Marathon Weekend 2021

[Sleepy425]

As a successful registrant (congrats!) can you tell me what are all the questions that need to be addressed to complete the registration?
POT which could be added later
Shirt size?
Do you have to order your merch during registration? Like the pins and jackets or can you come back after you are registered?
Thanks for any insight! Going to Princess half registration next month

You can go back and edit POT, shirt size, and what merchandise you want after you register.

 

[SheHulk]

They've got a legitimate way to spin this though - they could merely say that due to the coronavirus (presumably) being under control, they were able to release more bibs. I think we all agree they're operating at a smaller capacity than this year, and I think they've said as much behind the scenes. The next pricing tier starts July 21, and we all should not a lot more by then where we are in the infection curve. Rundisney could decide they can safely expand the races and release more bibs at a higher price point, and if those don't sell, there's plenty of time to drop some discount codes in the fall at all the big expos.

But the tiered pricing is ostensibly there to incentivize people to sign up early. I'm just trying to imagine being somebody who was sitting at her computer at 10AM registration day, and got shut out due to seemingly random queue setup (or partially random), then being told that she has to pay a higher price because she didn't register right away. What would be the justification for charging more? Maybe nobody would care and would just pay the higher price anyway but my guess is that people who pay attention and had been shut out would go bananas. At worst it sounds like runDisney taking advantage of the confusion surrounding the virus and re-openings to upcharge. Nothing worth arguing over because they haven't done anything, just saying I'd be shocked.

 

[camaker]

But the tiered pricing is ostensibly there to incentivize people to sign up early. I'm just trying to imagine being somebody who was sitting at her computer at 10AM registration day, and got shut out due to seemingly random queue setup (or partially random), then being told that she has to pay a higher price because she didn't register right away. What would be the justification for charging more? Maybe nobody would care and would just pay the higher price anyway but my guess is that people who pay attention and had been shut out would go bananas. At worst it sounds like runDisney taking advantage of the confusion surrounding the virus and re-openings to upcharge. Nothing worth arguing over because they haven't done anything, just saying I'd be shocked.

Tiered pricing used to be in place for RunDisney races. It went away for a while when races were selling out immediately and was brought back a year or so ago when registrations started to slow down.

Tiered pricing is a tool used by races to incentivize signing up early so the races can have cost certainty for ordering necessities pre-race. Just about every local race uses it. I get constant “sign up before the price goes up” emails from them. There’s no conspiracy on RunDisney’s part here, just business as usual for a race.

 

[SheHulk]

Tiered pricing used to be in place for RunDisney races. It went away for a while when races were selling out immediately and was brought back a year or so ago when registrations started to slow down.

Tiered pricing is a tool used by races to incentivize signing up early so the races can have cost certainty for ordering necessities pre-race. Just about every local race uses it. I get constant “sign up before the price goes up” emails from them. There’s no conspiracy on RunDisney’s part here, just business as usual for a race.

I understand tiered pricing in races, but if a race "sells out" during the lowest price tier, and people get shut out of it even though they were ready to buy, that's not a price increase to incentivize, it's just a random price increase. These people would have readily signed up when the price was lower. Holding back, for whatever reason, no matter how justified, and then charging more to those same people who would have bought earlier seems wrong. Maybe I'm alone on this, but to me this is not the normal "incentivizing" set of circumstances.
Edited to add that this would be more like a local race saying, "sign up before the price goes up!" Then you go to sign up and they don't let you, then they raise the price and then they let you. You would shake your head at that right?

 

[BikeFan]

I understand tiered pricing in races, but if a race "sells out" during the lowest price tier, and people get shut out of it even though they were ready to buy, that's not a price increase to incentivize, it's just a random price increase. These people would have readily signed up when the price was lower. Holding back, for whatever reason, no matter how justified, and then charging more to those same people who would have bought earlier seems wrong. Maybe I'm alone on this, but to me this is not the normal "incentivizing" set of circumstances.
Edited to add that this would be more like a local race saying, "sign up before the price goes up!" Then you go to sign up and they don't let you, then they raise the price and then they let you. You would shake your head at that right?

I agree, and I'd be ticked at Rundisney if they did that just to collect more race fees. In this case though, we can't really know what their thinking is. All we can know for sure is that tiered pricing has returned, and capacity appears to have been reduced. It'll be interesting to watch going forward how the virus situation evolves and if Rundisney increases capacity in response.

 

[SheHulk]

I agree, and I'd be ticked at Rundisney if they did that just to collect more race fees. In this case though, we can't really know what their thinking is. All we can know for sure is that tiered pricing has returned, and capacity appears to have been reduced. It'll be interesting to watch going forward how the virus situation evolves and if Rundisney increases capacity in response.

Yeah for sure. Who knows what will happen.

 

[camaker]

I understand tiered pricing in races, but if a race "sells out" during the lowest price tier, and people get shut out of it even though they were ready to buy, that's not a price increase to incentivize, it's just a random price increase. These people would have readily signed up when the price was lower. Holding back, for whatever reason, no matter how justified, and then charging more to those same people who would have bought earlier seems wrong. Maybe I'm alone on this, but to me this is not the normal "incentivizing" set of circumstances.
Edited to add that this would be more like a local race saying, "sign up before the price goes up!" Then you go to sign up and they don't let you, then they raise the price and then they let you. You would shake your head at that right?

I think this situation is being over analyzed. RunDisney has already implemented tiered pricing to incentivize sign up. They used it as a selling point for Club RunDisney, guaranteeing members Tier 1 pricing. Then COVID hit and they limited registration numbers. If they can release more bibs later in the year, then great. That’s going to be safety-driven, not because they intentionally held back bibs to sell for more $$$ later. They just left the previously announced pricing structure in place. There’s really no need for them to change it at this point. I just don’t see the conspiracy theory and “here’s how they’ll probably spin it” aspects to the normal business practic for a race.

 

[SheHulk]

I think this situation is being over analyzed. RunDisney has already implemented tiered pricing to incentivize sign up. They used it as a selling point for Club RunDisney, guaranteeing members Tier 1 pricing. Then COVID hit and they limited registration numbers. If they can release more bibs later in the year, then great. That’s going to be safety-driven, not because they intentionally held back bibs to sell for more $$$ later. They just left the previously announced pricing structure in place. There’s really no need for them to change it at this point. I just don’t see the conspiracy theory and “here’s how they’ll probably spin it” aspects to the normal business practic for a race.

lol not a conspiracy theory. I don't think runDisney engineered this virus to take advantage of tiered pricing or has nefarious motives. Maybe my joke about discounting a raised price gave the wrong impression, it's just a joke.

There's no need for them to change it, and there is no need for them to keep it. Tiered pricing was not handed down from Mt. Sinai, was very recently re-introduced, and could be waived temporarily if they wanted to avoid (imo, righteous) bad feelings from people who tried to take advantage of the lower tier but were shut out. But of course they don't have to. All I said is I can predict people being upset over it, especially in the (run)Disney fan universe where people get upset about things, and keeping it under these circumstances seems like the wrong move to me.

Again, not worth arguing about because nothing has happened yet, but a fair compromise, should more bibs be released, could be to announce that more bibs will be available on X date, extend Tier 1 pricing for a few days after any (hypothetical) new bibs were released, then add in the remaining tiers. To be honest, in the total cost of attending these things, the increase from Tier 1 to Tier 2 seems like a drop in the bucket, but it would be a nice gesture and avoid some ill will. That's all.

 

[Krandor]

Oh they better not use Boston as a barometer for marathon weekend. We have almost zero percent chance of happening right now. All events up until the week before Boston are now cancelled. NYC and ATC would be a much better choice in barometer.

NYC and Peachtree have a higher chance since they are in a couple of months longer. Boston lost most of its chance when MA made the announcement last week.

That is a shame but understandable. I expect when they moved boston they figured they were going to be safe then. Will be weird if Boston Marathon doesn't happen.

My only point was it is going to be BAA, NYRR, ATC and groups like that that are going to set the standard for whatever big running events look like in the future. All of them have the experience and manpower to figure out what modifications can and should be done and places like rundisney and rock n roll are likely going to follow what they do.

Spacing in corals is one thing, but there is no way to guarantee spacing on the course. Too many people with different paces, tight places, its just not possible to have a race of any size at Disney that still makes financial sense and keep any kind of distance throughout the race. The marathon week is always in the middle of the flu season, we have all taken the risk before and ran with the flu and other Disney crud being passed around. We need to either accept the risk, or don’t go because there is no way to ensure you will not get sick.

There is not going to be zero risk but smaller and more corrals and some modifications can make things safer. When ATC moved PTRR they indicated then they were looking at doing more corrals then normal, looking at spacing between corrals, and looking at possibly redesigning how water stations were set up. Those types of things we are likely to see.

 

[Krandor]

I think this situation is being over analyzed. RunDisney has already implemented tiered pricing to incentivize sign up. They used it as a selling point for Club RunDisney, guaranteeing members Tier 1 pricing. Then COVID hit and they limited registration numbers. If they can release more bibs later in the year, then great. That’s going to be safety-driven, not because they intentionally held back bibs to sell for more $$$ later. They just left the previously announced pricing structure in place. There’s really no need for them to change it at this point. I just don’t see the conspiracy theory and “here’s how they’ll probably spin it” aspects to the normal business practic for a race.

And reslly the cost from tier to tier is not that different. There is not a ton of money to be made there. Dopey goes from $590 to $600 to $610. That is not a big change. I've seen races with really really steep tiered pricing but that is not what they are doing here.

 

[garneska]

@Krandor are you planning to run PTRR on Thanksgiving? I deferred my entry to next year. Mostly because i am not sure what i am doing on Thanksgiving. Of course I am also waiting on Boston but as @StarGirl11 mentioned i am fairly sure it will get cancelled.

 

[Krandor]

@Krandor are you planning to run PTRR on Thanksgiving? I deferred my entry to next year. Mostly because i am not sure what i am doing on Thanksgiving. Of course I am also waiting on Boston but as @StarGirl11 mentioned i am fairly sure it will get cancelled.

Yes. I do the triple peach each year so I was already going to do the thanksgiving day half marathon on that day (which is now cancelled for PTRR) so now I'll just do PTRR on that day. So it is simply a change of what race to run for me. So my next race is the atlanta 10 miler in october (part of triple peach).

 

[garneska]

I did the atlanta 10 miler for the first time last year with @OldSlowGoofyGuy @Disney at Heart and @tigger536

Another race I will consider depending on what is happening by oct.

 

[BikeFan]

Of course I am also waiting on Boston but as @StarGirl11 mentioned i am fairly sure it will get cancelled.

I hope not, but I fear you're right about Boston. This was going to be your first, right? My condolences if it's cancelled. It's hard work to get there and you deserve a chance to cross that line on Boylston St. Hope it works out for all of us waiting to hear!

 

[garneska]

I hope not, but I fear you're right about Boston. This was going to be your first, right? My condolences if it's cancelled. It's hard work to get there and you deserve a chance to cross that line on Boylston St. Hope it works out for all of us waiting to hear!

Yes it is my first. It was very hard to get the first one. My qualifier was Chicago so it also meant almost a whole year of waiting hoping it was good enough. I was a squeaker since i was only 2:33 under my BQ time. While I will definitely be sad if it does not happen, it just means i will have to try again. My fear is my durability. I will have to chose the next one carefully and I may hold out hope for my next age up to get that extra 5 minutes

 

[BikeFan]

Yes it is my first. It was very hard to get the first one. My qualifier was Chicago so it also meant almost a whole year of waiting hoping it was good enough. I was a squeaker since i was only 2:33 under my BQ time. While I will definitely be sad if it does not happen, it just means i will have to try again. My fear is my durability. I will have to chose the next one carefully and I may hold out hope for my next age up to get that extra 5 minutes

I would have to assume that if they cancel it again, they'll let all the runners carry over to 2021. It's not like there are many current qualifiers anyway, since most of the spring marathon season got wiped out. Boston is itself the top BQ marathon for Boston, so with no 2020 Boston, that's a huge chunk of qualifiers there.

 

[Krandor]

I would have to assume that if they cancel it again, they'll let all the runners carry over to 2021. It's not like there are many current qualifiers anyway, since most of the spring marathon season got wiped out. Boston is itself the top BQ marathon for Boston, so with no 2020 Boston, that's a huge chunk of qualifiers there.

i would hope they would let people who qualified for this boston to defer to next year if it doesn't take place. Seems only fair.

 

[StarGirl11]

A cynical side of me wouldn't be surprised if Disney held some bibs back to inflate demand, and then plans to release them in the later tiers, to make more $$. If I'm remembering correctly (and I may not be!), I don't think they bothered with tiered pricing the last few years for marathon weekend, and they even released some discount codes later in the year to help push numbers for that race weekend. Two of my friends didn't register for Dopey 2020 until November 2019, and they got a discount code at the Chicago Marathon expo.

Look I can't say for sure but I'm pretty sure I paid higher price when I registered later without the discount code.

Also this is NOT the first time they've had tiered pricing. They had this before rapid sellouts became a thing. I've been doing runDisney for a while now I do remember a time when they listed different prices for different dates. It's been a while yes, but no this is not actually a new thing. I do remember this happening before. Probably back in the days when we were still given how much percentage of the races were sold out if I'm remembering my timing right.

That is a shame but understandable. I expect when they moved boston they figured they were going to be safe then. Will be weird if Boston Marathon doesn't happen.

My only point was it is going to be BAA, NYRR, ATC and groups like that that are going to set the standard for whatever big running events look like in the future. All of them have the experience and manpower to figure out what modifications can and should be done and places like rundisney and rock n roll are likely going to follow what they do.

Honestly NYC and ATC are better barometers just because they are the larger races. Boston's just under 30,000 normally accounting for normal no shows. NYC is 50,000 and and PTRR is 60,0000. People don't realize it but Boston and Tokyo (around 25k participate) are arguably one of the smaller majors.

Actually are first real indicator of whether things might start to be normalizing might come around Labor Day but not from Boston. But from BolderBoulder. Its the second largest 10k in the world only beaten out by Peachtree. As of right now they're sticking to the new Labor Day date. Though we'll see if that stays since a bunch of CO summer ultra events were mass cancelled yesterday due to the virus.

@garneska Sorry to hear your in the same boat as me with Boston. This was going to be my first too. I'm not completely giving up on it. I'm training like its still there. But I've also been mentally prepared since April that this might happen. Hope we both get to run and if not hopefully see you at 125.

 

[garneska]

@BikeFan and @Krandor that is my hope, with most marathons cancelled if nothing else let me use my time from Oct 2018 to submit for 2021 if it ends up not being good enough then i have to try and qualify again. I know Oct 2019 in Chicago was pretty fast, so for someone like me just barely under the time to get in, i might get knocked out. The last marathon I ran was Disney 2019 because i was anticipating running Boston in 2020. Back to my durability I only choose to run at most 2 marathons a year or I end up injured. Wow my last marathon was that long ago. I did run the half this past Jan at Disney.

 

[garneska]

@garneska Sorry to hear your in the same boat as me with Boston. This was going to be my first too. I'm not completely giving up on it. I'm training like its still there. But I've also been mentally prepared since April that this might happen. Hope we both get to run and if not hopefully see you at 125.

Same. I still hope it happens but preparing for it not to, while still training of course. If it does not happen let's hope for April 2021. @dis_or_dat and @canglim52 are in the same boat.