Disneyland Half Marathon 2024

[fatmanatee]

Just a guess, but I think it's because so many DL cast members are locals so that answer would get a bit repetitive whereas at WDW the cast members come from all over the world.

Was just about to type this, this is my guess as well. DL is more local across the board, CMs and guests.

 

[Novatrix]

Something I was wondering— at WDW, cast member name tags show their hometown under their first name, but at DL, they show a character instead. Why?

The instructor during the DCA powerwalking class actually addressed this. She said all the Disneyland cast members were reissued their name tags with their favorite character displayed rather than their hometown for the 100 years of Disney anniversary.

(Incidentally, hers was Black Panther.)

 

[SarahDisney]

Something I was wondering— at WDW, cast member name tags show their hometown under their first name, but at DL, they show a character instead. Why?

These are the Disney100 nametags - based on something I saw on Insta, I think they'll be going back to hometowns soon. We saw a few CMs who had lost/misplaced their 100 nametags and were wearing older nametags with their hometown.

 

[fatmanatee]

Googled to see if there was more info and found a dis thread from 2005 (!!!) on the same topic. Seems like they might flip back and forth.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/no-hometown-on-disneyland-name-badges.800729/

 

[LorrieAnn5]

I asked when there recently, and they said it's their favorite character. Interestingly, saw one CM who's character was Cruella.

I thought it was specifically for 100 Years of Disney.
I saw a CM that said her favorite character was Flynn Ryder, but she told us her real favorite character was Mother Gothel, but that wasn't on the list of choices. I found it interesting that there was a list and not just a fill in the blank situation.

 

[RunWI1265]

My DW and I agree completely. They opened the kids activity area late, the races were late (theme for the weekend, maybe they should have made it an Alice in Wonderland theme!) and they put it all out in an open parking lot with no shade. We decided that the kids races weren’t worth the pain of getting to the race area and putting up with the sun. First and last time for us.

It really wasn't worth the haul over there. I don't really know what I was expecting but it was underwhelming. We waited in a line for 20 mins for my kids to throw some bean bags that took less than a minute. They surely knew the amount of activities they put out in the "activity zone" was not enough for the amount of kids that were there. I chatted with a CM about the unorganization and she more or less said they were given their assignments and not much else. Basically just threw them into the fire. I made sure she knew we appreciated her excitement and it wasn't her (or any CM's fault). As well as this isn't how any rD event I've ever participated in has gone. And we both agreed they just need some time to figure things out.

 

[LorrieAnn5]

Kids races: Back on valentine's day 2023, I felt like a horrible mother for not thinking to register DS for the kids races. It was stressful enough getting DH & I registered. Then the kids races opened briefly a couple of times I think, and I missed it on the alert website, but once the map came out and I realized the races would be in the parking lot I did not feel guilty anymore. DS had some understanding that some kids were running the 5k or other races, but in the actual moment on Saturday when we would have given up park time to go over there, he didn't notice. $35 in my pocket....
sorry it was a downer for all the parents that did have the forethought to register their kids!

 

[The Expert]

One more stat from he-who-shall-not-be-named:

Roughly 3000 of us did Coast-to-Coast with the January qualifying races!
Note that he did a lot of manual comparisons and math, so it probably isn't 100% correct, but likely as close a number as we will get.

 

[Disneyhanna]

One more stat from he-who-shall-not-be-named:

Roughly 3000 of us did Coast-to-Coast with the January qualifying races!
Note that he did a lot of manual comparisons and math, so it probably isn't 100% correct, but likely as close a number as we will get.

3000 is so many when you think about the number of people that do races. I don't know what unique number of people do the half/full at WDW but I would guess it puts the number of people who did back to back weekends in the realm of 10%. (For Dopey to Dumbo, I believe it was around 10%?) That is just nuts...I know we are all runDisney addicts but for such a significant amount of people to decide to fly cross country to do these races...

 

[Kender]

Something I was wondering— at WDW, cast member name tags show their hometown under their first name, but at DL, they show a character instead. Why?

I asked when there recently, and they said it's their favorite character. Interestingly, saw one CM who's character was Cruella.

Just a guess, but I think it's because so many DL cast members are locals so that answer would get a bit repetitive whereas at WDW the cast members come from all over the world.

Someone already answered correctly that those name tags were specific to the 100th anniversary celebration for the company. Debuted early last year and they were making them through October for new hires I believe.

If they didn't choose a character, it defaulted to Mickey Mouse.

They're getting new ones soon (if they haven't already) according to a CM I chatted with. Plus they can always wear their older ones until then too.

 

[hotblooded]

One more stat from he-who-shall-not-be-named:

Roughly 3000 of us did Coast-to-Coast with the January qualifying races!
Note that he did a lot of manual comparisons and math, so it probably isn't 100% correct, but likely as close a number as we will get.

+2 in that my boyfriend and I did the WDW HM and DL 10K. I wonder if we were counted since we didn’t officially do C2C even though we went coast to coast

 

[StarGirl11]

She was really nice to me, very lovely to chat with. We talked for a short bit and I mentioned a friend of mine that has a "low rider" service dog during our chat. Never gonna look at my friend's service dog the same after hearing her called that

I really appreciate people who are willing to share info so I can pass on what I learn to friends that might need it. Also so I can be more aware of adjustments I can make to not be a hindrance to someone else.



I mean, let's be honest: if one is perpetually online it's also difficult to not at least know of someone.



Oh I could see the effort being done to mitigate any issues. It was mostly unaware people causing problems.

Loling at the comment but knowing her that is 100 percent something she would say.

(Heads up bit of a rant incoming. Everyone in here has been fantastic and was fantastic when I ran into you this past weekend. And like I say below most athletes are fantastic. Its that tiny very real fraction that cause issues.)

Like we try to stick to the left side because usually intentionally or not there’s more room to the far left of the course. But we occasionally have people veer into what we’re using as our lane of traffic being oblivious to the warnings (let it be known that while I got off of Ball hill without injuries I was screaming ‘Wheelchair on your left please stay to your right’ the entire way down and it worked there. Not so much on Pixar Pier where I had a near collision with a runner in all but the 5k. One of them I nearly hit twice because she did it a second time later in the 10k.)

We technically have a brake. A small lever that can trim our speed. But once you hit a certain level of incline and speed it’s not going to do much. So we need the room. And 90 percent of people give us the room.

It's the remaining percent that makes any remotely steep downhill incline for 'back of the pack' chairs absolutely terrifying. Because I know my physics. My fellow wheels know our physics. But occasionally we get people who either have their music on too loud and come into our lane of traffic. Or people think they who have never sat in our wheelchair and don't know what our brake is like or how we turn or any number of things I have to consider when navigating the course and think they can beat us out.

Which no. No you don't.

I still don't know how I got this good of a castle photo. Because going into the passageway I realized if someone stopped for a jump photo or for any reason at all both of us and possibly someone else depending on how I might have to turn to try and make an attempt at avoiding crashing. There was no way to come out of that kind of that potential what if without at least me and almost definitely the other athlete being injured no matter what I did.

Thankfully it didn't happen but that was a real fear coming up to a part of the course I had been looking forward to for months. Just because I can't trust that one out of 10 people who behave out of pocket to not do something that endangers the both of us.

And let me be clear even on a small incline like the castle. There's at least a non zero chance if I hit someone we are both coming out with some of injuries. I don't like it but I can only do so much when dealing with other people.

One more thing I know I talked earlier with someone about things that do and don't bother me as a racer as far as being used as inspiration. Calling out encouragement isn't a problem. That being said unfortunately there is a thing that crosses a line. And look I can't stop people. We're in public but I can't emphasize how awkward this is for us.

Please don't just take a photo of a wheelchair or other wheels athlete without asking us first. Especially if we make eye contact with you and I don't know who you are off the top of my head.

(Like to be clear if one of y'all had come up to me. Lead with being DisBoards and you know my username. And want a photo because of that reason. That's okay. That's not a random complete stranger taking my photo. I might not know all of y'all well but I at least have a frame of reference

Also if someone wants reference for another disabled athlete potentially. Also that would be okay for me.

Or hell maybe you run a race and want a reference for that. That's also okay.

Or hey maybe this was about the shirt I was wearing.

Point is I know there can be valid reasons to want my photo from another random runner. But we need context. Please give us some context. Or even if you have no context so we can maybe explain the problem going on).

There is an unfortuante additional issue of people using us as inspo without understanding our stories and the difficulties we face as disabled athletes. Or in some cases shutting us out of conversations we need to be in. So if I see someone doing that without context it tends to make me think it falls under inspo and not under a variety of reason that it could be.

I get people take other photos all of the times at the races. And I get I can't stop everyone. I get people still will probably do it even if I say no. And hell I might say yes if the last thing I need at the moment I need to do focus on trying to explain why there is more baggage with our photos. Hell I didn't say it to one of the girls I had no context taking photos because I was too focused on manuevering to get into a good position because I knew the tram tunnel was coming up. And I needed to focus on my safety. Not what I saw another runner doing as were going through a tight spot backstage.

That being said if they exist and anyone knows who has the photos. Please pass it on. If its going to happen. If its going to be weird might as well try to get them I suppose.

 

[Zutroy]

Like we try to stick to the left side because usually intentionally or not there’s more room to the far left of the course. But we occasionally have people veer into what we’re using as our lane of traffic being oblivious to the warnings (let it be known that while I got off of Ball hill without injuries I was screaming ‘Wheelchair on your left please stay to your right’ the entire way down and it worked there. Not so much on Pixar Pier where I had a near collision with a runner in all but the 5k. One of them I nearly hit twice because she did it a second time later in the 10k.)

We technically have a brake. A small lever that can trim our speed. But once you hit a certain level of incline and speed it’s not going to do much. So we need the room. And 90 percent of people give us the room.

I’m a lifelong skier. The first two rules of skiing are:

1. Always stay in control and be able to stop or avoid other people or objects.
2. People ahead of you have the right of way. It’s your responsibility to avoid them.

Maybe you would have a better time if you followed these rules on the course. If you are barreling down a hill out of control, that‘s your problem, not the problem of the runner ahead of you.

 

[Novatrix]

I’m a lifelong skier. The first two rules of skiing are:

1. Always stay in control and be able to stop or avoid other people or objects.
2. People ahead of you have the right of way. It’s your responsibility to avoid them.

Maybe you would have a better time if you followed these rules on the course. If you are barreling down a hill out of control, that‘s your problem, not the problem of the runner ahead of you.

I imagine the mass of the racing chair is significantly greater than that of a skier and greatly contributes to the acceleration of the athlete even if they were at a complete standstill at the apex of the hill. Also, skiers have many avenues to decrease their momentum rather than relying on the friction from a tiny piece of metal to provide enough stopping force. Not to mention the snow is more forgiving to a skier wiping out to not hit anyone than the equivalent for a chair athlete on concrete/asphalt.

I saw chair athletes going up and coming down Pixar Pier and the Star Wars hill. They weren't adding force to come down quicker, the gradient and curves just made them FAST. I don't think it's too much to ask people to keep their awareness during a mixed event and be able to pay attention to verbal directions being given to them.

 

[Kender]

Loling at the comment but knowing her that is 100 percent something she would say.

(Heads up bit of a rant incoming. Everyone in here has been fantastic and was fantastic when I ran into you this past weekend. And like I say below most athletes are fantastic. Its that tiny very real fraction that cause issues.)

Like we try to stick to the left side because usually intentionally or not there’s more room to the far left of the course. But we occasionally have people veer into what we’re using as our lane of traffic being oblivious to the warnings (let it be known that while I got off of Ball hill without injuries I was screaming ‘Wheelchair on your left please stay to your right’ the entire way down and it worked there. Not so much on Pixar Pier where I had a near collision with a runner in all but the 5k. One of them I nearly hit twice because she did it a second time later in the 10k.)

We technically have a brake. A small lever that can trim our speed. But once you hit a certain level of incline and speed it’s not going to do much. So we need the room. And 90 percent of people give us the room.

It's the remaining percent that makes any remotely steep downhill incline for 'back of the pack' chairs absolutely terrifying. Because I know my physics. My fellow wheels know our physics. But occasionally we get people who either have their music on too loud and come into our lane of traffic. Or people think they who have never sat in our wheelchair and don't know what our brake is like or how we turn or any number of things I have to consider when navigating the course and think they can beat us out.

Which no. No you don't.

I still don't know how I got this good of a castle photo. Because going into the passageway I realized if someone stopped for a jump photo or for any reason at all both of us and possibly someone else depending on how I might have to turn to try and make an attempt at avoiding crashing. There was no way to come out of that kind of that potential what if without at least me and almost definitely the other athlete being injured no matter what I did.

Thankfully it didn't happen but that was a real fear coming up to a part of the course I had been looking forward to for months. Just because I can't trust that one out of 10 people who behave out of pocket to not do something that endangers the both of us.

And let me be clear even on a small incline like the castle. There's at least a non zero chance if I hit someone we are both coming out with some of injuries. I don't like it but I can only do so much when dealing with other people.

One more thing I know I talked earlier with someone about things that do and don't bother me as a racer as far as being used as inspiration. Calling out encouragement isn't a problem. That being said unfortunately there is a thing that crosses a line. And look I can't stop people. We're in public but I can't emphasize how awkward this is for us.

Please don't just take a photo of a wheelchair or other wheels athlete without asking us first. Especially if we make eye contact with you and I don't know who you are off the top of my head.

(Like to be clear if one of y'all had come up to me. Lead with being DisBoards and you know my username. And want a photo because of that reason. That's okay. That's not a random complete stranger taking my photo. I might not know all of y'all well but I at least have a frame of reference

Also if someone wants reference for another disabled athlete potentially. Also that would be okay for me.

Or hell maybe you run a race and want a reference for that. That's also okay.

Or hey maybe this was about the shirt I was wearing.

Point is I know there can be valid reasons to want my photo from another random runner. But we need context. Please give us some context. Or even if you have no context so we can maybe explain the problem going on).

There is an unfortuante additional issue of people using us as inspo without understanding our stories and the difficulties we face as disabled athletes. Or in some cases shutting us out of conversations we need to be in. So if I see someone doing that without context it tends to make me think it falls under inspo and not under a variety of reason that it could be.

I get people take other photos all of the times at the races. And I get I can't stop everyone. I get people still will probably do it even if I say no. And hell I might say yes if the last thing I need at the moment I need to do focus on trying to explain why there is more baggage with our photos. Hell I didn't say it to one of the girls I had no context taking photos because I was too focused on manuevering to get into a good position because I knew the tram tunnel was coming up. And I needed to focus on my safety. Not what I saw another runner doing as were going through a tight spot backstage.

That being said if they exist and anyone knows who has the photos. Please pass it on. If its going to happen. If its going to be weird might as well try to get them I suppose.

It's not quite the correct language since it's meant for conventions, but the sentiment is the same:

Cosplay is not consent.

That's creepy to take photos of individuals without first asking for permission. I'll give a pass to generic crowd photos and "accidentally got in the shot". But not just creeping and taking a photo of a person. Same with taking a photo of a service dog or other medical equipment without permission.

If people can be polite and ask before taking a picture of my panda stuffy, they can ask a living person before taking a picture of them (or their medical equipment).

 

[StarGirl11]

I’m a lifelong skier. The first two rules of skiing are:

1. Always stay in control and be able to stop or avoid other people or objects.
2. People ahead of you have the right of way. It’s your responsibility to avoid them.

Maybe you would have a better time if you followed these rules on the course. If you are barreling down a hill out of control, that‘s your problem, not the problem of the runner ahead of you.

I typed up a whole rant but decided to delete it though this still ended up being long. But for one something you and every other ambulatory that goes 'what about' at me needs to understand and refuses to every time I have this conversation I'm not talking about runners that are already in the lane. Those are runners I can plan and avoid. Hell I did that in the 5k coming down to the tram tunnel where I was hoping to keep the momentum to get back up the hill but realized the runner didn't hear me and took appropriate action.

If the runner is already there isn't the problem.

What I'm talking about are athletes like the woman who cut me off twice in the 10k. Who moved left off of Pixar Pier and what was a clear path two seconds ago is now

Because haha we can't slow like a ski. Fun fact I used to ski I know about just every way to slow in those. First of all the surface is different. Second of all if we use some of the tricks that work with those I would not just take ourselves out I would probably take out four or five other runners because my chair is 6 feet from one end or another.

Maybe consider that next time. it's not just a you vs me issue. Its a I have nowhere else to go without taking out multiple runners. Though I doubt it considering how much of a fit you threw over rD taking in everyones safety at Marathon weekend.

I have one way to trim the speed safely and I can ride it to kingdom come and I can do everything in my power to participate safely. But I can't control the people who actively ignore us and cut into what was a safe area before with not enough time to react. And thus in a last ditch effort to save both of us because apparently we care more about our combined safety than you care about your own end up with everything as minor as scrapes and bruises or as major with broken bones and injuries resulting in hospitalization.

You and anyone who ignores us, the bike guides (because oh yeah this group ignores them as well, I was bringing up the wheels at the 10k and had to deal watch people ignore the bike I had with me), needs to understand that you are not the authority on everything. And that's fine. But stop acting like you know what's safest for both of us if you can hear me and the others screaming our way down the hill.

ETA: Oh and this can be applied to people cutting off other non wheels as well. I've been cut off before in my pre wheels day. i've seen people take falls from being cut off before. You are not running a trail in the backwoods where you don't have to remember whose around you. Remember that next time.

 

[StarGirl11]

I imagine the mass of the racing chair is significantly greater than that of a skier and greatly contributes to the acceleration of the athlete even if they were at a complete standstill at the apex of the hill. Also, skiers have many avenues to decrease their momentum rather than relying on the friction from a tiny piece of metal to provide enough stopping force. Not to mention the snow is more forgiving to a skier wiping out to not hit anyone than the equivalent for a chair athlete on concrete/asphalt.

I saw chair athletes going up and coming down Pixar Pier and the Star Wars hill. They weren't adding force to come down quicker, the gradient and curves just made them FAST. I don't think it's too much to ask people to keep their awareness during a mixed event and be able to pay attention to verbal directions being given to them.

Thank you. You get it. We actively trim the speed when were in a pack to move safely because we have to worry about ours and other peoples safety because they think they know better than us.

The only times you might see someone pushing on the wheel is if your far enough up to be in the very front of the pack with the wheels. Which most people won't because the front pack can go as fast if not faster than the lead ambulatories when they get going at their fastest.

(for those who don't know rollDisney's fastest female pushrim can do a 28 minute 10k. Which roughly translates to a 3 1/2 minutes per mile. And she herself has said when the really big names come out to play she's considered slow by their standards.)

These are the ones that knowing what other runners are like will book it for Fantasmic and Contemporary depending on the race so they can keep the momentum through the entire hill without having to worry about safety on both sides. Because if they drop back it becomes a whole different ball game.

Unfortunately not all of us are fast enough to pull that off. There's one hill I got to pull this off on and that was Toontown for the 5k because I realized we just had enough of a gap that I could probably get up and down the hill without trimming before the leaders came in.

(Which I actually did barely. Remember we have about a 2 minute head jump on the front runners. So I had two minutes to attempt a clearance. And hill training finally came back to pay off)

But I want to be clear on this we don't gun the hills once the pack comes in. How we handle ourselves completely changes because new elements are introduced. Particularly unpredictability.

I wish I was fast enough to clear the big hills. Someday with weight loss and training I hope to be able to do that. But I can't. That's just a fact of life right now. And until I do that means trimming the speed on even the smaller steep inclines like the castle. And having to worry about people thinking that they know better in terms of keeping both of us safe and not.

It's not quite the correct language since it's meant for conventions, but the sentiment is the same:

Cosplay is not consent.

That's creepy to take photos of individuals without first asking for permission. I'll give a pass to generic crowd photos and "accidentally got in the shot". But not just creeping and taking a photo of a person. Same with taking a photo of a service dog or other medical equipment without permission.

If people can be polite and ask before taking a picture of my panda stuffy, they can ask a living person before taking a picture of them (or their medical equipment).

I do conventions so I see what your going for here. Similar enough concept that its in the right direction even if not identical.

 

[StarGirl11]

Also just kind of an informational but pack range from what I can tell for pushrims range from people like our frontrunner who is capable of a 28 minute 10k. To people like myself who average around a 12 minute mile if were not getting distracted because its runDisney. And that's fairly normal for whats classified as back of the pack for chairs from what I've seen that have a racing chair and aren't relying on on days chairs with free wheels. And I'm starting to pick up pace as I saw my spedometer clicking above a 10 km/hr during the really flat portions of the half. Topping off at higher speeds when I'm safely coming off of some of the hills.

So back of the pack for even us. Still tends to be faster than the non disabled pack of the packers partly due to momentum and I think that sometimes gets missed in the overall conversation about this is 'our slow' is still a fairly decent click.

Things change a lot when you change how you do things as it turns out

 

[Kender]

I've never been able to wrap my brain around changing spots without first checking there isn't someone there or someone about to be there. That's dangerous for everyone.

Granted there's people who do that while driving so it shouldn't be as shocking to me.

 

[StarGirl11]

I've never been able to wrap my brain around changing spots without first checking there isn't someone there or someone about to be there. That's dangerous for everyone.

Granted there's people who do that while driving so it shouldn't be as shocking to me.

Yeah my first Dopey when I was on my feet I wasn’t injured but someone decided that they must be the absolute fastest person in the corral and cut diagonally accross several lanes of running traffic right after the corral release during the half. No warning just took a sharp right out of the start.

Thankfully was able to slow to prevent running head first into the dude. Because my normal pace at the time would have brought me head first into him. Which you can imagine how much of a mess that would have been right at the start if I hadn’t

Heck there was a photo someone posted to FB earlier trying to see if they could find a photo of their friend getting slapped by the hand of someone at the DL Half finish. It seemed to be more in good nature at least.

And you would think moving in a pack would raise more situational awareness because you have more people to worry about. But in my experience it doesn’t.

It seems more like an issue I’ve encountered at rD unfortunately. MCM I had a couple incidents but nothing major. And so far (fingers crossed) nothing when I’m racing locally. Most of the biggest near misses have been at rD and I can’t say it’s entirely runner etiquette I feel like

But then again maybe it’s just where I’m racing.