The Running Thread - 2026

[fatmanatee]

Wow, I see RunSota already has vids up of everything but the full.

 

[AZMermaid]

Manny Runs Disney ran by me at the AK out and back. It’s up already but it’s edited and I didn’t make the cut! But it’s still a long video.

 

[AZMermaid]

Manny Runs Disney ran by me at the AK out and back. It’s up already but it’s edited and I didn’t make the cut! But it’s still a long video.

 

[Naomeri]

For the record I'm not in favor of this, it's already very crowded. But that's how I see it going. Maybe we get more characters on course at least?

If they add 5K capacity and don't add more characters, it's going to be a disaster, the lines are already so long

 

[IamTrike]

I’ll take a cynical guess at the new marketing/GMA/higher cap push…

The parks in general have subscribed to a push for fewer guests, more new guests, more spend per guest. Figure a large percentage of rD racers are returnees - a fair number of those are like me: BT/DT, aren't buying a ton of merch (I haven’t bought ANY in years), aren’t registering for every race anymore, aren’t spending a bunch in the parks, aren’t doing long stays with more nights on property. That’s not their target audience anymore. Maybe the new rD push is to better align with the parks goal: get more new, high-spend runners into the field, those who are likely to drop a lot more cheddar while visiting. Entice them with Insta-worthy marketing that makes every minute of racing look like it could turn into a viral post. rD/WDW doesn’t need to care about whether races are congested or lacking support or leave runners feeling like they didn’t get their money’s worth if the goal is make quick bank off folks who are one-and-done.

I don't know that that's really all that cynical. Disney has a data science team (I think they used to have a data science conference too) and a huge focus is on revenue optimization. I remember a Len Testa podcast where he was talking about that team and how it must be kind of wierd to have your life's work be "I built a model that proved Disney could make an extra 25 million dollars a year by increasing the price of a Churro 14 cents."

 

[IamTrike]

thanks all for the tip on travel with Josh and Taylor. I had seen their videos show up in searches before but hadn't ever watched them.