Springtime Surprise 2026 (Apr 16-20)

[fatmanatee]

I don’t know if people can tell me recent experiences with the new brackets for estimated time… last race I did was still less than 8:00/mile or 8:00-10:00
We will be running the 5K, and our pace for a 5K is usually about 7:30-7:45 min/mile…
Does everyone who want to be in the front now put less than 7:00min/mile or are people more respectful/honest and putting in real estimated times?

Since it will be my nephews’ first Disney race (and they are pretty fast runners!), I don’t want to be behind a large wave of people who plan to walk the 5K and just put the fastest time to be in front, but I also don’t want to be disrespectful to elites and lie about my time (I am also wondering whether they would check for POT for people who put less than 7:00/mile to make sure they qualify?)

I hope this doesn’t come out as weird as I am usually a rule follower, but I want to make sure I do what’s best for them!

It’s not weird. I’ll be very honest, I had a fairly frustrating time with crowding in the 5k and 10k this past January, particularly the 5k, after putting myself down as 8-10 min. Ended up getting put in corral C even though I got in B for the half/full via POT. For the 10k it seemed like the path eventually split up so that half the crowd was walking and half were running. Vividly remember having to weave around families with young children holding hands and walking four across in Epcot for the 5k.

I’m not sure what will happen with future races but I was very concerned about the impact of this new corral and how things went at MW so I’ll just say that I did not list myself with a 8-10 min pace when I signed up for my next races. The <7 min corral SHOULD be just for a few dozen sprinters, really should be given out via POT, and it’s going to be completely ridiculous if they end up with a bunch of walkers there.

First event with these new corrals will be the DL Halloween event btw, so we’ll hopefully get some feedback from there.

 

[KCO5988]

I don’t know if people can tell me recent experiences with the new brackets for estimated time… last race I did was still less than 8:00/mile or 8:00-10:00
We will be running the 5K, and our pace for a 5K is usually about 7:30-7:45 min/mile…
Does everyone who want to be in the front now put less than 7:00min/mile or are people more respectful/honest and putting in real estimated times?

Since it will be my nephews’ first Disney race (and they are pretty fast runners!), I don’t want to be behind a large wave of people who plan to walk the 5K and just put the fastest time to be in front, but I also don’t want to be disrespectful to elites and lie about my time (I am also wondering whether they would check for POT for people who put less than 7:00/mile to make sure they qualify?)

I hope this doesn’t come out as weird as I am usually a rule follower, but I want to make sure I do what’s best for them!

I am so curious to see how this plays out. I just ran a 43:50 at Princess in February, which comes out to a 7:03 pace (garmin had me sub-7 which I will defend with my life just so I can say I went sub-7 hahaha). I finished 11th female overall and 34th overall. Wine & Dine 2024 I finished in 47:07, which is 7:35 pace, and was 8th female overall, 77tth overall. I put sub-7 for my pace for MW and plan to for SS because I've been working a lot of speedwork and really think I will be sub-7 by then. However, I am very curious to see if sub-7 will be its own corral, because if so, it should have like 50 people or less. It will be interesting to see, I think W&D will be the first race with this pace estimate option.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

I am so curious to see how this plays out. I just ran a 43:50 at Princess in February, which comes out to a 7:03 pace (garmin had me sub-7 which I will defend with my life just so I can say I went sub-7 hahaha). I finished 11th female overall and 34th overall. Wine & Dine 2024 I finished in 47:07, which is 7:35 pace, and was 8th female overall, 77tth overall. I put sub-7 for my pace for MW and plan to for SS because I've been working a lot of speedwork and really think I will be sub-7 by then. However, I am very curious to see if sub-7 will be its own corral, because if so, it should have like 50 people or less. It will be interesting to see, I think W&D will be the first race with this pace estimate option.

At one point I actually went through the results and counted the number of people who ran a sub-7 pace in one of the 10Ks, because I had similar thoughts, and it was like 30. So if sub-7 makes up a whole corral...then most of those people are liars.

 

[KCO5988]

At one point I actually went through the results and counted the number of people who ran a sub-7 pace in one of the 10Ks, because I had similar thoughts, and it was like 30. So if sub-7 makes up a whole corral...then most of those people are liars.

It would be nice if they made it a whole corral but maybe put a POT on it or something. I was going for a PR at Princess and so I had to balance getting in a warm-up and getting in the corral early enough to get towards the front. A smaller POT corral for those trying to place overall or in their age group would be awesome because it would better allow for warming up. That's not to say those running at all different paces aren't also going for a PR and want to warm up - so I guess this is pure selfishness on my part that I might be lucky enough to benefit if they did this. Time will tell, I guess!

 

[nancipants]

It would be nice if they made it a whole corral but maybe put a POT on it or something. I was going for a PR at Princess and so I had to balance getting in a warm-up and getting in the corral early enough to get towards the front. A smaller POT corral for those trying to place overall or in their age group would be awesome because it would better allow for warming up. That's not to say those running at all different paces aren't also going for a PR and want to warm up - so I guess this is pure selfishness on my part that I might be lucky enough to benefit if they did this. Time will tell, I guess!

This is one of the reasons I wish every corral would use POT!

 

[fatmanatee]

Could be mistaken but my understanding with how they've handled elites is that they'd be off to the side and right before the start they'd be shuffled to the front of A. In this case I think we're in agreement that you're only getting a few dozen, maybe 100 max who could legitimately run under 7:00 per, and really wouldn't be that difficult to require POT for this, you wouldn't be reviewing that many entries.

 

[jmasgat]

Someone who’s Platinum can chime in, but do Club RD get a bump at all race distances? This will also boost numbers in corral B, right? (obviously not sub7, but more in the range of the OP’s time range)

 

[The Expert]

Someone who’s Platinum can chime in, but do Club RD get a bump at all race distances? This will also boost numbers in corral B, right? (obviously not sub7, but more in the range of the OP’s time range)

I am Platinum and we have been bumped to B for all races since that perk started. I will say that in my experience in B (chatting with and overhearing other runners, and scoping bibs for the club logo), that it doesn't seem to account for a big percentage of that corral in any given race. Somehow I ended up in A during a recent 5K, but I think it was a fluke. I did take advantage, but hung at the absolute back of the corral and started in the very last wave of A.

 

[KCO5988]

Could be mistaken but my understanding with how they've handled elites is that they'd be off to the side and right before the start they'd be shuffled to the front of A. In this case I think we're in agreement that you're only getting a few dozen, maybe 100 max who could legitimately run under 7:00 per, and really wouldn't be that difficult to require POT for this, you wouldn't be reviewing that many entries.

Do they still do elites? I was only 3 rows deep at the front of A for PW and didn't see anyone get shuffled to the front right before the start.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Do they still do elites? I was only 3 rows deep at the front of A for PW and didn't see anyone get shuffled to the front right before the start.

I think it's only occasional that they get actual pros. I feel like I heard that sometimes regular people (who are pretty fast but wouldn't normally be considered elite runners) get elite bibs based on their POT but don't get any special treatment otherwise.

 

[The Expert]

Elites also depend on the race. I don't think they do them for the 5K races (except maybe Dopey), since they aren't timed.

 

[fatmanatee]

Do they still do elites? I was only 3 rows deep at the front of A for PW and didn't see anyone get shuffled to the front right before the start.

I didn't see any for MW this year either but at the same time I was further back so may have just missed it. I do remember one guy here who had complained awhile ago that he felt he should have been in that group, made it sound like it was limited to very few participants.

 

[nancipants]

I think it's only occasional that they get actual pros. I feel like I heard that sometimes regular people (who are pretty fast but wouldn't normally be considered elite runners) get elite bibs based on their POT but don't get any special treatment otherwise.

I think @flav daughter got an Elite bib for Springtime a few years ago?