runDisney Disneyland Races are Back!
Disneyland 2025 Race Themes Announced
runDisney just announced the race themes for the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend in early 2025 and registration is fast approaching so I wanted to give you an overview of my thoughts on the January 2024 Disneyland Half Marathon race weekend (and more details about race themes and registration at the end of the blog).
Disneyland 2024 Half Marathon Recap
The return of the half marathon weekend in January 2024 was the first race at Disneyland since 2017 and I was thrilled to be able to run all 3 distances. Since Disneyland has not held races since 2017, I expected there to be some hiccups and pain points as well as a lot of fun. Overall, I had a great weekend racing the 5k, 10k, and half marathon. I can’t wait to see how Disneyland will adjust and listen to guest feedback on how to improve the weekend for future races.
The Good:
The Energy: People were excited to be back and running at Disneyland! The costumes were amazing and people seemed genuinely happy to be there.
Convenience: Most people are able to walk from their hotel to the race start which is wonderful! Make sure to stay at a good neighbor resort or a Disneyland resort for those short morning walks to the corrals (and of course I am here to help with your lodging). At Disney World races, I am on a bus by 3:30 am at the latest, but at the Disneyland race weekend, I was just getting out of bed at that time.
5k and 10k Race Courses: I cannot tell you how much I loved these race courses. The 5k started inside Disneyland park by Sleeping Beauty Castle and ended on Pixar Pier at Disney California Adventure. It was magical to start a race staring at the castle and Matterhorn.
Both the 5k and 10k take place mostly within the parks or behind the scenes. Nothing beats running through the parks when they are lit up.
Disney’s Attempt to Stay on Race Theme: Disneyland put a lot of effort into following the race themes, especially for the 5k and 10k.
The 5k was dog themed and Disney went hard on this theme. Pre-race guests before the race were Ranger, the security dog, and Pluto. The Dapper Dan “dog catchers” sang the national anthem, which included fireworks. Carissa Galloway started each race with “3-2-1 Fetch” instead of “3-2-1 Go”. Most of the character stops were dog themed (Goofy/Max, Cruella, Bolt, Russel and Doug, Dante statue) and there were dog bones and dog jokes throughout the course. Ranger even had his own character stop and Pluto waved you on to the finish line.
The 10k was duck themed. Donald and Daisy kicked off the race. Character stops were again duck themed when possible (Scrooge, Huey/Dewey/Louie, Launchpad McQuack, Abby Mallard) and there were duck jokes everywhere to give runners a boost.
Main Street: Starting the 5k in the park meant that Main Street was a dance party with tons of projections. The projections were also up for the 10k and half marathon when running down Main Street on the course.
Beautiful Medals: I personally loved the medals for all of the races. They were well designed and super cute.
Room for Improvement:
Half Marathon Course: The half marathon course has the last 7 miles on the Anaheim roads. As a runner that has done tons of non-Disney races, I actually didn’t find this too bad. Although, I know a lot of runDisney runners were disappointed. Disney relied on non-Disney entertainment and crowd support on those last 7 miles. The Anaheim Ducks mascot was out as we ran by the stadium, there were several bands, a car show, and more to encourage runners. A group of people even made their own Up house, which was incredible. Sadly, we did not get to run through the Angels stadium as they had done with previous races due to a conflict, but maybe it will happen next race weekend. I personally didn’t hate the course, but please go into the race knowing that at least 7 miles will not have the Disney “magic” if future weekends follow the same course map. That being said, don’t forget that you run on a lot of boring roads at Disney World too.
Character Stops: There were only 5 character stops for each race, which is not a lot given how many people are running. I only stopped for characters during the 5k and the lines were long! In my opinion, they needed more characters to provide options and shorten overall lines.
The characters and photographers were treating character stops like a normal character meet and greet and taking more time than needed during a race. For example, Cruella wanted to have a full on conversation with me about my sparkly skirt. This differs from Disney World races where the characters say hello, quickly pose for a photo, and wish runners on their way to keep lines moving.
Hopefully, there are more character stops that move quicker next race weekend. I know it didn’t exactly go with the themes, but I would have loved to see some Marvel and Star Wars characters out there too. Sticking to themes is fun, but more characters is better for these types of events as it spreads out crowds on the course.
Photographers: I did not feel like there were enough PhotoPass photographers out along the race courses. Given how much time we spent running through the parks, there could have been tons of photographers to make up for a lack of character stops. There wasn’t even a photographer near the Castle when I ran through for the 10k! If anyone from runDisneyland is reading this, we all love our race photos so pack the parks with photographers! If you are familiar with Disney World races, you know that there tend to be photographers around every curve to help capture the moment of running through the parks. That just wasn’t the case this past race weekend at Disneyland.
Heads up that future Disneyland race registrations include race photos when you purchase a bib, which is different from Disney World race weekends.
Mile 3: If you followed the conversations about the half marathon at all, you probably heard about mile 3. If you have not, the mile 3 water stop was a terrible location and led to a huge roadblock. I came to a complete standstill for about 30 seconds and then barely moved while clearing this area. It was a mess and some people mentioned it added 5-8 minutes to their race times, which is never ok. I honestly thought there was a medical emergency or something happened and they closed the race course due to the unprecedented delay. It is the only time I have seen this happen in all of the races I have done.
Biggest Differences from Disney World:
Disneyland races have a lot of positive and uniquely Disneyland attributes even though there is some room for improvement as seen above. It is important to note there will always be differences between the two locations.
Expo: The expo is much smaller and can be described as a mini Disney World expo. It is at Disneyland Hotel so most people can walk from their hotel.
They had some fun photo opportunities, but no characters and no PhotoPass photographers.
The race merchandise used a virtual queue like Disney World and the lines were still insanely long. I suggest pre-purchasing merchandise if you must get anything to avoid the wait.
This place was packed and it seemed more crowded than Wide World of Disney because it was so much smaller. If you can avoid going early on day 1, do it. I went back twice with friends and it was way less chaotic later on day 1 and day 2.
Race Start: This is one of the biggest surprises for Disney World runners...
The full corral was released at one time instead of breaking it into smaller groups as they do at Disney World.This means that all of Corral A started at the same time where Disney World usually has 2-5 starts within Corral A.
There are no fireworks to start each corral since you are in the middle of Anaheim and they cannot wake everyone up at 5 am to the sound of fireworks. The 5k had a few fireworks leading into the race, but the corral starts just had twinkling lights on the Castle. The 10k and half didn’t have anything special to send off each corral. There was a giant screen that counted down from 5 to the start, which was underwhelming when you are used to fireworks.
If you are not in corrals A-C for the 10k and half, do not expect to hear anything from the announcers until you move forward. It was a bummer to miss out on a lot of the race excitement but with a hotel right next to you, they just cannot make that much noise and disturb sleeping hotel guests.
There were no characters or photo opportunities before the race. They had a DJ playing music, but that was about it.
They counted down from 5! I know this doesn’t sound like a big deal, but after so many years of Carissa Galloway and John Pelkey counting down from 3, it was weird to hear the countdown from 5. Another shock was that John was not at the Disneyland races! While he was missed, Carissa did a great job bringing the same amazing energy she does to Disney World races and new runDisney race announcer Matt did a great job.
Race Finish: The race finish is far from the experience you find at Disney World.
The finish line is still fun and lined with crowds, announcers, and photographers.
Once you finish, there isn’t much left to do. There were no PhotoPass photographers for finisher medal photos. There were no characters. There were a few backdrops that you could use for your own photos but they had crazy long lines. The DJ was playing music, but that was about the only thing happening.
Don’t plan on a post race beverage. They are not available at the finish line. You will have to celebrate with a drink somewhere else.
Overall, I had a blast at the return to the Happiest Race on Earth. It was amazing to be running through the two parks for a large chunk of the course. Yes, there is room for improvement, but I still had a lot of fun. Will I be going back…of course! I will be running all 3 races for the Halloween weekend in September and will report back if things have changed.
Interested in racing at Disneyland?
You are in luck! 2025 Disneyland Half Marathon weekend registration is coming up!
Dates: January 30-February 2, 2025
Events:
Marvel Themed 5k
Star Wars Themed 10k
Mickey Themed Half Marathon
Dumbo Double Dare Challenge (10k and Half Marathon)
Up Themed Kids Race
Baymax Themed Yoga
General Registration: June 18 at 10am ET
This will likely sell out within an hour so be ready and hope for the best
Your Travel Grown Adventure Planners cannot help you register for a race bib, but we would love to help you plan the rest of your trip to make it extra special. You can fill out this form to start planning your trip with me or contact your Travel Grown Adventure Planner today.