New Star Wars half at WDW announced

[LAKid53]

@LizaMarie89,

To add to @Texas84 excellent advice, don't fret if you don't get 8 hours of sleep the night before. As Galloway mentions in his training, the most important thing is to rest the night before. You will be plenty fired up from excitement and adrenaline for the run in the morning. Just make sure to eat something light (my go to is a bowl of oatmeal) before the race. I also have a strong cup of tea and put some pre-workout in a water bottle I take with me to sip on on the bus going to the corrals.

I use Galloway's training schedule. You can download it into your calendar.

Yeah, show up early. Plenty of stories on the Running threads about runners barely making it to their starting corral on time. And not having enough time to visit the port-a-potty...that first park bathroom is really a distance when you have to pee....

Which brings up a question - why no port-a-potties along the roadway leading to the first park? Not all of us are able to, um, use the woods...nor would I want to in the dark...

 

[Chet Dakota]

So far through the 10k, I am a little disappointed in the "presentation" of the Star Wars Light Side Half Weekend races. I thought the 2016 events were fantastic. This year, not so much.

Although similar as last year, seems like the course routes this year have more backstage than last year. Less characters out on the courses also. The "entertainment" on the main stage in the corrals is pretty lame compared to last year, and the guy that they have in crowd is terrible.

One thing I noticed this morning is that the film clips and trailers that they showed prior to the 10k race were all Force Awakens and not a single mention of Rogue One or the second half season of Rebels. It is almost like runDisney budget got slashed in half for this race, the event organizers met for the first time last week to start the planning, or the let the Orlando team do the planning this year.

Maybe tomorrow will be better. Hopefully the local CosPlayers will be out in force outside the property.

 

[LizaMarie89]

Thanks everyone for the advice!

I'm using the Hal Higdon Novice training plan with a run/walk interval. I have 2 extra weeks so I'm repeating the first week 3 times - I'm about to head out for a four mile run at the gym. This week has been a bit brutal but I haven't missed a single workout so I'm a bit proud of that!

I was planning on getting to the corrals as early as possible so that I can get towards the front of whatever corral I get placed into. I didn't have a proof of time so I'm pretty sure that I will be in the last corral even though my estimated time currently is right at 3 hours.

I'm currently not planning on stopping for any character photos but I figure that if I get towards the end and I am safe by a decent amount of time I will stop for a few. Is there any point in the race where you're safe from the sweepers?

And I had another question - I was looking at the results from the half marathon last year and noticed that there were some finish times that were past the pacing time limit. Is this because they escaped sweeping and then slowed down? I don't anticipate it being an issue but I'd rather just not have the anxiety.

 

[Texas84]

Thanks everyone for the advice!

I'm using the Hal Higdon Novice training plan with a run/walk interval. I have 2 extra weeks so I'm repeating the first week 3 times - I'm about to head out for a four mile run at the gym. This week has been a bit brutal but I haven't missed a single workout so I'm a bit proud of that!

I was planning on getting to the corrals as early as possible so that I can get towards the front of whatever corral I get placed into. I didn't have a proof of time so I'm pretty sure that I will be in the last corral even though my estimated time currently is right at 3 hours.

I'm currently not planning on stopping for any character photos but I figure that if I get towards the end and I am safe by a decent amount of time I will stop for a few. Is there any point in the race where you're safe from the sweepers?

And I had another question - I was looking at the results from the half marathon last year and noticed that there were some finish times that were past the pacing time limit. Is this because they escaped sweeping and then slowed down? I don't anticipate it being an issue but I'd rather just not have the anxiety.

You don't have a 10K time? You have until the 19th to get a time in.

As for the time limit, don't know. There wasn't much 'safe' space last year. Just about a mile.

 

[LizaMarie89]

There are no 10k races in my area before then, so no I don't have a time.

 

[dreamfinder]

I'm currently not planning on stopping for any character photos but I figure that if I get towards the end and I am safe by a decent amount of time I will stop for a few. Is there any point in the race where you're safe from the sweepers?

Kind of, but not really. There will be a point on course where they usually won't have any more buses, and will do everything they can to help you finish. At the full marathon the other week, we were in Norway when the tail end of the runners came through, and the last pack of runners/walkers pretty much all had their own runDisney CM on a bike with them, and two of the pargo? golf carts bringing up the rear. I imagine if the bikers felt any of the runners were unable to finish, they would have been loaded onto the golf cart. But as the race goes later, the lines for characters will grow. If you do choose to get in a line, just make sure to keep your eyes out for the balloon ladies/people on bikes and make sure to stay ahead of them.

And I had another question - I was looking at the results from the half marathon last year and noticed that there were some finish times that were past the pacing time limit. Is this because they escaped sweeping and then slowed down? I don't anticipate it being an issue but I'd rather just not have the anxiety.

Possibly, but remember, the sweep clock starts when the last person crosses the start line. This is why getting proof of time is so important. There may anywhere from 1-6 corrals where the runners have no proof of time. So if the corrals are starting 6-8 minutes apart, someone in that first corral w/no time could have a considerable buffer over the last person to cross the start line. It depends on the exact race and runners, but even if there is one corral with a 6 minute head start, that means someone in the second to last corral could in theory do a 16:25 or so pace, and still stay ahead of the last person to start and the sweepers. Now even though they may be able to finish over the 16min/mile pace, runDisney could elect to not recognize it as an official finishing time, not award a medal or finishers certificate, etc. But the odds of this happening are pretty slim.

 

[LizaMarie89]

Thank you everyone for answering all my questions - I may be worrying for no reason . I just walked a mile in 15 minutes and more than a quarter was uphill. I also realized I'm messing up what my actual mile time is by not separating my warm up time from workout. I just plan to keep training hard and hopefully have more confidence when it gets to be race time.