Marathon effects on Parks

[brad813]

My new travel dates overlap with the Wine & Dine Marathon weekend. I was wondering how this effects the overall crowds in the parks. My final park day is the first day of the Marathon weekend(the day of the 5k I believe).

 

[LadyNia]

Most of the runners won't be trying to tire themselves out by gallivanting through the parks. At least I try not to. Most runners may be at the parks post race(s) if at all. As a rundisney participant the most I have spent at a park during rundisney weekends is one day and sometimes I have done the race and not gone to the parks at all. You should also note that the Wine & Dine half marathon is not the busiest race. Usually has a smaller number of participants than other races.

Since your final park day is the first day of the marathon weekend I wouldn't worry about crowds. Most of the runners arriving at that time will be visiting the expo to pickup their race packets.

 

[brad813]

Most of the runners won't be trying to tire themselves out by gallivanting through the parks. At least I try not to. Most runners may be at the parks post race(s) if at all. As a rundisney participant the most I have spent at a park during rundisney weekends is one day and sometimes I have done the race and not gone to the parks at all. You should also note that the Wine & Dine half marathon is not the busiest race. Usually has a smaller number of participants than other races.

Since your final park day is the first day of the marathon weekend I wouldn't worry about crowds. Most of the runners arriving at that time will be visiting the expo to pickup their race packets.

The first event is the Fall Feast 5k on November 3rd, which I am considering for either MK or Epcot(leaning towards Epcot at the moment), but am more concerned with race routing than overall crowds. Although, I might consider training for one of the marathons next year. At least it would be great incentive to get in shape.

 

[LadyNia]

About a month before the race weekend the rundisney website posts the course maps. In a couple of weeks you could see if the 5K course map has been posted.

 

[brad813]

About a month before the race weekend the rundisney website posts the course maps. In a couple of weeks you could see if the 5K course map has been posted.

I already located the info and the Fall Feast race is limited to Animal Kingdom.

 

[Donna3271]

Most of the runners won't be trying to tire themselves out by gallivanting through the parks. At least I try not to. Most runners may be at the parks post race(s) if at all. As a rundisney participant the most I have spent at a park during rundisney weekends is one day and sometimes I have done the race and not gone to the parks at all. You should also note that the Wine & Dine half marathon is not the busiest race. Usually has a smaller number of participants than other races.

Since your final park day is the first day of the marathon weekend I wouldn't worry about crowds. Most of the runners arriving at that time will be visiting the expo to pickup their race packets.

I cosign this. We do the Marathon Weekend in Jan, and do the parks AFTER the race. You should be fine... Plus Jersey week is later this year... The 9th and 10th are when the kids have off. HAVE FUN!!!

 

[kwdw]

I was there Marathon weekend (the big one in January) last year - and except for the one long wait for a bus at my resort due to traffic slowdowns - it really had no impact on my trip. Sure, crowds levels that weekend might have been lower if it was NO big runDisney weekend, but I didn't think the parks were that crowded. I was actually a bit disappointed we didn't make it to the park until AFTER the runners came through. The day after the marathon - there were alot of folks with medals hanging around the parks - but I would have called it an average crowd levels in the park (I was at MK the day after the full marathon). It was not a light crowd though!

 

[ludari]

I've done multiple runDisney events and the 5K you don't really have to worry about. The race will begin and end before the park actually opens. There might be some cleaning up still going on after the race but it should be minimal. For all the runDisney events with the exception of the actual full Marathon in January they try to route the course through the parks as early as possible so the can get to daily operations. Crowd levels during runDisney events are probably higher than normal.