RunDisney [Everything You Need to Know!]- 127

You’re a runner. You’re a Disney fan. Boy, do we have a show for you! RunDisney is a series of events throughout the year that lets you combine your love of running and fitness with Disney Magic. Our friend Julie is back to share everything you need to know about RunDisney.

Run Disney

  1. What is RunDisney?
  2. Your experience with it/why you chose to do RunDisney
  3. Choosing the right race/preparing for the trip
  4. How is a RunDisney trip different than a regular trip to WDW?
  5. Raceday experiences/expectations
  6. RunDisney Pro tips
  7. Your future plans with RunDisney

Contact Julie!

Related Episodes and Links

More with Julie:

More about the kids:

Question: What is your biggest question about RunDisney?

Please let us know in the All Things Travel Podcast Facebook group!

Start Making Your Magical Memories!

Ryan and Shayne are both Travel Advisers with Creating Magic Vacations, an authorized Disney Vacation Planner. Feel free to reach out to us for a free quote and to start making magical memories.

Where in the World is All Things Travel?

  • East Lansing, Michigan

Check out the complete list of where in the world you’re located.

Enjoy these profound travel quotes to spark your sense of wonder.

Never Miss a Thing!

Subscribe to All Things Travel Show on your favorite app so you never miss anything:

Please share it with some friends while you’re here.

Download your Top Items to Buy Before Your Theme Park Vacation to Save You Money and Stress!

Check out the complete list of episodes.

Episode 127 Transcripts

Episodes are transcribed with artificial intelligence, so there are likely some highly amusing translations!

Ryan: Hello, and welcome to All Things Travel. You’re a runner. You’re a Disney fan. Boy, do we have a show for you? Run Disney is a series of events throughout the year that lets you combine your love of running and fitness with Disney magic. Our friend Julie is back to share everything you need to know about run Disney.

You’re listening to All Things Travel, episode 127. Original air date September 21st, 2022. So Shayne, my daughter did her first run Disney event. This past spring. I think I talked about that on a pad

Shayne: remember that. Yeah. You had fun getting there.

Ryan: yeah, we had a lot of fun getting, it all worked, it all worked, but we were, we were close to it, not working.

But she had a wonderful time and she’s already planning, the next trip that she could do with run Disney. and I knew there was one person I wanted to talk to. To get the skinny on run Disney because it was something I, I really had no experience with. And that’s our friend Julie. And so she is back with us and we are excited to have her so welcome, Julie

Julie: Hi, everyone. Thanks for having.

Shayne: It is great to have you back, Julie.

Ryan: and Shayne, you have done races in the past, too, right?

Shayne: Yes. it’s funny how in my preparations, I took care of myself so much and pampered myself so much. It astounds me that Miriam still completed that race the next day, after all that you went through to get there. That is just amazing

Ryan: fine. It, it, it was pure adrenaline. It, and it was a 10 K. It was definitely something that she had trained for. And, but, but, she pushed through and then basically we slept for the rest of the day.

Shayne: That’s the way any run should be. I think.

Ryan: I know that Julie has lots of experience with a run Disney and she’s a runner. Her husband’s a runner. They enjoy doing run Disney events. And so before we talk to them about. I wanna know where in the world is All Things Travel?

Shayne: A place that you’ve probably never heard of Ryan. A little town called east Michigan.

Ryan: As a Michigan state alum, lived there for five years. I met my wife there. She grew up in east Lansing. Our daughter was born in east

Shayne: Uhhuh.

Ryan: I think I know it quite well, and I love it. It’s a awesome big 10 town. It’s a college town. It has so much to offer. So I bet you found a really cool place for us to meet our listener.

Shayne: Are you familiar with the Eli and Edith Broad Art Museum?

Ryan: I am, and it is awesome. It was designed by the same architect that designed the Disney symphony hall in LA and the Guggenheim. And so it’s got a very unique structure. I always tell people it’s almost like a a spaceship landed right next to, to grand river avenue.

Shayne: It looks like it is really cool. And somebody in east Lansing must still be a fond of you as you are of east Lansing, because it has consistently over the past. As long as I can remember looking at stats, it has been the top source of downloads for all things travel.

Ryan: to know who that is. So reach out to me via email or on the Facebook group. Cause not only do I have a thank you gift for you being featured on the show today, I want to have some Sparty love and go green, go white and we’ll have a good time.

Julie: Go her.

Shayne: Bardy

Ryan: Oh, oh, no.

Shayne: and to make sure that you hear where in the world as all things travel next week, be sure to subscribe to the show or follow so that you never miss any of our travel tips, travel ideas, or travel stories.

Ryan: So Julie, I think you have to uh, explain that TURPs reference. Cause I don’t, I don’t think in, in the last episode when you were on you, you told people where you were.

Julie: Oh, that’s true. So I am from Maryland. I’ve lived here my whole life. I went to university of Maryland College Park. Met my husband there. It was always my dream school. And they are the terrapins. So right after, or a little bit after I graduated, we joined the big 10 and we just don’t really get along with Michigan and Michigan state.

Very well.

Ryan: That’s all right. That’s all right. We tend to get along with you pretty well on football Saturdays, but that’s a whole other that’s a whole other conversation. So let’s talk about run Disney. What is run Disney, Julie.

Julie: Run Disney is just a series of races that occurs at Walt Disney world. It used to also occur at Disneyland and Disneyland Paris, but those have been paused for quite a while now. So it’s just Walt Disney world. They also do virtual races, which is cool. If you can get there, you can do it virtual.

Right now they have running weekends that are four times a year. So you do have a lot of options to try to find a race that fits your schedule. A lot of people, you don’t travel much. You, when you’re running, you usually just, pick a race nearby. So this is a really cool destination event for runners.

Every race is unique because it goes through the theme parks. It could go through any of the four theme parks. It could go through wide world of sports. You go around Disney property near the resorts, so it just makes it a little bit more exciting. You can also do fun things like meet characters throughout the race.

And it’s usually characters that you don’t normally see, they could have the genie dressed up as the vacation genie. We we’ve met Oswald during the race. Sometimes different villains are out. It’s really fun. Just makes it a really unique experience.

Shayne: I’ve always said that a run. Through a city like a 10 K a half marathon or a marathon is a great way to see the city. I can only imagine how great it is to see Disney that way.

Julie: Yeah, it’s definitely a really unique experience. It’s it’s really.

Ryan: So first of all, why did you choose to start running? And secondly, how many races have you.

Julie: So I chose to start doing run Disney because, as, as a runner and kind of everyone who’s in the fitness, sometimes you get into a rut, might lose a little motivation here and there and run Disney has always been a way for me to get that motivation back. It’s a big race to train for.

I’m someone when I’m running, I always have to be training for something. And if I’m training for something at Disney, I’m definitely gonna make sure I’m ready because I’ve. Do all the travel to get there. I’m not just going out and doing a 5k outside my house. So that is the biggest reason I got into it.

I love Disney and I love running, so it just seemed like the perfect match. I am really happy. I got into it cause it’s a great experience. I’ve so I’ve done all four race, weekends and actually five cuz one of them switched over. The first one I did was all the way back in 2016, I did the wine and dine race weekend.

And that was a great trip. That was our first time doing it again. We were just like in a funk with running, we needed someone to look forward to and we picked that it was the inaugural weekend for loom years. Challenge. So that was the 10 K and the half marathon. It was so cool. With wine and D weekend, you get the wine and dine after party.

It was just such a great experience. And I think I can speak for everyone who has their first Run Disney experience. After the first one, there’s gonna be another one.

Shayne: I was getting excited about this show and was looking up future Run Disney events. And I noticed that almost all of them are already sold out. Since you have to book it so far in advance, you register the run and book your trip, and then you probably have plenty of time to train for a longer run.

Julie: Yeah, you definitely have plenty of time to train. But pros and cons to that Run Disney has gotten it. It is so large. I have never run in, in an event that is as big as the Run Disney events. I think the most that they’ve ever had is 55 plus thousand people in one race.

And, and that’s a lot of

Shayne: That’s a big race.

Julie: So the registrations do sell out, especially now being a little. Post COVID and the races coming back, there was a lot of times when those races didn’t happen to know, everyone really wants to get into it. And the re the races, you can go on run disney.com and see when those races are gonna open and see, exactly what time and you can pick the race you wanna do.

If you’re not on your computer at that time, you’re probably not getting in the race. That doesn’t mean you’re never gonna get into it. Sometimes they open up later, you just gotta watch it. You can join Facebook groups and there’s that, that’s a good way to kind of hear like, oh, Hey, the 5k opened up, go in and sign up or you can also do it for a charity run.

And they usually have a lot of spots as well. If you can’t get in it wasn’t like that when I first started running. But the last couple races I’ve done, I’ve definitely been at my computer at race time, trying to sign up right away.

Shayne: So you wanna be aware when it goes.

Julie: Definitely it’s hard.

Ryan: Yeah. I think with when I signed up my daughter for this past spring, I, I was, I was pleasantly surprised actually, cuz I was right there right at the time. And I think once I got in the queue, once the, the screen flipped over and started, I had about a 20 minute wait. So it really was not bad at all, but yeah, if, if I hadn’t been home and ready to do it and yeah, I, it wouldn’t have.

Julie: Yeah, that’s the hard part about it, but I mean like any, almost, almost like any Disney trip, it is a lot of planning, but it is a hundred percent worth it. This is such a unique, unique experience with Disney. It’s just so awesome. So I’ve done all the race weekends, Wine and Dine is the first one I did before I had my I really wanted to say that I had run a marathon. So I started marathon training and my first one was gonna be the Baltimore marathon. That’s where I am. It’s one of the hardest marathons in the country. Cause it’s very hill. So I, I trained for that.

I did that. And then my husband decided he wanted to be able to run a marathon. So he had started training and we decided that we were gonna sign up for Disney which was about two and a half months after Baltimore. So I just kept trained and he continued training with me. And that was our first one together.

And a lot of people use the Disney marathon as their first one, because the environment is so encouraging. This is a really cool experience and, going along with, it’s just a really motivating. And fun time. I, I did star wars race weekend back in 2018 and that was over my birthday weekend.

So that was really fun for us to go together. I’ve did princess race weekend was one of my first half marathons after having my daughter. That was really cool. I did that one solo completely by myself. I didn’t know anyone running it, but it felt like I knew every runner on the course. That’s just the environ.

At those weekends?

Ryan: It, it was such a positive thing to see. You, with, with my daughter, we got on the bus. time would we have gotten on the bus? Julie? Like

Julie: 3 30, 4, 3 30

or four.

Ryan: So I, I, yeah, I think we got up at 2 45, got on the bus at three 30, got to the race at 4:00 AM and. There was music blaring.

They had a host that were, had a, had a a show going on. There was places for pictures. People were dressed up.

There was it, it was such a positive experience.

Julie: in that moment, you’re like, when’s my next race. You’re ready to sign there. You’re like, give me the registration. It’s addicting.

Shayne: for the runners, the people who’ve already run a few races other than, the show and the entertainment. And of course the parks. how do the run Disney events compare with other running events?

Julie: So a lot of it is just the preparation. So if I’m gonna run a local. If I’m gonna run, which for me a local race would be either very close to my house, like 10 minutes away or down in Baltimore, which is 45 minutes away. So if I’m running down in Baltimore, I’ve gotta think about things like, I definitely wanna eat breakfast at my house.

I might bring a snack. I’ve gotta leave in enough time to park, but Disney is a whole scenario. Disney does have buses if you’re staying on property to get you there. But like we briefly mentioned, you’ve gotta get on that bus around three 30 in the morning. They want you in your corrals by four and four 30 in the morning.

So it, that’s a huge thing. You’re waking up at two 30. You’ve really gotta start practicing, going to bed early and getting up early.

Shayne: Cause you don’t just do that that night. You can’t

Julie: No, you’ve, you’ve really gotta commit to, to that. Going along with that, Disney does a lot of challenges during their race weekends. So the most popular one is the dopey challenge over marathon weekend.

So that’s four days of running in a row. You’re gonna run a 5k, then a 10 K. And a half marathon and then a marathon that’s four days. So not as only is it four days of running. It’s four days of waking up at two 30 in the morning. So people who bad they’ve gotta start. They have to incorporate that in their training.

That’s a really hard thing to do. Not only is it hard to run 48.6 miles and four days, but it’s hard to get up that early and adjust your body. So that’s the biggest thing. It’s just the time is. Is a lot and people think I don’t, if I’m gonna do a race here locally, I’m maybe gonna show up a half an hour early.

No Disney wants you there early. And that’s just because the sheer amount of people that they have to get to the corrals and, the buses everybody’s gotta, they want to make sure everyone has time to get there and really enjoy their race.

Shayne: And

Julie: Um,

Shayne: it’s well organized with the corrals and the staged starting.

Julie: it is really well organized, but. They will drop you off.

Usually most common RA, most commonly the races start around the parking lot. So they’re gonna drop you off in the parking lot. But I remember for marathon weekend. It felt like we walked a mile and a quarter to get to the corral. It is

Ryan: Very yeah, very much

Julie: in the parking lot. You’ve gotta go to the corral and you’re not walking by yourself, you’re walking with a herd of people, but it’s still a distance.

And again, that’s why you’ve gotta get there so early. Whereas if I’m gonna show up to a local race, I’m gonna park my car and in five minutes, I’m up starting line.

Ryan: yeah. I, I wanna say when Miriam and I got to the Ebco parking lot, it was a good 20 minute

Julie: Oh yeah, yeah.

Ryan: Kind of around and around and twists and turns to get to the, the starting area. Absolutely.

Shayne: So you wanna account for that?

Julie: Yeah, it it’s a lot of planning and just like logistics, because you also want to go, you’ve gotta pick up your packet the day before. Usually they do do emergency bid pickup, but it, it’s really stressful. So you’ve gotta get to wide world sports to get your packet so that you’ve gotta factor into your vacation.

It, it takes a little bit to wait for that bus to take you to wire motor sports, to get there, to go through the expo. The expo is huge. You wanna see everything over there? And then to get back to your resort. So it’s not like that could really be much of a park day for you. You’ve gotta make sure you’re you’re planning for that.

Ryan: So speaking of that, Julie Shayne Shayne asked about how it compares to regular races. How does a run Disney trip compare to regular Walt Disney world trip?

Julie: It is so different. And, and so enjoyable for so many different reasons. And I think that’s what makes it so fun because it’s so unique. So the big thing is, you’re not gonna be spending nearly as much time in the parks. You’re gonna be FOC I mean you can, but then your race may not be as successful as you want it to be.

So if you wanna have a good race day experience, you need to try to limit your park time. Not only so that you can go to bed early, but so that you can. Limit your steps and save your legs a little bit, especially if you’re doing some of those longer races, the half marathon, the marathon, things like that.

The other thing that happens a lot is you wanna eat a lot healthier. So you’re a little more conscious of what kinda snacks you’re having the day before. Again, you, you can do whatever, but you’re gonna feel it during the race. So you wanna eat things that you’ve maybe eaten before and the resorts do try to help with that.

They always have a runner’s meal and a runner. Pack. So the runner’s meal is usually something pasta related, but you could also try to get something like a grilled chicken or just something that you know is not gonna not gonna be weird for your body to run on the other

Ryan: a gas on cinnamon.

Julie: Yeah.

Shayne: I was thinking.

Julie: Real quick.

If that’s what you’re doing, that’s not gonna sustain you maybe for the five.

Ryan: Snack snack on a guest on cinnamon. Roll on the bus at three in the morning

Julie: Yeah, I don’t know about that. I think they always have a runner’s pack for the morning, which is bagel, peanut butter, banana water, that kind of thing. And that’s really the best way to go, just to make sure you’re eating things that are your body’s comfortable eating.

So that’s something, you’re not usually thinking about that when you’re on a regular Disney trip, you’re enjoying snacks and you’re doing this. You could do all that just after the races.

Shayne: And speaking of snacks. So one of my favorite parts of rub race is the support. How, how is that? What, how’s the next level?

Julie: Yeah. I think it’s, I think it’s good. You. They, they have a lot of water stops and you can see all of that on the map ahead of time. I, they have a lot of water stops. They always usually have G at the water stops, so that’s helpful. They’ve always got bananas. They always have goo or some sort of sport beans or some sort of, some sort of nutrition like that for runners.

Sometimes they’ll have you. More treat type things, candy or something like that, but usually it’s good nutrition stuff and it it’s usually, there’s, there’s a lot to go, you’re not worried about that. The, to go along with that though, because you’re getting there so early, you do wanna bring a snack with you. because, you could eat breakfast in your room at 2 45 in the morning, but your race doesn’t start until five or five 30. You might need something else in your belly that you need to bring a little snack with you. And I think usually they have like a food truck set up at the parking lot there, but you don’t really want like a bacon, egg and bagel,

Ryan: Now as a spectator, I really appreciated that bacon, egg, and cheese bagel and that cup of coffee. But yeah, my daughter, that’s not what she’s looking for.

Julie: No. So you might wanna bring a bar sometimes I’ll bring you a cliff bar from home, something like that, just to snack on something else, because you’re gonna get hungry. You’re gonna start running and realize I haven’t eaten in three hours, four hours, and you’re out there for a while, just because of the nature of the race.

Ryan: I know Shayne, you, you ask about support. I know with Miriam, one of her favorite parts of the race and she was running by herself. So she didn’t necessarily have, a friend running with her but was seeing the cast members. There were cast members who had gotten up that morning and come to the race to cheer on the runners.

And she just thought that was the coolest.

Julie: That

is

so cool. Yeah. I mean the, the amount of like runner support and encouragement is, is just incredible. And that’s what makes those races so fun. There are people all along the course, everyone is so positive, you’re. Some of the races when you run down main street towards the castle. The people on the sidelines there are just incredible.

It’s just so cool to see that the marathon, I know it’s a little bit of a famous thing at the end of the marathon. There’s a gospel choir right there. That’s singing for you right before you’re going towards the finish line. It’s a lot of really cool stuff throughout that race.

Shayne: So thinking back to your first race and then later races, how does what you experienced on the race compared to what you were expecting of the races?

Julie: I would say it’s just a lot, a lot more fun than what I ever would’ve thought. And a lot more encouraging from the runners. The, the biggest. Surprise to me is just how encouraging everyone on that courses. Not necessarily the, the cast members and the people cheering you, every runner that you’re in the corral with everyone is excited to be there.

Everyone is so happy. A lot of people have worked on an outfit, a costume, a Disney town for that race. Everyone is, is just so excited. So that’s something I really wasn’t expecting.

Ryan: A and some of them are not very run

Julie: oh gosh.

Ryan: friendly costumes.

Julie: never something that you ever would’ve imagined yourself running in, except for at Disney. I’ve seen people running in when I did the tower of terror, 10 miler this past year, people were running in a full cardboard box of the tower of terror,

just incredible outfits. And that was for 10 miles when we ran the marathon, I could not believe some people were running in the outfits that they run in.

I never go that crazy. I’m wore Disney bound. for the marathon we did I dressed as boo and my husband was Sally and our friend was Mike Wasowski and we just wore like the corresponding colors, my husband and I have done Peter pan and Wendy. We did the Incredibles star wars is easy to get Star Wars costumes, but we’ve never done.

Full on costumes, cuz I, I wanna be comfortable running. But that was something that really surprised me. And it’s just something that is so unique to run Disney. You will never see that. At any other race, people would think you were crazy. So going along with that, when you, when you tow up to a local race, people are competitive.

They’re out there, they wanna hit a PR they’re gonna run you over for their PR. They don’t care at run Disney that will never happen. People are not there to get a PR they’re not there to get their personal best. Everyone’s there to have fun. And, if you trip or fall or not feeling well, somebody’s gonna stop and be with you.

And I think that’s, that’s the biggest.

Biggest difference between what I had experienced versus what I experienced at Disney races.

Ryan: So Julie, what has been your favorite park to run in?

Julie: Ooh. I thought I knew my answer, but then I, I had a couple other thoughts. I would say it is. Super emotional running down main street. If you can get there when it’s still a little dark outside, the Castle’s still illuminated.

That is just a really cool experience. I’ve never felt anything like that before. But during one of the races, we were also able to be the first race that ran through Pandora at night after that. Oh, cool. That was a really fun thing too, because there’s different sounds in there. There’s the bioluminescence, it’s a really cool experience.

But I, I think the castle is probably number one, running towards the castle. So you get to do that during the princess half marathon. During marathon weekend, you do it during the marathon. And I’m not sure if you do it during the half marathon of marathon weekend, the courses are always a little bit different and you don’t know them until about a few weeks before the race two to three weeks out.

But during the marathon, you definitely run up main street. and then couple miles later, you actually get to run through the castle and come out and get, your really iconic picture there. That’s probably the best part. And that’s, I would literally run the marathon again to do that.

Ryan: Very cool.

So give us some pro tips. I, if I’m interested in doing run Disney or I have a family member, what are some pro tips that you would give.

Julie: So first I would say really get into the atmosphere of run Disney. Don’t go there and, and treat it like you’re a local race, treat it like it is run Disney. So dress up, come up with an outfit.

It’s just more fun even if, like you said, I usually, like I said, I usually just Disney bound, so I’m still in running clothes, but it’s inspired by a Disney character. Along with that, stop for the characters and really enjoy the atmosphere of that. Don’t try to make it your personal best or a record race really en enjoy those characters.

You don’t have to do every single one, but that’s why you’re there. That’s why you’re running that run Disney race for that experience. I would say another really important thing is be because of the amount of people. Disney has a lot of corrals that you’re placed into before the race. But they do allow you to submit a proof of time to try to get in a higher corral, which gives you an earlier start time, which means you get to those character stops sooner.

Maybe there’s a little bit less people in your corral when you’re taken off. So if you can try to run a race before the time that the date that you have to submit your proof of time so that you can submit something and just try to be in a better position for the. It depends on the race that you’re running, how long that proof of time has to be.

If you’re running a half marathon, they usually want a half marathon time, but. You know, If you’re running a marathon, they’ll accept a half marathon, a 10 K or a marathon, usually. A couple other good pro tips are similar to what I talked about earlier. Make sure you go to bed early, set your alarm to get up early, set multiple alarms to get up early.

So you don’t miss your bus. Eat a good dinner before eat a good meal after and make sure that you go to the quick service at your resort before. you go to bed the night before and go pick up your breakfast cuz you don’t want two 30 to come and realize you don’t have anything to eat for breakfast. Mm.

With a quick mention to the resorts. A really good pro tip is make sure you stay at a resort on Disney property, cuz they’re gonna have bus transportation for you to the starting line and back to your resort after you finish. And that’s really convenient. If you try to drive in it’s a mess. There are, there’s so much traffic, a lot of people miss the race.

And it it’s almost even better if you can just get as close as you can to the race. So a lot of people, the, a lot of races end at Epcot as well. So a lot of people like to stay on the Skyliner, where they can then, take the Skyliner back to the resort or the monorail where they, you can get on the monorail and take it back to a monorail resort.

One race. We stayed at, I think it was star wars weekend. We stayed at the Polynesian and that year, the race actually started in magic kingdom parking lot. We could walk to the starting line. Wow. That’s great. Nice, phenomenal. Makes the mornings so much easier. And, just really think about what resort you’re staying at.

It it’s not gonna make or break your experience, but it definitely might upgrade your experience and take a little stress off. If, if you can, hop on the monorail and get over to the starting line versus waiting on for a bus and those buses they are not Disney buses. They are contracted, they do tend to get lost.

So you really wanna be on that first

Ryan: bus, right? I, I know that was one of Julie’s tips for us. And I really appreciated that because even though we had to get up a little earlier, we knew that we had time to get where we needed to

Julie: be. Yeah. Even if your bus gets lost, you’ve got an hour, two hours before you have to be there.

You do not wanna be on that bus. That’s lost when the race is starting. And that happens almost every race weekend. That’s crazy. Yeah. And the bus is just sometimes don’t know where they’re going.

Shayne: So if you don’t have a, a time for picking a corral, do you just pick, can you just pick a later corral so that for those people,

Julie: they just place you at the last corrals mm-hmm okay.

Which is fine. Yeah. There’s nothing wrong with that. Except like I mentioned earlier, a lot of people walk these races. The, the training plans that Disney puts out are created by Jeff Galloway, who is famous for his run walk program. Mm-hmm and I’m a physical therapist as well. And so I, I understand that run walk.

It has, it really helps prevent injuries, especially if you’re a new runner or an older runner. Run walk is a great way to go, but because of that, your ti your overall time might be slower. So Disney has a 16 minute mile cutoff. So if you’re starting in an earlier corral, your 16 minute mile is actually extended because it’s 16 minute mile from the last person that starts.

Gotcha. So if you’re in that, those later corrals, you, you really might be cutting it close. If you’re at all worried about. Not finishing on time. At run Disney races, there’s the dreaded balloon ladies that everyone cares about when they start getting, they, they start learning about run Disney and those are women and, and men, I, and they literally have balloons tied to them and they are the last people to start the race and they keep a 16 minute mile.

And if they pass you, you are swept. Oh, wow. We do not wanna see them. So stay ahead of them. So yes, that’s, that’s the important part about getting a good proof of time and, and being in an earlier corral, because you’re gonna be stopping for character stops. So there’s gonna be times where you’re not running, you’re at a standstill, but you’ve still gotta right where you’re keeping on a pace.

So what we like to do is. We’ll both wear my husband and I will usually do the races together. We’ll both have our watches going. And one of us will pause when we stop for our character and the other one will let the watch keep going. Okay. So that way we can know okay, how much time really has elapsed?

Are we still good? . Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, it’s not a race, people are doing for a personal time, but you still wanna finish and get your medal and not get swept.

Shayne: Sure, sure. And then as far as first timers go, it’s a good race, but make sure that you can maintain a 16 minute mile.

Julie: You still have to, you still have to train.

I mean, Yes. It’s a, it’s a fun experience. I think a lot of people make the, the mistake of thinking, oh, it’s a Disney race. It’s just for fun. But if you’re signing up for the Disney marathon, you’ve still gotta make it through 26.2 miles. In Florida.

Shayne: Yeah. That’s, that’s not a regular

Julie: park day. That’s a long way.

It’s no joke. It’s no joke. Even the half marathons or even a 10 K or a 5k for somebody who that could be their first run, you still need a train. You can’t just show up and hope for the best.

Shayne: Cause I have friends that do that for local half marathon. They walk them, but they train for that too.

So That makes sense.

Julie: you, you definitely still need to make sure you’re training, that’s part of your preparation. A lot of runners get really into it, but I definitely would not recommend just showing up because, if that is what you’re doing, if you are just gonna show up and not really put in the training, you may not be able to enjoy those character stops as much.

Ryan: Julie, what are your future plans with run Disney?

Julie: I would love to do Princess weekend again. The highest on my list. That was my absolute favorite experience that I had so far with run Disney. So I’m hoping to do that in 2024, the registration for next year just didn’t really work out. So hopefully 2024, but that’s the thing with Run Disney.

You have to plan far in advance, right? Because how far out you have to register, that’s the next one on my list. I really loved Princess Weekend in the past. And I really wanna do that one again. Sounds great. All right.

Ryan: Cool. Well, Hey, if you would like to follow along with Julie’s Run Disney adventures, maybe it sounds like, it won’t be for a while, but I know that she also as Run Disney comes around, she will throw up tips and ideas for getting ready for it and understanding it.

You wanna follow Julie’s Facebook page? What, remind us what that is.

Julie: Julie Creating Magic Vacations with Julie.

Ryan: All right. Creating magic vacations with Julie. And we will also in the show notes, put up run disney.com , which is everything from the Run Disney standpoint. And I can tell you again, from, from a, a dad whose daughter ran it for the first time, that was a really helpful.

Website to understand the whole process. Yeah.

Julie: But I will say that website is different from other races. Other races usually get a lot of information pretty far out, whereas Disney, you don’t get anything until about three weeks other than the start time.

Shayne:

Well,

We would love to help you plan your next amazing vacation. You don’t have to run. We’ll still plan it for you. Anyway, we are all travel advisors with Creating Magic Vacations. You can reach out to us.

Julie, J U L I E @ CreatingMagicVacations.com. R Y A N at CreatingMagicVacations.com or S H A Y N E at CreatingMagicVacations.com. Most

Ryan: families are confused and overwhelmed when planning a vacation, we work with you to plan a trip perfect for your interest, saving you time, money, and stress.