Earlier this year, Run Disney announced a new race series into the family, the Virtual Running Shorts. These races are a bit different than the races currently held by Run Disney in that they are not held in any Disney Park.
DBFF Tina decided to take the plunge and signed up for all three races. All three you ask? Yep, all three. The distance of each race is 5k (or 3.1 miles) and the series consisted of three legs for a total of 9.3 miles. You could have either signed up for one race or all three, receiving a medal (themed to a certain famous mouse) for each leg. If you signed up for all three races, you also received a coveted fourth medal. Tina went for the series to receive all four medals. Each individual race cost a total of $39.00 and if you signed up the series it was $142.00 (which comes to $47 per race…. Hmmm, guess you do pay for that fourth medal after all).
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| All 4 Medals. A side-by-side comparison with an in park race medal. Same size! |
Each leg had its own theme and a time frame in which to complete:
- The first leg, Yellow Shoes, was to be completed between May 15 and June 1, 2016.
- The second leg, Red Pants, was to be completed between June 5 and June 18, 2016.
- The third leg, White Glove, was to be completed between June 19 and June 30, 2016.
The total package!
As mentioned above, these races are virtual. This means you can do them anywhere, you choose your course as long as it’s 3.1 miles. These events are not timed in any real sense and there’s no first or last place. In fact, there’s no event surrounding each race, unless you choose to make it an event by racing with family or friends.
Many comments were posted on the Run Disney Facebook page regarding the pros and cons of this series, so let’s go over our pros and cons.
Pros:
- Much cheaper than doing a race in the park. The upcoming Disneyland 5k was $80.00 so each race is saving you $41.00.
- You can do this race anywhere (also a con which I’ll get to)! Your favorite non-Disney park, your treadmill – anywhere, as long you walk or run (no biking allowed!).
- Disney races in the park are expensive, factoring in travel and hotel stays and you’re forking out a good chunk of change. If you have more than one person in the family racing, that’s an additional $80 for the 5k.
- You do not have to wake up at 4:30 am! Most Disneyland races start at 5:30 – that’s early folks!
Cons:
- You’re not in a Disney park! What do you hear every time you go to a Disney Park? No running. Well, here you can run to your heart’s content (or until you run out of breath!). Running down Main Street is a pretty cool thing to do, without getting scolded for doing so.
- Motivation: We like the energy surrounding an actual running event. The races in the Parks are jam packed with energy – from the starting line to the finish line. You won’t have the enthusiasm of race announcer, Rudy Novotny, and his countdown to start off your run with “Runners Ready!” Unfortunately, I just read on his Facebook page that he will no longer be the announcer at Disneyland Races. Little bummed about that.
- Accountability: no proof of time is required for receiving your medals. This ties in with motivation, in which there really is none to complete each leg of the series.
In my opinion, I think they’re good. They’re not for everybody and that’s OK. But I like how families who cannot make it to the parks due to location and/or expenses now can bring a Disney Race home. For me, unless they change the medals, I’m not sure I would consider participating in this one again. Speaking of races, our next race is the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend in September. Between the two of us each race will be covered – Tina will be doing the 5k and 10k (what she likes to refer to as the Tina Challenge) and Julia will be covering the 10k and half marathon with the Dumbo Double Dare.
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