More marathons canceled - WDW and Princess
One of the ways my family planned our Disney World trips over the last couple of years has been around race weekends. These include the Disney World full marathon, Princess half marathon, Star Wars Rival Run half marathon, and Wine and Dine half marathon. These four events occur in January, February, April, and November respectively, and gave us a chance to have a reason to go besides just “wanting to go.” And personally, it gave me a reason to have health goals; always a plus.
I attended the Feb 2020 Princess half marathon weekend right on the edge of the closure of WDW because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, as expected, the April Star Wars weekend was canceled and refunded. The November Wine and Dine was actually converted to a Virtual event (run at home, get medals mailed to you) with the option for the refund. I chose the virtual option, but it definitely lacks the excitement and magic of running through the parks, or just running with other people.
Running during the Feb 2020 Princess half marathon weekend
It was hard for me to believe before starting running 3 years ago, but the crowd, the pacing is critical to having fun while running any length race.
Today runDisney decided to cancel/offer virtual race options for both the January full marathon weekend and the February Princess half marathon weekend. There are several sub-options, including full medals+shirts, or fewer shirts with partial refund, etc.
The WDW full marathon was to be my first full marathon. The idea of running my first full 26.2 mile race on my own, at home, or in a park sounds…less than appealing. It also greatly reduces my drive to train and work towards that goal, and since I had planned to do the Dopey Challenge, a combo of the 5K, 10K, half marathon and full marathon on back to back days, a lot more work would be needed.
So what is a runDisney participant to do? For me, I think I will be getting a refund for the Disney World marathon weekend, but going with the virtual race option for the Princess event. I have already participated in that one, so the “high” of completion isn’t going to be new like the full marathon and Dopey Challenge would be, so the goal is to give myself some kind of goal to stay motivated through the holidays.
My family will continue to keep our January and February trips on the docket…for now at least. But not having the races does give us the option to move a week +/- or a few days +/- in order to better align to school or work schedules.
Putting aside the disappointment of this announcement, which is understandable, the marathon race weekends are some of the best we have had at the parks. I have had mix of “family” trips and “friends” trips that overlap with the races, and both work well. But the opportunity to have a more adult-friendly trip to WDW opens up a unique way to experience Disney. The bars have more appeal, the meals, the random wandering and stupid fun of buying identical shirts to parade around in, as examples.
