Forgive me if this has already been discussed - I think I’m still suffering from post-W&D race brain!
A couple other things that happened with W&D that may or may not be in play for MW…
1. Athletes With Disabilities (AWD): rD changed its policy (relatively last minute, as I recall, right?) and did not allow AWDs to start in a separate corral ahead of the larger field - they were required to start in the regular corrals. I saw in real time how this negatively impacted the AWDs, and read multiple reports afterward saying the same. I’ve run a lot of WDW races and never seen so many AWDs struggling on the course - the way the course was laid out, the congestion never really broke up, so AWDs who used to have some time for things to spread out and give them more space just never seemed to get that this time. I remember one runner with a service dog and a guide that were having a hard time because the road was crowded and runners wanting to pass didn’t see the dog until the last minute. The AWD and guide were dping their absolute best, and the service dog was glued to the AWD’s side, not veering off or anything, but they simply needed more space.
2. Very much reduced volunteers: I forget the percentages now, but they started with FAR fewer people signed up to volunteer, and a large number of those never showed up. CMs were voluntold to work OT to fill some of the vacancies. I started a little back of mid-pack for the W&D half and never encountered any issues, though there were noticeably fewer people handing out water at the later stations, but friends of mine who finished further back said some later stations ran out of supplies and/or were unmanned.
3. Corral E: I don’t even know how to explain this… the way the half was set up, there were corrals for A-D and we went into our corrals the normal way - as soon as the Runners Only area opened, the corrals were open for people to enter. But not E. E was supposed to - IDK, roam freely around the tents/stage, etc.?! - until whatever time they would be allowed to go to the corrals, at which point corral B would have emptied and the E folks would use B to start. But nobody there seemed real sure of how that would work, and E ended up corralling in a separate fenced area with no TV screens, no speakers, no communication at all. When they were directed to head over to B, apparently it was an all-out sprint to get to the front. I very much hope rD realizes this was really bad form and doesn’t attempt it again, but who knows?
I hate to sound negative, but these are just facts about what happened at W&D. I’ve noticed that rD/WDW really seems to pull its ish together for MW pretty consistently, so I’d like to think someone learned some things from W&D and will put on a better show in January. But they also have new race direction this season and to me, it felt a bit amateur-ish.
