Disneyland Half Marathon 2024

[fatmanatee]

Yeah I couldn’t get park res for today and part of me is sad and part of me is happy avoiding the crowds.

Thinking about this again I honestly don’t think there is anywhere they could put Dumbo that wouldn’t have been a problem like ultimately I guess we could argue that you can put in somewhere else maybe the line will be shorter backstage, but I was at the after hours he was at, and that had him in the line for him was huge like I remembered that specifically, because I was having an issue with the line because of its set up because it was like it was during the race people still lined up for it, but it was supposed to be a selfie.

Add in the fact that this is a Dumbo double there. This is literally the race named after him and you have a situation like dopey during the marathon where anytime you get him on the course the line is going to get along even if you are in the front of the back it just, unfortunately its the nature of the character. Where they are still hard to find that it becomes naturally a long line and unfortunate, but it is what it is I don’t think moving his character stop would’ve made it any better. I think it would just put the long line somewhere else and I think because again I think we’re having this discussion about sweeping, and with them being worried if they had too many people would get swept. I don’t think that it would’ve mattered much if we had different location.

I mean maybe it would have made a difference. But there’s a chance they would have cut the line sooner than they did before. Who knows

Basically my thought is that it’s better to have the craziness at the back of the park time than the front, might create better crowd flow, there’s less worry about the balloon ladies. Both times I had Mickey photo ops they were on the back half of park time (2022 MW half post-castle off to the side, 2023 Springtime Surprise right before hitting Hollywood Blvd on the way out). Both very manageable lines and a significant distance into the course. Obv there are certain things WDW does to make it easier, specifically with regard to start strategy, and apparently with regard to photographers processing people quickly, but those are other items on the list of improvements they’ll hopefully take on at DL if possible.

Dumbo was like 1.25 miles in right? That’s crazy for what’s basically the race weekend mascot.

 

[Grabnar]

Update: stalled on the tarmac at IAH for 3.25 hrs, then was stuck in traffic around the airport that took 2 hrs to go 1.5 mi, then had to take a weird circuitous route to get home. I was supposed to be home at 2:40p or so, it’s now 8p and I just pulled into the driveway.

I have a WDW after-hours trip for FArts in 2 weeks and I’m curious to see what curveballs are thrown my way next.

 

[fatmanatee]

Do you mean impossible to have in the staging area before/after like WDW? That seems like the easiest answer to me, as everybody gets what they want- the photo and less crowding/line/sweeping risk on the course. Is there a (good) reason DL doesn’t do this?

I’m guessing there’s some sort of contractual or logistical issue here. That goes for not having characters on the course outside DL and not having them at the start/finish village. Would be nice to have confirmation about this but I don’t think we’re getting that from RD.

 

[fatmanatee]

Eight years between races…

 

[Naomeri]

Agreed!! It’s annoying they pulled him early. I was in D and fairly sure he wasn’t there for me either. I feel like we are adults and can calculate our own sweeping risk if stopping. Or put him by his ride so more of a buffer has built up.

Speaking of buffer/ did anyone report what happened with the balloon ladies at mile 3? Of they got jammed for 2 min- did they need to go a 14 min mile to maintain pace? That’d be really tough for those already worried about keeping with them. How was that handled? Anyone know?

And med tent folks/ you coulda told me my hat looked ridiculous

I know I heard one of the pace groups that passed me, either 2:45 or 2:50, apologizing to their followers that they were having to go faster than anticipated. I had no idea at the time why they’d be doing that

 

[StarGirl11]

I’m guessing there’s some sort of contractual or logistical issue here. That goes for not having characters on the course outside DL and not having them at the start/finish village. Would be nice to have confirmation about this but I don’t think we’re getting that from RD.

Do you mean impossible to have in the staging area before/after like WDW? That seems like the easiest answer to me, as everybody gets what they want- the photo and less crowding/line/sweeping risk on the course. Is there a (good) reason DL doesn’t do this?

Agree with fatmanatee here. But also at least in the parking area to be quite frank it feels too small to try and squeeze the kind of lines for character photos on top of everything else into the start/finish area. Even with the change of location it’s still not big. Like I crossed the north to south side in under 5 minutes. Which I can’t do in the Fl area.

Like it might be bigger than the old area. But it’s still not huge when you actually get in there.

I’m just speaking from my own experience but I’m glad a guide for the chute because I can’t imagine trying to get back to the tent through the crowd on my own. It was packed from my perspective

Looking at some photos from the back of G for the first time. And yeah we definitely need waves for the starts. WDW could take some notes from DL. But DL needs to take more notes from WDW

 

[1lilspark]

I’ve been living vicariously through all you west coast participants and sharing with my sister who participates in east coast RunDisney events with me some of the logistical eyeroll moments and she was shocked when I told her corals emptied in one swoop and not mini waves

 

[pluto377]

Just got home to NY and it’s actively snowing with about an inch already on the ground. Quite a shock to the system! But a good day to just nap and do laundry. So sad the coast to coast adventure is officially over.

 

[Surferboy567]

I’ve been living vicariously through all you west coast participants and sharing with my sister who participates in east coast RunDisney events with me some of the logistical eyeroll moments and she was shocked when I told her corals emptied in one swoop and not mini waves

Wait what? That sounds like total anarchy. Something like this happened during the shortened half during marathon weekend the effects made the race very tough.

 

[princesspirateandrunner]

I’m quite a few pages behind in reading. We’re still here (going home tomorrow). We spent yesterday in DLP, and wore ourselves out. It was a really fun day, and I particularly enjoyed seeing how different Pirates is here. We really enjoyed River Belle Terrace for dinner last night, and Tiana’s at lunch.Today, we’re going to have another park day, trying to cover the things we missed yesterday and do some that we enjoyed again. We have lunch reservations at Carnation Cafe. We didn’t make it to Matterhorn yesterday, so that’s a must-do today.

 

[Popo]

Home at last. Now time to reflect. Of all the Disney race I have done over the years, this 5K is probable my favorite because or the start and finish.

 

[kristenabelle]

Wait what? That sounds like total anarchy. Something like this happened during the shortened half during marathon weekend the effects made the race very tough.

They released the last corral all at once (I think we were E or F?) for the 2023 marathon because of heat concerns. My friends who were tracking and cheering for me saw that I started about 30 seconds ahead of the balloon ladies and thought I had a last minute bathroom run and moved to the back. Nope! Just one massive corral release lol. It was slightly terrifying but seeing those buses under the first overpass sure was motivating.

 

[4261pink]

Have any virtual particpants gotten their medals yet? Admittedly, I’m still getting over sickness after marathon weekend and will be running them after but usually by now the box comes.

I just got a notification that mine and my daughters are coming UPS today. They shipped out the the 12th.

Update: I registered for both the 10k and 5k and only received my 5k medal and shirt. Seems like they are sending them separately which has not happened to me in the past.

 

[StarGirl11]

Something I hate to admit that I realized this weekend. But apparently being less polite gets you more attention with getting people to move. I hate swearing. I was raised not to swear. But I had more people respond when I started up that set of vocabulary when coming down the hill trying to move through the crowd. Than I did when I user my nice words.

Also made a post on Reddit about the Angels incident. And boy some people are not liking me telling them they need to be the ones moving because I can’t move well in the chair. (We are not nimble). And that their high horse of thinking they can ignore me without possible consequences is not worth both of our safety and my loss of my medical equipment that I might have to pay out of pocket to replace if it’s bad enough. Which means I’m probably going to be out of it for a good while because mine was covered by grants.

Chairs are expensive to say the least

 

[The Expert]

Made it home yesterday after a very long journey. I forgot I was basically going diagonally across the whole dang country! Started at LAX at 10:15pm on Sunday, got a whopping 2 hours of sleep and landed in Detroit at 5am on Monday. Took a quick nap in the lounge before my 7am flight to LGA, where my final leg was delayed. I got another lounge nap before finally getting home to 18-degree Vermont at 2pm. I even managed to stay up to watch both NFL games, though!

Catching up on the chatter here, I think the photo issues will be addressed. If you don't have photopass, you still have to manage selfie lines and space to get them. Putting characters out and expecting folks not to grab a photo isn't realistic. And self-photo spots are great, but it is dark and lots of runners are doing the races alone. I was grateful for so many of the security and medical CMs who were willing to take photos, but it shouldn't be on them when they are there for another job.

They need to have the marquee character in the pre/post race area. I agree space is somewhat tight, but there was plenty of room over by where the kid race stuff had been to put a single photo spot on the day of the Half and rotate through Mickey/Minnie and Dumbo.

I had done just one DL race before so I thought I kinda knew what to expect, though we all knew there would be issues and I was prepared for it not to go smoothly. I think my biggest disappointment was how dismissive, impatient and downright rude many CMs seemed to be when dealing with runners. There was a pervasive negative attitude and shortness with people on the course, in the staging area and even at the expo.

So I think there was quite a few people who actually just wanted just the 10k but sold out to quick... so they bought the half to just do the parks and then take the bus at the end of the parks.

I had not even thought of this, but it does make sense!

 

[SarahDisney]

Got home this morning after travel issues (flight delayed over an hour and then had to walk through the entire dang terminal to get to the taxi line to take a cab that took the longest possible route to my house), which is about par for the course with this trip. I'm calling it our disaster trip. I didn't get to ride two of my favorite rides (Radiatior Springs Racers and Space Mountain) because of a combination of long lines and the rides being down. It kinda seemed like almost every ride was down for at least part of the trip, which was not fun.

The 5K wasn't everything I wanted it to be, but it was okay. I had some complaints (most of which have already come up here), and we actually shared those complaints with a CM who said she was going to put our feedback in the system. I'm hopeful that things will get better and thinking of an eventual C2C but still gotta figure out timing.

 

[fatmanatee]

Got home this morning after travel issues (flight delayed over an hour and then had to walk through the entire dang terminal to get to the taxi line to take a cab that took the longest possible route to my house), which is about par for the course with this trip. I'm calling it our disaster trip. I didn't get to ride two of my favorite rides (Radiatior Springs Racers and Space Mountain) because of a combination of long lines and the rides being down. It kinda seemed like almost every ride was down for at least part of the trip, which was not fun.

The 5K wasn't everything I wanted it to be, but it was okay. I had some complaints (most of which have already come up here), and we actually shared those complaints with a CM who said she was going to put our feedback in the system. I'm hopeful that things will get better and thinking of an eventual C2C but still gotta figure out timing.

I was stunned about how much RSR was down. Seemed like even Rise was more reliable.

 

[The Expert]

He-who-shall-not-be-named has posted some numbers.

Disneyland 10K finishers: 6,601 (announcer on race morning said 8,000 registered)
Disneyland Half finishers: 11,186 (announcer said 13,000 registered)
Dumbo Double Dare finishers: 3,288

He's doing the math on C2C so I will update when I see it.

I'm kind of surprised how few did DDD, but seeing medals in the parks on Sunday, it was mostly Half. The CM at the DCA gate had no idea what my Coast to Coast was, and once I explained it she made a huge deal of it and let me go in the access gate (rather than turnstile) with a flourish! It was so cute!

 

[StarGirl11]

Also found a post confirming it was run by Spectrum Post through a friend on Facebook. So yeah. They need to get their act together.

 

[Bree]

I was able to get a Dumbo pic. They had three cast members taking photos with your devices. Line was moving quickly so not sure what happened for them to close it.



I’m out for the Halloween races. I loved all the courses (yes, even the half with 8 miles of Anaheim and all its crazy twists and turns), but the expo set up, the pre race and post race experience as well as rude on course Castmembers was not a good fit for what I want out of a runDisney race weekend. Even Carissa wasn’t her usual self.

I am glad I got to experience Disneyland and DCA. Those parks were truly a magical experience for us even with Genie going down on Sunday. We went on nearly everything and enjoy Genie so much more than WDW version. My only regret is not getting to see the fireworks, but I was soooo tired and COLD When the sun went down I was a shivering mess even with three layers, my Florida “winter jacket”, gloves, ear warmer and hand warmers. I’m back in FL and I’m still not warmed up