How do you avoid the last corral?

Your gonna ride EE during the marathon? You can do that?

You can ride any of the rides during the marathon that are close to the course and you pass them when the park is open. Most years AK opens at 9:00am and DHS opens at 8:00am. So depending on when you start, and what your pace is determines whether you pass through the park when it is open.
 
Your gonna ride EE during the marathon? You can do that?
Yes, if the timing works for you. During the most recent M in January, faster runners who started in the first couple of corrals reached EE before it opened. Slower runners in the last couple of corrals had to worry a bit about the balloon ladies if they wanted to ride. I was lucky to be in the sweet spot; I started in the last corral with a POT (E?), and ran my usual M pace. I arrived at EE just after it opened and had a great ride with my non-running daughter who met me there. Then a quick drink at the bar next to EE, and I was on my way again.

@DopeyBadger will hopefully do all the calculations for us again next year and you will know just where you stand.
 
Just a quick note - for the 5K and 10K, there are fewer corrals, but for all of the races, the whole corral doesn't start at once. There are mini-waves that are divided by a ribbon in front of a group. After the previous wave goes off, the next group is walked to the start line, held there for a short time, and then released. Rinse and repeat. So if you want to be at the front of your corral, get to the corrals early and get to the front. That will build in extra time since the balloon ladies start at the back of the pack. Also, for the 5K and 10K, there are a couple of "choke points" before the start where, if you are on the inside, you will get pushed back in the corral. By being in the middle or on the opposite side, you can move up.

For the Disney and Princess half-marathons (and I presume for the marathon), the first part of the course is mostly multi-lane highway, which makes it easy to avoid course crowding after the start. However, I found the 10K course for Princess extremely tight and crowded and a lot of dodging and weaving was required. If I ever do a Disney 10K again, I would be more proactive and get to the corral A LOT earlier than I did this past year. And it's a shame because I really enjoy the 10K distance.
 


Oh, lawd have mercy. I rode EE for my final time last year. This 45-year-old just can't handle those G-forces anymore. I can't imagine pulling that off in the middle of a marathon!!

When I was a mere lad of 45, we were only two years out from worrying that Y2K would shut down Disney. EE did not open until 2006 so I never rode it as a 45 year old.

But I have to admit my 62 year old hips and knees were starting to protest by the time I crossed the finish line this year.
 
I did my first marathon this year and my two goals were to ride EE and cross the finish line with a drink -- I did both! I was also in that sweet spot where I got to AK just after the park opened, but with enough buffer on the balloon ladies to get a ride in. I timed a Fastpass for just the right window (though most of the time the folks in line will happily let a runner go ahead of them).

Also, forgot to turn off my Garmin so I got this sweet section in my run tracker!

494135
 


When I was a mere lad of 45, we were only two years out from worrying that Y2K would shut down Disney. EE did not open until 2006 so I never rode it as a 45 year old.

But I have to admit my 62 year old hips and knees were starting to protest by the time I crossed the finish line this year.
:lmao: Ya, my dad had to have one of his knees replaced at age 60. His love of running, jogging in his younger years contributed to that.
 
Not exactly back, more like middle, but I started in the first non-POT corral at the Princess Half this year (I qualified for a POT corral but jumped back to run with my sister). We stopped for most of the pictures, and while there was some crowding, it wasn't all of the race and it was manageable. Expect to encounter some crowding, and lines for some characters may be long so you may not be able to stop for all of them, but you should be able to stop for some. Not sure about EE because since I started from a POT corral for the marathon. Manage your expectations, and understand that you may not be able to do everything you want, but you should still be able to have a good time.
This is really reassuring, thank you. I'm trying to temper my expectations; I expect to need to pick and choose my character stops for time, and EE is a stretch goal I'm going to need to be prepared to abandon if conditions aren't prime for making it happen.
 
I read up on a article on "cheaters" with the RunDisney and was like what? I must admit I wasn't quite able to grasp every thing they were talking about becasue I have yet to understand it. But I thought, why would one want a medal knowing that they really didn't earn it? Some comments were saying that no other "legitimate" marathons should take a POT from a Disney race? Not sure what a "legitimate" marathon is?
 
I read up on a article on "cheaters" with the RunDisney and was like what? I must admit I wasn't quite able to grasp every thing they were talking about becasue I have yet to understand it. But I thought, why would one want a medal knowing that they really didn't earn it? Some comments were saying that no other "legitimate" marathons should take a POT from a Disney race? Not sure what a "legitimate" marathon is?
I'm not sure which article you are referring to, but I have seen several where the author describes all of the "out and backs" and other areas where it would be easy for someone to cut the course short. As to why; people come in all shapes, sizes, colors, backgrounds, motivations, beliefs, morals etc and etc.
I guess some folks want the medal because they get more delight in bragging to their facebook friends than they get personal internal shame knowing they cheated. We all are tempted to do things we know we shouldn't; most times we stay strong and sometimes we falter.
 
I read up on a article on "cheaters" with the RunDisney and was like what? I must admit I wasn't quite able to grasp every thing they were talking about becasue I have yet to understand it. But I thought, why would one want a medal knowing that they really didn't earn it? Some comments were saying that no other "legitimate" marathons should take a POT from a Disney race? Not sure what a "legitimate" marathon is?

The articles you read describe what can happen at a given runDisney race. The website that hosts these articles mostly focuses on people who cut the course or bib mule to unfairly qualify for the Boston Marathon. Since runDisney has several times refused to remove the results of runners who use dishonest methods to obtain BQ times, the site’s author has called for the BAA to no longer accept results from runDisney races.

On another note, runners in runDisney races will also use bib mules to secure better corral times for a given runDisney race to avoid the balloon ladies. This practice is something that many races actively discourage.
 
I'm not sure which article you are referring to, but I have seen several where the author describes all of the "out and backs" and other areas where it would be easy for someone to cut the course short. As to why; people come in all shapes, sizes, colors, backgrounds, motivations, beliefs, morals etc and etc.
I guess some folks want the medal because they get more delight in bragging to their facebook friends than they get personal internal shame knowing they cheated. We all are tempted to do things we know we shouldn't; most times we stay strong and sometimes we falter.
Yes, that is what they were talking about, cutting the course short. When I usually read or discuss ways in which people circumvent rules and loopholes such at Disney, a whole lot of the time is has a monitary gain, but this does not, right? Just bragging rights?
 
I'm trying really hard not to second guess my decision to be honest with my estimated finish time for the marathon--I put myself in the second to last category, which is the best I'm aspiring to based on my current pace and fitness level. I'd like to do photos along the way and it'd be really cool to ride EE, but mostly I just want to finish the marathon...hoping I'll still have a good experience if I end up just ahead of the balloon ladies the whole way.

So I guess my answer to the question is...well, I'm not trying to avoid the last corral because frankly it's probably where I belong. I'm trying to look at it more in terms of how I can have a good time with a back of the pack start.
What constitutes a good experience in a first race is going to differ, but I think that determining a reasoned and honest answer to that question before the race will help determine if you indeed have a good experience. Set goals, certainly. But do not set goals far beyond your capacity to achieve them. I've heard many seasoned runners say your only goal before your first race at a new distance is finish. Before my first race, I decided to skip any and all photo opportunities that might present themselves during the race and contented myself with character photos after the race with my hard earned finishers medal. Well, I passed up some once in a lifetime photo ops during that first race. 7 Disneyland races later and not a one of those unique photo ops I passed up the first time repeated themselves. But I finished. And thereby gained confidence and experience about just what I was capable of. And I learned from my own experience that I was sufficiently not slow to take some photos during the race if the lines were short enough.
I rode EE for my final time last year. This 45-year-old just can't handle those G-forces anymore. I can't imagine pulling that off in the middle of a marathon!!
This has certainly influenced me in my internal debates over Everest during the marathon. While I now think I just might be able to absorb the time it would take me to do that, I am concerned that my body might not respond well to such a decision. I'd still love to go on a ride during a race, but have accepted that I may never be able to do so. And I'm okay with that.
This is really reassuring, thank you. I'm trying to temper my expectations; I expect to need to pick and choose my character stops for time, and EE is a stretch goal I'm going to need to be prepared to abandon if conditions aren't prime for making it happen.
For my first marathon, I decided to set a stretch goal of one character photo during the race. I accomplished that easily enough, but since I knew exactly how the sweep worked, I knew that I could absorb more photo stops if I wanted to. For Marathon weekend, I strongly recommend getting on the DISBoards character group text thread that is set up beforehand. Basically a faster runner texts out all the photo stops and the approximate mile in the race where they take place. I had one runner ask if she could take a picture of my texts just so she could see who was available in the next few miles. In my case, it helped me know that if I really wanted a photo with Chip and Dale and Clarice, then I needed to plan accordingly and "bank" my photo stop time. This year it worked out even better. My second favorite animated movie is Beauty and the Beast. I've never gotten a race photo with Belle. Well the thread told me that Belle was at the France pavilion in Epcot shortly after mile 25. So I knew that if I wanted that photo, I should plan accordingly and possibly skip some longer waits because those characters didn't matter as much to me. Well, when I got to France I found that Belle and Aurora were alternating and my timing was so perfect that my turn actually came when both of them were. And if my avatar does not give it away, yes Sleeping Beauty is my favorite animated film.
But I thought, why would one want a medal knowing that they really didn't earn it?
I signed up for my first runDisney race because I really wanted the Disneyland Half Marathon medal. It had the classic Disneyland D with Sleeping Beauty Castle in the middle of it. At the time I viewed it as a unique souvenir of sorts that celebrated my Disney fandom and the only way to get it was to run 13.1 miles on race day. Well when the race started, fear and adrenaline kicked in and I started out way too fast in relation to the pace I had trained at. Less than half a mile into the race, I felt like I had shin splints. I honestly even considered quitting right then and there, heading back to my hotel room so I could do something sensible like go back to bed. Honestly, if you had told me right there that Disney would have given me the medal for just starting up, I fear I would have taken you up on that offer, collected that medal, and gone right back to bed. And I would have been content and happy that I had my cool looking Sleeping Beauty Castle medal from Disneyland and never taken up running again. At that time, the medal was a thing I wanted, not a prize to be earned only through hard work, sacrifice, and pushing myself when I did not want to push myself any further. While cheating to finish the race never crossed my mind, my motivation for doing it needed an adjustment if I was to enjoy this experience.

Fortunately, I still believed that I had to finish the race, so I decided to slow down to a pace that my body could tolerate. I would put one foot in front of another at this reduced speed and finish the race or they would remove me from the course because I was not good enough. Approximately 3 hours or so later, I would cross that finish line with never a glimpse of the balloon ladies who had started in the exact same corral as I did.

Some people want the medal as some sort of status thing. For my first race I wanted it as a cool keepsake. Honestly, I have only had one race since that very first race where I was so miserable that I wanted to quit. Thankfully I did not. And truthfully, both of my marathons were "less" difficult than that first half marathon in large part because I knew why I wanted to run those two marathons. And while the medals were cool and I truly love them, they represent so much more than just a cool keepsake.
 

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