Official 2020 Star Wars Rival Run Weekend - CANCELED

[DebiPT]

I thought I was going skip this one, but when your best friend calls...

 

[cel_disney]

My 13 year old is running the 10k and is SOO bummed that the virtual half is saying it’s restricted to 14 and over .. seems silly that they wouldn’t want our money..anyone had success with a virtual race for an ‘underage’ kid? Obviously I can register myself to get him the medal but the finisher cert wouldn’t be in his name...

 

[camaker]

My 13 year old is running the 10k and is SOO bummed that the virtual half is saying it’s restricted to 14 and over .. seems silly that they wouldn’t want our money..anyone had success with a virtual race for an ‘underage’ kid? Obviously I can register myself to get him the medal but the finisher cert wouldn’t be in his name...

The age limit for all RunDisney half marathons is 14. They’re just being consistent. The finisher certificate is not linked to your registration, though. You can put whatever name, email and time you want to in and it will generate a certificate for you. You can check it out on RunDisney.com for the summer virtual series. You don’t even have to be registered to access and print the certificate.

 

[PrincessV]

I went to GE's opening last week... and I now really NEED these races to go through Batuu!!! Paths are plenty wide enough, so no issue there. And older courses used more of DHS, so I'm sure they can create a new course to do it. The big potential problem is that ROTR will be open by then, which may mean early opening times for the park and hoards of day Guests to navigate... or it may not. At least they'll have had a few months to look at things and decide. Hope springs eternal and only the ancients know!

 

[MaleficentEvilSister]

I am so excited for this! I have only ever done the Princess weekend races, so this will be my first event branching out to other Disney races.

 

[Eeyores#1Fan]

I am in for the Rival run Challenge + Kessel! Also signed my hubby up for the virtual Half as he's a HUGE Chewbacca fan. SOOOO excited. This is my first SW run weekend and I'm hoping to pair it with Paris next year to get my first Castle to Chateau. I've even got my costumes for SW and 1 for Paris already lol.

 

[BigEeyore]

Sometimes I seriously wonder what RunDisney is thinking. Why on earth would you implement tiered pricing on an event that has not been selling out? As it gets closer to race day you need to entice people to sign up and having a higher price doesn’t help with that.

I will be surprised if it doesn't sell out - 5 year anniversary + opening of GE. Other races do tiered pricing (Ironman for one), with it being cheaper the earlier you pull the trigger. Time will tell...

 

[Guidman]

The majority of races do tiered pricing but the thing is they usually don't come anywhere near what a runDisney race costs. Now a $20 increase isn't drastic but when you already have an extremely pricey product already, it isn't helping the cause.

 

[1lilspark]

Definitely surprised it’s not sold out within hours like the others.... now if it weren’t for it being the tale end of spring blackout and all stars being 200+ a night I probably would of jumped at the 10k when they announced the theme but to pay all that money for a non park trip is bonkers

 

[camaker]

I will be surprised if it doesn't sell out - 5 year anniversary + opening of GE. Other races do tiered pricing (Ironman for one), with it being cheaper the earlier you pull the trigger. Time will tell...

Definitely surprised it’s not sold out within hours like the others.... now if it weren’t for it being the tale end of spring blackout and all stars being 200+ a night I probably would of jumped at the 10k when they announced the theme but to pay all that money for a non park trip is bonkers

I don’t think it has sold out since the inaugural year. Add the crazy jumps in resort rates along with the spring break crowding and I’d be surprised if it sold out. While Star Wars is a massively popular theme in pop culture, I don’t think it yet has the emotional tie in to Disney that the other race themes/characters have.

ETA: It’s also not a good sign that Marathon Weekend attendance has been falling lately, too. I think the only weekend that has really maintained its draw has been W&D. Maybe Princess to a lesser extent.

The majority of races do tiered pricing but the thing is they usually don't come anywhere near what a runDisney race costs. Now a $20 increase isn't drastic but when you already have an extremely pricey product already, it isn't helping the cause.

I see RunDisney as its own phenomenon for these things. Tiered pricing makes sense for the smaller races like locals and IMs, but RunDisney has such a volume buying power advantage, I don’t think they need the buffer that tiered pricing gives. It also doesn’t make sense when you have a history of trying to discount or fire sale bibs to get them sold as race day approaches.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I went to GE's opening last week... and I now really NEED these races to go through Batuu!!! Paths are plenty wide enough, so no issue there. And older courses used more of DHS, so I'm sure they can create a new course to do it. The big potential problem is that ROTR will be open by then, which may mean early opening times for the park and hoards of day Guests to navigate... or it may not. At least they'll have had a few months to look at things and decide. Hope springs eternal and only the ancients know!

I completely agree. Honestly, they can make the 10K and Half courses go through Batuu if they really want to. At least based off the Disneyland version of the area, you can easily enter in at the old outpost where the Resistance base is located and go along that path. It's very doable. I don't know that all runners can go by the Falcon as that area is a bit tighter on the west coast, but they can easily set up a brief detour for anyone who wants to get their photo in front of the Falcon during the race.

And given that it's a Star Wars themed race, I think they almost need to make the course(s) go through Galaxy's Edge. They would take a lot of criticism from runners if they have a Star Wars race that does not go through Batuu. I get why they may well want to keep the 5K at Epcot. But they can make the 10K and Half go through Galaxy's Edge. Those distances have already gone through DHS for Star Wars races before it opened.

All they really need to do is make sure the course is cleared of runners before DHS opens. They can simply not hold extra magic hours at DHS the day of the 10K and/or Half. It's not going to be the end of the world. I'm a slower runner and I normally finish the half marathons at Epcot between 9 and 9:30 depending on how much time I've spent waiting for photos along the course. I really think they can find a way to make the course go through Galaxy's Edge without too much trouble.

I don’t think it has sold out since the inaugural year.

Do we read too much into any given race not selling out? Does runDisney have enough supply to meet demand? On the Disneyland side of the things, the inaugural Star Wars Half Marathon sold out. The subsequent 2 Star Wars Half Marathons did not sell out, but at least one of them featured more runners than the inaugural year. So technically it didn't sell out, but they still had enough spots available because they increased capacity.

runDisney has such a volume buying power advantage, I don’t think they need the buffer that tiered pricing gives. It also doesn’t make sense when you have a history of trying to discount or fire sale bibs to get them sold as race day approaches.

They used to have tiered pricing many years ago. I think it basically went away during that period when races sold out within hours or days and they haven't bothered to bring it back since. I don't think runDisney needs it either because they are a destination race. I think most runners plan out the race weekend in advance because of the travel and lodging logistics they need to figure out that come with traveling to either Disneyland or Disney World.

 

[BigEeyore]

All they really need to do is make sure the course is cleared of runners before DHS opens. They can simply not hold extra magic hours at DHS the day of the 10K and/or Half. It's not going to be the end of the world. I'm a slower runner and I normally finish the half marathons at Epcot between 9 and 9:30 depending on how much time I've spent waiting for photos along the course. I really think they can find a way to make the course go through Galaxy's Edge without too much trouble.

One thought would be to start us at Epcot and basically have us run the previous course in reverse, ending in the MK parking lot. So we would go through GE early and you could have the runners cleared out of there by 7am or so. If staging the finish in MK parking lot isn't feasible, maybe it would work to just loop us back to Epcot. Either way - it needs to happen!

 

[camaker]

One thought would be to start us at Epcot and basically have us run the previous course in reverse, ending in the MK parking lot. So we would go through GE early and you could have the runners cleared out of there by 7am or so. If staging the finish in MK parking lot isn't feasible, maybe it would work to just loop us back to Epcot. Either way - it needs to happen!

I don't think that route is feasible. Starting and heading that direction is very similar to what they did for the inaugural SWDS. The problem with the course is that it hits the very constrained pathway from Boardwalk to DHS before the field has had a chance to thin out enough. There were massive, frustrating bottlenecks in that part of the course during the inaugural and it was the #1 complaint about the weekend that I heard. It got so congested that the later corrals were unable to run through the area and were funneled down to shoulder to shoulder walking with no way to get through with the sweepers right behind.

 

[PrincessV]

Looking at a map, I think the hurdles involved in routing a race through GE are: 1. needing access to at least some of World Dr, WDW's major road; 2. and/or needing access off Buena Vista, which would mean much more distance in DHS, including entering or exiting GE via TSL; and/or 3. funneling runners through TSL, which I swear is congested even when it's empty; and/or 4. the need to use at least part of the half course for the 10K, as well. Positives for a course including GE include: a MUCH expanded DHS parking lot - having seen it in person, I can believe they could actually stage a race start there now; there is still a "back" entrance that could be used off World Dr. to enter or exit GE. IDK - it'll be interesting to see if they can pull it off!

 

[Sleepless Knight]

It's easy for me to say this in a vacuum, but the 2012 Wine & Dine Half course started at Wide World of Sports, went through Animal Kingdom, then to DHS where we ran through the Osborne Family Lights, and then finished at Epcot. That course spent a lot of time in DHS. I guess what I'm saying is that they can figure out a way to make it happen if they want to.

 

[ANIM8R]

It's easy for me to say this in a vacuum, but the 2012 Wine & Dine Half course started at Wide World of Sports, went through Animal Kingdom, then to DHS where we ran through the Osborne Family Lights, and then finished at Epcot. That course spent a lot of time in DHS. I guess what I'm saying is that they can figure out a way to make it happen if they want to.

"It's always fun to do the impossible" - Walt Disney

 

[Sleepless Knight]

"It's always fun to do the impossible" - Walt Disney

That reminds me of a great story tied to that statement.

Matt Ouimet was President of Disneyland when they started preparing for the 50th anniversary of the park. He had been telling various departments everything they needed to do to have the park itself ready to showcase for the 50th anniversary. After multiple meetings of various departments saying that was impossible, he held one more meeting and went over everything they needed to do again.

This time when he was told that's impossible, he put that quote up and then revealed who said it. Suffice it to say, attitudes changed and Disneyland's 50th Anniversary celebration was a monumental success.

 

[habs0nut]

If anyone is looking for some new running music for their SW2020 training, I see that Rex's Playlist #1 from Oga's Cantina is now available on Apple Music.

 

[PrincessV]

If anyone is looking for some new running music for their SW2020 training, I see that Rex's Playlist #1 from Oga's Cantina is now available on Apple Music.

And I'll vouch that it's PERFECT for running! I got the original, short version earlier in the week and just added the rest.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

If anyone is looking for some new running music for their SW2020 training, I see that Rex's Playlist #1 from Oga's Cantina is now available on Apple Music.

And I'll vouch that it's PERFECT for running! I got the original, short version earlier in the week and just added the rest.

Now for runDisney to do their part and come up with a course that goes through Batuu.