Race Enhancements: Metal medals for 5Ks!

[lurkergirl]

I'm torn, although I do like the metal bling....I had been doing all four Disneyland 5K events this year as a birthday treat. I've created shadow boxes with my bib, the medallion and the race pin for each race (two are obviously still empty)...and now there will be 2 medallions and 2 metals. My OCD tendencies are causing me to twitch. *G*

 

[afan]

I'm torn, although I do like the metal bling....I had been doing all four Disneyland 5K events this year as a birthday treat. I've created shadow boxes with my bib, the medallion and the race pin for each race (two are obviously still empty)...and now there will be 2 medallions and 2 metals. My OCD tendencies are causing me to twitch. *G*

At least it will be 2 and 2 and not 3 and 1. ☺

 

[lurkergirl]

At least it will be 2 and 2 and not 3 and 1. ☺

Good point. Ha!

 

[cavepig]

My point is the same as Ariel484. Someone can lie or cheat their way into corral A. That gives the person 4:30+ to do the half marathon which is a whopping 20+ minutes per mile. An honest person starting where they are supposed to start because they actually followed the rules starts in O with the balloon ladies. Honest runner does their best but they get swept at mile 1 for an 18 minute mile. Cheater finishes and gets the GSC medal. Honest person does not. Why reward the deceitful person?

Impact to the rest of us is that person is now in front of just about everyone else. Get enough slower people in front of faster people and you get bottlenecks and course crowding. And I am saying this as someone who has finished Disney races everywhere from 1:55 for the half to 6:57 for the full (as Baymax would say "I am not fast.").

I don't think Disney will do anything about it either. Disney has their money and they want to avoid conflict to keep people coming back and spending more money.

Um 1:55 is not slow for a half just sayin!

 

[Horse]

Love that they are switching to metal medals. Not a fan of the rubber ones. If they make the switch to tech shirts, I'll always register for a 5k at each event I plan on attending.

 

[derekleigh]

I got go either way for the 5k medal. In either case there are pros and cons.

The guide has been digital for sometime now as I've been saving them from all the race weekends for a few years now. I am sad they will not be giving out hard copies. It was a nice little keepsake. But it would save them a good chuck of money in the long run.

 

[Keels]

My point is the same as Ariel484. Someone can lie or cheat their way into corral A. That gives the person 4:30+ to do the half marathon which is a whopping 20+ minutes per mile. An honest person starting where they are supposed to start because they actually followed the rules starts in O with the balloon ladies. Honest runner does their best but they get swept at mile 1 for an 18 minute mile. Cheater finishes and gets the GSC medal. Honest person does not. Why reward the deceitful person?

Impact to the rest of us is that person is now in front of just about everyone else. Get enough slower people in front of faster people and you get bottlenecks and course crowding. And I am saying this as someone who has finished Disney races everywhere from 1:55 for the half to 6:57 for the full (as Baymax would say "I am not fast.").

I don't think Disney will do anything about it either. Disney has their money and they want to avoid conflict to keep people coming back and spending more money.

I trained hard and ran many races to get a PoT that puts me in a corral for a Disney race where I can afford to jack around, have fun, take pictures with characters, do push-ups with Sarge and all the other FUN things that come with Disney races.

I didn't cheat. I didn't lie. I didn't corral jump. And I certainly do not run a dang Disney race for time.

I'm sorry if you don't get the same experience as me, but I seriously take EXTREME offense to your ridiculous statements about "honest" runners.

You want to have a fun race? Train harder. Get faster. But I think it's pathetic to sit back and take shots at the rest of us for enjoying races at Disney when we bust out a$$es at locals and others to get in the spots we're in.

I don't know who you are, but obviously you have some grudge against RD since you just popped up to consistently complain on this thread about something that is actually ENCOURAGED by RunDisney.

Maybe you should look at the Rock 'n' Roll series instead.

Or maybe just worry about your own race and stop giving a rip about anyone else's. Maybe that's what you need to learn.

 

[derekleigh]

As for the price increase- i dont think they could go much higher without pricing themselves out.. Its already $25 a mile!

Only one of my races costs more than a dis 5k ($95 this year for the half and that includes a full color medal, shirt, towel, huge ayce breakfast with soda, juice & beer etc) and i dont run tiny local races...

rD 5k races are expensive and I've ran half marathons for less with great swag too. I don't know how much higher they could price their 5Ks.

I've only run an rD 5k as part of Dopey, so I forgot that for the most part the 5Ks are not timed. I'll concede the point, they are still "Family Fun Runs."

I for one love the family fun run environment. The 5Ks should be just a laid back kickoff race for each race weekend!

I think the problem is that there are so many reasons other than cheating that people may be mis-corraled I don't know of anything that RunDisney could feasibly do without coming across as overly draconian and risking the fun environment that they are trying to create for the races. Discrepancies in finish time and race pace may come from non-cheating reasons such as: slowing pace so as to be able to complete a challenge, stopping for photos, running the race while injured (my specialty) or undertrained due to injury/life getting in the way of training, slowing pace to run/walk with friends. Those are just the ones I can come up with off the top of my head. Unfortunately, I think these very valid reasons for not completing a race or running a race at "PR pace" which most people are going to submit, get lumped in with people's impressions and frustrations with "corral jumping" and "cheating".

Ultimately, in every race I have run, corraled or not, there have been slower people in front of me and faster people behind me. I try not to worry about them beyond the momentary aggravation that they cause as they pass me unexpectedly or as I have to work to pass them. I think we all have to learn to do a better job of enjoying the race that we run and worry less about what other people are doing, just like everything else in life.

Unfortunately, it would be very hard to enforce the 16+ mm runners simply because with rD races even if a person submits a POT with a very fast time, they could choose to run a disney race at a laid back pace and if you add in character stops, etc it could easily be over 16 mm. And if this race is going to likely be the ONLY Disney race they run, they person(s) will definitely want to soak in the whole atmosphere. So I've made peace with the fact there are going to be people that still finish and whatnot that have times with. 16+ mm. So be it.

What rD SHOULD do it stop giving finishers medals to anyone that is swept. Now this is not about "Finisher vs. non-Finisher medals." My stance is that giving these medals to people that don't finish the race (for whatever reason) isn't helping these people improve and better themselves. They are being giving a false sense of accomplishment.

Do they give challenge medals to people that are swept?

 

[doombuggy]

I have walked about a dozen 5ks since 2001, 4 of then at Disney. This year I did my first 2 10ks - princess and Star Wars dark side. For some reason, I was in the 2nd to last corral for princess. Two weeks before, I had surgery scheduled, which I had 4 days before the race. I did it anyway and finished. But I was slower than I would have liked. I had NO time to stop for photos, due to lines and fear of getting swept. For the 2nd race, I got bumped back to the last corral and thought I was doing better until I ran to the ladies room for 2 minutes and came out to meet the ballon ladies! I did some running,which I wasn't prepared for, to keep up. Again, NO time for photos, this time with characters from my favorite film. I finished on my own, although I think the time wasn't quite 16 minute per mile because of the bottlenecks. The migraine I got kept me from enjoying the aftermath in the ESPN parking lot, so I am working to do better in both Star Wars 10ks next year.

 

[doombuggy]

rD 5k races are expensive and I've ran half marathons for less with great swag too. I don't know how much higher they could price their 5Ks.



I for one love the family fun run environment. The 5Ks should be just a laid back kickoff race for each race weekend!




Unfortunately, it would be very hard to enforce the 16+ mm runners simply because with rD races even if a person submits a POT with a very fast time, they could choose to run a disney race at a laid back pace and if you add in character stops, etc it could easily be over 16 mm. And if this race is going to likely be the ONLY Disney race they run, they person(s) will definitely want to soak in the whole atmosphere. So I've made peace with the fact there are going to be people that still finish and whatnot that have times with. 16+ mm. So be it.

What rD SHOULD do it stop giving finishers medals to anyone that is swept. Now this is not about "Finisher vs. non-Finisher medals." My stance is that giving these medals to people that don't finish the race (for whatever reason) isn't helping these people improve and better themselves. They are being giving a false sense of accomplishment.

Do they give challenge medals to people that are swept?

I have been told no to your last question.

 

[SarahDisney]

What rD SHOULD do it stop giving finishers medals to anyone that is swept. Now this is not about "Finisher vs. non-Finisher medals." My stance is that giving these medals to people that don't finish the race (for whatever reason) isn't helping these people improve and better themselves. They are being giving a false sense of accomplishment.

If I work my butt off training for a race, but for some reason on race day I just don't have it (whether it's a mental issue, physical issue, or just poor timing with picture/character stops) and I get swept, I'm still going to feel a sense of accomplishment. Medal or no medal. I put in the hard work, and even if my race day performance doesn't reflect that hard work, I believe that sticking to a training plan and working hard is an accomplishment.
Of course, I speak only for myself here, I'm not saying that everyone who gets swept will feel a sense of accomplishment. Just saying that I'm offended that you think that someone who gets swept automatically has no right to feel a sense of accomplishment. For many people, making it through training and showing up on race day is a huge accomplishment.
Whether or not that accomplishment should be acknowledged with a medal is a different question. But "finish" and "accomplishment" are not synonyms, and I wish people wouldn't use them as synonyms.

 

[wilkeliza]

One thing I wish they would actually police is medal theft. I actually know quiet a few runners and volunteers who think it is no big deal to grab an extra medal for their kids or their shadow box or a friend or whatever. I'm sorry it is 1 medal per a runner per a race unless you complete a challenge then of course you get 1 challenge medal.

 

[derekleigh]

If I work my butt off training for a race, but for some reason on race day I just don't have it (whether it's a mental issue, physical issue, or just poor timing with picture/character stops) and I get swept, I'm still going to feel a sense of accomplishment. Medal or no medal. I put in the hard work, and even if my race day performance doesn't reflect that hard work, I believe that sticking to a training plan and working hard is an accomplishment.
Of course, I speak only for myself here, I'm not saying that everyone who gets swept will feel a sense of accomplishment. Just saying that I'm offended that you think that someone who gets swept automatically has no right to feel a sense of accomplishment. For many people, making it through training and showing up on race day is a huge accomplishment.
Whether or not that accomplishment should be acknowledged with a medal is a different question. But "finish" and "accomplishment" are not synonyms, and I wish people wouldn't use them as synonyms.

I wasn't really saying if someone didn't finish, they didn't experience a sense of accomplishment. I guess what my initial aim at was the people that slack off during training or go about the training and race thing half-@$$ed (not just rD races mind you) and don't care about finishing. All because they know they will be handed the same medal, swag, etc as the people that did finish or run the whole course on their own. They have races that have vehicular assistance to help those to the finish line (i.e. cheating IMO) and yet again they will still be handed the same finisher's medal, swag, etc even though they didn't really finish the course on their own.

There are people that will sign-up for rD races knowing they don't have the full intentions of training hard or even trying to bust their butt to finish because all they want it the bling, even though they shouldn't be given it if they didn't finish. This process is frustrating because rD races sell out quickly and it takes away spots from people that really want to be there, do the training and have an incredible race experience.

All this is just a bunch of garbage. Not everybody's race experience at Disney is going to be magical. Some people will have the best race of their lives while others will be left scratching their heads wondering at what point things started to fall apart. I'm not just talking about new runners but I EVERYBODY at all levels of experience. You cannot always predict how things will actually play out. Stuff happens and sometimes people are ahead others are behind. That is life.

Soto sum it up; If someone is swept they don't deserve a finisher's medal or anything other finisher's swag. The shirt and everything they get are the expo is great participation stuff. What I'd like to see rD do is for the people that are swept, give them a little card simply saying:

"We're sorry your runDisney experience wasn't as magical as you'd planned. But we encourage you to try again and this card is good for 20% off your next race fee."

 

[cavepig]

Do they give challenge medals to people that are swept?

If you get swept you do not get the challenge medals.

 

[derekleigh]

If you get swept you do not get the challenge medals.

Good. Thanks for answering.

 

[ejcraft]

One thing I wish they would actually police is medal theft. I actually know quiet a few runners and volunteers who think it is no big deal to grab an extra medal for their kids or their shadow box or a friend or whatever. I'm sorry it is 1 medal per a runner per a race unless you complete a challenge then of course you get 1 challenge medal.

disney does police this, I have given medals out for Disney races, and one of the big things they are always saying is to watch that people don't take/get 2 medals. They actually have people who's sole job is to watch the runners as they cross the finish line to make sure they don't do this. Yes I'm sure you still have sneaky people, but it is policed.

 

[cavepig]

I was just thinking I know they said all digital event guide, so no paper copy, but it would be nice if they still handed out a sheet with start times, bus times, expo times. I know I'll print it out before I leave, but I can see some people not pre looking on times and getting messed up.

 

[rteetz]

I was just thinking I know they said all digital event guide, so no paper copy, but it would be nice if they still handed out a sheet with start times, bus times, expo times. I know I'll print it out before I leave, but I can see some people not pre looking on times and getting messed up.

I agree with you here.

 

[goingthedistance]

I don't know who you are, but obviously you have some grudge against RD since you just popped up to consistently complain on this thread about something that is actually ENCOURAGED by RunDisney.

I have no grudge against runDisney. I am Perfectly Goofy and Perfectly Dopey, so I have been doing these races for many, many years and I plan to continue. I have just seen a degradation of the product and experience combined with increasing costs over the years.

Sorry for having an opinion. I'll go back into lurker mode now.

 

[derekleigh]

I have no grudge against runDisney. I am Perfectly Goofy and Perfectly Dopey, so I have been doing these races for many, many years and I plan to continue. I have just seen a degradation of the product and experience combined with increasing costs over the years.

What were rD events like back when you started running Goofy is 2006 and onward? My first rD race was the Half in 2012 at Marathon weekend and I can see a decline in the product as well. I am asking whole-heartedly out of curiosity and no criticism.