When signing up for a Disney race you need to know it's not going to be a fast race. Period. But that's not why people do Disney races. The scenery of getting to run through the parks and taking pictures with characters is why you run Disney races. And on that magical experience they delivered! I highly recommend going out of your way to get a qualifying time to get you into an earlier corral. This is worth it because the lines for the characters will be much shorter and any bottle necks that happen on the course (in the parks especially) won't be all clogged up yet. Ultimately I'd say the Disney races are worth the experience, but it's seriously a commitment with waking up so early, and having to arrive to the corrals so long before the gun goes off, but as long as you have the mindset of fun and not to "race" then it'll be worth it.

The year that I ran this race there was a heat wave that came through Rochester that weekend. The race management made the tough call to down grade the Marathon and 20-Miler down to the Half Marathon distance. I was always planning on doing the half marathon so this didn't impact me. Due to that change though they lost a lot of participants. Where there were 3000 recorded participants in 2017, there were only about 900 this year. I was really glad that I still ran it. The race management was so on top of the aid stations and keeping everyone cool despite the non-normal heat. They had ice stations a couple of times and even some locals were giving out cool sponges and ice to keep everyone cool. It was really wonderful getting to see the community come together for the event. We had spectators the whole course once we entered Rochester and a number of vans would park along the road on the way into Rochester to cheer us on too! I loved the crowd support, it was just enough to feel important without being over whelming. After finishing they had kiddie pools set up with ice water for runners to dip their feet in, it was absolutely heavenly! And the finish line announcers were on point with calling out people's names as they finished, once again making you feel really special! Everyone was so helpful leading up to the race and during, the metals and shirts were nothing special design-wise, but they were done with high quality, which is what matters to me. They bused us 6 miles out of Rochester to start the point-to-point race, but not terribly early; the race started at 7am and the last bus left at 6:30am. I liked that I didn't have to wake up at an ungodly hour. You could have driven yourself to the start too. There was a bit of traffic getting to the start though, so I think I still would have bused, but it was at a school so there was ample parking. I would definitely recommend this race!
The picture is of me finishing. Hot, but clearly I had a good time :)