If I were a race director (which I am not), then the following is how I would approach your question. First, I'm making the assumption the event is occurring since the wording of the question is "when they start up again". But to be fair, I've got no idea which runDisney race will be that first event (Wine and Dine 2020, MW 2021, Princess 2021, SW 2021, etc.) back up and running again. I think at the heart of an event like runDisney is the question of virus transmissibility. While other aspects/characteristics of the virus are relevant for a variety of reasons, when putting on an event like a road race and all the ancillary things that go with it, you have to look at how the virus transmits from one person to the next in order to dictate the changes I'd make to what was a previously normal runDisney race weekend. Some of these questions surrounding transmissibility may have been answered and some may have not at this moment in time. I assuredly have not read all of the literature around this virus, nor has everything been researched at this moment in time. But I'd go through and evaluate all the circumstances in which people come into contact with each other due to my event occurring.
So what kind of circumstances make the transmissibility of the virus increase or decrease?
-Is there a difference between indoor/outdoor? At this point based on the research I've read, it would seem outbreaks are more likely to occur (or at least be attributed to) indoor settings than outdoor ones. Does that mean an outdoor transmission couldn't occur? No. Only simply that indoor situations seem to be more likely.
-Is the virus more easily spread through airborne transmission or contact transmission? If I'm in the room with an asymptomatic person, then am I more likely to get the virus if I'm closer to them or if I touch an object they touch. Can I even get the virus from touching an object they touch? While the virus may live on different surfaces for X amount of time, at what point does it become no longer transmissible? If it's more so airborne transmission, then how long does the virus survive in the air and is still capable of infecting? How close to someone does someone have to be when they breathe? Does the closer I get to someone dramatically increase the odds of infection? If I breathe harder, does that make the virus transmit at a higher rate, or travel further? Does deep breathing in my lungs make a difference? Can someone traveling in my wake in an indoor/outdoor setting be enough for transmissibility?
-Once I have a positive antibody test for the virus, do I have immunity from the virus? And if so, for how long? Is this virus like the coronaviruses that cause the common cold which commonly grants immunity for a year, or is this like SARS/MERS which have a much less defined and unknown time scale of immunity.
-Once I've been exposed to the virus and it has infected me, how quickly do I become capable of transmission? Is it on the order of minutes, hours, 1 day, several days? What's the average and median for the general exposed population for this value? What's the fastest timeframe recorded?
-How much does time matter? It would stand to reason that the longer you're in the presence of an infected person the more likely you are to catch it.
-How much do masks help in minimizing the effects of everything discussed in prior questions? Will a new mask be invented for runners that both offers an ease to use while running, but still offer substantial benefits in terms of protection for self and others? Are there new prophylactic treatments or a vaccine available by the time my race is occurring? Has a new virus test been invented that reduces the testing time to virtually instantaneous that's non-invasive?
So what makes up a normal runDisney race weekend?
-Registration months in advance. Everyone being at their computer at home seems to indicate that this puts people at no more or less risk. My employees at runDisney would have to deal with the registrations in our home office (or work from home), but I'd be taking the necessary social distancing options for my team.
-Driving/Flying to WDW. Obviously that's kind of out of my hands from a race director standpoint in terms of how you arrive at WDW. But where you fly or drive from may be more or less indicative of how much of a higher risk individual you are. If say, there was a current massive virus outbreak in Scottsdale, AZ and that's where you fly/drive from to my race then maybe you're a higher risk of carrying the virus. But I'm not sure how I would change anything prior to your arrival even if that were the case.
-Transportation. Getting to and from the Expo and the race. In a bus situation, how increased are your chances for transmission? Again, is it simply being in close proximity, or is contact a big driver? What other means can we develop to transport the runners to the Expo/Start/Hotel in a safe manner? Should it be encouraged that people utilize rented cars that have been cleaned prior to your acquiring of the rented vehicle (whether that's at the airport or Disney)?
-Expo. This is probably a place I'd have to strongly consider some changes. Currently, it's an indoor setting with a highly dense population all moving around as much as 5 days before my last event (Expo Wednesday -> Marathon Sunday). So if the virus were transmissible in such a setting, then I could dramatically increase the pool of possible spreaders by the time my last race of the weekend occurs. So I'd want to do my best to minimize such an occurrence within my control as a race director. Obviously many runners at runDisney weekends also go to the parks, and whether that increases/decreases the chances of spread is outside my control. In such a setting are the runners, expo vendors, outdoor volunteers, indoor volunteers more at risk given the answers to the questions in the prior part? If we find touching objects is far less of a transmissibility issue, then maybe just plexi-cube up volunteer staff working the ID/Bib stations. If transmissibility through paper objects is an issue, then would a quick UV treatment greatly diminish the risk of contact exposure? I'd venture to guess based on what we've seen thus far with grocery stores, that this is unlikely to be necessary, but again I don't know what things look like in the future when this race is actually happening. Limiting crowds would seem like a no-brainer in terms of diminishing the risk for runners. Could you offer an option for hotel bib pick-up for a cost? How about pre-ordering of even more merchandise that is picked up in a location (hotel or expo)? Could the non-runDisney vendors also make their merchandise available for pre-purchase maybe 2-3 weeks (or more) in advance of the event?
-Security check and density of outdoor holding areas prior to race start. What could I change here that would spread people further out? Do I have a virus test accessible to me that is extremely fast and non-invasive? Legally can I even ask for people to voluntarily take the test to determine if they currently have the virus? Do I retest runners who are doing multiple races during the weekend? Would I consider assigning corrals recommended arrival times, rerouting the race route to accommodate both traffic and an ongoing race at the same time? So maybe instead of an hour (5:00-6:00am for the start of my race), I do 4:30-6:30am and reroute things to make this feasible both for those still arriving and not yet having to run until 6:15am and those who started at 4:30am and are racing during the time period others are still arriving at their recommended times? If altering these things don't work, then what about staging my corrals over a greater distance?
-Running the race. We've got family members cheering people on, we've got aid stations/volunteers, we've got runners ebbing/flowing past each other, we've got character pictures and scenery, etc. There's a lot to think about before the race even starts, and then even more to think about after it has. So if contact transmission isn't a big problem, then aid stations could be cups on trays that are pushed out for runners to grab. Think about how a volunteer normally stands on one side of the table and hands water to you. How could you automate or distance yourself from that process? A device maybe that acts like the arm the volunteer was using to pass it off that can be at arm height and adjustable for others? I've been in larger races where the tables were mostly unmanned on the front side. So the runners had to grab water themselves. And what I saw in those occurrences were people largely knocking over a great number of cups to grab their one. So if it's an unmanned table from the front, then maybe some sort of tray system that keeps the water cups from being easily knocked over and you simply run by and pluck one off the table. Family/cheering has to be kept at a distance from the runners because normally they're all pointed directionally towards the runners in a tunnel shape yelling and screaming. The changes to characters would be again dictated by the answers to the questions in the previous section. Maybe instead of as many meet/greet character meetings, what about more "scenes" or "objects"? I've never done Star Wars weekend, but I often read of some scenes that were created that got people excited. Could there be more of that type and less of the other types? How someone can socially responsibly pass another runner? The finish line area and again trying to keep things spread out.
-What makes runDisney unique over the experience of another race? The characters and the place it occurs are probably the two biggest answers. So I'd venture to guess in order to keep a runDisney experience somewhat the same you'd want to see those things be held consistent. Now whether they occur in the same manner in the past is definitely debatable.
-If I were a race director, I would strongly consider the following:
A) Reduce capacity of the race
B) Raise the price to cover some of the cost of reduced capacity
C) Offer virtual races w/ a medal that matches the medals of the weekend. But make something unique towards the weekend that is not accessible for virtual. Also, to help cover the costs of reduced capacity at the race.
D) Make most all merchandise available at the Expo (both runDisney and other vendors) available for pre-purchase. Also, to help cover the costs of reduced capacity of the race with the hope people would purchase more and I'd have less waste in terms of what I had leftover at the Expo itself.
E) Develop a system to make aid stations both safe and fast for everyone involved.
F) Have a clear policy in place regarding refunds. Will I treat MW 2021 (the first race with registration post-virus being known about) the same as SW 2020 (the first race to be cancelled because of virus but sign-up occurred prior to virus being mostly known about)? Does it matter? Is someone signing up for MW 2021 accepting the risk of cancellation due to the virus unlike the person signing up for SW 2020? Should they be treated differently based on the timing and knowledge of ongoing circumstances? I'm not saying it should be one way or another, but it's definitely something I'd be pondering over as a race director.
Suffice to say I don't have all the answers. Some of these ideas are likely far beyond what will ever be necessary. Some of these ideas might seem outlandish now and become more accepted later. Again, I don't have complete confidence in knowing what is and isn't needed now or months/years from now because we're still in the infancy of the science when it comes to this current virus. I just sat down after reading your question and just started typing out ideas which could easily be the incoherent rambling of a man missing out on the race experience.
My two running issues on toes in the past four years cannot be blamed on socks.
