will move me up in these corrals to give me even more cushion on the pace requirements to enjoy things along the course.

That's correct. If you get a 1:14 or better that will put you in the last POT corral (E). F, G and H are the giants corrals for those with no POT. @DopeyBadger has a chart in the "POT corrals" thread that shows the approx. breakdown in placemet for various 10K times. I would highly recommend doing a POT race both for the POT and for race practice.

 

[roxymama]

I have a newbie question as well, actually more of tell me if my thinking is right. I registered for the Star Wars Half Marathon in April. Ive been running for a while and can comfortably do a 5k or a little longer, but agin just do this for health reasons. Ive never done anything official before. When I registered since I have no proof of time I just picked the 2:45 to 3:00 hour slot to give me a little cushion on the pace requirement.

Now, am I correct in thinking that I can at some point before the cutoff for proof of time submissions, run a 10k and submit that as an updated registration. Also if I go out and do a 10k and just push it as hard as I can, that will move me up in these corrals to give me even more cushion on the pace requirements to enjoy things along the course.

Yes, it will give you more cushion to be in the POT corrals. One thing to be mindful of is to not push so hard that you may risk injury before your big race. So train well for your POT attempt! Good luck!!

 

[DopeyBadger]

I have a newbie question as well, actually more of tell me if my thinking is right. I registered for the Star Wars Half Marathon in April. Ive been running for a while and can comfortably do a 5k or a little longer, but agin just do this for health reasons. Ive never done anything official before. When I registered since I have no proof of time I just picked the 2:45 to 3:00 hour slot to give me a little cushion on the pace requirement.

Now, am I correct in thinking that I can at some point before the cutoff for proof of time submissions, run a 10k and submit that as an updated registration. Also if I go out and do a 10k and just push it as hard as I can, that will move me up in these corrals to give me even more cushion on the pace requirements to enjoy things along the course.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/pot-proof-of-time-race-equivalency-cutoff-confirmed-times.3699036/

 

[camaker]

I have a newbie question as well, actually more of tell me if my thinking is right. I registered for the Star Wars Half Marathon in April. Ive been running for a while and can comfortably do a 5k or a little longer, but agin just do this for health reasons. Ive never done anything official before. When I registered since I have no proof of time I just picked the 2:45 to 3:00 hour slot to give me a little cushion on the pace requirement.

Now, am I correct in thinking that I can at some point before the cutoff for proof of time submissions, run a 10k and submit that as an updated registration. Also if I go out and do a 10k and just push it as hard as I can, that will move me up in these corrals to give me even more cushion on the pace requirements to enjoy things along the course.

One of the first pieces of advice I give anyone who says they are looking to run a Disney race is to run a race to submit for proof of time, if at all possible. Disney races can be a bit of crowd and sensory overload to begin with, so if you can move out of the bulk of runners without a proof of time, you both buy yourself a little more buffer time to enjoy the experience as well as less crowding to deal with in the corral and on course.

I'm not saying you won't enjoy a Disney race if you don't have a proof of time to move up. Many, many people do. So don't sweat it if your proof of time race doesn't go well or you don't make it out of the non-PoT corrals. It's just one of the ways that you can enhance the experience.

 

[PurpleHaze]

I have a follow up on my question from earlier about running a 10k to submit a POT for the Star Wars Half in April. As Ive said before Ive never done an organized race but based on advice here decided to do a 10k to have a POT to submit. It looks like the cutoff for POT submission is late January. I found a nice 10k locally in late November that I signed up for. I also found a nice little 5k to run in in late September. My thinking was it would be good experience to run in this 5k just to get some experience running in a crowd/actual race. It turns out there is another local 10k on the same day as the 5k. I go to thinking that it may be better just to go ahead and do the 10k in September instead of the 5k. One just to get kind of a benchmark on my time and know what I would need to do in the November race. If I wait to do the one 10k in Novmember Im kinda putting all my eggs in one basket you know what I mean. Thoughts? Is there any reason to warm up with a 5k instead of jumping striaght into the 10k?

 

[camaker]

I have a follow up on my question from earlier about running a 10k to submit a POT for the Star Wars Half in April. As Ive said before Ive never done an organized race but based on advice here decided to do a 10k to have a POT to submit. It looks like the cutoff for POT submission is late January. I found a nice 10k locally in late November that I signed up for. I also found a nice little 5k to run in in late September. My thinking was it would be good experience to run in this 5k just to get some experience running in a crowd/actual race. It turns out there is another local 10k on the same day as the 5k. I go to thinking that it may be better just to go ahead and do the 10k in September instead of the 5k. One just to get kind of a benchmark on my time and know what I would need to do in the November race. If I wait to do the one 10k in Novmember Im kinda putting all my eggs in one basket you know what I mean. Thoughts? Is there any reason to warm up with a 5k instead of jumping striaght into the 10k?

If you can be trained and ready to go for the 10k, there's really no downside to doing it. My first race ever was a 10k.

 

[DopeyBadger]

I have a follow up on my question from earlier about running a 10k to submit a POT for the Star Wars Half in April. As Ive said before Ive never done an organized race but based on advice here decided to do a 10k to have a POT to submit. It looks like the cutoff for POT submission is late January. I found a nice 10k locally in late November that I signed up for. I also found a nice little 5k to run in in late September. My thinking was it would be good experience to run in this 5k just to get some experience running in a crowd/actual race. It turns out there is another local 10k on the same day as the 5k. I go to thinking that it may be better just to go ahead and do the 10k in September instead of the 5k. One just to get kind of a benchmark on my time and know what I would need to do in the November race. If I wait to do the one 10k in Novmember Im kinda putting all my eggs in one basket you know what I mean. Thoughts? Is there any reason to warm up with a 5k instead of jumping striaght into the 10k?

I guess I can see pros and cons to whether or not to do the 10k in September instead of the 5k. It sounds like the main goal for the 10k (whether it be Sept or Nov) is to have a POT. If that's the case, and you reasonably believe you are in a healthy position to do the 10k, then I'd do the 10k in September. Top reason would be, what if the November 10k is cancelled due to inclement weather. I'd rather at least have a safety net race in case something happened.

Whether you do the 5k or 10k, you can glean useable information towards the November 10k. You could apply a standard race conversion from the 5k to get a rough estimate as to what your "current" 10k time would be under similar conditions (weather/elevation profile).

 

[Sleepless Knight]

Now, am I correct in thinking that I can at some point before the cutoff for proof of time submissions, run a 10k and submit that as an updated registration. Also if I go out and do a 10k and just push it as hard as I can, that will move me up in these corrals to give me even more cushion on the pace requirements to enjoy things along the course.

You have already received good answers to your questions so I'll share my own experiences from when I had no idea what I was doing. Maybe I only have a slightly better idea now, but experience is a valuable teacher.

I lived in fear that I would fail in my first half marathon. I had heard the POT advice, but did not heed it because I was pretty sure I would be swept in the half and did not want to learn that ahead of time. Now in reality my far less than perfect training was still sufficient to get me across that finish line. But because it was my first race, I was terrified. So I started out way too fast and nearly injured myself. I slowed down to what I thought I had been doing during training and wound up actually finishing about 10 minutes ahead of what my training would have predicted. I started in the last corral and finished in 3:05.

A proof of time race probably would have helped me because I would have had a much better idea of what to expect on race day. Ever since that very first race, I always remind myself at the beginning of the race to slow down and save that energy for later when I will really need it.

So even if the proof of time does not work out the way you hope it will, getting race experience should help you learn how to best deal with the challenges that sometimes come only from a race.

 

[roxymama]

I think running a race for experience prior to your goal race (the November POT attempt) is a solid idea whether you choose the 5k or the 10k.

I'd choose the 10k if I did not have a lot of local options for a "make-up" 10k after the November one. If there are a lot of options then I would opt for the 5k because it's more digestable as a beginner. That's just personal preference from someone who baby-stepped her way up in distance.

One thing to keep in mind is that the crowd at a 5k may take off faster than at a 10k as I think people tend to settle in a little more to a "long run" kind of pace at a 10k than the all out "push" of a 5k. No matter what...run your race, not the person next to you. (Until the end...and then make sure to beat them)

 

[Sleepless Knight]

No matter what...run your race, not the person next to you. (Until the end...and then make sure to beat them)

This may be the most valuable advice anyone can give a new runner. I learned that lesson the hard way the first time, but at least I finished that first race.

I would like to add one thought to run your race. This also means that you run the race that is actually in you on race day. We will eventually have to race on a day when our best simply isn't in us. But that doesn't mean we can't learn from that bad race. One of my most difficult races ever also helped teach me a lot about how to happily finish my first marathon.

 

[PurpleHaze]

Great advice everyone, thanks. At this point Im thinking do the two 10ks with the first just being a learning experience.