Half Marathon at Nite?

[Simba's Mom]

I was wondering if anyone here remembers a race, the Tower of Terror Half Marathon, when it was held at night? I think it was 2014 or so that was probably the last time it was held at night. The race started around 10:00 pm, and I remember watching a live feed of the start outside between the Land and the Living Seas buildings. My question is why did they discontinue having that race at night?
DH, who ran it, got reminiscent of the evening race, how Disney had Expedition Everest lit up a night for the runners, and the biggest surprise, how they'd made special arrangements to have the Osborne Light lit for them, even though the lights weren't due to be lit for another 6 weeks or so. So he was wondering-why was that race changed to daytime. The night race was so much fun!

 

[fatmanatee]

To be fair they completely discontinued the ToT 10 Miler in 2014 and the following year switched to races themed around Wine and Dine. I can't speak to what the races were like back then but if I were to guess, I'd say running races in the morning is way easier for them (starting and finishing at HS may have also posed some logistical challenges). They don't have to work around park traffic and can clear the start area in advance of people coming to Epcot in the morning. Since the covid restart almost all races have started and ended at Epcot, which is kind of a bummer in the sense that it limits what they can do with the courses, but it seems like they prefer to keep it this way to make race ops easier on themselves.

Worth noting that they did bring back the ToT race for Springtime Surprise two years ago, but it was run in the morning with a completely different start and finish (both at Epcot).

 

[The Expert]

The longer nighttime races were often affected by weather, too. Thunderstorms tend to pop up in the evening rather than morning in Florida. There was one year the W&D Half was shortened to only 6 or 7 miles. I did The Everest 5K in 2022, which was in the evening. We stood in the parking lot while they held the start, then they shortened the course and took away the scavenger hunt element to get everyone through quickly.

 

[fatmanatee]

The longer nighttime races were often affected by weather, too. Thunderstorms tend to pop up in the evening rather than morning in Florida. There was one year the W&D Half was shortened to only 6 or 7 miles. I did The Everest 5K in 2022, which was in the evening. We stood in the parking lot while they held the start, then they shortened the course and took away the scavenger hunt element to get everyone through quickly.

This one was at night? I was looking it up and noticed that it had been cut in half.

 

[DisneyParrothead]

This one was at night? I was looking it up and noticed that it had been cut in half.

Yes, and I think the year before that ToT was the splash and dash. No lightning but quite the downpour.

 

[StarGirl11]

Yes, and I think the year before that ToT was the splash and dash. No lightning but quite the downpour.

That wasn’t TOT that was Wine and Dine 2014

To be fair they completely discontinued the ToT 10 Miler in 2014 and the following year switched to races themed around Wine and Dine. I can't speak to what the races were like back then but if I were to guess, I'd say running races in the morning is way easier for them (starting and finishing at HS may have also posed some logistical challenges). They don't have to work around park traffic and can clear the start area in advance of people coming to Epcot in the morning. Since the covid restart almost all races have started and ended at Epcot, which is kind of a bummer in the sense that it limits what they can do with the courses, but it seems like they prefer to keep it this way to make race ops easier on themselves.

Worth noting that they did bring back the ToT race for Springtime Surprise two years ago, but it was run in the morning with a completely different start and finish (both at Epcot).

Just a note I won’t really say they ‘switched themes’. TOT and W&D ran several years together. In fact W&D was the older race. They just decided I think because of the heat and other logistics (it was early October and if I remember right the heat was a concern in at least for one of the years) and 10 miler not being as a popular of a distance to cut TOT.

I was wondering if anyone here remembers a race, the Tower of Terror Half Marathon, when it was held at night? I think it was 2014 or so that was probably the last time it was held at night. The race started around 10:00 pm, and I remember watching a live feed of the start outside between the Land and the Living Seas buildings. My question is why did they discontinue having that race at night?
DH, who ran it, got reminiscent of the evening race, how Disney had Expedition Everest lit up a night for the runners, and the biggest surprise, how they'd made special arrangements to have the Osborne Light lit for them, even though the lights weren't due to be lit for another 6 weeks or so. So he was wondering-why was that race changed to daytime. The night race was so much fun!

On topic I think it’s some kind of logistic issue. Not just the weather though that’s probably part of it. But having the park technically open or when they had the after part after the night race having to deal with everything with that and a park open to 2-3 in the morning

 

[Jackie Skellington]

The Wine & Dine in 2015 was supposed to start at 10pm but we got evacuated to the stadium because of lightning and didn't start the race until around 1am. Then our race was cut in half to about 7 miles and we only got about 2 hours at the after party...It was not a good time...