Planning to run during January's Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend? Disney today released an image of the medals for event finishers.
Here are the medals for this year's races: the Walt Disney World 5K, Walt Disney World 10K, Walt Disney World Half Marathon, Walt Disney World Marathon, Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge, Dopey Challenge, and Castaway Cay Challenge.
The Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend Presented by Cigna runs January 9-13, effectively extending the holiday season at Disney by a week. Registration is still available for the Marathon, Half Marathon, Challenges, and kids' races at the runDisney website.
For many participants, the real reward isn't the medal, of course. Or even the satisfaction of training for and completing a physical challenge. No, it's the excuse for planning another trip to Disney World, all in the name of good health and exercise. (And we're not going to talk about what y'all might or might not be eating and drinking at Disney after the race, right?)
Now, of course, this is where Disneyland fans grumble to themselves, following Disney's decision last year to cancel all future runDisney events at that resort. That move turned out to be to accommodate the construction of the planned fourth on-site hotel at the resort, but since that plan is now off the table, maybe we can get some races back along with Earl of Sandwich?
But for Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris visitors, runDisney events continue to provide extra incentive for additional visits to the resorts... as well as a fair bit of training in between.
RunDisney veterans, we'd love to hear your stories and advice for newbies, in the comments.
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I miss the Disneyland races so much. The race date Labour Day weekend just made my summer, plus the temps and race time (being habituated to Eastern time zone) were perfect.
Ran the marathon at Disney World in 2014 and did the coast to coast at Disneyland in the same year. The marathon had a large amount of participants back then and I couldn't imagine what it is like now.
It is more expensive than an average race, but if you like to take pictures with various characters and experience running through the parks it is worth doing once.
If you're running any Disney race to achieve a PR or qualify for Boston you're wasting your money. There are far better races in Florida and elsewhere to achieve these goals. I don't know how anyone could qualify for Boston by running the WDW marathon if they weren't in one of the first couple of starting corrals. Any further back and you're fighting against crowds of runners going at a significantly slower pace.
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The race is a monster money maker for WDW ... I have been told by a marathoner pal that the race is expensive but well organized. In addition, I was told that the WDW race is a popular qualifier for the Boston Marathon because the route across the property is flatter than most.