By Sean Conner

At 4 a.m. on a cold January morning, I groggily walked from my hotel room to the bus stop in front of the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World. The urge to return to my room and go back to sleep crossed my mind; however, I was determined to complete the race and earn my medal. Freezing cold wind whipped at my face as I waited in line with a dozen other people embarking on the same journey. After 20 minutes, which felt like an eternity, my dad and I boarded the bus and headed to the race. 

As I exited the bus and began the hike to the start line, the number of people joining me swelled to thousands. I noticed a guy dressed in Disney attire standing in a walkway, who asked the crowd, “Who wants to go back to sleep?” Many people raised their hands after hearing this, but they refused to turn back. We all walked half a mile to the start line, and my dad, Ian Conner, told me, “This is your warm-up.” We arrived at the reunion area and met with some of my dad’s running friends before the race began. When it was time for the race to begin, I said goodbye to my dad, walked to my corral, and waited to begin the 10K. I watched fireworks launch from the banner to begin the race.

Left to right: Donna Quackenbush, Carlye O’Brien, and Ian Conner with Perry the Platypus during a marathon. Photo credit: Disney PhotoPass.

For over 30 years, thousands of runners have traveled to the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland in California to participate in Disney’s race weekends, known as runDisney events. Their race weekends include Marathon Weekend, Disney Princess Half-Marathon Weekend, runDisney Springtime Surprise Weekend, Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon Weekend at Disney World, and Half-Marathon Weekend at Disneyland. They recently added a new race weekend, called the Disneyland Halloween Half Marathon Weekend. 

I have been to several race weekends, the most recent being Marathon weekend, which takes place the first week of January at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Consisting of a 5K, 10K, half-marathon, and marathon, this race weekend is truly special. Within this weekend, runners can compete in the Goofy Challenge, the half and full marathons, and the Dopey Challenge, in which runners run every race, totaling a staggering 48.6 miles over four days.

At every race, people dress up in different costumes, with effort ranging from minuscule to extravagant. This year, my effort was outdone by my parents’. I chose two Disney T-shirts as my costumes for the races. For the 5K, my shirt had a picture of Sleepy from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that said, “I got out of bed for this.” For the 10K, my shirt had a picture of Grumpy on it and said “Morning Grump.” My mom Melissa Conner ran the 5K as the wallpaper from the Haunted Mansion. My dad ran the half-marathon as Anxiety from Inside Out 2 and the marathon as a cast member from Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride from Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Some of my favorite costumes from this year included the Country Bears, Roz from Monsters, Inc., Chip and Dale in their Rescue Rangers attire, and different onesies of different Disney characters. I saw a runner who dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow for many of the runDisney races.  

I also had the opportunity to ask runners Donna Quackenbush, a Disney Cast Member from Orlando, Florida, and Carlye O’Brien, a technical writer from Dallas, Texas, about their favorite costumes from their many races.

runDisney announcers Carissa Galloway and John Pelkey during the 10K. Photo credit: John Pelkey.

Quackenbush said her favorites include a “Mouseketeer group costume, Cinderella and her stepsisters, Wilderness Explorers, Star Wars Jedi fighter, Buzz and Woody. The list goes on.” O’Brien shared an experience that she and her cousin had after they ran as Phineas and Ferb from Phineas and Ferb for a race. She described a special meet and greet they had with them at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, saying, “We went to Hollywood Studios, when they were still greeting, and were the first in line to meet P&F. When they saw us, they both immediately tried to jump over the line stanchions to hug us. Best character meet-and-greet ever.”

I got to ask runDisney commentator John Pelkey about his experiences with runDisney. Pelkey has been announcing races for over 20 years and has become an integral part of the community. Pelkey began his journey through a friend who was in charge of a runDisney event. He said, “I was working as a sports host at the ESPN Club at Disney’s Boardwalk. He needed someone with a sports background and asked if I wanted to do it. It paid well and sounded like fun, so I said yes.” He has worn a variety of costumes over his many races, but he said his favorite was when he “wore a kilt for a race several years ago (Brave was the theme) and I’d always wanted to wear one. Our Chip & Dale costumes from this year’s 10K [were] pretty hysterical too.”     

During the 5K. Photo credit: Disney Photopass.

The final question posed to the regular participants was “What have you gained from runDisney?” The responses to these questions varied from each person. O’Brien said, “It helps power my internal motivation. And it has given me a second family.” Quackenbush said, “Besides a TON of shirts and medals, I’ve gained friendships, confidence that I can do hard things, and memories that will last me a lifetime.” Pelkey said, “So much. It introduced me to a community of supportive/creative/inspiring people, it helped my career by expanding my skill set in a direction (race announcing) I’d never planned on (and subsequently led to other work). Most importantly though, it really reinforced the idea that human beings can do difficult things and overcome massive obstacles in life. The stories from some of our athletes are astonishing in terms of what they’ve overcome. It’s frankly an honor to know them and to hear their stories and witness their accomplishments.”

For me, runDisney has brought me closer to a place that I love and to people who share this interest with me. I gained a newfound love of running during the races last month, and it has given me the determination to do more runDisney races in the future.

Featured image credit: runDisney.