opportunities for slow runner pic's

[pixxi]

I have read blogs and watched videos for the races and see a lot of people who feel they are unable to participate in taking pictures with the characters during the race for fear of being swept.

What other opportunities are their for people who don't stop to take pics? Looking at the videos there are some unique photo options on the coarse, but I'm going to need all the time I can get. I also want to have FUN too!

 

[opusone]

For Star Wars Dark Side weekend, there were picture opportunities before the race, but you had to get there REALLY early to get them because the lines got too long, and they eventually closed the lines.

 

[cavepig]

Yes, like Opusone said they have characters out before the races if you get there early enough & many times after as well. Like for Marathon weekend they have a few backdrops with the characters & lines aren't terrible, so Dopey was out, Sports Daisy, Sports Pluto.

You can always take pictures by anything, like rides or signs or whatever even if it's not the official character set up ones you pass by. You can take selfies with the official setups as you pass, lots of people do that, just be mindful not to step into the people waiting in the lines, keep off to the side at some distance.

Otherwise, just running is fun amongst all the different costumes people wear. So many people have fun sayings on their shirts to read & you can take all the pics you want of just the atmosphere & surroundings.

 

[wilkeliza]

I take photos while I run or stop for 2 seconds and take a selfie from afar. That take a couple of seconds when a character stop may take 5-10 minutes. I also wait until later in the race where lines are often shorter. My second tower of terror run I have a lot of great photos from the last 5 miles.

 

[1lilspark]

We plan to spend our post race afternoon in the parks taking pictures with our metal with characters I still plan to pause for selfies with the mile markers and the rare characters on corse

 

[FFigawi]

There are also some characters, usually tied in to the theme of the race, in the parking lot after the finish. The lines can have more than a few people in them, which is why our strategy is to have part of our group hold our places in line while the others get beer from the beer truck. Beer with friends always makes lines go faster.

 

[ZellyB]

Agree with the selfies with characters in the background. You can also grab a lot of shots of things like the castle and mile markers that won't take you much time at all. I also found that toward the end of the races the lines get much shorter. We had some shots during the last marathon where there was literally no line for the character.

 

[jhorstma]

I have read blogs and watched videos for the races and see a lot of people who feel they are unable to participate in taking pictures with the characters during the race for fear of being swept.

What other opportunities are their for people who don't stop to take pics? Looking at the videos there are some unique photo options on the coarse, but I'm going to need all the time I can get. I also want to have FUN too!

I'm a new and slow runner - had no POT this past January for the marathon, so I was in the penultimate corral literally steps in front of the balloon ladies. I was able to take selfies at each mile marker, stop for my profile pic (taken by DW, who patiently waited in MK all morning for us to come by) and pics by the MK and AK train displays, and even ride EE midway through, all while maintaining a 2/1 walk/run pace (well, ok 1/2 towards the end) that got me to the finish comfortably ahead of the cut-off pace. The lines for character pics, however, were typically way too long to even consider waiting IMHO. The message I took away was to do everything possible to get a POT - any POT - that would move me up at the start. Any POT will automatically move you up 2-3 corrals from the back, putting you in front of literally thousands of runners and giving you an extra 20 - 30 minutes of course time, allowing you to strategically pick a couple photo lines to wait in. So if you've been running and have an available Saturday or Sunday between now and 10/4, I strongly recommend that you find and run a 10 miler or half marathon and send in the time.

 

[doombuggy]

I'm a new and slow runner - had no POT this past January for the marathon, so I was in the penultimate corral literally steps in front of the balloon ladies. I was able to take selfies at each mile marker, stop for my profile pic (taken by DW, who patiently waited in MK all morning for us to come by) and pics by the MK and AK train displays, and even ride EE midway through, all while maintaining a 2/1 walk/run pace (well, ok 1/2 towards the end) that got me to the finish comfortably ahead of the cut-off pace. The lines for character pics, however, were typically way too long to even consider waiting IMHO. The message I took away was to do everything possible to get a POT - any POT - that would move me up at the start. Any POT will automatically move you up 2-3 corrals from the back, putting you in front of literally thousands of runners and giving you an extra 20 - 30 minutes of course time, allowing you to strategically pick a couple photo lines to wait in. So if you've been running and have an available Saturday or Sunday between now and 10/4, I strongly recommend that you find and run a 10 miler or half marathon and send in the time.

How do you submit a time? I walk/ran 2 Disney 10ks earlier this year and am signed up for the Disneyland Star Wars 10k in January. I was in the 2nd to last corral in the princess 10k, but bumped back to the last corral for the Star Wars 10k in April. No photos at all as I struggled to keep ahead of the balloon ladies, resulting in a migraine. I got to wait an hour for the bus back to my car and no photos except those on the course by photopass.

 

[cavepig]

How do you submit a time? I walk/ran 2 Disney 10ks earlier this year and am signed up for the Disneyland Star Wars 10k in January. I was in the 2nd to last corral in the princess 10k, but bumped back to the last corral for the Star Wars 10k in April. No photos at all as I struggled to keep ahead of the balloon ladies, resulting in a migraine. I got to wait an hour for the bus back to my car and no photos except those on the course by photopass.

You can't submit times for the 10ks, you just put in an estimated pace/mile. For the half of full you would update your active registration with your proof of time race.

 

[bevcgg]

The fun photo ops are a large part of why I Run Disney! During the DL Half/10K lasteekend I saw something I hadn't seen at other RD races this year. They had character selfie photo ops- not just the posed stand in line photos with characters. It was a GREAT idea as lots of people could take photos at the same time very quickly!!! I am hoping they incorporate that into the other races too. Although I will need to improve my selfie skills- esp with ears!

I ran with my DD (age 14) for her first half and we started much further back in the corrals than I have before. I was worried about how this would impact our ability to take time for photos. Surprisingly I found the lines for the photo ops MUCH shorter than when I started in a higher corrals. We did several (not all) of the photo ops with very little impact on our final time- maybe less than 5 mins longer total.

Most everyone who is stopping will also be happy to take a photo for you as well. For the first time I had someone (who was also stopping for a photo) refuse to take a photo of my DD and I. I was dumbfounded- as the two of them discussed it and the women said no. Even more of a shock is she is a member of an active and usually very supportive FB group I belong too. But that was a first among all the races I have done. Don't be afraid to ask! We are all their for the fun and magic that is Disney.

 

[RENThead09]

for Disney World marathon weekend, I usually use one of my fast passes for either Epcot Character Spot or Animal Kingdom's pics (I forget the name). You can also go to MK back by the circus for Goofy, Donald and Minnie. Have always had great interactions with them when I had the race medals.

After the DLand half last weekend, I just brought my ticket with me and after the race did a bunch of quick park pics with the photopass team as well. Castle, Mickey, Chewbacca, etc Also brought my Tink medal and did a pic as there was no line and I didn't get a pic during Tinkerbell weekend. It was quick and fun.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I don't like the idea of defining fun by whether or not you are fast enough to take a photo with a character. Don't define your experience by the photos you didn't get.

1. There are a lot of really neat things to see besides characters. During the 2011 Disneyland 1/2, they had the parade floats and the Disneyland Railroad trains out along the course where you could see them in great detail as you walked past or even get a brief photo if you had a camera with you. These would have had very short lines at worst and gave you the opportunity to have a neat photo you can't get during the day.

2. Enjoy the opportunity to see the parks in the early morning hours and/or when they are extremely empty compared to what you're used to. During the 2012 Wine & Dine 1/2, I got to see Animal Kingdom at night. The World of Color fountains are beautiful in the first rays of the morning.

3. For me the fun of characters is not in getting the photos, it's in interacting with them. Chip and Dale once did jumping jacks with me to help me prepare for a race the next day. They also did paper, rock, scissors after a race to determine which one of them won that morning. On another occasion, the chipmunks decided they would bite my medal to make sure it was real.

During the 2016 Star Wars 10K-The Light Side, BB-8 was on the course. I'm a very slow runner so his line was cut off and I couldn't even get in it. The next morning during the 1/2, the line was estimated at 20-25 minutes long. I could have chanced it, but didn't want to risk it. I "settled" for a couple of selfie shots as I went by. Well, I was in Disneyland again this past July and saw where they had BB-8 next to Rey's speeder from The Force Awakens inside Launch Bay. Suffice it to say, that picture next to a nice prop replica from the movie is much better than the one I missed out on because I was too slow in January to take a risk.

I also heard of some runners that were swept from the 2015 Star Wars 1/2 and couldn't figure out why they were swept since they were averaging 9.5 minutes per mile when they were running. Except they were not running during the multiple 30+ minute character photo ops inside the parks.

Don't get me wrong. Character photo ops during a race are fun if you can afford to stop. But Chewbacca celebrating my Star Wars medals and Darth Vader seeing the medals and accusing me of being sympathetic to the Rebellion were much better moments than had I stopped to see them along the course. I think character medal photos are a lot more fun than character race photos. If they're rare characters, take your best selfie and keep going. Don't let a photo or lack thereof define your race. Let your success in persevering to the very end and finishing be your defining moment of greatness.

 

[roxymama]

We had post race brunch/lunch at Chef Mickey's after my first race (if you make a ressie, give yourself a ton of time to get there...no point adding that to the stress.) I wore my race skirt and medals and got pics with minnie, donald, pluto, mickey (which matched that weekends' theme.) You could pick a character place to eat that matched your race theme. Then you know you are getting some pics with your medal no matter what.
I also offered to take a fellow runners pic in front of the epcot ball and she took mine. No line needed.
And there are backdrops after the race that you can wait for to take your pic with your medal too.
I honestly ended up loving just being in Epcot running around so much more than posing with the characters. The feeling meant more to me than the instagrams I posted later