Well that was an interesting Dopey weekend. Despite my disappointment with the half being cancelled, they made the right call. I was up at 3ish (DS fussing) and it was torrential outside. And later on about 6:30-7ish there was definitely lightning in the area. So between the two, don't blame them, and the options they offered were pretty decent.
Lots of people opted to not wear the medal/shirt, and I noticed plenty of challenge runners who took their medal pic with all the medals, and then had then do one with just the marathon medal as well.
Was able to walk into the Expo at open Weds w/no line outside, New Balance took about 1 min to enter (was in group 1) Line for merch took up the whole queue, and took a while to get through. Getting to packet pickup actually had a long line, queue snaked back and forth between the center and the stadium, but at least it moved the whole time. When I left, the line to get into the expo went down the stairs and wrapped around the fields to go in the New Balance door. Was less hectic Thurs when returned for the kids race. Apparently the line for the refunds was huge Saturday. Like the sign during the Marathon "This race is shorter than the line for the half marathon refunds".
Overall, was pretty happy with my races. Did the 5k/10k with my mom and wife, so went at a much slower pace than normal, but it was fun. Full wasn't bad, I actually enjoyed the temps so will take a 4:20ish considering I hadn't done any run longer than 16mi since the Marathon last year. = p And taking out the time for standing around it was closer to a 4:05. Slightly disappointed in characters, I'd say Oswald was the prize this year.
Character Recap
5k
Pre race - Pluto and Dopey
Thumper was on the backstage road
Vikings in Norway
Minnie in Italy
Chip and Dale w/fez in Morocco
Flannel Donald in Canada
Space Goofy by Club Cool
10k
Pre race - Minnie and Dopey
Launchpad and Scrooge at end of dogleg
Lilo and Stitch
Vikings in Norway
Travel Genie in Morocco
Revolutionary Mickey, Donald and Goofy in USA
Pluto at ESPN Club
Pooh and Tigger by backstage gate
Full
Pre race - Goofy, Daisy, Dopey, Chip and Dale
Captain Barbosa and Jack Sparrow
Lightning & Tow Mater
Jack and Sally
Buzz in Tommorowland
Tweedles by Tea Party
Snake Charmer Donald by Circus entryway
Beast at Be Our Guest
Frozen in castle rampart
Country Bears in Frontierland
Magnificent FoF float + thorn stiltwalkers backstage
Penguins by Grand Floridian
Travel Genie by golf course
Groomsmen by wedding pavillion
Lilo and Stitch
Big Bad Wolf
Attraction Museum
60s Tourists
Venelope and Ralph before sewage treatment
Clarabell and Horace at Horticulture
AK Animals from Affection Section
Meeko by train
Timon going onstage in Africa
King Louie by Flights of Wonder
Chester & Hester in Dinorama
Grave Diggers by AK overpass
Archeologists w/TRex skull by construction
Soccer Mickey and Cheerleader Minnie
Ref Chip, Dale and Donald
Sport Goofy on track
Joy and Sadness before stadium
Sarge on DHS overpass
Oswald in F! Entryway
Belle in France
Snow White in Germany
Prince Ali & Princess Jasmine in Morocco
Mulan in China
I noticed one of the options was to enter the Full. If you were signed up for Dopey, obviously this wasn't an option, but if you were just there for the Half - particularly your first Half - I was wondering if anyone signed up for the Full with the intention of stopping at 13.1 miles. Would you be at a point on the course at that spot where you could easily leave the course and call it a day? That way you'd get the experience of running a Disney race, getting liquids and cheers from the sidelines, and being able to run an interesting 13.1 mile course rather than running around a resort. Would this have been possible?
At the worst you could have hung out and waited for the parade bus. But just due to it's location, you could have pretty easily jumped on the AK transportation and gone home. They bumped out the dogleg at mile 11 to help make up for the DHS course shortening, so put the half much closer to the park than before.
Some 1,500 people took up the option to go from the half to the full. So much, they hit the official closure numbers for the full marathon.
