For runDisney 10K's and half marathons, how strict are they about keeping up with the 16 minute mile pace and kicking stragglers off the course?
If you finish above the 16 min/mile you don't get a DNF. As long as you finish your result is listed no matter what your time is.I believe however if you do finish above a 16 min mile they give you a DNF. But you still get the medal for finishing. I
^^a lot of people forget this. If you have a Garmin, make sure the "auto pause" feature is turned OFF to measure your true overall pace.I want to add to make sure that you measure your overall pace by how long it takes you to finish a mile including any and all character stops, photo stops, restroom breaks, etc. So if with all those stops it takes you 30 minutes to finish a mile, that's your time. You don't want to be swept because you misunderstood how the time works.
This does not mean that if you have a slower mile that you will be swept. You just need to make sure that you are ahead of the sweepers at all times. Course congestion during this year's Star Wars 10K gave me a first mile of 20 minutes. Suffice it to say, once the congestion cleared up, my time got better and I was just fine.
I want to add to make sure that you measure your overall pace by how long it takes you to finish a mile including any and all character stops, photo stops, restroom breaks, etc. So if with all those stops it takes you 30 minutes to finish a mile, that's your time. You don't want to be swept because you misunderstood how the time works.
^^a lot of people forget this. If you have a Garmin, make sure the "auto pause" feature is turned OFF to measure your true overall pace.
After I ran the 2015 Star Wars 1/2, I heard of some very disappointed runners who were swept because they did not calculate character wait time into their pace. They thought that they were keeping pace because they were well above pace when they were actually running, but did not understand that time spent stopped on the course is a part of your overall pace. So if you waited 30 minutes for 1 character in mile 2 and then ran a 9 minute mile to mile 3, your actual pace was 39 minutes for mile 2.^^a lot of people forget this. If you have a Garmin, make sure the "auto pause" feature is turned OFF to measure your true overall pace.
This is great advice! Running 10Ks will also give you the chance to establish a POT that, if fast enough, will get you into an earlier corral, giving you a time/pace "buffer" that will decrease course congestion and lines for you and give you greater flexibility to plan out which stops you do.I would highly encourage any participants worried about keeping pace to make sure they can confidently finish shorter distances under pace before moving on to longer races. If you're worried about keeping 16:00/mile for the half, then don't sign up for the half until you have done a couple of 10Ks successfully. Or don't sign up for the 10K until you have done a couple of 5Ks successfully, etc.
The gains in speed will come in time as you continue to train, but the race won't be any fun if you're constantly worried about getting swept.