Run Disney Costs

Contrast that with the Flying Pig marathon weekend that gave $1.5 million to charities in 2015 alone, is a registered non-profit, and puts on a better event for less money. That is the race I'd rather give money to.

I don’t think you’re comparing apples to apples here. From my understanding, that isn’t money that was given away to charities from the people running the marathon itself. It’s money raised by charities signing up runners who get a bib in exchange for raising funds. Disney has that same program for charities to raise funds as do most large race events.
 
I was looking at prices of the WDW Marathon events and the marathon seems to be the best bargain of the bunch @ $188. The 5k is $85? And doesn't even include timing unless you are doing the Dopey challenge? I don't understand that at all. $85 does not say "fun race" price. No way in the world would I pay that for a 5k, especially an untimed one. And I don't understand why the marathon and half marathon are the exact same price. I have been racing for decades and don't remember anywhere else charging the same for a half.
It seems to be a very Disney thing. As long as I have been doing Disney races the half and full have been the same price.
 
As far as charity giving, am I wrong, or did I hear an announcement from the stage at W&D of the amount of money Disney was donating to Second Harvest? It seems like it was in the xx,xxx range. My fleeting thought was, “They could do more.”

interesting. Even when they made it obvious on the website that they were donating money I never heard an announcement like that.



Went looking, and this is definitely not what it said when I was registering for 2018. "In honor of the Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend, runDisney is thrilled to make an independent donation to the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Your registration and participation will not affect the amount donated."

Still doesn't sound like it's based on a rundisney thing, but just on a what-they-want-to-do thing.
 
interesting. Even when they made it obvious on the website that they were donating money I never heard an announcement like that.



Went looking, and this is definitely not what it said when I was registering for 2018. "In honor of the Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend, runDisney is thrilled to make an independent donation to the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Your registration and participation will not affect the amount donated."

Still doesn't sound like it's based on a rundisney thing, but just on a what-they-want-to-do thing.
I thought with Wine and Dine they really pushed the charity thing more than I remember with other races. They have representatives at each race from Second Harvest and any left over food from the races would be donated to the charity as well.
 


Its all subjective. I don't do a lot of local races. I love running Disney though. Yes its expensive but I know that going in.
My thoughts exactly. For me it's really about the experience. And with Disney that includes the race theme, the opportunities to run through the parks, see some of the backstage, characters, and so forth. So part of that cost includes the experience.

I noticed during the Giant Race that the crowd support really wasn't there. The volunteers were encouraging as always, but there really weren't a lot of locals lined up at various points to cheer the runners on. Most of the cheers came either from other runners or coaches shouting out encouragement to anyone who looked like they needed it. That's not an indictment of the race, just something I noticed after so many Disney races where there are always pockets of people cheering for runners both at Disneyland, including the city streets and Disney World.

I think that Disney's slower pace and more relaxed atmosphere even for the longer distances encourages less experienced runners to sign up. The atmosphere of the Giant Race Half felt more serious than any runDisney half I've done. No costumes, maybe one tutu, and not a big party vibe going on. I don't mind the "extra" cost for challenge events because I'm receiving something for that cost via the challenge race shirt and, assuming I finish, the challenge medal.

In the end each runner has to decide if the cost is worth it to them. Like with all things Disney, you're paying in part for the experience and the unique things that experience has to offer.

I thought with Wine and Dine they really pushed the charity thing more than I remember with other races. They have representatives at each race from Second Harvest and any left over food from the races would be donated to the charity as well.
I wonder if that's a unique to Disney World thing. I've never heard a big charity component at the Disneyland races including Light Side and Avengers 2017, but definitely remember the component from Dark Side 2017 and 2018. At Disneyland it seemed like they might mention the charity, but that's it. At Disney World, they had a representative from the charity talk about what the charity does and its mission.
 
Although many of us here on the boards have run multiple rundisney races, I get the sense that to many people these are considered bucket list type races. Like marathon majors or big ticket event (Las Vegas RnR, etc.) So for a once in a lifetime thing (which I foolishly thought my first disney 5k was going to be) people are willing to pay more. That 5k registration price stings more to me now since it can be over so quickly...I should have slowed way down on my last one to soak in the value!!!

Sidenote: this post is written by someone who also paid over $200 for my daughter to dress up like a princess for half a day before washing it all away in the hotel pool. Sooooo...............
 
I wonder if that's a unique to Disney World thing. I've never heard a big charity component at the Disneyland races including Light Side and Avengers 2017, but definitely remember the component from Dark Side 2017 and 2018. At Disneyland it seemed like they might mention the charity, but that's it. At Disney World, they had a representative from the charity talk about what the charity does and its mission.
At marathon weekend they discuss presenting sponsor Cigna a lot but I never remember as much talk about a charity like they did with wine and dine. I was happy they did it but it seemed different compared to other weekends. Maybe they’ll be doing more of this going forward.
 


Although many of us here on the boards have run multiple rundisney races, I get the sense that to many people these are considered bucket list type races. Like marathon majors or big ticket event (Las Vegas RnR, etc.) So for a once in a lifetime thing (which I foolishly thought my first disney 5k was going to be) people are willing to pay more. That 5k registration price stings more to me now since it can be over so quickly...I should have slowed way down on my last one to soak in the value!!!

Sidenote: this post is written by someone who also paid over $200 for my daughter to dress up like a princess for half a day before washing it all away in the hotel pool. Sooooo...............
I think bucket list definitely plays a factor. It's not always possible to travel to Walt Disney World during a race weekend no matter how badly we may want to. So if a runner wants to run at Disney World (or Disneyland if they return to the west coast), then the cost of the race may not be an issue if they know that races at Disney are not practical every single year.

Given my profession, there are certain times of the year when I am not traveling to Walt Disney World because I cannot take time off work during that period, no matter how badly I might want to. So when the inaugural Star Wars Dark Side race weekend fell during one of those periods, I knew I could not go. But when the second Star Wars race weekend was announced for a period when I could visit Walt Disney World, I put myself through all sorts of challenges, inconveniences, and literally had to turn what little free time I had into training time so I could do the Kessel Run because my very limited window opened up for that one year. So in a sense, I didn't care about cost because it was secondary to the experience I desired as a runner and Star Wars fan.
 
At marathon weekend they discuss presenting sponsor Cigna a lot but I never remember as much talk about a charity like they did with wine and dine. I was happy they did it but it seemed different compared to other weekends. Maybe they’ll be doing more of this going forward.
I wondered about that too. I wasn't sure if because it was a Food Themed race that the Charity tie in with Second Harvest was just a natural fit for the theme.

I was at a conference where the CMO of DisneyParks spoke a couple weeks ago. An ongoing theme of that event from most of the CMO's was an emphasis on connecting and emphasizing your purpose. I could see this focus on Second Harvest as being just a marketing step to have a more overt purpose.

I also agree with Sleepless Knight's ( and I realize I just got the double meaning in that name, DOH!) thoughts about runDisney races really being about the experience. I think the quality of that experience has varied over time. I know about 7 years ago a lot of the discussions on this board were how runDisney was having to up their game because of competition from the Competitor series of races which were trying to provide a good experience too. I think runDisney has the ability to offer a unique experience, and as an organization Disney seems to be really good at optimizing the max $ they can get out of each of those unique experiences that they have to offer. I do wonder if runDisney was caught off guard by the week demand for Dopey this year. I wonder how much of that is driven by $, and how much dopey is driven by the fact that Dopey is very much a bucket list thing and last year saw a high demand for it because it was an anniversary year for multiple races and challenges. I've done Dopey twice and while I've enjoyed it, for me it's not worth the amount of time off I need to take in order to do it.
 
interesting. Even when they made it obvious on the website that they were donating money I never heard an announcement like that.



Went looking, and this is definitely not what it said when I was registering for 2018. "In honor of the Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend, runDisney is thrilled to make an independent donation to the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Your registration and participation will not affect the amount donated."

Still doesn't sound like it's based on a rundisney thing, but just on a what-they-want-to-do thing.

They made the same announcement at SWDS & I believe Princess as well. It's usually right before the representative for the charity speaks.
 
I also agree with Sleepless Knight's ( and I realize I just got the double meaning in that name, DOH!)
It's also a nod to my occasional battles with not being able to sleep. And as you noted, a subtle play on words referring to my two favorite movies of all time.

I do wonder if runDisney was caught off guard by the week demand for Dopey this year. I wonder how much of that is driven by $, and how much dopey is driven by the fact that Dopey is very much a bucket list thing and last year saw a high demand for it because it was an anniversary year for multiple races and challenges. I've done Dopey twice and while I've enjoyed it, for me it's not worth the amount of time off I need to take in order to do it.
I also think that some legacy Dopey runners dropped off after last year for the very reasons you mentioned. From Disney's perspective, they probably figure they can release 5K/10K/Half bibs from the challenge events to the individual races if the challenges aren't selling and they're seeing enough demand to release more bibs if the individual challenges are not yet sold out.

I would guess that runDisney participants are a mix of experienced runDisney veterans who keep coming back for the experience, experienced runners who have it as a bucket list due to the relative novelty especially tied to the challenges, reluctant runners who either got persuaded to do it and chose Disney for destination reasons, and/or new runners who chose Disney as a first race because the familiar is comforting.
 
It's also a nod to my occasional battles with not being able to sleep. And as you noted, a subtle play on words referring to my two favorite movies of all time.

I also think that some legacy Dopey runners dropped off after last year for the very reasons you mentioned. From Disney's perspective, they probably figure they can release 5K/10K/Half bibs from the challenge events to the individual races if the challenges aren't selling and they're seeing enough demand to release more bibs if the individual challenges are not yet sold out.

I would guess that runDisney participants are a mix of experienced runDisney veterans who keep coming back for the experience, experienced runners who have it as a bucket list due to the relative novelty especially tied to the challenges, reluctant runners who either got persuaded to do it and chose Disney for destination reasons, and/or new runners who chose Disney as a first race because the familiar is comforting.

I think that mix of runners is about right. I think runDisney skews slower than other races I've run. I'm sure part of that is people stopping for characters and stuff, but I'd also be willing to bet that many of the runners are new or newer. I think the Disney atmosphere in general just creates a very collaborative environment. I've run a fair number of other races and RunDisney events are the only ones I've been involved with that have this active of a message boards before a race. To be fair run Disney doesn't really have to do a lot to foster that, they just kind of inherit it from the disney fandom.
 
I think that mix of runners is about right. I think runDisney skews slower than other races I've run. I'm sure part of that is people stopping for characters and stuff, but I'd also be willing to bet that many of the runners are new or newer. I think the Disney atmosphere in general just creates a very collaborative environment. I've run a fair number of other races and RunDisney events are the only ones I've been involved with that have this active of a message boards before a race. To be fair run Disney doesn't really have to do a lot to foster that, they just kind of inherit it from the disney fandom.
Very true. While I've only ran one non runDisney event, it touted itself as very friendly to slower runners with a 15 minute per mile pace requirement. And since it was put on by the San Francisco Giants, it was definitely more friendly to slower runners, including myself. Yet it was still very different from Disney races. While a runDisney 5K feels very different from the 10K and a Half, the Half races still have more of a party atmosphere than the Giant Race did.

It took me finishing a Disney race before I understood I could stop for characters if the line wasn't too long, and it took me years before I fully realized how a runDisney sweep works when they advised me that they would sweep me if I didn't join the balloon ladies when they reached the photo op I was waiting for. I was about 1 minute away from my turn, so I watched the sweep occur a few minutes later, safely ahead of it. That really freed me up into how I approached photo stops. Since that time, I'm more aware of other runners worried about being swept and if they're near me on the course, I can tell them that they're okay. Because if race officials aren't currently telling me that I could be swept, then I am, for the moment, safe.

I definitely agree that this helps newer and/or slower runners feel more at ease with a runDisney event. It's a major reason why I am registered for Dopey which will also be my first marathon.
 

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