By This is a bit of old news to most at this point but as I am heading out the door to what is going to be my last Disneyland RunDisney event for at least 3-4 years, I wanted to throw my thoughts into the ring.
Anyone that knows me knows that I have developed a love/hate relationship with RunDisney over the past couple years. I have many thoughts on the organizations but those are for another post which is coming sooner rather than later- I just want to get through Avengers first.
Funny enough, I was actually visiting Disneyland when the news hit that RunDisney was going to be doing away with California events. This came after a very lengthy delay regarding any information about January’s Star Wars Light Side Half Marathon Weekend.
Light Side had become something of a dirty word since early 2017 when the status of the race was called into question. Constant delays in the opening of registration and rumors of a riff between Disney and the City of Anaheim led to a lot of frustration in the RunDisney Community.
When the normal deadline for Proof of Time submission came and went with no registration opening, the frustrations grew to a roaring boil, especially as non-official word was coming through of California events being suspended.
Once the leak began RunDisney finally let us know what was going on, citing massive construction projects in Disneyland, including a new hotel, as the reasons behind the decision to cancel all races for the foreseeable future, possibly until 2021 if not later.
It was really funny to see the flood of messages from people to me asking my thoughts on the whole thing. Truth be told, I’ve known for a while that, at the very least, Light Side was a no-go for 2018 and that the future of California events was in jeopardy in a manner of speaking.
I’m not overly thrilled by this as Disneyland Half Weekend is one of my favorites and I currently hold legacy on the Infinity Gauntlet Challenge but the reality is that Disneyland doesn’t have the space to run around all the madness going on within the parks.
Disney World? Whole different story. Hell we just ran Wine and Dine through a park that is 90% construction! But we have the space. With the loss of certain areas simply means taking the race down a different street. No big deal.
Disneyland doesn’t have that. The draw of these races is being able to run through the parks and experience Disney in a new and amazing way. The reality is that if RunDisney wanted to keep opertating in Califonia, more than a good chunk of each race would be outside of the parks and through Anaheim. As it is a good chunk of the half marathons are already out on the streets.
An attempt was made with the Tinker Bell weekend to try out a change in route and this was nothing short of a distaster!
As for my thoughts on all of this?
I’m relieved.
To be completelty honest, RunDisney weekends have taken their toll on me both mentally and financially, especially when it comes to travelling out to California. Their race weekends always fall on holiday weekends so the cost of everything is astronomical from flights, rental cars and hotels.
My plan for a while has been to cut back on Disney races and limit them to my legacy races and Disneyland Half (my favorite). With this change I will now only be running the Dark Side Weekend (my legacy race) until Dinseyland returns. Though it’s quite possible that it may just be Dark Side period from now on depending on how I feel about RunDisney going forward.
The perk now is that I can Disneyland on my terms. Meaning I’m not planning around races and spending half of the time exhausted and forcing myself along.
Race weekends are exhausting and stressful.
Now I can visit Disneyland on my schedule, picking times that are less crowded and less expensive to visit.
I’m happy about this. I’m not stressing about eating right for the races and not tiring myself out in the parks and going to bed at an early hour.
I can actually enjoy a trip to Disneyland!
Not saying I haven’t enjoyed my trips out there, but I leave each of those weekends exhausted.
That all make sense?
Anyway.
I’m fortunate enough to have run every race and challenge Disneyland has to over and have earned my coveted Coast to Coast medals many times over. Thankfully Andy and I did the Kessell Run this year and I can say I’ve done it all.
It does suck for those who haven’t but I’m really hoping that with less on RunDisney’s plate, the can focus on bettering themselves because it really seems to me that they have fallen far over the past couple years (more on that in another post, probably next week).
For now, I’m going to enjoy my visit to California for the Super Hero Half Weekend!
See ya’ll real soon!
Avoiding Neverland 