Yeah, lately they have started having the patterns feature characters and then a race weekend hangtag.
I suspect they do this so that the patterns sell better - I've said it before about runDisney merchandise, and I'll said it again, Disney doesn't care WHO buys this stuff, they just care that it sells. Currently there are bags from last year's
Disneyland Half Marathon at the Orlando outlets marked way down - those bags actually had the distances listed on them, so I'm thinking they were not as appealing to non-runners. Where patterns like the one below, a person can buy the bag and remove the tag, and voila - it's just a princess bag. Also, I think this enables Disney/Dooney to easily re-use these patterns later, after the races are done. They've done this with Avengers and Star Wars, and they just recently did it with the purple princess pattern below (wristlets and a different style of the crossbody bags recently were being sold in Downtown Disney...er, Disney Springs).
So again - pre-order is the way to go if you really want one of these bags! Also, I know way too much about Disney purses.