• Orlando,
    Florida,
    United States
  • November
  • 3 miles/5K, 6 miles/10K, 13.1 miles/Half Marathon
  • Road Race
  • Event Website

Heather

Chicago, Illinois, United States
109 87
2016
"Disappointing course, but great character stops"
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Heather 's thoughts:

You can read about the 5k and 10k in my other reviews. This was the first year the half marathon was in the morning (boo) held on Sunday, November 6 at with a 5:30am start and I think 3 minutes between corrals. I believe corrals went from A–L. I did miss the 5k morning half at night (I am definitely more of a night runner than the morning), and not having the Osborne Lights to run through Hollywood Studios made me sad. Not wearing a hat, visor, or sunglasses makes me happy, and I can only do that at night haha.

PROS:
+ Great expo
+ Long Sleeve Champion Tech Shirt
+ Register for Lumiere's Challenge you get a third long sleeve shirt (10k, half, and challenge), and after completion of the races, a challenge medal.
+ Transporation to the start (at ESPN WWoS), finish was at Epcot.
+ After party at Epcot from 10pm Sunday through 1am Monday morning (runners get a ticket with race registration and spectators could purchase tickets). Early entry beginning at 8pm for Illuminations.
+ Lots of character meet and greats at the after party.
+ Run through Animal Kingdom and Epcot.
+ Though the course was a bit boring (maybe 2 miles inside parks?), they had a lot of fun characters outside the parks in these areas. I can't remember how many stops total there were, but I feel like it was a good handful.
+ Plenty of aid stations + extremely energetic and cheerful CM and volunteers.
+ Post-race included photo ops with backdrop, bottled water, Powerade, wet towels, banana, and the runner box filled with goodies.
+ Photo ops post-race with multiple character options.
+ Lots of PhotoPass photographers on course.
+ $10 giftcard for runners to use at post-race party (or anywhere Disney). It was supposed to be emailed, though I never received mine, but was easy to get a hold of it when I was pointed in the correct direction.
+ Transportation to bring you back to your resort.
+ Great medals.

CONS:
- Only run through 2 parks instead of 3, and Epcot is VERY short.
- Lots of highway and backlot course this year. At least they had a lot of characters outside the parks. I hope when construction is done at HS they have the course go back through there again.
- Never received the email with my $10 giftcard code. Had to get this resolved and was told to go somewhere, and when we went there someone told us nope, go here.Luckily they weren't too far apart, so not a huge deal, and it went quickly which was nice.
- Lots of misprints, so some merchandise was taken off the shelf (so to speak, as it never went on the shelf haha). The pre-order jackets needed to be mailed out (they didn't say this was due to misprints but an issue with the printer or something...). I was not impressed with the pre-order tumbler, and feel that was a last minute effort after whatever we should have gotten was misprinted too. I can't say for sure, but it just seems like quality of it wasn't up to standards of runDisney gear.

I love Disney races. Yes, prices increase every year and it's a mighty high cost, but it's so much fun and you get a lot of great quality stuff with the cost (shirts, medals, run through Disney, post-race party, food and drink after race, race and expo transportation).

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