So, runDisney have just released the corrals for Star Wars half marathon on 17th January.  I’m not going (i’ll be back home running a crazy jet-lagged Helsby half) but it’s pretty hard not to notice something odd even with a quick glance of the corrals.  Over two thirds, 66%, of runners have a finish time of 2:56 or over based on evidence or lack of submitted to runDisney (you have to submit proof to get in the faster corrals not like the UK where they expect people to be honest).  Only just over 18% are expected to finish in under 2:21.  Here’s a breakdown of the different corrals.

Capture

Combined Corrals

 

These figures are for the half marathon and the Rebel Alliance challenge (those who run the 10k the previous day and then the half) combined so there may have been some penalty applied to their times to account for the race before but when you look at the half marathon itself the picture actually gets worse.  Slightly over 14% for under 2:21 and 75% over 2:56.  The challenge actually has a higher percentage of faster runners than the half marathon alone does.

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Half Marathon Corrals

 

I wrote another article a few weeks ago that suggested that maybe Dopey runners are getting slower too so what’s happening?  Some think it’s because runners must now submit proof of time separately to entering the race.  The theory goes that there is a large group of runners who just forgot to submit proof and so got sent to the back.  There’s probably some truth to this but maybe for a much smaller number of people?  I would expect to see a lot more angry people across the forums moaning about their drop from A to E but there’s only been the odd handful complaining of forgetting to submit their times that I’ve spotted.  I think it’s more like that runDisney races have started attracting slower runners, which is great the more active people the better, but is that a turn off to faster runners?  To get any real answers we really need race results.    Would be interesting to know if a race series can survive if it is no longer catering to both serious and fun runners? I think I might have to look into this more when I get back from the US. Is it just a runDisney issue or is it a common trend for all races? Although telling everyone about it may be in runDisney’s favour, I’m pretty sure I’d be guaranteed a top 18% finish if I went and ran Star Wars half, maybe other runners who see that will be attracted back and we’ll just keep going round in circles.

Here’ s the Star Wars corrals: