Downward trend in runDisney?

[rteetz]

Yup.
Has a bunch of VIP perks and extra swag too. All of that for cheaper than one Dopey registration. And most of the race weekends have a two-day Challenge (5K and 10K/Half/Full), and some even offer marathon relays.

I’ve done some RnR events before and have enjoyed them, so I’m looking forward to branching out.

I would totally do that if I wasn't in school.

 

[Keels]

I would totally do that if I wasn't in school.

I already have NOLA (do you know I live there?!), San Antonio and Vegas on my calendar. I’m also considering San Diego, Seattle, Savannah, Montreal and Virginia Beach.

 

[flav]

I already have NOLA (do you know I live there?!), San Antonio and Vegas on my calendar. I’m also considering San Diego, Seattle, Savannah, Montreal and Virginia Beach.

I had looked into that RnR VIP pass and thought... Nice plan for retirement (in 10 years maybe).

 

[rteetz]

I already have NOLA (do you know I live there?!), San Antonio and Vegas on my calendar. I’m also considering San Diego, Seattle, Savannah, Montreal and Virginia Beach.

I want to do Vegas eventually for sure. NOLA would be fun. But I need to graduate first.

 

[Keels]

I want to do Vegas eventually for sure. NOLA would be fun. But I need to graduate first.

Then get off the internet and study!!!!!!

#MomPost

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I do wonder how races will be affected by SWGE.

I think final numbers for Star Wars races 2019 will help tell that story. Part of me wonders if the theme announcement and medal inspiration was released much earlier precisely because they're trying to get people to come down for race weekend 2019.

Wine & Dine could also feel the effects especially if they give us film dates on when it's going to open and they fall before Wine & Dine.

 

[TCB in FLA]

I think the delays in registration did not help things. Remember we were told there would be “details” in early June, then several weeks later there were three registrations within weeks of each other. The first credit card payment wasn’t even due before the next registration cycle.

 

[rteetz]

Then get off the internet and study!!!!!!

#MomPost

Just finished an essay!

 

[rteetz]

I think final numbers for Star Wars races 2019 will help tell that story. Part of me wonders if the theme announcement and medal inspiration was released much earlier precisely because they're trying to get people to come down for race weekend 2019.

Wine & Dine could also feel the effects especially if they give us film dates on when it's going to open and they fall before Wine & Dine.

Star Wars weekend 2019 won't have an open SWGE though so not sure what you mean by that. They obviously aren't selling that weekend all that well either.

Wine and Dine certainly could be affected by SWGE as its possible it could be open before or after that weekend. Though I think most going to that race weekend aren't going for Star Wars related things.

 

[IamTrike]

I played around with some numbers tonight just to get a little more specifics. I was kind of surprised. Since I did my last project on running it looks like the sport has started to grow again. Here's a graph of the number of people that participated in a race during that year.



While it is off it's peak 2017 was the 2nd highest year in history for race participants. Based on that I don't think that would be a factor for Disney


Next I looked at total finshers by race for Disney (they don't publish that for the 5k though)



What I think's interesting is while there is a dip in half participation 10K participation is growing. It will definitely be interesting to see how big the drop off is for 2019.

I also thought it was interesting that there was a dip in the full in 2017. Since people were able to switch from the full to it I would have expected to see a small bump not a dip.

 

[rteetz]

I played around with some numbers tonight just to get a little more specifics. I was kind of surprised. Since I did my last project on running it looks like the sport has started to grow again. Here's a graph of the number of people that participated in a race during that year.

View attachment 369687

While it is off it's peak 2017 was the 2nd highest year in history for race participants. Based on that I don't think that would be a factor for Disney


Next I looked at total finshers by race for Disney (they don't publish that for the 5k though)

View attachment 369688

What I think's interesting is while there is a dip in half participation 10K participation is growing. It will definitely be interesting to see how big the drop off is for 2019.

I also thought it was interesting that there was a dip in the full in 2017. Since people were able to switch from the full to it I would have expected to see a small bump not a dip.

Great info!

 

[bumbershoot]

My first Run Disney race was in 2013 (Tower of Terror 10 miler.)

Aw, same! Man that was a hot evening.

would register in a heartbeat if they brought those back!

Same!!!

This year, SW coincides with spring break and isn't sold out yet

FWIW there is no one spring break week. I have friends across the country and they all have different spring breaks. Even inside my local area with four close-by school districts they all have different break cycles.

I’m planning to buy a Rock ‘n’ Roll Tour pass tomorrow

Nice.

I’m trying to figure out if I can pretend that RnR Dublin 5&10k is a smart way to ease my way into yoga teacher training (elsewhere in Europe) the following Wednesday. A way to get the jet lag done with, then slowly make my way to teacher training.

I also have to get Hot Chocolate seattle purchased. Always a terrific, miserable, awful, wonderful 15k the weekend after princess!

 

[SheHulk]

I played around with some numbers tonight just to get a little more specifics. I was kind of surprised. Since I did my last project on running it looks like the sport has started to grow again. Here's a graph of the number of people that participated in a race during that year.

View attachment 369687

While it is off it's peak 2017 was the 2nd highest year in history for race participants. Based on that I don't think that would be a factor for Disney


Next I looked at total finshers by race for Disney (they don't publish that for the 5k though)

View attachment 369688

What I think's interesting is while there is a dip in half participation 10K participation is growing. It will definitely be interesting to see how big the drop off is for 2019.

I also thought it was interesting that there was a dip in the full in 2017. Since people were able to switch from the full to it I would have expected to see a small bump not a dip.

I seem to remember talk about the dip in 2017 full finishers at the time. That morning was really cold and I vaguely remember somebody saying that many Florida locals who had registered for the marathon woke up that morning, saw below freezing windchills, and just said nope. Somebody did some analysis suggesting that there were way fewer finishers from south Florida than usual. I could be misremembering though.

 

[ScooterScott44]

I played around with some numbers tonight just to get a little more specifics. I was kind of surprised. Since I did my last project on running it looks like the sport has started to grow again. Here's a graph of the number of people that participated in a race during that year.

View attachment 369687

While it is off it's peak 2017 was the 2nd highest year in history for race participants. Based on that I don't think that would be a factor for Disney


Next I looked at total finshers by race for Disney (they don't publish that for the 5k though)

View attachment 369688

What I think's interesting is while there is a dip in half participation 10K participation is growing. It will definitely be interesting to see how big the drop off is for 2019.

I also thought it was interesting that there was a dip in the full in 2017. Since people were able to switch from the full to it I would have expected to see a small bump not a dip.

Love the thread so far and I agree that the runDisney races declines are probably due to many factors mentioned. The key is probably the cost combined with the other factors of one and done destination race (combine the relative duplication of the events in here) and they over saturated their own race schedule.

The graphs are great and it supports the original question of why the decline in runDisney participants. So if the dip in 2015 is real and race participants are increasing 2016-2018 then why are the WDW number flat.

 

[ScooterScott44]

A couple of folks mentioned Annual Passes. That brings up the topic of costs in my mind. The overall costs to get into the parks is likely one factor that runDisney specifically has seen the decline. The races themselves take up quite a bit of a persons day, with such an early start, so why pay over $100 dollars for a park ticket that you will barely use.

When you combine that with the challenge events, unless you have an annual pass, it really isn’t worth it to have a Disney trip and do the race. I started running the Disney marathon weekend back when the half and full were on the same weekend. You could make a Disney trip out of the week or even weekend back then. So i’ll say that the all the items mentioned before are culprits but the number of challenges and challenge participants could be part of the bigger part of the declining picture for RunDisney.

 

[cavepig]

With that being said once I got my skill level improved I found other races a lot more enticing to run like NY which is on the same cost level and possibly cheaper as it doesn’t entail park tickets and such. I found it somewhat tiring of people looking for an angle to try to cheat the Disney system to get a leg up on stuff like better starting placement to ensure they make the cut off times. I understand why people do it but it hurts the honest runners.

People try to cheat the system/cut the course/whatever at more than just Disney races though. It seems like every week I'm reading about DQ's and course cutters at all sorts of races all over. People cheating to try to qualify for Boston happens all over. To me Disney isn't any more open to that kind of stuff than any other races.

3) Construction (as others have mentioned) - I think a lot of people are waiting for Disney to wrap up the extensive construction before coming back. They have so much in the works that will be opening up over the next few years - why go now when you could wait a year or two and see all the new stuff?

Yes I think construction does play a part in people holding off. I've read a lot of people wanting to wait till after it's all over to go back.

4) The generic feel of the race weekends now - including the merchandise in this. There used to be so much unique merch for each race weekend - I did every single race weekend this year and it was all the same stuff, just a different logo on it. All of the 5K courses are the same with the exception of W&D. They recycle their half and 10k courses too - WDW is huge - wish they would mix it up a bit!

I wish there was more unique items to buy, I miss the vinylmations and mini medals for them. I think having the same courses is because there really is only so many ways to go and get the miles. I'm sure there's places that are off limits to RunDisney to use.

4- I agree with this. I did like some of the Wine and Dine stuff this year but merchandise has been rather meh lately.

They changed the I did It shirts at Wine & Dine, right? So the back is no longer the course map? They looked blah to me. I hope for marathon it's back to the course as that's why I like them. But, I agree they need more different things. I'm looking forward to the marathon weekend snowglobe though.

Wine & Dine could also feel the effects especially if they give us film dates on when it's going to open and they fall before Wine & Dine.

I agree, I'm running it anyway regardless. I can see Galaxy's Edge having an effect the for sure on if people go or hold off.

I think the delays in registration did not help things. Remember we were told there would be “details” in early June, then several weeks later there were three registrations within weeks of each other. The first credit card payment wasn’t even due before the next registration cycle.

Yes, I think this too, except since most didn't sell out people could still go back at register. Princess Challenge finally sold out, but it was much later. So, for initial registration I think it did, but by now I think it's all caught up and if you really wanted run any or all of them you would have signed up.

 

[Capang]

Wine and Dine certainly could be affected by SWGE as its possible it could be open before or after that weekend. Though I think most going to that race weekend aren't going for Star Wars related things.

If SWGE is going to be open before the race weekend I'd prefer that Disney not announce that until after registration. Being an anniversary year AND a long awaited land opening? Registration could be a nightmare.

I could see SW weekend having a bigger draw next year, especially if the course goes through SWGE.

 

[rteetz]

They changed the I did It shirts at Wine & Dine, right? So the back is no longer the course map? They looked blah to me. I hope for marathon it's back to the course as that's why I like them. But, I agree they need more different things. I'm looking forward to the marathon weekend snowglobe though.

Yes they were a tech shirt and no maps.

 

[2wordsforyou]

I think one thing that would help is switching the themes up. I love Star Wars and Marvel, but there’s only so much you can do with that before it starts getting stale. Same thing with Princess. I’d love to see a villains themed race and a race weekend that’s just generic Disney. They could use any of the Disney classic movies for medals and I’d be pumped.
Another thing would be to announce the themes of the races at registration, but I guess that could cut both ways. Me and my girlfriend signed up for the Princess 5k as a celebration race of her beating cancer, but when the medals came out, it kind of discouraged her a bit. If she knew going into it who the race was themed on, it wouldn’t have been such a letdown for her.
I’d also hope that when Disneyland races come back, they give them as much attention as the Disney World ones. We did the Avengers weekend last time and it was night and day compared to the Disney World races. I’m pretty sure the race shirt pictures were taken on the pavement in the parking lot

 

[Nole95]

Theming and cost is important to us.

Other races we can do for a lot cheaper locally and destination. We're flying out to Montana in March to stay with friends to run a popular local half marathon. Even if we had to spring for a hotel room, the total cost with flights and all would still be less than we spent on pretty much any rD weekend.

After Dopey earlier this year we thought we were done with RunDisney for awhile. Of course as soon as we thought that, they went and announced the Star Wars Rival Run. Just a slight change in theming and being able to get the Kessel medal pulled us right back in. We had done the first Dark Side back in 2016, so we decided why not. Essentially, I might be a lot more interested in sticking around with rD if they would change up themes every now and then. I also like the fact that the Star Wars half course is different than the marathon weekend one, so that was a big draw as well.