As we sit here today, this morning, May 17, here are my thoughts in favor and against a RunDisney 2022 Marathon Weekend happening:
PRO:
-Other huge, big races (NYC, Chicago, Boston) will be in person later this year and early next. So the feasibility is there.
-Little to no state/county/local hurdles into making this happen, and Reedy Creek jurisdiction makes getting permits and street closures that much easier over those larger cities mentioned earlier
-Tidal shift over the last few weeks to do away with masks, distancing, etc
-Very active RD social media presence
-They’ve put on numerous races on WDW property each year and across the globe, of varying distances and times/dates, so there are existing plans and institutional muscle memory to draw upon if they have a compressed time period to plan and implement
-Chapek’s statements that they’re going to be ramping up capacity immediately, and that 80% of their workforce has returned. Bodes well for where things are now, let alone where they could be come January.
-They’ve been hosting the cheer competitions at the WWOS over the last month, so there is some vitality and life in that sector of operations
CONS:
-These take a lot of logistics to work through. While they have brought back a lot of workers, there are many who have not come back. Labor shortage may be an issue and consideration, especially if they need more people to logistically pull this off than in years’ past
-Internal transportation at the parks is a mess and they have had to outsource a bunch of it to third parties from what I can tell. That may be a huge cost to the parks to get people to/from that early in the morning.
-Still radio silence. It’s almost June and no word one way or another
-No idea how RD is viewed within current and evolving corporate structure. It may be profitable, but is it profitable enough? They did away with DL APs - a huge monthly/annual revenue stream - because they weren’t as desirable as one or two times a year visitors.
-Do they want to bring on tens of thousands of additional visitors? Do they have the capacity?
As it stands now, I’m mildly optimistic this could happen. Now I need to 1) decide whether I’m doing the half or full, and 2) convince my wife to sign off on me doing this.