Corral ?

[fatmanatee]

Didn’t see it this past weekend but I definitely saw people jump the fence during MW last year, happened as they were starting to close up corrals so there really wasn’t much that anyone could do about it.

 

[nancipants]

A reminder that unless rundisney tells slower people to "stay to the right" there's no reason to expect slower people to be on the right. They have said nothing about it for some years now, they have said "right", and they even had a year or two of "on the sides."

I haven’t done many races yet, but the announcers at the start line have definitely said to keep to the right while walking. I have always been in the last corral, though, so maybe that’s a factor.

 

[Naomeri]

"Walking" isn't just one speed. There's a wide variety of speeds inside of just walking.

For sure! I run fast, but I walk slow, so I’m out of sync with the people around me no matter what corral I’m in

It’s funny though, walking in the races, I feel like I’m in slow motion, and then walking in the parks, I feel like everyone else is

 

[Bree]

I have always thought they should have a Club RD lane in the 2nd corral and for the first half mile or so of the course for the people who will be walking. Put some type of divider in the corral and keep the divider going for the first half mile of the course or to where a spot where it opens up and the runners can get some distance between them and the walkers. Maybe make it a third of the space in the corral and off to the right on the course.

Not all CRD people are slow or run intervals. There are many that qualify on their own for POT corrals and pay solely for the club benefits of registration and bib pick up. I am not a CRD member, but I feel really bad that they are always getting thrown under the bus for corral issues that existed long before that program came into existence. I also take huge issue with “Disney is meant to be run for fun and all you fast people need to chill.” Sorry, but nope. I shouldn’t have to adjust my pace to accommodate a wall of walkers that have no business toeing the starting line. I was able to stop for 5 pics, walk the water stop and stop to take two videos in 27:30 during the 5K. I had plenty of fun running my way!

 

[Baloo in MI]

Not all CRD people are slow or run intervals. There are many that qualify on their own for POT corrals and pay solely for the club benefits of registration and bib pick up. I am not a CRD member, but I feel really bad that they are always getting thrown under the bus for corral issues that existed long before that program came into existence. I also take huge issue with “Disney is meant to be run for fun and all you fast people need to chill.” Sorry, but nope. I shouldn’t have to adjust my pace to accommodate a wall of walkers that have no business toeing the starting line. I was able to stop for 5 pics, walk the water stop and stop to take two videos in 27:30 during the 5K. I had plenty of fun running my way!

You are right on point! Course congestion, running etiquette, continual runners/run-walkers/continual walkers coming into space and pace conflict have been an issue in runDisney races long before CRD.

There is no easy answer, runDisney can push more etiquette messaging, maybe even a short video while we are in the corrals and on the digital guide. With more infrastructure runDisney could run POT’s further out to hopefully create more strategically placed runners. And I am sure there are a lot of better ideas. But the bottom line is runDisney will always have a significant amount of new/brand new runners. The courses will always have congestion if they are going through the parks and lots of stop and go for character pictures - but this is a major draw to runDisney races to begin with.

Bottom line is giving grace and consideration. You wanna go fast get a POT, or at least arrive early to get to the front of your corral. You know you will be slower than many others stay to the right, pay attention to you sides, hold your line and divide your party up in the congested areas if your group is big.

Everyone who registered has a right to be out there and a responsibility to understand and act upon the fact that they are just one of 10,000-15,000 other runners and a little grace and respect will go a long ways towards everyone having a good race.

 

[nancipants]

Bottom line is giving grace and consideration. You wanna go fast get a POT, or at least arrive early to get to the front of your corral. You know you will be slower than many others stay to the right, pay attention to you sides, hold your line and divide your party up in the congested areas if your group is big.

I just wish they accepted "slower"/more POTs. There is no way I am getting a 2:15 half marathon any time soon (nor would I want to be in A corral at my pace), but I hope to be well above the 3:30 time limit by Princess weekend. Still, I have no guarantee I won't end up in the last corral even if I put in a higher min/mile estimate.

I also wish I didn't get panic attacks when stuck in the corrals for almost two hours.

 

[DisneyParrothead]

I just wish they accepted "slower"/more POTs. There is no way I am getting a 2:15 half marathon any time soon (nor would I want to be in A corral at my pace), but I hope to be well above the 3:30 time limit by Princess weekend. Still, I have no guarantee I won't end up in the last corral even if I put in a higher min/mile estimate.

I also wish I didn't get panic attacks when stuck in the corrals for almost two hours.

I wish they had that too, and the opportunity to submit POT for the 10K. I don't know if it should be required for the 10K, but it would be nice to be able to submit a POT. That would help if people think they're in too slow of a corral. They have that POT and could contend it (nicely!) with Runner Relations.

 

[fatmanatee]

I wish they had that too, and the opportunity to submit POT for the 10K. I don't know if it should be required for the 10K, but it would be nice to be able to submit a POT. That would help if people think they're in too slow of a corral. They have that POT and could contend it (nicely!) with Runner Relations.

A POT corral for the 5k and 10k would help a lot IMO, especially the 5k, and I don't think it would impact the other corrals too much. Would be more work for RD though.

 

[prncssjas]

A POT corral for the 5k and 10k would help a lot IMO, especially the 5k, and I don't think it would impact the other corrals too much. Would be more work for RD though.

Agreed, this would help a ton. My sense is that this is a staffing and resources issue. It takes people resources to sort through the PoT submissions and seed folks properly. And unfortunately, it seems that resources have dwindled post covid--as I remember running the January half in 2015 or 2016 and there were SO many corrals (dozens) and today, there are just a handful.

 

[nancipants]

I also wish they could organize the corrals better. Like, there's no reason that people in the last corrals need to be sitting there from 4 am onward if they're not going to start those waves until 5:30 or 5:45. I don't know how it would work logistically, but anything to keep me from being in the start chute shuffle for over half an hour.

 

[fatmanatee]

Agreed, this would help a ton. My sense is that this is a staffing and resources issue. It takes people resources to sort through the PoT submissions and seed folks properly. And unfortunately, it seems that resources have dwindled post covid--as I remember running the January half in 2015 or 2016 and there were SO many corrals (dozens) and today, there are just a handful.

They could also time the 5k and use the data from that for people who want to use POT, would be an accurate representation of the fast runners on this course. Maybe even feed finish info to your RD profile automatically! For people who haven’t done a RD race (or don’t have a good RD POT) they can use a linked race.

Worth noting that NYRR uses this sort of system for corral placement. Beyond tracking every race you do with them, they also track your best and update it automatically if you set a new PR. That fastest time is used for your future corrals (I believe they also adjust it depending on race length). Obv they don’t have to do that for all RD corrals but might be worthwhile for the first and second ones. I could have used it from this weekends races for DL but instead they’ll have to click through one of my POT finishes from a race at home.

 

[DisneyParrothead]

They could also time the 5k and use the data from that for people who want to use POT, would be an accurate representation of the fast runners on this course. Maybe even feed finish info to your RD profile automatically! For people who haven’t done a RD race (or don’t have a good RD POT) they can use a linked race.

Worth noting that NYRR uses this sort of system for corral placement. Beyond tracking every race you do with them, they also track your best and update it automatically if you set a new PR. That fastest time is used for your future corrals (I believe they also adjust it depending on race length). Obv they don’t have to do that for all RD corrals but might be worthwhile for the first and second ones. I could have used it from this weekends races for DL but instead they’ll have to click through one of my POT finishes from a race at home.

Sounds like NYRR has some good IT, and we all know about Disney IT

 

[Naomeri]

Sounds like NYRR has some good IT, and we all know about Disney IT

Yeah, we should probably not ask them to complicate things any more than necessary.

I’d rather they spend their limited IT muscle on implementing a cart hold for registrations while you fill out the forms

 

[fatmanatee]

Yeah, we should probably not ask them to complicate things any more than necessary.

I’d rather they spend their limited IT muscle on implementing a cart hold for registrations while you fill out the forms

The weird thing is that I don't feel like any of this should be that hard. Instead they're spending bandwidth asking us how many RD races we've done during registration, which is sort of something they should know already???

(I'm still annoyed about this)

 

[Naomeri]

The weird thing is that I don't feel like any of this should be that hard. Instead they're spending bandwidth asking us how many RD races we've done during registration, which is sort of something they should know already???

(I'm still annoyed about this)

Yeah, all the non-essential biographical info should be a post-registration survey. It matters not one whit to my registration whether I’m an AP/DVC/whatever or if this my 1st or 51st rD race.

 

[PrincessOfAllDisneys]

I’d rather they spend their limited IT muscle on implementing a cart hold for registrations while you fill out the forms

Totally Agree. Also would be amazing if the people I register for every run would show up in a dropdown box so I don't have to retype everything in. They know those people as they are in my app profile.

On a side note...one other thing about corral B during this race (not sure if it happens during other weekends) but they decided to move us exactly at the time the national anthem was being sung. People that wanted to turn around and face the flag ended up being run over by the masses advancing forward. It was some pretty bad timing.

They do some fairly deep analytics around RunDisney info so you would think they could do better around the POT. I went to a conference several years back where they did a demo using Princess Weekend data. They showed a runner who likes to start as close to last as possible and then her goal is to pass as many people as possible before the finish line. Always makes me wonder if the people that go screaming by me are trying to do that lol.

 

[The Expert]

They showed a runner who likes to start as close to last as possible and then her goal is to pass as many people as possible before the finish line. Always makes me wonder if the people that go screaming by me are trying to do that lol.

Most likely, yes. There is a contingent that call themselves DLS -- dead last start -- and their goal is to count "kills" aka those they pass. They turned it into a giant 2319 game during Springtime Surprise, collecting socks from runners they passed. It became a bit chaotic, to the point Disney asked them to never do it again (but they did help arrange for donation bins for all the socks). If you follow some of the Facebook rD groups you'll see them on there.

 

[nancipants]

Most likely, yes. There is a contingent that call themselves DLS -- dead last start -- and their goal is to count "kills" aka those they pass. They turned it into a giant 2319 game during Springtime Surprise, collecting socks from runners they passed. It became a bit chaotic, to the point Disney asked them to never do it again (but they did help arrange for donation bins for all the socks). If you follow some of the Facebook rD groups you'll see them on there.

I’ve seen some videos with people who start dead last and always thought it would be way less stressful than trying to push your way to the front of the corrals. Maybe when I’m faster and don’t need to worry about a buffer.

But collecting socks from runners sounds… chaotic and ill-advised.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

On a side note...one other thing about corral B during this race (not sure if it happens during other weekends) but they decided to move us exactly at the time the national anthem was being sung. People that wanted to turn around and face the flag ended up being run over by the masses advancing forward. It was some pretty bad timing.

Ha, yeah, I was in that shuffle facing away from the stage/flag. It was a bit awkward for sure but the consensus of that masses seemed to be keep moving, quietly. A few around me tried to stop but it just wasn’t possible. I’m not 100% certain but I seem to remember being on the move during one of the Dopey races too, if I’m not mistaken.

The guy singing did a great job though!

 

[The Expert]

I’m not 100% certain but I seem to remember being on the move during one of the Dopey races too, if I’m not mistaken.

Yep. I was in B for all four Dopey races and we were shuffling toward the hairpin turn during the anthem at both the 5K and 10K