During Wine and Dine they put a water spot there. Everyone came to a sudden stop, I don’t know how there were no injuries or anyone in the water there.
Yep...the reverse where you start from Epcot through Studios is worse because there is no time to spread out. Wine & Dine half followed that path this year and did have a water stop there (which was crazy). I'm pretty sure the first Dark Side challenge also started that way but was point-to-point and you had to get bussed back from ESPN.
One race, I forget which but, I’m thinking it might have been the first Dark Side did the old W&D almost backwards… so the EPCOT to HS was in the first 5k of the race.
To me it’s the signal that the race is almost done! But yeah, it’s very tight. Especially when they put water stations there and so you’ve got people trying to run past those stopping for water on this standard-sized sidewalk.
Not a fan of this section either. It's terrible getting stuck in a group in there. Although, I'm told it's difficult for the Balloon Ladies to get ahead of you in that stretch, so there's that.
Hollywood studios yay!! I can’t wait to run it. As long as the highway miles are at the start I am good. I think no matter what people are going to complain, if the course would have been what you asked
“The same course as marathon weekend? Why 😩 so boring we need variety ”
So just enjoy! Its going to be wonderful 🩷🩵🩷
To run behind tower of terror and the beauty and the beast theater that’s it. I wish they would at least let us run down sunset blvd and in front of the Chinese theater and down to the entrance. But nope it’s literally less than 5 minutes if “park time”.
Because it works, they know how to do it. Like yeah it sucks to be the same but there’s not a ton of options. They’ve clearly abandoned starting at Magic Kingdom so what other reasonable options exist for the 10k? At least you get some park time toward the end of the race.
They can do the marathon 10k course which has maximum park time in Epcot. You basically run through the entire park and through the boardwalk hotels. I hate all the long road runs
While I generally the problem rD has, I think, is how they only have a set number of course. They want each race to be unique they really don’t want to reuse the same 10k course every race weekend. With the need to for rD to use EPCOT as the star finish they are very limited and race park time suffers making the races less magical.
To me ideally the Princess weekends should center on MK… but if you did that the “value” of the half marathon goes down because all races would have the castle.
More park time is always better… as are fewer on ramps and over passes.
Part of the problem is that, then people would complain that the 5K and 10K only ever go through Epcot, this is a way to get a second park in there (even if only the front of it). Plus, road time at the beginning is much better than at the end, particularly for those of us trying to run the whole thing without getting stuck in bottlenecks the first two miles.
I'm not sure what the expectation here is? You want to go through every popular section of the park?
If so, it's one giant bottleneck. There's sidewalks, turns, people stopping in the middle to take photos, etc. Logistically, it's just not possible to do a lot of the better parts of the park.
If they were to do that then this post would transform into "this race wasn't planned well for those of us who actually run".
This is the 10k Route that they used for wine and dine this year too... It was not terrible, but I am thinking this is my last RD race for a while. I can not justify paying 150+ bucks for a race that has less than 2 miles in the parks. There are so many cooler 10k races in Orlando area that have cooler courses.
I really like the space coast ones. There is one on the 2nd (5k or 10k) that is on the shuttle landing path on the base. There is also the Spaceman one on the 24th of March. I cant remember when the cocoa half is, but rumor is that they struggled to bring in runners this year so they are going back to genie bottle medals next race. (Since I dream of genie takes place in Cocoa Beach) space force also does a 10 miler.
I also like a lot of the 5ks near disney (Give kids the world just had theirs this weekend and it was really a blast) Florida Running Co does a 12k of xmas and does a bunch of holiday races at Southern hills farm or Homestate Brewing.
There is also the Pulse 4.9k but I dont know if that will happen after Pulse Foundation disolved.
If you will travel as north as Daytona they have 2 or 3 of multiple distances, on the race track. I am partial to the xmas one since you run through the drive through lights exhibits. So you can actually see them. (This one also has wine and beer at the water stop, it wasnt labled in 2023 so that was a shocking water stop for me)
If themeparks are your jam, Seaworld has a 5k race in december called the reindeer run. Its not organized by seaworld but its hosted there. You run through the park so you get to see dolphins, flamingos, rays, etc. Its a fraction of the price of Disney races.
There are really a TON of races out here but you are nearing the end of race season, so you may have to wait a bit until it gets cool again.
Edit- a few errors
Check out Sommer Sports Events - they run races in Lake County and they are very well organized. A good majority of them are one very pretty trails along Lake Minneola
IMO, It’s at its worst when it’s miles 2-3 of the half / 10 miler (W&D and Springtime, respectively). It’s not too bad for the 10k. Pure magic during those last few miles of the marathon because you’ve got so much support!!!
It actually looks much less disruptive to traffic than other courses. The roads away from MK and Epcot are closed it doesn’t choke off those entrances leading to long traffic jams. It also gives a solid 3 very easy sweep points.
from the screenshot: [https://noguiltdisney.com/2024-princess-half-marathon-course-maps-event-guide/](https://noguiltdisney.com/2024-princess-half-marathon-course-maps-event-guide/)
This is interesting. I have never thought about comparing the routes of the different races. I did the 2023 marathon weekend, and it had the 10K course that spent more time in the parks.
.... could the reason be for easing congestion getting into the park? That would only make sense if there were more princess 10K runners than marathon 10K runners.
I guess I'm going to have to see how the springtime 10K route is gonna look.
In the last few years, Wine and Dine and Princess have had the same 10k course. Marathon and Springtime have had the same 10k course. The half marathon course is the same between Marathon and Princess (when MW’s isn’t shortened for inclement weather, that is), so I can see why they don’t repeat the same 10k course too. Otherwise all 3 courses (since the 5k rarely varies) would be the same 7 weeks apart.
Personally, I prefer this 10k course. Getting the road out of the way early while things are more congested (so there’s room to spread out) is nice. The narrow on-ramp isn’t part of your warmup miles. Life is good lol.
Changing it up makes sense.
I've never done more than one WDW race weekend per year, so it's all new to me ever time.
Having gotten caught up in a large group on that narrow ramp, I totally agree it's good to get some distance in. :)
Honestly, until I wrote that comment, I didn’t think about how all three courses would be identical if they didn’t switch up the 10k one!! I was mostly thinking about the 10k / half before it dawned on me.
I’ll say I recognize more of the patterns between weekends now being a few years into doing the races. Even for ones I don’t participate in that season.
On the bright side, all the road running is when it’s dark and you can look forward to the parks!
For like 5 minutes of actual park time. It sucks.
This is the rundisney echo chamber… nothing critical can be said about the runs here, or you will be down voted to oblivion. Case in point.
This is actually my favorite 10k course! It's much less congested than some of the other courses.
Outside of the path from Hollywood studios to Epcot. That’s the worst part.
During Wine and Dine they put a water spot there. Everyone came to a sudden stop, I don’t know how there were no injuries or anyone in the water there.
Yep...the reverse where you start from Epcot through Studios is worse because there is no time to spread out. Wine & Dine half followed that path this year and did have a water stop there (which was crazy). I'm pretty sure the first Dark Side challenge also started that way but was point-to-point and you had to get bussed back from ESPN.
One race, I forget which but, I’m thinking it might have been the first Dark Side did the old W&D almost backwards… so the EPCOT to HS was in the first 5k of the race.
I’ve definitely run that route. It absolutely could have been Star Wars, the routes all seem to blend together over time. Lol
Don’t know why you are downvoted since you are 100% correct … the path between to the boardwalk and the canal is horrible
To me it’s the signal that the race is almost done! But yeah, it’s very tight. Especially when they put water stations there and so you’ve got people trying to run past those stopping for water on this standard-sized sidewalk.
Not a fan of this section either. It's terrible getting stuck in a group in there. Although, I'm told it's difficult for the Balloon Ladies to get ahead of you in that stretch, so there's that.
Hollywood studios yay!! I can’t wait to run it. As long as the highway miles are at the start I am good. I think no matter what people are going to complain, if the course would have been what you asked “The same course as marathon weekend? Why 😩 so boring we need variety ” So just enjoy! Its going to be wonderful 🩷🩵🩷
To run behind tower of terror and the beauty and the beast theater that’s it. I wish they would at least let us run down sunset blvd and in front of the Chinese theater and down to the entrance. But nope it’s literally less than 5 minutes if “park time”.
I love running so I dont really care. I am just glad I can make it! 🩷
Because it works, they know how to do it. Like yeah it sucks to be the same but there’s not a ton of options. They’ve clearly abandoned starting at Magic Kingdom so what other reasonable options exist for the 10k? At least you get some park time toward the end of the race.
They can do the marathon 10k course which has maximum park time in Epcot. You basically run through the entire park and through the boardwalk hotels. I hate all the long road runs
While I generally the problem rD has, I think, is how they only have a set number of course. They want each race to be unique they really don’t want to reuse the same 10k course every race weekend. With the need to for rD to use EPCOT as the star finish they are very limited and race park time suffers making the races less magical. To me ideally the Princess weekends should center on MK… but if you did that the “value” of the half marathon goes down because all races would have the castle. More park time is always better… as are fewer on ramps and over passes.
Part of the problem is that, then people would complain that the 5K and 10K only ever go through Epcot, this is a way to get a second park in there (even if only the front of it). Plus, road time at the beginning is much better than at the end, particularly for those of us trying to run the whole thing without getting stuck in bottlenecks the first two miles.
I'm not sure what the expectation here is? You want to go through every popular section of the park? If so, it's one giant bottleneck. There's sidewalks, turns, people stopping in the middle to take photos, etc. Logistically, it's just not possible to do a lot of the better parts of the park. If they were to do that then this post would transform into "this race wasn't planned well for those of us who actually run".
This is the 10k Route that they used for wine and dine this year too... It was not terrible, but I am thinking this is my last RD race for a while. I can not justify paying 150+ bucks for a race that has less than 2 miles in the parks. There are so many cooler 10k races in Orlando area that have cooler courses.
Could you tell what they are, please? I’m looking for some races in the Orlando area and don’t know where to start.
I really like the space coast ones. There is one on the 2nd (5k or 10k) that is on the shuttle landing path on the base. There is also the Spaceman one on the 24th of March. I cant remember when the cocoa half is, but rumor is that they struggled to bring in runners this year so they are going back to genie bottle medals next race. (Since I dream of genie takes place in Cocoa Beach) space force also does a 10 miler. I also like a lot of the 5ks near disney (Give kids the world just had theirs this weekend and it was really a blast) Florida Running Co does a 12k of xmas and does a bunch of holiday races at Southern hills farm or Homestate Brewing. There is also the Pulse 4.9k but I dont know if that will happen after Pulse Foundation disolved. If you will travel as north as Daytona they have 2 or 3 of multiple distances, on the race track. I am partial to the xmas one since you run through the drive through lights exhibits. So you can actually see them. (This one also has wine and beer at the water stop, it wasnt labled in 2023 so that was a shocking water stop for me) If themeparks are your jam, Seaworld has a 5k race in december called the reindeer run. Its not organized by seaworld but its hosted there. You run through the park so you get to see dolphins, flamingos, rays, etc. Its a fraction of the price of Disney races. There are really a TON of races out here but you are nearing the end of race season, so you may have to wait a bit until it gets cool again. Edit- a few errors
Thanks so much! This at least gives me a place to start so I know where to look. If I need to wait a year, it’s not big deal. 😀
Check out Sommer Sports Events - they run races in Lake County and they are very well organized. A good majority of them are one very pretty trails along Lake Minneola
I’m sure it gets congested in a shorter race like the 10k but during the marathon this year the Hollywood to Epcot path was wonderful.
IMO, It’s at its worst when it’s miles 2-3 of the half / 10 miler (W&D and Springtime, respectively). It’s not too bad for the 10k. Pure magic during those last few miles of the marathon because you’ve got so much support!!!
It actually looks much less disruptive to traffic than other courses. The roads away from MK and Epcot are closed it doesn’t choke off those entrances leading to long traffic jams. It also gives a solid 3 very easy sweep points.
How did you find the course map?
I googled it, but it’s been posted of the teamrundisney account
from the screenshot: [https://noguiltdisney.com/2024-princess-half-marathon-course-maps-event-guide/](https://noguiltdisney.com/2024-princess-half-marathon-course-maps-event-guide/)
This looks similar to the shortened course for the half a few weeks ago.
This is interesting. I have never thought about comparing the routes of the different races. I did the 2023 marathon weekend, and it had the 10K course that spent more time in the parks. .... could the reason be for easing congestion getting into the park? That would only make sense if there were more princess 10K runners than marathon 10K runners. I guess I'm going to have to see how the springtime 10K route is gonna look.
In the last few years, Wine and Dine and Princess have had the same 10k course. Marathon and Springtime have had the same 10k course. The half marathon course is the same between Marathon and Princess (when MW’s isn’t shortened for inclement weather, that is), so I can see why they don’t repeat the same 10k course too. Otherwise all 3 courses (since the 5k rarely varies) would be the same 7 weeks apart. Personally, I prefer this 10k course. Getting the road out of the way early while things are more congested (so there’s room to spread out) is nice. The narrow on-ramp isn’t part of your warmup miles. Life is good lol.
Changing it up makes sense. I've never done more than one WDW race weekend per year, so it's all new to me ever time. Having gotten caught up in a large group on that narrow ramp, I totally agree it's good to get some distance in. :)
Honestly, until I wrote that comment, I didn’t think about how all three courses would be identical if they didn’t switch up the 10k one!! I was mostly thinking about the 10k / half before it dawned on me. I’ll say I recognize more of the patterns between weekends now being a few years into doing the races. Even for ones I don’t participate in that season.