Proof of Time: A Change of Pace by Lani Teshima
Corrals will not look the same after the change runDisney is implementing in 2014
Read it here!
Proof of Time: A Change of Pace by Lani Teshima
Corrals will not look the same after the change runDisney is implementing in 2014
Read it here!
Great article! I think it's unfortunate that they aren't allowing Wine & Dine (November 9th start date) to be proof of time.
Cathy
Very helpful, thank you! I can sympathize with both sides, as last year I was a fast runner in the TOT 10 Miler, and spent nearly an hour pushing my way through walkers in corrals A-D. This year I'm going in with injuries and am afraid of slowing down others. With the way the system has been before, I didn't think the Disney races were appropriate for serious competitors. As you mentioned, there are too many "fairy wings" and people just doing it for fun. Hopefully the new system will better accommodate all different kinds of participants.
As a "Fast" runner by Disney standards, I always, no matter what Corral I am in, try to be as close to the starting line and the front of the corral as possible. I broke my arm in 7th grade cross country and since then, I always show up 2 hours before the start of the race and line up before they open the corral so I can be near the front. It worked for me in Expedition Everest in 2011. 3rd place finish. I am notorious for a fast start as well. Give me some room to run! Great Article BTW. Curious how the marathon and goofy and dopey assignments will look.
What is most annoying about all of this is that they promote these races ...to go out and have fun! Like time doesn't matter. This is especially true for the Tinkerbell race. They don't even have the Cliff pace runners for this event.
But at all races they offer characters, props and sets to stop along the course and have your photo taken to commemorate your experience. Which is why we all want to run these races in the first place. But, in fact all these things are just obstacles in trying to maintain the 16 min pace requirement they rigidly enforce.
I run 12 min pace, but when I stop for character pictures it sometimes adds 20 minutes to my overall time, making me seem like I am a more of a 14 min/mile pace. So I get bumped down a corral. It angers me that Disney judges me by that time and punishes me if I am slower than the year before.
In the end it never matters what the weather was like, how many characters you met...it is all about the overall time. They even get one more dig at you on the finishers certificate by posting the clock time next to your time. Why do I have to see that on my certificate?
I don't get to choose my corral, and don't have the opportunity to start with the clock. The clock time has no bearing on my race at all, but yet there it is forever. A constant reminder....I was NOT in Corral A, in other words, I was not the best that day.
I'm not sure I would characterize the pace as rigidly enforced. They seem to have a big of wiggle room from what I've seen - especially at the 2013 Disneyland Half. I saw finishers well over 4 hours.
My concern with the corral placements and such is that it's all fine and good - if they actually do it.
I'm slow. I do like getting in the best corral I can so I can get a cushion of time. No doubt about it. I can't lie. I never dreamed of photo-shopping anything to falsify a proof of time. People DO that??
But.
This isn't just a function of runners - Disney isn't exactly consistent. I know walkers who provided honest time expectations who got assigned to corrals ahead of runners with proof of time. And the system they're creating has a me a tad intrigued for what reality is going to look like. I know someone running in Tinker Bell as a first half marathon. This runner had no proof of time at registration so now will have to submit one after registration. Now, I guarantee you that this runner will NOT get the appropriate corral placement at Tinker Bell: He's my son. He belongs in Corral A or B but he'll get C at best because it's a women's race. (This is not an editorial comment, it's just a face of the matter.)
Another issue that is a combination of factors - runners and Disney - is the plan versus the reality on race day. I've been at events when Cast Members scrutinized our bibs when we got in our corrals. I've been at events when people easily moved up and walked past race officials and volunteers, putting themselves in better corrals than they were assigned. I've also been at events where crowd control was so poor that runners with a certain corral were TOLD by race officials and volunteers to move up into a faster corral just to get the crowd moved. At times - corrals have been too small to handle all the runners assigned to them, as well. One more thing I dislike immensely about the September event is that the corrals are very tight and hard to get to. I much prefer the Tinker Bell event where the corrals are lined up in one row.
There are just so many variables to this issue.
But I'm reserving final judgement until I actually SEE what this looks like in person. There were a lot of problems in the previous system - some created by runners but plenty created by Disney, too. Just because they say this is what they're doing, doesn't mean that's how it will work out.
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My suggestion, if you want to improve your corral placement, is to submit a time from a different, non-Disney event. So instead of using your runDisney half time (that's slower), turn in a 10K finish time from a local race. Depending on where you live, you should be able to find community-oriented local races. If you aren't sure, check with your town's running shoe store (the ones owned by runners, not the big box stores) and they can tell you about upcoming races.
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It's defiantly not only the runners. runDisney also has a hand in this as well. I was totally blown away by the person I overheard at the Disneyland Half who was bragging that a friend at runDisney moved her up from the last corral to a higher corral so she could get a head start.
RunningFool
Next non-Disney short distance event: Good question...
Next non-Disney Half: TBD
Next runDisney event: W&D Two Course Challenge & 5k
I guess I am confused. The DLH was my first RunDisney event. I had to submit a proof of time from another race to put me in any corral other than the last. Was this different from the past?
Yes, this is different. There was a finish time that you could just put as your estimated time on the registration form without any proof (I think it was 2:30? Maybe 2:45?). Now if you put any estimate other that 3:30 for a half, you have to have proof.
Cathy
I don't know if they still do this, but earlier this year when I got a new PR at the OC HM, I emailed my time to runDisney as my "new" proof of time for the Disneyland HM, and they replied that they updated "all" of my runDisney race registrations with that time. It's kind of nice since you have to register months in advance of a race, in case you make some significant improvements between the time of registration, and race day.
One more thing to remember that is new/ different is the rule that runners won't be able to make a corral change at the expo which we could previously do. Once corral assignments are made and the published date to change is past, there will be no other opportunities to move up even if you have proof of a better time.
RunningFool
Next non-Disney short distance event: Good question...
Next non-Disney Half: TBD
Next runDisney event: W&D Two Course Challenge & 5k
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