Tink 10k runners... what happened this morning?

[roomthreeseventeen]

Someone posted a video to the runDisney FB page that had a whole bunch (maybe 30-40) of runners chanting to be let out of a sag wagon... can anyone who was there talk about what happened on the course?

 

[edna mode]

I was there, it was very weird! There were several hundred of us - someone said almost 500. I've been doing the runDisney events since 2007 as a walker. But this morning I was there as a slower, injured walker. We arrived at 5:30am for the 6am start and had a very long walk to the very back of corral D - about 1.5 miles from the parking to the start line. They had the corrals structured differently from events in the past so people were having a hard time getting to the proper corrals. For example, there were Corral A runners stuck in D etc. As we crossed the start line the pace flag passed us at 6:20am - there were still a few people behind us. We caught up and held a 16 minute mile, but stopped for 2 very short bathroom breaks along the way. We had several hundred folks behind us and loads of people in line for pictures. At 7:35, we turned the corner at TOT (almost at mile 4) and got into a corral of stopped people. After about 3 minutes they came to tell us that we were being bussed to the finish because we were behind time. They took 2 busses of people and said more busses were coming. Meanwhile more and more people kept showing up until there were hundreds of people. After 20 minutes they told us that we would walk back through the park to DTD to the finish line. People started yelling "let us out" - post on twitter - this is wrong" - 5 minutes later were told that we would be going through the back way (old Timon parking lot) to walk parallel to the other 10krs to the finish (which I suggested to a cast member at 7:40). There was a lot of confusion especially because there were so many people who were told they were on pace while waiting in line for the Monsters U pictures at TOT. The cast members on bikes paced us to the end. At this point we missed approximately 1.2 miles of the run which we could have easily done since we could see others on the road next to us were still coming in. Just as we were coming into the street crossing to the finish line, they stopped us again and handed us medals in packages from boxes as 2 cast members recorded by hand our bib numbers on sheets of paper. This also took a long time! Then they sent us upstream into the exit, so we missed the finish line,characters, pictures, food, water completely. We missed the entire end of the run that we could hear & see on the other side of the fence. Overall, the slow down was easily 35 minutes of waiting which we could have running or walking. For the slower paced folks who were struggling or had taken pictures, they could have sent us down the back path in the first place, since I've been down that path many times on runs. For me, I turned a disk in my back on Thursday night before I did the 5k on Friday, so I was fine missing one mile and I've done nearly 10 runs. But for my friend, it was her first event so it was sad that she didn't experience the finish line. Other people were furious. We live 15 minutes away, so it was not a big deal to us, but we felt bad for all the people who flew in, trained, paid for big vacations. And especially for the folks who were trying to accomplish goals for fitness, weight loss, struggling with issues along the way and still trying so hard to make it. All and all it was a very weird ending to what was otherwise a nice race day.

 

[emilyindisney]

That sounds really strange. Did the pace flag pass you as you crossed the finish line? Not sure that's what you meant or not. Either way, it makes me wonder if someone messed up in terms of counting the 16-minute pace. It seems fishy that so, so many people would fall behind so quickly!

 

[cewait]

From what I think I read and looking at the course map, folks map not have been on the 16 minute pace at the point there the course hit the public streets again and the rD folks shut the course down so they would not violate their parade permit terms. It kind of makes sense if the course shut about 7:35 ish; 4 miles at 16 mm would have the last runner crossing the start around 6:30 ish.

Obviously only those who shut the gate know the exact reason why. I know the first time WDW attempted to stringently enforce pace, they shut the course at mile 10.2 - of just before the race hit Main Street in MK (year 2003 I believe). It caught folks by surprise as it was the first hard closing of the course.

 

[edna mode]

there were a surprising amount of posts on facebook rundisney about this - many saying there was a pacing problem and that they were never warned. there were also a surprising amount of kids under the age limit and strollers on the 5k course and saw one on the 10k - strictly prohibited.

 

[edna mode]

That sounds really strange. Did the pace flag pass you as you crossed the finish line? Not sure that's what you meant or not. Either way, it makes me wonder if someone messed up in terms of counting the 16-minute pace. It seems fishy that so, so many people would fall behind so quickly!

we never got to cross the finish, but nobody saw it.

 

[emilyindisney]

we never got to cross the finish, but nobody saw it.

Whoops- I meant start line! Some posted on facebook claiming the pace flag crossed the start before the end of the last corral. Was that your experience?

 

[SuzanneSLO]

If the pace flag crossed the start at 6:20, then it crossed before I started. I crosses at 6:24 and there were wall to wall people behind me at the time. I thought I started half way in the last corral, but who knows.

Another runner mentioned that the ballon ladies were 3 minutes behind as I approached the east end of Hollywood Blvd. If this was true they would have been to that point at about 7:23. That point was about 3.6 miles, with another 0.2 or so before the route left DCA.

I was not swept and finished with an official time below 16mm at 8:02.

It was my first 10k and although I expected crowding at points, the crowding never really got better. I found that walking was faster than jogging much of the time due to the congestion.

But, I had a blast and hope to do another RunDisney event soon. -- Suzanne

 

[momto3gr8boys]

Whoops- I meant start line! Some posted on facebook claiming the pace flag crossed the start before the end of the last corral. Was that your experience?

I am staying at the GCH right now (running the half in the morning) and watched the start of today's race from my balcony.

The pace flag and the bikes started after the last runners in the last corral. Then came a man with a bin picking up discarded clothing, and then some golf carts. Then several runners who were late went running down the street. I'm not sure why they were late, but the pace flag was the last to officially cross the start line, if not the actual last person to cross it.

I did the 5k Friday morning and the lines for characters were very long. I typically run a 29 or 30 minute 5k, but I stopped for 4 or 5 pics, one bathroom stop and finished at 1:03 (almost my 10k time lol), so I think a lot of people may have lost time without realizing it.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[emilyindisney]

I am staying at the GCH right now (running the half in the morning) and watched the start of today's race from my balcony.

The pace flag and the bikes started after the last runners in the last corral. Then came a man with a bin picking up discarded clothing, and then some golf carts. Then several runners who were late went running down the street. I'm not sure why they were late, but the pace flag was the last to officially cross the start line, if not the actual last person to cross it.

I did the 5k Friday morning and the lines for characters were very long. I typically run a 29 or 30 minute 5k, but I stopped for 4 or 5 pics, one bathroom stop and finished at 1:03 (almost my 10k time lol), so I think a lot of people may have lost time without realizing it.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

It's unfortunate that so many people got swept but I'm glad to hear confirmation that runDisney was sticking to their promised policies!

 

[SuzanneSLO]

I am staying at the GCH right now (running the half in the morning) and watched the start of today's race from my balcony.

The pace flag and the bikes started after the last runners in the last corral. Then came a man with a bin picking up discarded clothing, and then some golf carts. Then several runners who were late went running down the street. I'm not sure why they were late, but the pace flag was the last to officially cross the start line, if not the actual last person to cross it.

I did the 5k Friday morning and the lines for characters were very long. I typically run a 29 or 30 minute 5k, but I stopped for 4 or 5 pics, one bathroom stop and finished at 1:03 (almost my 10k time lol), so I think a lot of people may have lost time without realizing it.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

I agree that many may have lost time without realizing it.
I know I felt comfortable with my pace simply because there were so many runners still behind me. In contrast, when I ran the 5k at Castaway Cay, I was the back of the pack and never felt I could slow my pace (even without a minimum pace requirement). -- Suzanne

 

[edna mode]

There were many people who posted on facebook that they crossed the start line at 6:30, but she was next to us and jogged right passed about 100 people. There was a massive problem with the bottlenecks as we turned into the park - several where we came to a complete stop. Also, several people posted that they had been on the course for 64 minutes when they were stopped to be bussed. I heard on facebook that there was an issue with the city.

Does anyone know why they allowed so many strollers on the 5k course? I've never seen anything like it.

 

[nervous1sttimer]

Oh yuck, sounds terrible! Between this and the troubles with the inaugural DDD events last summer, it kinda turns me off Disneyland events. Not enough to prevent me from registering for DDD next week (need to get that C2C!) but enough for me to believe this might be one-and-done for me and DL races.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

Oh yuck, sounds terrible! Between this and the troubles with the inaugural DDD events last summer, it kinda turns me off Disneyland events. Not enough to prevent me from registering for DDD next week (need to get that C2C!) but enough for me to believe this might be one-and-done for me and DL races.

My guess is that some of these problems resulted because it was the first time for the Tinkerbell 10K. I know I chose to run the 10K as my first race ever partly because it was on Saturday. I would have needed to take an extra day off work to run the 5K.

As a result, it may be that there were more walkers/beginning runners than is typical for a RunDisney 10K.

Based on the corrections to the registration process after the problems reported for the DL Half Marathon Weekend, I am optimistic that the next race will be better.

As a side note,because some of the issues reported from last September were relating to delays with the Kids races, this may have impacted the enforcement of the minimum pace at the 10K. The Kids Races started at 9:30 in the Friends and Family reunion area. At a 16 minute pace, a runner starting at 6:30 would crosse the finish line at 8:10 AM. I think I read that the official start time will be at 5:30 in May, 2015, which should also help with this issue.

The short walk from hotel to start line for RunDisney events at DL may make you willing to forgive many other issues! -- Suzanne

 

[Belle Ella]

Oh yuck, sounds terrible! Between this and the troubles with the inaugural DDD events last summer, it kinda turns me off Disneyland events. Not enough to prevent me from registering for DDD next week (need to get that C2C!) but enough for me to believe this might be one-and-done for me and DL races.

Don't let it turn you off from Disneyland. The 10k's are still new territory for runDisney and especially Disneyland. The issues from DDD were addressed and the new setup for the Expo was fantastic. Between road closures that have to be addressed in Anaheim and what I'm guessing was more newbie runners to runDisney it just made for a bad mix. If the 10k is started earlier next year I would wager a guess that it would solve that problem.

runDisney has been great about fixing issues the following year when they arise.

 

[edna mode]

Belle Ella is absolutely right. the DL 10K was a disaster prior to the run and they fixed so much of it. This was just a new grouping of issues to deal with. My guess is they will go back to having the runners on the streets early and then back into the parks..

 

[StarGirl11]

I can't speak for everyone who got caught in the swag bus incident. But I did run into a 10k runner this morning at breakfast who was cut off. She was saying that she was keeping the 16 min/mile pace and she wasn't making stops. And yet got caught at the swag wagon. She said she never saw the pacers and she was looking for them.

One story I know in a sea of them. But still interesting.

It is interesting to note that the pacers have been known to go too fast before. I've seen the biker pacers tell them to drop pace before because they were going to fast. So I'm kind of wondering if what happened is the pacers were going well under the 16 min/mile and since they were in the parks there was no one to regulate them until it was too late. And maybe several runners suffered the consequences?

 

[molly mouse]

If I had to venture a guess-

I'm betting Disney told Anaheim they could reopen a road at 730 and when people hadn't crossed it yet, they were cut off.

Run Disney messed up and probably delayed the corral starts- which put too many people behind the cut off.

Again, this is just a guess, but it's the only thing I can figure out as to why it happened.

 

[JCH]

All the reports I am seeing are people saying that were just barely below pace (15:50 or so), which since between each mile marker you are actually running more than a mile since you can't get perfectly straight lines, would actually put them below pace. According to the 5k splits for every person I have seen complaining, they were off pace. Some had 5k splits as much as over an hour and were still saying they were under pace, but also said they stopped for pictures. This makes me wonder if they had GPSes that pause when stopped and were unaware of it.

But, there seems to be an easily solution to all of this. Disneyland needs to adopt the very visible "balloon ladies" like Disney World has. How hard would it be to simply have their pacers carry easy to spot balloons?

 

[Nulles]

The Pacer was carrying a tall orange flag with a sign on it that said "16mm pacer". I think balloons are easier to see but they weren't trying to hide the pacer or anything.