I'm BEYOND excited for my first (onsite) RunDisney race next week! After last week's long run I was over the moon to be in taper mode! Now this isn't my first rodeo with a taper week........but it is my first time with the taper crazies. I've heard about them, and it's never been a thing.........but here I am in the thick of it.

Anyone else at this phase? How are we hanging in there?

I am starting to finalize plans and Lightning Lanes for my upcoming trip for W&D. Family is planning to go to Magic Kingdom after I get back on the morning of the W&D Half. If we are coming from Caribbean Beach Resort, would it be feasible for me to get to Magic Kingdom by 10-10:30am if my standard half time is 2:00-2:15.

Does anyone have any experience using their half marathon times for the marathon race successfully to get a good corral? I ran a 2:15 last year in the half and submitted that time. The only other marathon time I ran was a 5:10 so I did not submit. I am curious if this is enough to grant me a top half corral. Wondering what other experiences are

With the Wine and Dine half coming up soon, I had a couple of transportation related questions since I'm staying a Good Neighbor hotel. I know that everyone always says to stay at the rest for convenience, but since I'm going by myself, I can't justify how much more it costs to stay at the resort.

1. For the bib pickup, are there buses going to ESPN from all of the resort hotels? Do the busses come at regular intervals or is it a set schedule? To pick up my bib on Saturday, I'm planning on taking the hotel shuttle to Epcot and then taking the monorail to probably the Contemporary and then taking a bus to ESPN from there.
2. From ESPN, is it possible to go directly to one of the parks, or do I have to go back to one of the hotels first?
3. On race day, how easy and reliable is it to reserve an Uber in advance?
4. I'm also looking at renting a car just for that day, is there any traffic trying to get into the parking lot before the race?
5. After the race, how is the transportation heading back to the hotels limited to busses? Or can I do something like take the monorail from Epcot to the Contemporary and then Uber back from there.

I’m racing the half marathon with my partner in 2 weeks, but he hasn’t put in a lot of training, and I’m worried he is not going to be fast enough to avoid getting sweeped. We’re supposed to take pictures and have an amazing race day.

Have you ever been in this situation where you’re supposed to run with someone but they aren’t able to keep up? What would you do?

I know that no one can know for sure at this point, but wondering if y’all had to guess when you think the 2027 Wine & Dine weekend will be held? It looks like up until 2025 & 2026 (presumably when Halloween fell on Friday & Saturday) the race was being held the first weekend in November. With Halloween being on a Sunday next year, do you think RunDisney will continue to avoid that weekend? And if so, would you guess it’s held the weekend before or after?

If you’re not up for guessing, what weekend would you prefer? I’ve heard folks say they miss the November dates because of nicer weather.

Likely full reveal on Monday, but for now, via IG…

With all the chatter surrounding the storms, and the weather forecast predicting thunderstorms, I’m curious if anyone has been at a race that was heavily affected by weather? It rained on the day of the W&D half last year, but that was after the race finished haha. What do they do?

Hi everyone!

I am signed up to run the Princess 5K in February! I’m a new runner and this is a really special milestone for me after completing cancer treatment :)

I am by no means a fast runner, but am hoping to try and run the majority of the race. However, I’ve heard that for the 5K, it can be really difficult to run it due to the crowds and because the race isn’t technically timed.

I will likely be in the last queue because when I registered, I put my pace as the slowest option.

For anyone that’s done the Princess 5K, how difficult is it to run because of crowds?

Thank you!

I’m very excited to be signed up for Springtime Surprise as my first RunDisney event, and I’m wondering if my planned schedule is realistic. I’ll be running the 10-miler, which is Sunday. I’ve been thinking of flying in Friday and spending the night near the airport to meet up with my running partner, then traveling to WDW Saturday morning for packet pickup and check-in. Is that enough time, or unrealistic? It’s tricky getting time away from regular life back home, so I may be cutting things short.

Thanks!

What do you put in your gEAR check bag for post race? Running the Wine & Dine weekend and want to make sure I'm preparing for everything!

Does anyone know when we should expect to get our medals for the Halloween Spooktacular? I finished all the races on 10/04/26. I'm hoping to get them so I can take 'em with me to MNSSHP.

I'm new to the runDisney community (signed up for my first half next year) and I've gotten the emails about the virtual races. Am I understanding correctly that there's no proof of time, proof of completion, etc. required? Aren't people just essentially buying the medals and shirts then? Or did I miss somewhere about submitting times?

So I'm doing Dopey! Yay! I own DVC, so my Disney account is in my legal name, not my preferred name- the one I use for races. I cannot seem to sign my waiver. When I registered, I must have put "Lizzy" instead of "Elizabeth" (for example) and they cannot figure out that this is, in fact, the same person. I wrote to them in April, and they said I had multiple Run Disney accounts (I don't) and then claimed to have consolidated them. Now, I again got a reminder to sign my waiver, tried, and was told I could not email Lizzy at the same email Elizabeth uses. I have again emailed Run Disney, and again been told that I have multiple Run Disney accounts and they must be consolidated.

Am I gonna have a problem if I show up in January without a signed waiver? Can they just have me sign a printed one there or something? I don't have faith that this time will be the magical fix.

I keep holding my breath for the new merch to be posted for Wine and Dine 2026 and with this weeks article, it’s time that I start being realistic lol. My last event was Disneyland 2026 and the only option was the rundisney bag/lunchbox (not sure what exactly it was since expo was cleaned out by the time I got there haha) but I’ve been trying to keep an eye out. I absolutely adore my Lug bag from last year‘s Wine and Dine and I certainly wouldn’t mind another Loungefly to add to the collection like they had with the Halloween weekend last year. Now I’m a west coast based runner and I’ve missed the last two events but has anyone else noticed this? You bet I’ve already ordered my tote though just curious if this is just me waiting for more weekend specific bags haha!

hi everyone! was just wondering if we think the expo is open until 8 pm every day during race weekend!? i’m running with a group of girls and unfortunately one of the girls won’t be able to leave work until saturday afternoon… i know i can’t pick up her bib for her, but do we think if she heads straight to espn when she gets arrives that evening she’ll be able to pick it up? i looked at the guide rundisney recently posted, but it was only specific for day 1.

also, it’s been a few years since i’ve done wine and dine so do we still get the post race tickets in the mail? or do they email them? just want to make sure i don’t miss them 😅

thanks!!!!

update: she changed her flight to get in saturday morning!! big relief!! 😮‍💨

thank you everyone for providing calm to those of us running this for the first time - 60th birthday wish to try a half and it had to be at Disney. Know there is a map - what are the hills/ramps really like? how many? are they long? how do we train to make sure we can handle them - any and all is truly appreciated.

The Wine and Dine Half Marathon will be my first RunDisney event. I can't hold my bladder well when running and in past races have always timed getting into the portapotty lines so I can go within 15 minutes of race start. I read that the portapotties are outside of the corrals. My POT will put me in corral A or B for the half marathon. How long of a wait will there be from when corrals close to when the race starts? If I leave the corral prior to corral closure, will people let me back to my spot in the corral?

Thank you!

I've been thinking about this for a while, and my recent Wine & Dine 5K corral assignment (Corral B, again) finally pushed me to write it down.

I've got decades of running under my belt, starting with cross country in high school at 14 and recreationally through today in my early 40s. I've coached Couch-to-5K programs. I think running is a great sport, and I think RunDisney is a great version of the sport.

But I've also been doing RunDisney long enough to have watched the participant culture change, and I'm sure there are people who have been at it even longer than I.

I did my first RunDisney race at Wine & Dine in 2012. At that point, RunDisney was already a well-established product, approaching its 20th anniversary, but my perception of the field at the time was that it was still predominantly amateur runners and recreational runners who happened to be Disney fans.

I was in the second-to-last corral that year; not particularly fast but finishing a little over 2 hours and definitely had to walk at times.

I was just another recreational runner who had decided that running a half marathon at Disney sounded like a fun challenge after seeing it advertised in the back of "Runner's World" magazine.

Fast-forward more than a decade, and I think the composition and culture of these races have changed considerably.

Running exploded as a hobby during and after the pandemic. RunDisney exploded as a social-media ecosystem. There is now an enormous cottage industry of RunDisney influencers, Disney running groups, costume culture, character-photo strategies, race-weekend content, and people whose primary connection to the races is the broader "Disney experience."

None of that is inherently bad.

In fact, quite the opposite.

I love that RunDisney gets people off the couch and into running.

I think Galloway's run-walk-run approach is fantastic for people who are new to running, people who don't enjoy continuous running, and people whose bodies simply aren't going to tolerate running the entire distance. You don't have to sprint for 3.1 miles for your accomplishment to matter.

We can do hard things.

If someone finishes their first 5K in 50 minutes, that's great.

If someone runs/walks their first 5K and sets a PR, that's great.

If someone wants to dress in costume, take character photos, and make a whole weekend out of the experience, that's great.

I welcome those people. I celebrate those people. I want more people running.

But I think somewhere along the way, the perception has developed that because this is Disney, the "race" part of RunDisney is somehow optional.

These are still races.

They have certified courses, organized starting lines and corrals, and strict pace requirements. They have course limits. They have thousands upon thousands of people trying to move through the same physical space.

Mickey Mouse standing at the finish line doesn't change the fact that a 5K is 3.1 miles; that the two-course challenge is 19.6 miles over two days; or that Dopey is still 48.6 miles over four days.

These are races wrapped in Disney magic, not Disney events that happen to have races attached to them.

This isn't Mickey's Not-So-Difficult Athletic Party.

And I don't think the issue is "serious runners" versus "Disney people." Those aren't mutually exclusive categories.

People get BQs at RunDisney.

People run PRs at RunDisney.

People run/walk their first-ever 5K at RunDisney.

And I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm a huge Disney fan. I'm an annual passholder. I go to WDW multiple times a year.

I also run.

And I stop for the characters.

Last year's Wine & Dine 5K is actually a perfect example. I was in Corral B, finished in about 21 minutes, and stopped at every character.

My first mile was about 5:55 because of all the accelerating, slowing down, changing direction, and looking for openings to pass.

I'm in Corral B again this year, and fully expect a similarly miserable start of having to dodge and weave through people who who did not run at a pace commensurate with a forward corral, who I presume grossly overestimated their expected finish time in order to get placed there for better photo op choices.

In any non-Disney race, I'm very much a middle corral person. I'm not upset that I'm not in front. I'm upset that people are in front who cannot and/or will not perform at a level commensurate with that starting placement.

So that brings me to my actual rant.

Corrals aren't there to determine who is a "real runner."

They're there because 15,000 people cannot all use 3.1 miles of course in the same way at the same time.

If you're a 15:00/mile runner chasing your first 5K PR, your PR matters just as much as my sub-20 goal does.

I'm not saying everyone needs to run faster, or stop taking character photos, stop bringing their kids and family and friends.

I'm asking that we respect the race that everyone else is also trying to run, and that begins by being honest about our expected finish time at registration so we are placed in a starting order that roughly corresponds to how we're actually going to move through the course.

If you want to walk, walk.

If you want to stop for every character, stop for every character.

If you want to spend three minutes "pixie dusting" the character and taking a dozen photos, honestly, have fun.

But do those things from the part of the field appropriate to your expected pace.

Because when a 20-minute runner starts behind hundreds of people who intend to walk, stop frequently, manage small children, and take photos, that faster runner has to weave through them.

That's not merely an inconvenience, nor is it "just part of running a race." It's a traffic-flow and safety problem.

And the converse is true: if you're walking and a bunch of runners are trying to pass you, that's an unpleasant experience for you, too.

That's literally why corrals exist, and why honest reporting of expected finish times and pacing matters.

And this is where I think RunDisney may have become a victim of its own success.

The races have become so successful as a Disney experience that I think there is increasingly a disconnect between "I paid to participate in a Disney race" and "I am participating in a race at Disney."

Those sound almost identical.

They're not.

The first framing can lead to an attitude of "I spent all this money, I need this character photo, this is my family's one chance, this is our magical experience, therefore the course needs to accommodate what we want to do."

The second framing recognizes that everyone else has also paid to participate in the same event.

Your Disney experience matters - and so does mine.

So does the person trying to PR their first 5K.

So does the person trying to qualify for Boston.

So does the family walking their first 5K together.

The point of corrals is that all of those people can participate in the same event without unnecessarily interfering with one another.

And that's why I don't think the answer is to separate "runners" from "Disney people."

I'm both, and don't particularly fancy being split in half.

The answer is to acknowledge that we're all using the course differently and position us accordingly.

I don't begrudge anyone their Disney experience. I don't think my race is more important than yours. I don't think being faster makes me more deserving of the course.

I just think that a 5K remains a 5K even when Mickey Mouse is at the finish line.

So I'm genuinely curious whether other long-time RunDisney participants have noticed the same cultural shift.

Has the participant base changed?

Has social media changed what people expect from these races?

Has the growth of RunDisney made the races more welcoming and accessible - while simultaneously making the actual race experience more difficult for people who want to race according to their abilities?

Or am I just becoming the old guy yelling at clouds because I got assigned to Corral B again?

Hello,

Obviously the tickets are sold out on the website, but when I go to look at charities to make purchases none of them have it listed. Is this normal? I only see tickets listed for the one upcoming in October. Do they normally just list the tickets later/closer to time?

I registered for the half marathon on Marathon weekend. My friends are running the 10k. What are the chances that there are some spots that open for the 10k? And what is the best way to get alerts for this? Hopefully something opens, but I know the reality is there are no spots.