Hey there Main Streeters! I hope you enjoyed Tali’s post last week on the final run of the Expedition Everest Challenge! Like she said, she is going to be joining me on this series from time to time over the course of the next year as she tries to #RunAlltheRaces2016. Today, we’re going to come together to jointly walk you all through what it is like to register for a RunDisney event!
Addie: So Tali, if you could sum up your feelings going into Dopey registration in one word, what would that be?
Tali: Well, I’m going to use two words: Surprisingly Painless. Dopey is not the first time I’ve registered for a RunDisney event, but it was my first time to register during general registration. Since I am a WDW Annual Passholder, I usually get to register about 2 weeks before registration is open to the general public (along with DL APs and DVC members-information on this will appear in your portals). However, I did not have the money to pay for Dopey when AP registration opened and Dopey sold out in about 2 hours of AP registration opening. So I had prepared myself for general registration to be an utter mad house, and that wasn’t the case.
Addie: Yeah, if memory serves, there was a bit of panic in there, but when we went through it all, it was so easy. VERY UNUSUAL FOR RUNDISNEY REGISTRATIONS. It was even easier than my Princess weekend registration. It seemed to me that this new “queue” system I keep hearing about kept the registration site from crashing as much. Though, like I said, I’ve yet to experience that queue myself.
Tali: Yeah, if there was a queue for WDW Marathon Weekend registration, I never saw it. I was honestly really surprised that it took over 24 hours for the Dopey and Goofy challenges to sell out, which might have been why we didn’t see the queue. Perhaps people who registered for the 5k or the 10k (which did sell out in the first few hours) had more experience with the queue.
Addie: I even went back a couple times to try and get in it for this article! But that’s neither here, nor there, let’s give the people what they clicked for.
Tali: On to a step by step walk through of the registration experience!
Addie: So this is what the RunDisney page looked like for the Marathon weekend prior to registration opening. This was about 11 am EST on April 28. Notice that all the text is GREY. I would suggest anyone trying to register to have that page open at least an hour early and start refreshing it periodically leading up to Noon EST and wait to see those blue links appear.
Tali: Like Addie said, it is highly recommended to have the runDisney event page open a good hour or so before registration opens. High traffic makes the page go a little wonky. At one point the whole “registration” tab disappeared, and when you refreshed from that page you ended up on any number of random parts of the WDW Marathon Weekend page. And once the link to Active is live, follow the link, even though you won’t be able to register, because things will only get worse once registration gets closer, because even Disney’s servers can struggle under the sheer amount of traffic that hits that site on registration day.
Addie: Oh yeah. That RunDisney site went all sorts of crazy leading up to Noon. At one point it was all text too. No graphics, no links. Very panic inducing if you aren’t expecting it. The whole point of this article is to help reduce panic about registration because it can be a very stressful experience.
Tali: The links went live about 5-10 minutes before registration opened. You could click on the link, which would direct you to the Active page, but it won’t allow you to actually register for the events until Noon EST when registration officially opens.
Addie: Once they appear blue, you can go ahead and click on the event you want and you will be taken to Active, the registration platform for RunDisney events. In all honesty, it doesn’t really matter which link you click on the RunDisney page, because they all lead to this Active page where you will be able to pick your event.
Addie: When you click the “Register Now” button on the above screen, you will be taken to a log-in screen. IT ISN’T NECESSARY TO MAKE AN ACTIVE ACCOUNT FOR THIS PROCESS. A Guest Account will do just fine. The events don’t really ever show up on your Active account anyway. You have to use the RunDisney website to confirm your registered, so don’t worry about it.
Addie: Now you can choose the event you want. In the case of WDW marathon weekend, Dopey registers you for all the adult races that weekend. But let’s say you were registering for Princess weekend, like I did last year, and you wanted to run all the races. You have to register for the Glass Slipper Challenge (which is the 10K and Half) separately from the 5K. So, I would suggest registering for the Challenge first because in MOST instances, it will sell out before the 5K. I have a feeling part of the slow sell of Dopey and Goofy had to do with the commitment to the Full Marathon distance.
Tali: Absolutely. RunDisney Challenges are recommended for EXPERIENCED runners, and this goes double for the Goofy and Dopey, because a full marathon is a serious training commitment, and the 48.6 miles run during Dopey is really brutal on you body.
As a note for those considering the Goofy: that race is ONLY the Marathon and the Half, if you wanted to do the 5k or the 10k without doing the Dopey, or you wanted to run the 5k, 10k, and Half Marathon, but skip the Full Marathon, you would have to register for each of those events individually.
Also a quick note on the Kids races: Those are a lot of fun, especially if you are making the race weekend a family affair, but do your research before you register. Only certain age groups are eligible for the various distances (the longer the distance the older the age group), but Active doesn’t make that clear during the registration process. However the Kids Races section of the Race Weekend page has all the information about which ages do which distances.
Addie: Side Note-RunDisney People in Charge…if you read this, may I suggest a challenge of the 5K, 10K and Half? It’s the only combo that weekend is missing and I would eat that up. Registering individually for those events is fine, but it’s all about the bling!…I fear the Full distance (even though I know I will do it one day just for the Dopey bling).
Tali: Ooooohh. That would be a great addition! You could call it the Chip & Dale challenge!
Addie: I like it. We expect credit for that RunDisney ;). Ugh, we should probably get back to what the people came here for though…
Tali: This is true. So back to registration!
Addie: Once you pick your race, you’ll be taken to this screen with the registration waiver. It’s your standard race registration waiver. You will electronically sign, enter your birthday and then continue on!
Tail: For clarification: YOU DO NOT NEED TO PRINT A COPY OF THIS WAIVER. I know some people are confused by the wavers, because if you’ve read other articles about race weekends, you will see that we have to bring a signed waiver to pick up our packets at the Expo. That waiver, while saying pretty much all the same things, is different. That waiver has your assigned bib number on it and will be available on the runDisney website about a month before the event and requires your physical signature on it (instead of being digitally signed, like the waiver at registration)
Addie: Time to fill out your info! Again, standard, name, address, phone and whatnot. It isn’t out of the ordinary, but knowing the information you need to have readily available should help ease your stress on registration day!
A note on the anticipated finish time: This is a guesstimate. And will mean absolutely nothing unless you submit a Proof of Time by the deadline to back it up. I’ve already written about Proof of Times, if you are wondering what in the world I’m talking about.
Addie: This is also the opportunity to purchase any commemorative items. If you’re saving for those, you do not have to buy them at the time of registration. Some will sell out before the weekend arrives, like commemorative jackets (which are a blind pre-order…you won’t know what they look like before you buy), but pins and other items do not sell out as fast. I do suggest pre-ordering them if you want them though, to ensure you get them in case the expo sells out!
Tali: I have not yet pre-ordered my commemorative items, but I plan to do so in the very near future. The Expo has a tendency to sell out, especially of the very popular items. As I mentioned in my post on Expedition Everest race weekend items tend to be pretty picked through by the end of the first day or the beginning of the second day of the Expo. So, if you have your heart set on particular items, I would suggest pre-ordering them if at all possible.
Addie: That was also true for the Princess Expo. If you don’t want the stress or you won’t be getting in the first day the expo is open, PRE-ORDER, but know you can’t pre-order everything. Some things you can only buy at the expo. We’ll have to blog about that later.
Addie: Now it’s time to pay. Note: The prices listed on the runDisney website DO NOT include the Active processing fees. Notice here that it’s about 7-8% of the cost. If you’re saving for registration, don’t forget these in your calculations!
Tali: The Dopey Challenge was listed at $550 on the runDisney website. I saved $600 to pay for the event. Including the tax and fees I paid $586.25. You will receive an email from active that acts as your receipt and will have the amount paid as well as a confirmation number for the payment (which is the same confirmation number you will receive on your registration confirmation email). Be aware, that despite having a confirmation number, you will not be able to use this to add the race to your Active account (if you have one). Both Addie and I have accounts (because we register for a lot of races, including non-Disney races) and we have been unsuccessful at adding ANY of our runDisney races to our accounts.
Addie: Once you pay, you’ll get the above confirmation email from Active. I suggest saving ALL these emails until after your events. You can never be too careful. Note that clicking that “View your complete registration details” link doesn’t always work. For my Princess weekend, every time I clicked it, I would get an error message. But after a few days, you can check your registration on the runDisney website if you need to have reassurance that you’re registered. If you have any questions about your registration you can also call runDisney.
Tali: Also, be sure that you have runDisney and Active saved in your email address book, because between registration and the actual event then send lots of useful information about training, nutrition, and the races themselves, which you don’t want accidentally being buried in your spam folder.
That’s it for this week folks! We hope we’ve managed to ease some of your stress for registering for runDisney races. Or at least entertained you! The most important thing you can do is to be at your computer on the day registration opens before the time it opens. Let us know what you thought of this style of article in the comments and leave us questions or things you’d like us to talk about in the future! Coming up we’ll have recaps on this year’s Tink (thanks to a friend who ran it), explanations of the various Challenges runDisney offers and a look into Race Retreat, plus an explanation of Tali’s #RunAllTheRaces2016 venture!
Until then, keep running!
TMSM is very excited to publish the “Racing Disney” runDisney articles by Addie Clark and Tali McPike. Please keep an eye out for more of their amazing and informative articles! If you missed of the articles in this series make sure you check them at www.themainstreetmouse.com/tag/addie/ and www.themainstreetmouse.com/tag/tali/
If you are planning on running in a runDisney event and have questions, or have participated and want to talk about your experiences make sure you visit our runDisney Forum at http://goo.gl/RLB5ka
Michele also contributes theme park news for Fox 35 Orlando 11pm news and on the radio on WDBO.
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