Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend

[uncle jimmy]

Here’s the email that someone posted on Reddit:

View attachment 571186

I'm interested in what they mean by "charities are evaluating now how they'll move forward." and the "how they'll partner with charities going forward."

Will sponsors not be charities anymore?

 

[Rteetz]

Seems a lot is happening with charities. Part of my thinks that RunDisney would rather just sell on their own. They know they can get the money this year especially.

 

[pdude81]

Still no proof of time info for Marathon/Challenges? It's kind of time to register and train for those races at this point. With Wine and Dine clearly specified this shouldn't be a heavy lift.

 

[uncle jimmy]

Seems a lot is happening with charities. Part of my thinks that RunDisney would rather just sell on their own. They know they can get the money this year especially.

I think that's the thing... rD would rather the charities use the bibs for raising $$$ and not as means for a person who couldn't get a bib buy it (fund raise)... Before the links went away for some of the charities, several of them used the words of - if you couldn't get a bib - I don't think they want a charity bib to be used that way.

 

[dreamfinder]

I think that's the thing... rD would rather the charities use the bibs for raising $$$ and not as means for a person who couldn't get a bib buy it (fund raise)... Before the links went away for some of the charities, several of them used the words of - if you couldn't get a bib - I don't think they want a charity bib to be used that way.

I don't think runDisney (or the charities) care if you raise the minimums by actually soliciting donations, vs just straight up paying the minimum donation yourself. That's why most of them will require you to provide your credit card number when they let you register. And if you haven't hit certain thresholds, they charge you. If you are willing to fork over a few thousand dollars to a charity just to run, then so be it.

Some of the times, the charities used the verbage RE not being able to get a bib, to differentiate between a charity bib, and just fund raising. If you had your own bib, the minimum fundraising total might be like a 10th of what it would be to get a bib from the charity. Don't remember the costs for the WDW events, but it was usually 3 or 4k to get a bib, vs a few hundred if you had your own. I know that the Boston Marathon was about a $7,000k minimum to get a charity bib for this year, but several of the charities let you join the team for $500-$1,000 if you had your own bib already.

I'm interested in what they mean by "charities are evaluating now how they'll move forward." and the "how they'll partner with charities going forward."

Will sponsors not be charities anymore?

runDisney may simply be making changes to how it handles charities. I can think of several things they could be changing/adding:

• They may be setting required minimum fundraising amounts (no idea if they did this before or not).
• Bundling hotel stays. Some charities already included these if you hit certain fundraising goals, but they may be asking for them all to do it.
• Requiring charities to have tents/presence at the start/finish area or the expo.
• Changing up the charities. Many of the charities are repeats each year and event, so they may wish to widen the net and get new charities involved.

 

[Demarke]

I don't think runDisney (or the charities) care if you raise the minimums by actually soliciting donations, vs just straight up paying the minimum donation yourself. That's why most of them will require you to provide your credit card number when they let you register. And if you haven't hit certain thresholds, they charge you. If you are willing to fork over a few thousand dollars to a charity just to run, then so be it.

Some of the times, the charities used the verbage RE not being able to get a bib, to differentiate between a charity bib, and just fund raising. If you had your own bib, the minimum fundraising total might be like a 10th of what it would be to get a bib from the charity. Don't remember the costs for the WDW events, but it was usually 3 or 4k to get a bib, vs a few hundred if you had your own. I know that the Boston Marathon was about a $7,000k minimum to get a charity bib for this year, but several of the charities let you join the team for $500-$1,000 if you had your own bib already.



runDisney may simply be making changes to how it handles charities. I can think of several things they could be changing/adding:

• They may be setting required minimum fundraising amounts (no idea if they did this before or not).
• Bundling hotel stays. Some charities already included these if you hit certain fundraising goals, but they may be asking for them all to do it.
• Requiring charities to have tents/presence at the start/finish area or the expo.
• Changing up the charities. Many of the charities are repeats each year and event, so they may wish to widen the net and get new charities involved.

I haven’t looked at all of them, but have looked at many a year or so ago. I remember there being a range of requirements that differed between charities. Seemed like most of the well known ones had requirements in the couple of thousand or so dollar range, while some of the lesser known had maybe between $350-1000ish at the cheapest depending on whether you were just doing a 5k and going up depending on races/challenge combinations. Those were the prices to get bibs, not sure what t options were if you had your own.

I’m still curious why CMN relationship ended. It sounded like they chose to due to Disney policy changes. I don’t know if that means that perhaps they were going to be charged for full price bibs and have to rely on donations over and above that or what. Seems odd that they would walk away unless something changed that didn’t make it worth their time and expense to participate.

 

[LAKid53]

I don't think runDisney (or the charities) care if you raise the minimums by actually soliciting donations, vs just straight up paying the minimum donation yourself. That's why most of them will require you to provide your credit card number when they let you register. And if you haven't hit certain thresholds, they charge you. If you are willing to fork over a few thousand dollars to a charity just to run, then so be it.

Some of the times, the charities used the verbage RE not being able to get a bib, to differentiate between a charity bib, and just fund raising. If you had your own bib, the minimum fundraising total might be like a 10th of what it would be to get a bib from the charity. Don't remember the costs for the WDW events, but it was usually 3 or 4k to get a bib, vs a few hundred if you had your own. I know that the Boston Marathon was about a $7,000k minimum to get a charity bib for this year, but several of the charities let you join the team for $500-$1,000 if you had your own bib already.



runDisney may simply be making changes to how it handles charities. I can think of several things they could be changing/adding:

• They may be setting required minimum fundraising amounts (no idea if they did this before or not).
• Bundling hotel stays. Some charities already included these if you hit certain fundraising goals, but they may be asking for them all to do it.
• Requiring charities to have tents/presence at the start/finish area or the expo.
• Changing up the charities. Many of the charities are repeats each year and event, so they may wish to widen the net and get new charities involved.

Charities, whether the race sponsoring ones - CMN, 2nd Harvest, etc., already have tents in the staging area, along with the charities you were able to purchase a bib through. And I know I've seen CMN at the expo in the Visa Center. No sure there's enough space at the finish line.

I am hoping all these changes - no early registration for APs/DVC, no TAs or charity bibs - are temporary for just this reason season.

 

[DznyGrlSD]

Still no proof of time info for Marathon/Challenges? It's kind of time to register and train for those races at this point. With Wine and Dine clearly specified this shouldn't be a heavy lift.

Saw posted on a FB group that marathon timing is a 2:30 half or faster. not sure why wine/dine is a whole 30 minutes faster?

 

[DznyGrlSD]

Charities, whether the race sponsoring ones - CMN, 2nd Harvest, etc., already have tents in the staging area, along with the charities you were able to purchase a bib through. And I know I've seen CMN at the expo in the Visa Center. No sure there's enough space at the finish line.

I am hoping all these changes - no early registration for APs/DVC, no TAs or charity bibs - are temporary for just this reason season.

I don't see early registration coming back for any group other than Club Run Disney.

 

[pdude81]

Saw posted on a FB group that marathon timing is a 2:30 half or faster. not sure why wine/dine is a whole 30 minutes faster?

Interesting. If that's the case then I guess it means a much smaller field for Wine and Dine. However, given that the race would be done easily before park openings it's curious that they would bother cutting down the number of bibs overall.

Did the person in that group say where they got the information from? Curious if it's a club rundisney person, charity partner, etc. Information has been sparse on this all summer so I'm hunting for all I can get.

 

[DznyGrlSD]

Interesting. If that's the case then I guess it means a much smaller field for Wine and Dine. However, given that the race would be done easily before park openings it's curious that they would bother cutting down the number of bibs overall.

Did the person in that group say where they got the information from? Curious if it's a club rundisney person, charity partner, etc. Information has been sparse on this all summer so I'm hunting for all I can get.

The FB group is "My running buddies" and a few of them are CRD members. It was a screenshot of an email from rD so I'm 99% sure it's legit.

 

[pdude81]

The FB group is "My running buddies" and a few of them are CRD members. It was a screenshot of an email from rD so I'm 99% sure it's legit.

Someone should give them a medal for getting a straight answer from runDisney about something they haven't announced yet!

 

[DznyGrlSD]

Someone should give them a medal for getting a straight answer from runDisney about something they haven't announced yet!

*shrug* the people in the group are mostly local and have good contacts at runDisney but have also gotten misinformation recently as well. We shall see when registration opens up I guess!

 

[Surferboy567]

*shrug* the people in the group are mostly local and have good contacts at runDisney but have also gotten misinformation recently as well. We shall see when registration opens up I guess!

You won’t have to wait long! Hopefully we get all the themes as well, I doubt we get the medal designs but that would be nice.

 

[LAKid53]

Interesting. If that's the case then I guess it means a much smaller field for Wine and Dine. However, given that the race would be done easily before park openings it's curious that they would bother cutting down the number of bibs overall.

Did the person in that group say where they got the information from? Curious if it's a club rundisney person, charity partner, etc. Information has been sparse on this all summer so I'm hunting for all I can get.

They pushed back the start to 5:00 AM for W&D races, so why cut 30 minutes?

I'm a CrD member. That individual must have asked a specific question - I never received an email with that info.

 

[Figment82]

Was CMN a charity (non-sponsor) for the other race weekends, or just Princess? It sounds like they’re making the charities commit upfront to all 3 race weekends (with the Springtime Surprise to be assumed to be added later), which initially ties up a lot of funds. They have to buy the bibs, room blocks, etc. before they the runners can sign up through them. I’m sure that’s a bit difficult for many of the charities, even larger ones such as CMN (or goes against their policies, from the sound of it).

I wonder if we’ll see the charity pages on rD’s site update soon, since they informed them over the weekend.

 

[LAKid53]

Was CMN a charity (non-sponsor) for the other race weekends, or just Princess? It sounds like they’re making the charities commit upfront to all 3 race weekends (with the Springtime Surprise to be assumed to be added later), which initially ties up a lot of funds. They have to buy the bibs, room blocks, etc. before they the runners can sign up through them. I’m sure that’s a bit difficult for many of the charities, even larger ones such as CMN (or goes against their policies, from the sound of it).

I wonder if we’ll see the charity pages on rD’s site update soon, since they informed them over the weekend.

If I remember, the list of charities you could purchase a bib through were usually the same for each race weekend. So I don't know why rD is suddenly requiring this, when most already did. But telling them they now have to include rooms is probably the last straw for many of them. I would hope rD and Disney Travel aren't telling them they have to put a down payment on a block of rooms, because that's never been the case in the past.

I don't remember seeing CMN listed for other races.

 

[OG Runner]

They pushed back the start to 5:00 AM for W&D races, so why cut 30 minutes?

I'm a CrD member. That individual must have asked a specific question - I never received an email with that info.

They had done that for the 2020 Marathon also. I think they just want to get us out of the parks quicker.

 

[RunningKoen]

Hows the resort availability for this weekend?

 

[uncle jimmy]

Saw posted on a FB group that marathon timing is a 2:30 half or faster. not sure why wine/dine is a whole 30 minutes faster?

I saw this being discussed in several groups, one said it was 2 or 4 hours for POT for marathon and then another shared rD saying 2:30 half or faster. A 2 hour half is not the same as a 4 hour marathon for a POT, so I'm leaning towards the 2:30 POT