Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend 2021 (April 15-18, 2021) - Now Virtual Only

[fatmanatee]

is it bad that I got the refund for marathon because it’s too pricy for a virtual (I only did W&D cause it was the 5th anniversary of the 10k and I’ve ran it since the inaugural) but if Star Wars goes virtual and a non kids race has a Grogu medal Disney can take my $$$$$

I'll definitely be tempted.

 

[nursejackie]

I honestly think Disney will hold off on Live Races for the time being

My timing really stinks! My new year's resolution last year was to step up to 10k for my first ever Run Disney event. I stepped up to 10k, secured a 10k bib but alas it was all in vain.

 

[1lilspark]

My timing really stinks! My new year's resolution last year was to step up to 10k for my first ever Run Disney event. I stepped up to 10k, secured a 10k bib but alas it was all in vain.

My goal was for 2021 to be my first run in full (and not virtually in increments) half pushing it till 2022

 

[PrincessV]

Meanwhile in Florida despite the pirate invasion/parade being moved to April two weeks ago they are still pushing for the Gaspirilla Distance Classic to be live in February (by months end though I fully expect it will either be virtual in February just due to everything being dated or them pushing for a live April race)

And in-person races are being held in FL now. Space Coast went on as planned, OUC Half was this past weekend, and I stumbled onto a local race near home while out for a run the other day. At the same time, a major (locally) race org has canceled its Oct and Dec races. It's totally at the discretion of race orgs at this point, since there are no state restrictions preventing races from happening.

 

[FFigawi]

And in-person races are being held in FL now. Space Coast went on as planned, OUC Half was this past weekend, and I stumbled onto a local race near home while out for a run the other day. At the same time, a major (locally) race org has canceled its Oct and Dec races. It's totally at the discretion of race orgs at this point, since there are no state restrictions preventing races from happening.

OUC was very well handled by Track Shack. Most people complied with the mask and distancing requirements. One nice benefit of them starting people in groups of 250 was the course being very uncrowded the entire way. The lack of a beer truck afterwards meant had to rely on Mike for our parking lot beers.

 

[camaker]

OUC was very well handled by Track Shack. Most people complied with the mask and distancing requirements. One nice benefit of them starting people in groups of 250 was the course being very uncrowded the entire way. The lack of a beer truck afterwards meant had to rely on Mike for our parking lot beers.

The fact that Track Shack is holding successfully distanced races can only be seen as a positive. Still a long way to go, but I’ll take all the positive signs I can get.

 

[Krandor]

The fact that Track Shack is holding successfully distanced races can only be seen as a positive. Still a long way to go, but I’ll take all the positive signs I can get.

It is absolutely a good sign. Issue is with the way rundisney races are setup the staggered starts are a lot tougher to do since they often have very tight times to be out of the parks. The good thing for star wars is it doesn't involve MK which is always the strictiest on times and maybe they will treat DHS/Epcot like they do for the marathon. Though there would still be a question about preventing spectators.

There is also an option of redoing courses and really limit or remote the parks (maybe keep park areas only to backstage area).

Then there is an option to move the whole thing to ESPN where they can do what they want all day.


April is still a ways away.. Could they find *A* way to run the race safety? Absolutely but may take lots of changes. Question will be how many changes and then is it worth doing with those changes? Totally hard to know today the answers to those. Just have to wait and see.

 

[FFigawi]

Track Shack holding races is indeed a good sign. Gives them an opportunity to try things out and make tweaks before any potential Disney race. My one lingering concern is with the size of the race. OUC had a cap of 2500 runners who all made their own way to the starting line. Any Disney race will have several times that number, many of whom will need or want transportation on Disney buses. Solving both the transportation issue and the staggered start for 10,000 people issue won’t be easy.

 

[sandam1]

Any Disney race will have several times that number, many of whom will need or want transportation on Disney buses. Solving both the transportation issue and the staggered start for 10,000 people issue won’t be easy.

A straggered start could help significantly the transportation issue. If you can stagger when people need to be on the buses by, you don't need to transport ALL of those people at the same time, particularly if you have a race route that allows buses to continue running once the race has started. Another solution would be to allow people to park at both the start and the finish line parking lots. That splits in half (or somewhere thereabouts) the pre-race and post-race transportation. Our local Turkey Trot (usually around 14,000 entries) does this and it works relatively well. It also keeps from overwhelming the available parking, which is primarily on street parking.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

is it bad that I got the refund for marathon because it’s too pricy for a virtual (I only did W&D cause it was the 5th anniversary of the 10k and I’ve ran it since the inaugural) but if Star Wars goes virtual and a non kids race has a Grogu medal Disney can take my $$$$$

I think medal design plays a large part in the decision to register for a virtual race. I'm very biased towards Star Wars, but at the same time, virtual Princess appealed to me because I really love Beauty and the Beast and Tangled.

I'm there with you. I think the virtual races are too expensive but Grogu I'm in for... and my mom will likely also try to take the medal from me (she did get my R2 and BB8 ones).

In some respects, I don't dare show my nephews my BB-8 and R2-D2 medals. I might never see them again and I worked really hard to earn them.

Track Shack holding races is indeed a good sign. Gives them an opportunity to try things out and make tweaks before any potential Disney race. My one lingering concern is with the size of the race. OUC had a cap of 2500 runners who all made their own way to the starting line. Any Disney race will have several times that number, many of whom will need or want transportation on Disney buses. Solving both the transportation issue and the staggered start for 10,000 people issue won’t be easy.

Do we know what runDisney's reduced capacity numbers are? 10,000 seems right if they went for 50% capacity, but I just wonder if that's the number they used.

 

[FFigawi]

Do we know what runDisney's reduced capacity numbers are? 10,000 seems right if they went for 50% capacity, but I just wonder if that's the number they used.

I have no idea. 10,000 seemed like a reasonable guess, though it's entirely possible they cut back on entries even more than that. @sandam1 throws out some good ideas for how to mitigate the covid restrictions and impacts. Unfortunately, I doubt they're all workable for a race at Disney without a major overhaul of the race course and race logistics. The staggered starting times could certainly help cut down on crowding on the buses. Developing a course which allows for separate start/finish lines with plenty of parking at each while simultaneously allowing buses to get to/from each location from resorts is much more difficult. I'm not saying they couldn't do it, but my guess is they'd find it easier to offer up a Mandalorian/LBY medal and suck in money for a virtual event instead.

 

[fatmanatee]

It is absolutely a good sign. Issue is with the way rundisney races are setup the staggered starts are a lot tougher to do since they often have very tight times to be out of the parks. The good thing for star wars is it doesn't involve MK which is always the strictiest on times and maybe they will treat DHS/Epcot like they do for the marathon. Though there would still be a question about preventing spectators.

There is also an option of redoing courses and really limit or remote the parks (maybe keep park areas only to backstage area).

Then there is an option to move the whole thing to ESPN where they can do what they want all day.


April is still a ways away.. Could they find *A* way to run the race safety? Absolutely but may take lots of changes. Question will be how many changes and then is it worth doing with those changes? Totally hard to know today the answers to those. Just have to wait and see.

I'd say just cancel the races if they have to eliminate park access to make it work (and didn't let people know in advance). I'd be really peeved if I got down there and found out I took a trip to run around ESPN.

 

[fatmanatee]

I have no idea. 10,000 seemed like a reasonable guess, though it's entirely possible they cut back on entries even more than that. @sandam1 throws out some good ideas for how to mitigate the covid restrictions and impacts. Unfortunately, I doubt they're all workable for a race at Disney without a major overhaul of the race course and race logistics. The staggered starting times could certainly help cut down on crowding on the buses. Developing a course which allows for separate start/finish lines with plenty of parking at each while simultaneously allowing buses to get to/from each location from resorts is much more difficult. I'm not saying they couldn't do it, but my guess is they'd find it easier to offer up a Mandalorian/LBY medal and suck in money for a virtual event instead.

Last year's half had 12k, so if they're truly going for reduced capacity my guess is 5-6k.

 

[rteetz]

A straggered start could help significantly the transportation issue. If you can stagger when people need to be on the buses by, you don't need to transport ALL of those people at the same time, particularly if you have a race route that allows buses to continue running once the race has started. Another solution would be to allow people to park at both the start and the finish line parking lots. That splits in half (or somewhere thereabouts) the pre-race and post-race transportation. Our local Turkey Trot (usually around 14,000 entries) does this and it works relatively well. It also keeps from overwhelming the available parking, which is primarily on street parking.

I’m not sure they can do that. This isn’t the typical race operation. They have to work around a major vacation with the parks being open and currently having their own staggered hours and transportation concerns. My feeling is we won’t see runDisney return until Fall 2021 at the earliest. The same is likely said for all larger races.

 

[Krandor]

I’m not sure they can do that. This isn’t the typical race operation. They have to work around a major vacation with the parks being open and currently having their own staggered hours and transportation concerns. My feeling is we won’t see runDisney return until Fall 2021 at the earliest. The same is likely said for all larger races.

Unfortunately that is my feeling as well. It looks like summer for general vaccine distribution. I do know Fauchi has said he could see full football stadiums in the fall (if people get the vaccine). So I would definitely see rundisney deciding to virtual star wars, and have W&D as rundisney return with a possible requirement that you have gotten the vaccine. That is just the timeline that seems most likely. I do think November is very possible for rundisney to have a race.

First half of 2021 is still going to be tough for races in general that don't make major changes and races on courses where you have to close off major roads (or parks in rundisney case) are going to be the toughest unless you move them which is the track Atlanta Track Club has been doing lately. Hopefully in the fall things can start to return to normal. We're going to get there but still going to take some time.

 

[sandam1]

While I agree with a bunch of the posters - I think that there is probably, at best, a 30% chance of a live race happening - I'm thinking that there are definitely ways of making the race happen IF Disney wants it to.

- If I'm looking at things correctly (I haven't done a Star Wars race yet), this is a race that traditionally has separate start and finish lines. My point above was if you let people park at both the start and finish (Disney surely has enough parking areas available to make this happen) - instead of forcing people to park at the finish and bus to the start - you can reduce the transportation load.
- With the park opening times of 9 a.m. (Animal Kingdom), 10 a.m. (DHS) and 12 p.m. (Epcot), there will be more time than usual to get the runners clear of the parks. If they backed up the start time to 5 a.m., you have 3.5 hours to get the runners out. Depending on how many runners are started at a time (how wide is the road to Animal Kingdom?), it might be possible to use that course.
- In a similar vein, if Epcot isn't opening until noon, there is a TON of time to run the 5K.

My point is that, with creative thinking, it is possible. I know A LOT of people and businesses that have faced stiffer challenges this past year and managed to make remarkable things happen. But it is definitely easier for Disney to say "we can't do it" - no, you don't WANT to make it happen - and go virtual.

 

[sandam1]

my guess is they'd find it easier to offer up a Mandalorian/LBY medal and suck in money for a virtual event instead.

I'm mentally prepared (or as prepared as I can be) to run this race virtually. However, if they do a virtual themed around the Mandalorian (haven't watched it, not going to, not interested), I'm out. I don't want a medal/shirt that features characters that the bulk of the American population doesn't recognize.

 

[sandam1]

FYI Southwest flights for race weekend open on Thursday.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I'm mentally prepared (or as prepared as I can be) to run this race virtually. However, if they do a virtual themed around the Mandalorian (haven't watched it, not going to, not interested), I'm out. I don't want a medal/shirt that features characters that the bulk of the American population doesn't recognize.

I understand not wanting to run the race virtually if you're not interested in the characters represented on the medal(s) as that's a very valid reason to not shell out the cost for a virtual race.

At the same time, I don't think it's accurate to say that the bulk of the American population does not recognize baby Yoda from The Mandalorian. The show is extremely recognizable right now as evidenced by how much merchandise Disney is selling for that character in all of their parks. And for precedent, last year the 5K was going to feature Ahsoka Tano, who is very well known to many Star Wars fans, is largely unknown to the population at large. Baby Yoda aka the Child aka Grogu is extremely well known right now even to people who have never seen the show.

 

[sandam1]

At the same time, I don't think it's accurate to say that the bulk of the American population does not recognize baby Yoda from The Mandalorian. The show is extremely recognizable right now as evidenced by how much merchandise Disney is selling for that character in all of their parks.

I realized that my statement was imprecise. Yes, most of the American population recognizes Baby Yoda. And that would be one medal. But if there are multiple races and/or the challenge from the Madalorian, that would be a deal-breaker for me.

last year the 5K was going to feature Ahsoka Tano, who is very well known to many Star Wars fans, is largely unknown to the population at large.

I realize that the 5K sometimes goes rogue (pun intended) with a lesser known character. But for the 10K, half and challenge, I would expect medals based on the film franchise.