Hi again all!
Now that I've covered my overall thoughts on the 2018 DLP edition of Run Disney as a whole, I wanted to take a bit of time to break down each race and give you a little insight into what the experience was like.
It seems most sensible to start at the beginning, so first up is the Marvel 5 KM! Now 2018 was the first year when all of the races had a proper theme, with characters along the route that reflected this. For me this was a bit of a mixed bag, the themes didn't particularly appeal to me and I liked having the surprise of totally random characters out on the course. That said, I know many did enjoy this, and maybe if the theme had been something I was more of a fan of I would have been happier.
The race started at 8 pm on Friday 21st and this was our first experience of the new corral and start line location. I actually liked this a lot more than I thought I would, the corrals were tucked in neatly behind the expo tent at the back of Disney Village. This made it really convenient if you had a bag to drop, and a far shorter walk than the corrals around the lake for 2017 were. Sophie and I ended up getting to our corral quite early, we arrived at about 6:45 so had just over an hour to wait. Luckily it wasn't too cold, but in hindsight we probably should have aimed for between 7:15 and 7:30 pm as this is when the corral really started to fill up.
I did mention it briefly before, but other than the random assignment of corrals, my main issue with the new system is that we couldn't see or hear anything that was happening on the stage and screens from corral C. I know a few people have highlighted that this would be a great chance to give some key points about runner etiquette as this is often missed in the event guide, however, from where I was this would have been missed by many of the runners. The front gates to each corral had lights on top, so I'm wondering if speakers could have been attached here so at least the audio could have been heard.
Once it was time to start the race participants were lead towards the start line one corral at a time, within these corrals we were then split into smaller waves to ensure the start wasn't too congested - I really like this approach.
The 5 km race saw a few course changes for this year, most notable is that it went back to running through both parks, which is something I really missed in 2017. Overall I found the course much better, for the most part it was well lit, and only the first corner was really an issue. I tracked an overall elevation of 28m on this course, compared to just 2m in 2017, but I can't say I found the course hilly at all.
In total there were 4 character stops during the race, though we only ended up stopping for 1. The first characters were Gamora and Star Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy, who were meeting in Hollywood boulevard in the studios. In hindsight, I do slightly regret not stopping for these, as they are not out to meet in the parks, but as I had already had a tip off as to who else was on the course, we decided to keep going.
The next character was at the back of Adventure Land near the Colonel Hathi's restaurant, Black Panther! This was the one meet I had wanted since the first day the themes had been revealed, so when I got tipped off he was due out I knew this was the one I had to stop for. The queues for all the characters seemed quite long and in truth I'm not entirely sure what caused this. I do not believe there were any less characters on the course this year when compared to previous years, I'm not sure if they were just more popular, or if it was because I had started further back? Either way I really loved the photo location for Black Panther as he had his own specially created back drop, we queued about 20 mins and were able to get a Photo Pass picture, as well as one on a phone.
The course then went out the back of Adventure Land, round a short back stage loop and then back into the studios at the tram tour. We got to run around catastrophe canyon before we got to the queue for the next character meet, Thor and Loki. The queue for this was already quite long, we decided we weren't fussed about Loki and knew we were meeting Thor the following evening at the Marvel character dinner so again decided to press on.
The final character location was in the arena of the Motors Action stunt show and this was Captain America and Black widow. Now admittedly we did take our time during the 5 K and were by no means the fastest runners, but neither were we the slowest. Even still by the time we reached this meet the cast members were advising the wait time could be as much as 45 mins! Now I've met Cap on at least 2 separate occasions already, on top of this both he and Black Widow were due to be at our character meal the following evening so we decided not to wait.
Once we left the stunt show we were on the final straight of the race, the finish line was just by the stage in production court yard and once we got through we were given our medals and were able to meet up with our friends. The medals at the Run Disney races are such high quality and I always look forward to receiving them, this year was no different and being presented with my Thanos medal, complete with all 6 Infinity stones, was a proud moment. I'm also pleased to say that to the best of my knowledge all finishers received their medal this year and there were no shortages!
Due to the early start the following morning for the 10 Km we decided to make our way back to the hotel straight after the race, we did stop briefly for a photo with our medals outside the studios park entrance, but I was really disappointed that none of the finisher boards were up for a proper photo!
So that was the 5 Km and I really enjoyed it! Did you run, what were your thoughts on the race? What theme would you like to see for 2019? Drop me a comment!
Hoodsie xx
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