Official 2018 Star Wars Dark Side Weekend

i can't deside if i should sign up for just the 10k or the challenge. i have been going back and forth for at least 2 months. UGH
 
i can't deside if i should sign up for just the 10k or the challenge. i have been going back and forth for at least 2 months. UGH
It is always a tough decision! I find that when I sign up for one race I regret not doing the challenge. And then when I sign up for the challenge I question why I would do that. Whatever you choose will be fun.
 
i can't deside if i should sign up for just the 10k or the challenge. i have been going back and forth for at least 2 months. UGH

Sign up for the challenge! 2 extra shirts and medals. If you can run a half, the 10k will just be a warmup. And you'll be back before everyone else is even out of bed.
 


i can't deside if i should sign up for just the 10k or the challenge. i have been going back and forth for at least 2 months. UGH

the 10K is sold out. They may open more spots if the challenge isn’t selling well. You could always try a travel provider or charity for a 10K bib too.
 
i can't deside if i should sign up for just the 10k or the challenge. i have been going back and forth for at least 2 months. UGH
I find that I have a near full on hate relationship with running in the early miles of long runs. I ask myself why in the world I registered for this race and put myself through all this. This gets especially nutty during the beginning of a half. Well, when I run a challenge, I get all those negative feelings about running out during the early miles of the 10K and enjoy the full half.

If you're doing the race because you're a Star Wars fan (vs just doing it because it's a Disney race) you will regret not having the extra 2 medals and shirt.
My first race of any distance was a half. It never crossed my mind to work up to it. When I first saw the 2011 Star Tours 5K medal at the Disneyland Half weekend, I wished I had signed up for the 5K instead. I had no idea what the medal would be when I registered. For years, I wanted a Star Wars medal, so when Star Wars Half was announced at Disneyland, I knew I was in. The component of the Rebel Challenge intrigued me, so I gave it a chance because it was Star Wars and I figured that the 10K and Half on back to back days was not actually impossible after I ran the 2012 Wine & Dine Half at WDW a week after a cold and a normal WDW visit. Turned out, it's actually fun.

Until such time as runDisney moves Dark Side to May, it will either fall during a terrible time to run a half or an actually impossible time to run at Disney World. Since 2017 fell during a terrible time, but I wanted to guarantee the Kessel Run, I considered doing the half only. Ultimately, I decided to the challenge because I could use the 10K as a nice warmup and hopefully earn a sweet Star Wars medal. For a Star Wars fan, it's a really fun experience.
 


I am also in for the First Order Challenge! I just signed up through St. Jude. I have a question regarding proof of time. I understand the deadline to provide proof of time is tomorrow (1/16). I am waiting on the registration link from St. Jude and not sure I will get it before the POT deadline. So assuming I don't get my registration link until Thursday, what happens to my proof of time? Will I still be able to submit a proof of time? Will I be put in the last corral since I did not register until after the proof of time deadline? I know this has been discussed before on these threads but could not find the answer. Thank you for the help!
 
I am also in for the First Order Challenge! I just signed up through St. Jude. I have a question regarding proof of time. I understand the deadline to provide proof of time is tomorrow (1/16). I am waiting on the registration link from St. Jude and not sure I will get it before the POT deadline. So assuming I don't get my registration link until Thursday, what happens to my proof of time? Will I still be able to submit a proof of time? Will I be put in the last corral since I did not register until after the proof of time deadline? I know this has been discussed before on these threads but could not find the answer. Thank you for the help!

Other posters know a lot more than me and if there are ways around it, but speaking from experience they did not accept my time even when I submitted it 2 days after the deadline. I did all the begging I could! I didn't go through something like St. Jude so perhaps it's different.
 
I'm currently signed up for the Half, and want to transfer to the challenge.

I just called RunDisney and they said that I have to just register for the challenge and then email asking for a refund on the half... but that it is at their discretion and I may not get the refund.

To be honest they were not very helpful and I'm a bit worried...but I really want to do the challenge. Any words of wisdom before I take the risk?
 
I'm currently signed up for the Half, and want to transfer to the challenge.

I just called RunDisney and they said that I have to just register for the challenge and then email asking for a refund on the half... but that it is at their discretion and I may not get the refund.

To be honest they were not very helpful and I'm a bit worried...but I really want to do the challenge. Any words of wisdom before I take the risk?


So fun thing I found out recently.. apparently that run Disney no longer has a phone number. The number you called leads who knows where. I was asking a question about that mysterious receipt I found and the person on the phone said I needed to talk to runDisney. I paused and asked “this isn’t rundisney that I called?” He responded that no, and they got rid of their phone number and now the best way to contact them is by email.

I emailed them last week about my broken dopey medal and again about this commermerative item issue and still haven’t heard back and I’m not happy.
 
I'm currently signed up for the Half, and want to transfer to the challenge.

I just called RunDisney and they said that I have to just register for the challenge and then email asking for a refund on the half... but that it is at their discretion and I may not get the refund.

To be honest they were not very helpful and I'm a bit worried...but I really want to do the challenge. Any words of wisdom before I take the risk?

I did something similar for my son when he wanted to switch from the marathon to the half at this last Marathon Weekend. I registered him for the half and then emailed them for a refund on the full, which they gave me. It was no problem. But past performance is no guarantee of future results.
 
I am also in for the First Order Challenge! I
st signed up through St. Jude. I have a question regarding proof of time. I understand the deadline to provide proof of time is tomorrow (1/16). I am waiting on the registration link from St. Jude and not sure I will get it before the POT deadline. So assuming I don't get my registration link until Thursday, what happens to my proof of time? Will I still be able to submit a proof of time? Will I be put in the last corral since I did not register until after the proof of time deadline? I know this has been discussed before on these threads but could not find the answer. Thank you for the help!

The history on this is that they won't accept a POT after the deadline. However, you can put in an estimated finish time without POT support and hope for the best. People have done this and not ended up in the last corral. No guarantee though.
 
I did something similar for my son when he wanted to switch from the marathon to the half at this last Marathon Weekend. I registered him for the half and then emailed them for a refund on the full, which they gave me. It was no problem. But past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Thanks - I'm going to go for it :)
 
I am also in for the First Order Challenge! I just signed up through St. Jude. I have a question regarding proof of time. I understand the deadline to provide proof of time is tomorrow (1/16). I am waiting on the registration link from St. Jude and not sure I will get it before the POT deadline. So assuming I don't get my registration link until Thursday, what happens to my proof of time? Will I still be able to submit a proof of time? Will I be put in the last corral since I did not register until after the proof of time deadline? I know this has been discussed before on these threads but could not find the answer. Thank you for the help!

From past experience, you *should* be able to enter your proof of time once you get the link even if it’s after the deadline. But you must enter it while registering because you will not have the option to edit that once your registration has been completed. Good luck!
 
From past experience, you *should* be able to enter your proof of time once you get the link even if it’s after the deadline. But you must enter it while registering because you will not have the option to edit that once your registration has been completed. Good luck!
I think this is the right answer. If you already have the proof of time when you register, that's the time you enter. Proof of time obtained after you register and after the proof of time submission is the one that will probably not give you the corral placement you want.

That said, the corral placement for 2017 Dark Side was interesting. Instead of going with the usual breakdowns or so, they went with 30 minute breakdowns, so I was placed, rightly so, in the last corral according to how they broke the corrals down. At that point, all my races were between 3:05 and 3:16, with the 3:16 being the only one over 3:15. So while I thought I was "safe" from the last corral, I wasn't. Despite being in the last corral, I made a record number for me of character/photo op stops during the race. With all those planned stops plus a couple of unexpected, undesired issues that necessitated stops in order to continue, I still finished in 3:27 and was never in any danger of being swept.

If a runner is properly trained and aware of where they are in relation to where they need to be in terms of how fast they're running each mile compared to required race pace, the last corral is not devastating to being able to finish.
 
I am also in for the First Order Challenge! I just signed up through St. Jude. I have a question regarding proof of time. I understand the deadline to provide proof of time is tomorrow (1/16). I am waiting on the registration link from St. Jude and not sure I will get it before the POT deadline. So assuming I don't get my registration link until Thursday, what happens to my proof of time? Will I still be able to submit a proof of time? Will I be put in the last corral since I did not register until after the proof of time deadline? I know this has been discussed before on these threads but could not find the answer. Thank you for the help!

So if you submit proof of time when you first register, my understanding is that this is okay. I do not believe they will honor it if you try to enter one after initial registration. I could be wrong however.
 
So if you submit proof of time when you first register, my understanding is that this is okay. I do not believe they will honor it if you try to enter one after initial registration. I could be wrong however.
For what it's worth, I registered for Avengers 3 weeks before the race and well past the proof of time deadline. I used my 3:06 from Star Wars Light Side in January as proof of my expected finish time and they placed me in the second to last corral consistent with where estimated over 3 hours and under 3:15 finishers.
 
For what it's worth, I registered for Avengers 3 weeks before the race and well past the proof of time deadline. I used my 3:06 from Star Wars Light Side in January as proof of my expected finish time and they placed me in the second to last corral consistent with where estimated over 3 hours and under 3:15 finishers.

This seems to make sense. They can't have an indefinite number of people changing their POT or they'll never be able to set the corral breakdowns. But late signups are a relatively small group so they can tolerate just putting them in the appropriate corrals.
 

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