When RunDisney Becomes Your Religion
It was 3:25 a.m., and for some reason I was 1) awake, 2) in spandex, and 3) about to board a bus to EPCOT in the pitch-black darkness with my 76-year-old mom.
This morning’s 5-K would be the first of four park races in four days: First the 5-K, then a 10-K, then a half-marathon, and finally, a full marathon. I was at the park in the middle of the night to run the 5-K—my very first Disney race—and to immerse myself in the rabid fandom of runDisney.
Being in the parking lots at the parks’ perimeter before a big race is like stumbling upon a secret, invite-only music festival in the middle of the night, where everyone is kind and slightly over-caffeinated. As the central rendezvous for thousands of runners squeezing into their assigned corrals, the parking lots are packed during race weekends at Disney World. The air hums with the excitement of runners reconnecting with old friends, comparing outfits, and generally pumping each other up.
I felt like a (barely awake) sociologist watching the world’s most fascinating social experiment. It was loud: I could hear the runners before I saw them. Screams and cheers from the crowds filled the air, and happy people turned their faces toward enormous screens that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Massive floodlights cut through the early-morning darkness as polished event hosts cracked perfect dad jokes and interviewed excited runners. And, despite the early hour, not one person looked grumpy. Everywhere I turned, there were thumping speakers, fireworks, and Disney-themed costumes. And, of course, laughing, smiling runners.
By the time I crossed the finish line, I was completely under the runDisney spell. It was still dark out and I hadn’t had my first cup of coffee, but I just felt happy and lucky to have shared this wild experience with my mom. In fact, when they handed us our race finisher medals, I didn’t want to take mine off and (jokingly) asked how long it would be appropriate for me to wear it. But the race also had me wondering what in the world I’d stumbled into. Who were the people signing up to run these races—at great expense and with buckets of enthusiasm—over and over again?
Why They Run
The first runDisney event kicked off in 1994; now, as many as 170,000 runners participate each season, making runDisney one of the largest race organizations on earth. The organization also hosts virtual races, where you complete your run at home during a specified window, upload your time (it’s all honor system), and get your race bib and certificate digitally and your (hefty!) medal by mail. The races aren’t cheap, though. Registration can range from $100 to roughly $405, depending on the event (in comparison, the Boston Marathon is about $230), and slots sell out in minutes. Being a runDisney fan definitely adds up in the finance department: Dedicated repeat runners can end up spending thousands of dollars a year on travel, accommodations, and race registrations.
RunDisney is just a completely different race experience, says Jamie Marcella, 42, who spends roughly $10,000 each year on travel to get to Disney races and averages about three Disney race weekends per year. Of course, the physical element is what draws some people in. But unlike other races, runDisney also delivers on extreme nostalgia and emotion. These runners grew up connected to the magic of this landscape through the movies they watched, parks they visited, and characters they fell in love with. Often, they’re still experiencing that Disney magic with their spouses and friends, or through their own kids.
In one perfect example, runners get to indulge in an exclusive Disney experience only possible during a race: running through Cinderella Castle as the sun comes up, which Marcella calls “the most beautiful thing in the entire world.”
“I promise you, if you ever experience it, you will not be able to do it without crying. Someone hands out tissues because it’s just gorgeous,” she says, noting that even talking about it chokes her up.
Yes, you read that right. There is a full team of people (“cast members”) stationed in the castle with boxes of tissues at the ready because so many runners break down in tears as they experience that moment, says Marcella. And even though she’s done it many times herself, she still bawls every time.
Tapping Into A Human Need To Belong
There are runners, and then there are Disney runners. While your local weekend racing crew is full of camaraderie and team culture, Disney runners form bonds that seem truly next level. These races involve live entertainment, exclusive character greetings, Disney jargon, elaborate costumes, and months of advance planning with friends from all over the world in Facebook groups. It’s an intense, instant bond.
“You don’t make it to a runDisney race without making runner friends along the way,” says Marcella.
Those who sign up for these races don’t just love running, they love Disney. “They’ve all watched the same movies; they have the same reference points,” says Josephine Perry, PhD, a U.K.-based sports psychologist and the author of multiple books about sports performance. Runners have always formed close-knit groups, but Disney takes it further. “Running really connects, and I think Disney connects,” she says. And when you stack those two shared experiences, “it’s very powerful and motivating.”
This connection is likely a big psychological driver that keeps these runners coming back race after race, says Perry.
In fact, Adam Ball, vice president of ESPN Wide World of Sports, Water Parks and Mini-Golf, notes that runDisney “thrives on the incredible passion of our devoted fan community.”
Brooke Prelovsky, 36, who has just completed her 100th runDisney race in the 10 years she’s been a runner, agrees. “What’s really cool about running Disney is that you’re mixing a lot of passions,” she says. “You meet a lot of really amazing, like-minded people.”
Of course, there’s also brain chemistry that’s driving these fans back to the start line again and again, says Jamie Shapiro, PhD, codirector and a professor of sport and performance psychology at the University of Denver. Exercise has mood-boosting as well as stress- and anxiety-lowering benefits, she says. Pair that with the dopamine and serotonin rush that comes from being at Disney World and it’s a perfect recipe for exuberant running conditions that make you want to run to your computer and sign up for another. “Combining these two positive psychological effects compounds the joy,” Shapiro says.
Disney runners have even developed their own lexicon for their physical feats. For example: “Going Dopey” means you’ve completed each of the four races on race weekend (that’s 48.6 miles in four days). “Going Goofy” means you ran both the half- and the full marathon.
Marcella went Dopey for the first time while six months pregnant with her youngest (she cleared it with her doctor beforehand).
RunDisney supported her athletic goals the whole way, providing a Doppler machine at the finish line so that she (and other pregnant mamas) could listen to their baby’s heartbeat. She’s since gone Dopey four times.
Prelovsky has done 10 Dopey challenges. Another runner, Emelia Cellura, 43, has achieved “perfect Dopey,” which means she’s completed the four-run challenge every single year since its inception 11 years ago. She is 1 of only 362 people with this elite designation.
It’s Not About The PR—It’s About The Memories
With runners and walkers of all levels welcomed, there’s a unique sense of accessibility and fun at these races that is a core part of runDisney’s DNA. If you hit a PR, great. If you don’t, also great. The key element is that you’re taking part in the inclusive, fun, sporty community of Disney runners. “I’ve run a sub-four marathon, and I’ve also run a six-hour-plus marathon on the same course,” says Prelovsky. “I’ve always felt like a runner.”
Some runners show up for the special access to unique Disney experiences. The course itself is filled with surprise and delight: Every turn brings the fun, with greetings from rare characters (the OG Jiminy Cricket, or Merlin from Sword in the Stone) or a full gospel choir that sings you into the final stretch. Runners almost always slow down or stop to take in these magical moments along the way.
“I’m there to see the characters and have some rare opportunities. Maybe I’ll sneak on a ride that’s open, but I’m not there to PR,” Marcella says. “I’m just there to look at all the things that most people don’t get to see.”
Cellura, who started running after the birth of her daughter to “get out of the house,” agrees. She signed up for a Disneyland half-marathon 14 years ago and never looked back. Now, she runs races across the country, both Disney and non-Disney, all year long (she’s up to around 150 half marathons and 40 full marathons), and her daughter runs the shorter races with her. Though Cellura runs all kinds of races, Disney is just a “different feel,” she says.
“There’s definitely more silliness to it,” Cellura says. “A lot of runners take things very seriously elsewhere, but at Disney races, you get people in crazy costumes, and characters along the way, and there’s fun music playing—it’s more of a party, it’s a lighthearted atmosphere.”
Yet some of these fun, race-adjacent activities actually play a strategic role getting people to the finish line, says Steven Wininger, PhD, cohead of the psychology department at Western Kentucky University and an expert in performance anxiety, multitasking during exercise, and exercise motivation. “If we only focus on bodily sensations and pacing and time while we exercise, we tend to perform better, but we don’t enjoy it as much, and we’re less likely to endure,” he says. “A Disney run takes distraction to a whole new level.”
That excitement and novelty simply can’t be matched by a phone or treadmill screen.
There’s also a performance benefit derived from participation—even for spectators—called “social facilitation,” says Wininger. “If you look at anybody who’s run a big road race like New York, Chicago, or Boston, they will tell you about the surge of energy and the adrenaline and the joy when you get to the sections where the crowd is heavy and thick, and people are just screaming and yelling.”
When Marcella starts to run out of energy while participating in a runDisney event, there’s always a sea of cheering Disney fans that suddenly appear. And even though they’re strangers, they convince her she can conquer the course. “The crowds become my magical sidekicks,” she says.
For Prelovsky, seeing her loved ones and family members cheering her down Main Street, U.S.A. at the entrance to the parks is always an incredible moment. Last year, her parents surprised her while she was running the Dopey Challenge’s half-marathon. “Every single time, it takes my breath away,” she says.
Of course, when the runners finish, they can become part of the cheer squad too. In fact, it’s one of Prelovsky’s favorite things to do after a race—hoot and holler until the last runner crosses that finish line. “It’s really special to be able to cheer them on,” she says. “At the end of most Disney races, I have smiled so much my face hurts.”
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