At what time do you set your alarm clock race mornings?

[The Expert]

For Princess this year, I got to the first bus for all three races, so I got up about 45 minutes before it was scheduled to get there each day to get my costume on and eat something before the long walk. (We stayed at Boardwalk Villas and our room was on the complete opposite end of the building, so it was a good 5-10 minute walk to the bus stop). Yes, we spent a lot of time waiting at the start - got Princess photos every morning and heard the same DJ playlist and stage banter - but it was worth not having to stress over getting there late. Especially for the Half, when they actually delayed the start because multiple buses were lost!

 

[The Expert]

I don't know about Disneyland, but in WDW, it sounds like you have to be in the corral area by 5, or you might risk losing your spot in the race, no matter how far the corral is. Can any of the WDW runners verify this?

For the Princess Half, I was in G and as they were releasing the first few corrals, there were still people running up to join corrals in front of me. So nobody stopped them, but they delayed the start due to some lost buses so perhaps it was an exception?

 

[Keels]

I don't ever take Disney transportation to a race - I always drive. So, I have alarms set at 3:45, 4:00, 4:15 and 4:30. The 4:30 is usually when I'm in the car and heading out of the driveway/parking lot to head to the race start line. In my 12 races at WDW alone, I've only been "burned" by this strategy once - and it was completely not my fault.

Princess 10K in 2016, a volunteer closed off the bus and car entry lane prior to 5 a.m., causing a HUGE backup. It was quickly rectified and I was able to park. I RACED to my corralal (I was in B for the 10K) and made it with plenty of time as the race director had been notified of the snafu and had delayed AND stretched out the start of the race to allow people time to get to the corrals.

 

[FFigawi]

I don't know about Disneyland, but in WDW, it sounds like you have to be in the corral area by 5, or you might risk losing your spot in the race, no matter how far the corral is. Can any of the WDW runners verify this?

Yes, that's generally what the race instruction say. The race guide also says you need to maintain a 16 min/mile pace in order to count as a finisher. I think those statements and others like them are there so in case rD ever decides to enforce them, you won't have valid grounds for complaint. I've never seen them put into practice, and I don't expect them to be which is why I sleep in and get there later than most people.

 

[Keels]

You won't lose a spot in the race if you're not in your corral before it's sent off to start.

You WILL lose a spot in the race if you're not in the last corral when it starts. If you arrive late and your corral is closed because it's already been released or has been closed to start the walk up to the start line, you'll be allowed to enter any of the remaining corrals.

If the LAST STARTER in the LAST CORRAL has departed before you arrive to the corrals, you run the risk of being refused a starting opportunity, or almost certainly face being swept at the first mark if you cannot catch up.

This is all from documentation given to course monitors for WDW RD races.

 

[Ariel484]

I don't know about Disneyland, but in WDW, it sounds like you have to be in the corral area by 5, or you might risk losing your spot in the race, no matter how far the corral is. Can any of the WDW runners verify this?

Personally, I am a little more paranoid about when I arrive and I always make sure to get in the corrals by 5. After paying all of the money for the race registration and doing months of training, no way will I risk missing the start of a race for 30ish extra minutes of sleep or whatever. But that's just me - I'd rather be early and not rush than be late.

I am normally out of bed by 3:30 at the absolute latest, but prefer more like 3:15, with alarms starting at 2:45...

Big pro to Disneyland races - more sleep!

 

[run.minnie.miles]

I took screenshots of my phone, so I can tell you the exact times from Princess Half this year. I was out of bed at 2:42am and leaving for the bus at 3:23am. My bus was really fast and I felt I was there plenty early, which was comfortable for me. I hate feeling rushed.

Adrenaline is a "magical" thing. Waking up was not nearly as difficult as I imagined, nor was having a full park day after the race.

 

[Sailormoon2]

I am up at 3:00am and down to the buses by 3:30am. This enabled me to get in, admittedly long, lines for pre-race charcter(s) photos! Then head to the corral (A-D) at 5am.

 

[HomeiswhereMickeyis]

For the 5k in November we stayed at all star sports and completely overestimated how long it would take to get to Animal Kingdom. We were probably in the first 100 people there which meant we got pictures but then a ton of time to kill! We ended up just finding a spot to sit and play on our phones.
For the princess 10k we stayed off property and left at 4. We got there with time for me to use the bathroom and still get close to the front of my corral. While I didn't get character pictures before the race I preferred not having to wait as long.

 

[stazmatic]

For Princess this year we got on the bus about 3:45 for the 10k. Got to the corrals pretty early, about 45 minutes before the start and got tired and cold waiting. Thought we would leave about 30 minutes later for the half the next day since we didn't really care about being at the front of our corral (H)
WELL! We got on the bus at 4:10 for the half. Our first clue that something was wrong was there was no bus attendant. We were staying at the Grand Floridian. We were the only ones on the bus. The roads apparently closed at 4am on one side, so the bus could get in the parking lot of GF, but could not get out. We sat in the parking lot for 20 minutes waiting for a police escort to let us turn out of the parking lot and onto the road. We finally get out of the parking lot and turn onto the road by the Poly. Sat there for quite awhile too. Finally, things opened up a little and we were moving to Epcot. Somewhere around the corner from Epcot everything just stopped and didn't move. AT ALL. We inched along for about 35 minutes. We finally made it to a road where we could see the staged corrals. The bus driver let us out and we walked over hoping to join our corral. Security would not let us join the corral there, saying we had to go through the security screening at the main entrance. By this point, it was 5:10. We had no bags, nothing to check, just ourselves, but the security guy would not budge. We had to get back on the bus, the bus we just got off that still hadn't moved at all in the 10 minutes we spent arguing with security. In fact, some other walkers also joined us on the bus because they got turned away too. Someone from up on high must have given an all clear to open up some roads because our bus finally started moving at 5:25. We got dropped off at the Epcot parking lot at 5:35. Breezed through security WHICH DIDN'T EVEN LOOK AT US!!!!!! And walked/ran ALLLLLLLL the way back to the corral area by 5:45. We missed our corral and ended up in J. What should have been a 10 minutes bus ride turned into almost 90 minutes.
Moral of the story? Don't try to get an extra few minutes of sleep. I think I got an ulcer from that experience.

 

[ANIM8R]

For Princess this year we got on the bus about 3:45 for the 10k. Got to the corrals pretty early, about 45 minutes before the start and got tired and cold waiting. Thought we would leave about 30 minutes later for the half the next day since we didn't really care about being at the front of our corral (H)
WELL! We got on the bus at 4:10 for the half. Our first clue that something was wrong was there was no bus attendant. We were staying at the Grand Floridian. We were the only ones on the bus. The roads apparently closed at 4am on one side, so the bus could get in the parking lot of GF, but could not get out. We sat in the parking lot for 20 minutes waiting for a police escort to let us turn out of the parking lot and onto the road. We finally get out of the parking lot and turn onto the road by the Poly. Sat there for quite awhile too. Finally, things opened up a little and we were moving to Epcot. Somewhere around the corner from Epcot everything just stopped and didn't move. AT ALL. We inched along for about 35 minutes. We finally made it to a road where we could see the staged corrals. The bus driver let us out and we walked over hoping to join our corral. Security would not let us join the corral there, saying we had to go through the security screening at the main entrance. By this point, it was 5:10. We had no bags, nothing to check, just ourselves, but the security guy would not budge. We had to get back on the bus, the bus we just got off that still hadn't moved at all in the 10 minutes we spent arguing with security. In fact, some other walkers also joined us on the bus because they got turned away too. Someone from up on high must have given an all clear to open up some roads because our bus finally started moving at 5:25. We got dropped off at the Epcot parking lot at 5:35. Breezed through security WHICH DIDN'T EVEN LOOK AT US!!!!!! And walked/ran ALLLLLLLL the way back to the corral area by 5:45. We missed our corral and ended up in J. What should have been a 10 minutes bus ride turned into almost 90 minutes.
Moral of the story? Don't try to get an extra few minutes of sleep. I think I got an ulcer from that experience.

Ugh! How frustrating! Not a good way to start a half marathon!

 

[run.minnie.miles]

For Princess this year we got on the bus about 3:45 for the 10k. Got to the corrals pretty early, about 45 minutes before the start and got tired and cold waiting. Thought we would leave about 30 minutes later for the half the next day since we didn't really care about being at the front of our corral (H)
WELL! We got on the bus at 4:10 for the half. Our first clue that something was wrong was there was no bus attendant. We were staying at the Grand Floridian. We were the only ones on the bus. The roads apparently closed at 4am on one side, so the bus could get in the parking lot of GF, but could not get out. We sat in the parking lot for 20 minutes waiting for a police escort to let us turn out of the parking lot and onto the road. We finally get out of the parking lot and turn onto the road by the Poly. Sat there for quite awhile too. Finally, things opened up a little and we were moving to Epcot. Somewhere around the corner from Epcot everything just stopped and didn't move. AT ALL. We inched along for about 35 minutes. We finally made it to a road where we could see the staged corrals. The bus driver let us out and we walked over hoping to join our corral. Security would not let us join the corral there, saying we had to go through the security screening at the main entrance. By this point, it was 5:10. We had no bags, nothing to check, just ourselves, but the security guy would not budge. We had to get back on the bus, the bus we just got off that still hadn't moved at all in the 10 minutes we spent arguing with security. In fact, some other walkers also joined us on the bus because they got turned away too. Someone from up on high must have given an all clear to open up some roads because our bus finally started moving at 5:25. We got dropped off at the Epcot parking lot at 5:35. Breezed through security WHICH DIDN'T EVEN LOOK AT US!!!!!! And walked/ran ALLLLLLLL the way back to the corral area by 5:45. We missed our corral and ended up in J. What should have been a 10 minutes bus ride turned into almost 90 minutes.
Moral of the story? Don't try to get an extra few minutes of sleep. I think I got an ulcer from that experience.

Yikes!! That would have been so frustrating!!

I went to my corral (H) really early- I was sitting down by 4:45am and actually thought it was really relaxing compared to the start area. There were restrooms (an elegant way of saying port o potties) really close to my corral, so I was able to hop out and get back into my corral really easily.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

2:40AM for WDW, 3:30AM for Disneyland

 

[DOOM1001]

I work second shift, so I get off work at midnight, and then slog around the house until 2-3 in the morning and then get to bed. That seems to be when pretty much everyone gets up for the races. Oh this is going to be a culture shock.

Thanks guys!

I dont work late but it's pretty much impossible for me to fall asleep before 1am so for my first Disney full on 2013 the plan I devised was to go to sleep very late on Thursday to get up really late on Friday,like 1pm and then just not sleep at all Friday and stay awake until at least Saturday at 3pm,at that point I felt if I could get a good amount of sleep I would be good to go for the full.How did it turn out?not well or exactly the way I planned.I think around 4:30pm I dozed off for maybe 30 minutes and I forgot what happened but something or somebody woke me up and those 30 minutes of sleep must have been amazing cause I couldnt fall back asleep,I just stopped trying to fall back asleep until 9pm or so when I tried again,the excitement was obviously kicking in for my first Disney full cause it still wasn't happening,I think if I remember I may have gotten another 90 minutes of sleep and got up at 2am or so.So 2 hours of sleep going into my first full since Friday at 1pm,not ideal!!Now I'm somebody who needs at least 6-7 hours to feel like myself which is why I came up with this but obviously the excitement of what was going down was still kicking in cause after I showered I felt ready to go and I really can't remember feeling tired that race,my time was not great but I also attribute that to the 2013 full where the temps hit the mid 80's.I think I did this plan another year or two with better success,I think I tried it in 2015 when I did Goofy,probably got 5 hours for the half and like an amazing full 8 for the full(that never happens),so obviously the solution if youre running a full is to just run a half on your own the day before and that will guarantee 8 full hours that night.I haven't done that not sleeping at all on Friday thing the past two marathon weekends but I've just gotten less sleep the day before to make it easier to fall asleep and while I've never gotten those 8 hours I got in 2015 I've gotten enough.

 

[WIFriendofFigment]

I only have one Disney race to speak to, but our timeline was
2:30 AM Wakeup
3 AM out the door

I was surprised how little the early rising bothered me, especially since we had a time zone change too.

I had read an article once that said not to worry too much about poor sleep the night before a race if you end up with pre-race jitters because it won't matter much as long as you got quality sleep during the nights earlier in the week. I don't know if there is any science behind that at all, but I think it helped me to at least have that mindset.

 

[*DisneyDreamer]

For the Wine and Dine challenge last year, I think my alarms were set for 2:45ish. Perhaps a little earlier for the half than for the 10K. And both days on a bus by 3:30.

 

[RunDisney Crazy]

Wow. Early risers. I did that for the first Dopey, so worried about 'must catch the buses by this time' warning. Well, the lines were long and had ton of time to kill waiting beforehand. Well, by the half and full I had learned my lesson, slept later, less people in lines and still arrived with no problems. Catching buses after that 'must' time is no big deal. Did the same for this past W&D, no problems. If you get there lil before 5, say a 30 minute bus ride, add in some time for walking to start, gear check, etc. I'd say 330 is a good time.

 

[Luv2Run]

I'm usually in Corral C or D for the races, so I like to plan to be at my corral an hour(ish) before race time, just in case anything happens with the buses. Last year, I was on one of the first buses from AKL to PHM, and it got lost near Hollywood Studios. He kept turning around and going in the opposite direction of traffic! I'm assuming because he thought he'd find a short cut or something, but obviously, everything was closed off for the race.

For Princess: 5K - Wake @ 0330, Bus @ 0430, Corral @ 0530; 10K - Wake @ 0230, Bus @ 0330, Corral @ 0430; HM - Wake @ 0300, Bus @ 0330, Corral @ 0430.

For Wine & Dine: 10K - Wake @ 0300, Bus @ 0400, Corral @ 0445; HM - Wake @ 0300, Bus @ 0400, Corral @ 0500.

I know I can fall back to the other corrals, but I've done that before and I've found that I wind up expelling a lot of energy weaving in between slower runners, so I prefer to stick with others that are more my pace.

 

[Castle2Castle]

Our focus is on getting to the line for buses between 3-3:15 so that we can hopefully avoid any stress from wondering if or when we'll get on the bus to the starting area. Working backward from that goal, it depends on how simple or elaborate a costume we're running in and if we have light breakfast food ready the night before (vs needing to pick it up before the bus). That all leads to us getting up sometime between 2:15-2:45 for race mornings.

This, rather than the mileage, is why Dopey 2018 will likely be our only Dopey experience.