Disney's Princess Half Marathon Weekend

Dagger

Dagger

Member
I'm running. This is my 3rd Disney race. I'm going to be solo if anyone else likes to dance at 4am I'll be there. (The festivities prior feature a dj with super loud music, food trucks, and picture spots.)
 
Sumrdog

Sumrdog

Well-Known Member
I am all ready and so excited!! However this last three days I have been having pain in my foot :eek:, kind of bad pain, the kind I can't really ignore. So I went to the doctor...The good news is I cannot do irreparable damage by running on it. The bad news; its going to hurt a lot...ugh!!! I am going to do this thing if I have to crawl across the finish line!
 
Y

yelena's aunt

New Member
Any single travelers staying on property/booked through Disney and will receive pass for mini golf looking for someone to play a round with? I am flying in Friday afternoon, hitting the expo and then was going to play my round of mini golf but am traveling alone and would love company, especially another runner! Private message if there is any interest!
 
Eeyore

Eeyore

Mrs. WDWMAGIC [Assistant Administrator]
Premium Member
Dagger said:
I'm running. This is my 3rd Disney race. I'm going to be solo if anyone else likes to dance at 4am I'll be there. (The festivities prior feature a dj with super loud music, food trucks, and picture spots.)
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They have food trucks available before the start of the race? Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't sound like a very good idea. There's nothing I'd want more than some Korean tacos or a burger and fries before running 13.1 miles ;) Lol
 
Fievel

Fievel

RunDisney Addict
Eeyore said:
They have food trucks available before the start of the race? Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't sound like a very good idea. There's nothing I'd want more than some Korean tacos or a burger and fries before running 13.1 miles ;) Lol
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The food trucks serve mostly breakfast fare, and a lot of them are serving various types of bagels. They also offer the fattier foods, but I'm guessing only people like family members that go along for support are eating that stuff, as they are parked in the family reunion area.
 
Y

yelena's aunt

New Member
Mad Stitch said:
From what I read, walkers in corrals A & B and the entire race was so crowded in general you couldn't pass anyone.
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Didn't run the half myself, but from what all the runners I spoke to post-race said, this was indeed the case. Far too many people and the crowding never let up. Apparently someone went outside of the cones and was hit by a car. I was impressed with how good all the runners looked Sunday at the parks (probably because they never got up to speed!); most proudly displaying their medals! And guys, loved the "why are all these princesses chasing me" t-shirts!
 
Ariel484

Ariel484

Well-Known Member
Not surprised by the over-crowding. The WDW Half Marathon (same course as the Princess Half) was INCREDIBLY crowded this year with ~23,000 finishers, and from what I can gather the Princess Half had similar numbers...there were ~14,000 finishers when I ran it in 2011. I can't seem them lowering the caps for any of these races as long as they continue to sell out (even while registration prices continue to increase!) but it does seem like some of the races are just getting too big, to the point where it might become unsafe. The corral stuff is ridiculous...why have people submit proof of time if they aren't going to assign people properly?
 
Eeyore

Eeyore

Mrs. WDWMAGIC [Assistant Administrator]
Premium Member
It sounds to me like the walking at the run Disney events is really starting to get out of hand. I applaude anyone who gets moving and sets both long term and short term fitness goals but it seems like Disney is almost making these running events too accessible to people who are not really ready for them. Maybe they could start adding walking events into the half and full weekends to allow the walkers to accomplish their goals and get their medals and t shirts without causing safety issues for runners and walkers alike.
 
Ariel484

Ariel484

Well-Known Member
Eeyore said:
It sounds to me like the walking at the run Disney events is really starting to get out of hand. I applaude anyone who gets moving and sets both long term and short term fitness goals but it seems like Disney is almost making these running events too accessible to people who are not really ready for them. Maybe they could start adding walking events into the half and full weekends to allow the walkers to accomplish their goals and get their medals and t shirts without causing safety issues for runners and walkers alike.
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This is something I've been thinking about over the past few months. I'm a member of another board and there were lots of people that were brand new runners training for the marathon. I understand that a lot of people want that Mickey medal, but going from zero to marathon in a matter of months is unfathomable to me. As the weeks went on there were more and more posts from people that had to stop training due to developing stress fractures. It surprised me at first - I don't remember ever reading about anyone here in the Running section having one - but it makes sense: people who had never run before were suddenly starting to try to get the mileage in to get ready for the marathon, and it was too much, too soon. It's not smart. I'm glad Disney is starting to add in some more shorter distances (the ToT 10-miler, the Disneyland 10K) to give people more options. Besides the allure of the Mickey medal I'm just not sure why people who have never run before feel like they have to do the marathon without completing some shorter races first. o_O

Then you actually get to the races themselves and have people that walk right in the middle of the road, 4-5 abreast, and start walking right in front of you without any warning. Nothing against people that walk during races at all (I do it too) but it really shows how many new runners that don't know about proper running etiquette do these Disney races (or at least don't read the race program, which has runner etiquette suggestions buried somewhere in the pages). Add in the fact that there are 20,000+ runners on a course that gets REALLY narrow at points (specifically the portions that go through the parks and one-lane roads outside of the parks) and it can really turn into a mess.

It's unfortunate because in general these races really are very well-organized...but it can get frustrating.
 

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