Rumor on a blog- Tink & Lightside ending for a Full on west ?!?!?

[Ariel484]

I agree with @camaker: unsourced click bait. They have zero new information. I think they're trolling everyone.

 

[Ariel484]

Also, I thought they (DL) had some agreement with the LA Marathon that there would be no DL marathon?

 

[BikeFan]

I'd never heard of the Disneyland Marathon, so thanks to SarahDisney for the history lesson!

I'm having a hard time believing they'll have another full out west, or even in WDW. Fulls don't seem nearly as popular as halfs. It seems like the WDW full is always the last event to sell out on marathon weekend, and that's still the only race weekend with a full option. As much as I'd like to see more Disney fulls, I'm not holding my breath.

 

[rteetz]

Also, I thought they (DL) had some agreement with the LA Marathon that there would be no DL marathon?

Yeah between that and logistics I don't think we see a DL marathon ever again.

 

[Ariel484]

Yeah between that and logistics I don't think we see a DL marathon ever again.

Yeah so basically I think this blog post is a load of...well, you know. This is a family board, after all.

 

[defnjeb]

I am on the west coast and wanted to run both Star War half marathons in 2018. I sent an inquiry to runDisney in June and received a quick response

"Thank you for contacting us about the 2018 Star Wars Half Marathon- The
Light Side at the Disneyland Resort in California.

Registration for this event has been temporarily postponed until a later
date. The specifics will be announced on our website at
www.runDisney.com for your convenience when they become available. We
are sorry for the disappointment this may cause you but hope to see you
partake in this experience once more information can be provided.

We appreciate your interest in runDisney!

All the best,

runDisney Team
Guest Experience Services
runDisney
Email: rundisney@disneysports.com"

I am still hopeful as I want the Kessel run medal!

 

[kirstie101]

I Just posted this in the SWLS thread but I'll post here too...

The charity I ran with a couple years ago posted on their Facebook page today the following...

"We've been fielding lots of questions regarding 2018 Star Wars Light Side Weekend and Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend. We can tell you what we heard from runDisney this morning, and that is to definitely expect changes and we should have the announcement by mid-August. Our rep has not indicated that SWLS will not be happening."

 

[rteetz]

"We've been fielding lots of questions regarding 2018 Star Wars Light Side Weekend and Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend. We can tell you what we heard from runDisney this morning, and that is to definitely expect changes and we should have the announcement by mid-August. Our rep has not indicated that SWLS will not be happening."

Interesting. I wonder why they would cancel light side instead of moving it. It seems light side has been more popular than say Super Hero weekend.

 

[cavepig]

Interesting. I wonder why they would cancel light side instead of moving it. It seems light side has been more popular than say Super Hero weekend.

But she said " Our rep has not indicated that SWLS will not be happening." So they don't sense it is being canceled (unless there's a typo in there).

 

[kirstie101]

Interesting. I wonder why they would cancel light side instead of moving it. It seems light side has been more popular than say Super Hero weekend.

They said their rep has NOT indicated that SWLS would not be happening....so they are expecting it to happen.

 

[rteetz]

But she said " Our rep has not indicated that SWLS will not be happening." So they don't sense it is being canceled (unless there's a typo in there).

Guess I was reading too fast!

Something is definitely up with that weekend though. We are 6 months out and have no idea what's happening with it. That is so unlike runDisney which wants you to sign up 11 months out for other races.

 

[rteetz]

They said their rep has NOT indicated that SWLS would not be happening....so they are expecting it to happen.

Yes got it.

 

[camaker]

Guess I was reading too fast!

Something is definitely up with that weekend though. We are 6 months out and have no idea what's happening with it. That is so unlike runDisney which wants you to sign up 11 months out for other races.

That's what makes me believe they're dealing with something outside of their control, like a new course permitting process with an unsympathetic local government. If it were fully in their control I think it would've been resolved long ago. They are literally losing money with every day of the delay. It makes no sense for them to intentionally drag their feet.

 

[rteetz]

That's what makes me believe they're dealing with something outside of their control, like a new course permitting process with an unsympathetic local government. If it were fully in their control I think it would've been resolved long ago. They are literally losing money with every day of the delay. It makes no sense for them to intentionally drag their feet.

Yep that has to be the reason.

 

[croach]

The thing about Super Heroes weekend(Marvel) is California is the one place they can have that race. So it makes sense for them to keep that one and shutter the other two if that is indeed what they are doing. Registration for that one may pick up if there are two less races and if not, it can always be rebranded to I don't know - Star Wars. But you know runDisney does like to keep us all guessing.

 

[Ariel484]

Another thought - didn't people just find code with new description of the SWLS races a few days ago on runDisney.com (that has since been pulled)? Why would they have added that code if they were going to cancel the race?

I think Super Heroes would benefit from a date change - same weekend as RNR Vegas and I think a few other big West Coast races.

 

[The Expert]

I have a hard time believing they will proceed with Light Side weekend at this late date. It's now less than 6 months away. Doesn't seem like enough lead time.

I do events as part of my job. For a first-time event, 6 months would be tight, but this isn't a new race or theme -- just an updated theme, if speculation based on changes to Dark Side and that bit of code is correct. And most of the prep work is behind the scenes. It's plenty of time to pull this off.

That's what makes me believe they're dealing with something outside of their control, like a new course permitting process with an unsympathetic local government. If it were fully in their control I think it would've been resolved long ago. They are literally losing money with every day of the delay. It makes no sense for them to intentionally drag their feet.

I 100% agree with this. It has to be the city dragging their feet on approving a new course. We all know they have to change the part of the course that's on property due to construction near the start area and corrals, so they likely have to get the whole course re-approved by the city. And we know the city has been hostile to Disney, so they're messing with them. I think there's merit to the presumption they are waiting to see some proof of improvement in street opening efficiency at the races in September.

I also do marketing and PR as part of my job and the opportunities with a Star Wars race from this perspective are HUGE! Look at all the D23 announcements that just happened and how many were Star Wars related. The SW hotel articles blew up the internet and even took out this site for a time! DL is opening their Star Wars Galaxy's Edge first. These races are incredible opportunities to market that stuff to a self-selected target audience! And it would be a bit of a PR debacle to try to explain *why*, shortly after all those announcements and all the money they're throwing at anything SW related right now, they decided to *cancel* a SW-themed event. It makes zero sense. I'm absolutely convinced it's not being canceled. And I'd better not be wrong because that Kessel Run medal is why I started running in the first place!

 

[Krandor]

This rumor doesn't even make any sense. Why cancel two weekends to add a full marathon? If they wanted to add a full just add it on to an existing race weekend like DLH. You're not going to have a race weekend with just a full. DLH becomes DL marathon weekend with a coast to coast dopey medal.

Adding a full doesn't mean you have to kill two other race weekends.

 

[Z-Knight]

My initial thought was there is no way Disney would do that. The logistics would be too hard. But really people organize marathons all the time that aren't completely on their property. I think the biggest argument against it is that the WDW Marathon and Goofy still haven't sold out.

Disneyland had a marthon once...over 20 years ago but it only had 1 run and I thought one reason was that it was effectively competing with the LA marathon so they agreed not to do one at Disneyland. On the other hand, this was long ago when races were not as popular as today, so I would guess there would be room for 2 marathons in LA....so why not. If it was multiple months apart from the Disney World one then I'd be up for it..

The only thing I don't understand is how could they get rid of the Light side star wars and hence effectively kill of the Kessel Challange - that would be the biggest surprise.

 

[jaxonp]

The local government should be on board with Disney. Anaheim would be nothing without Dis.

Also, I don't buy RD cancelling two race weeknds for one weekend with a Full Marathon. Two weekends make way more money than one. If nothing else, it brings thousands of people to the park in downtimes that spend money on tickets, food and merchandise. It's something else that's holding these races up.