The Complete Guide to runDisney Chronicles

The following comes from The Complete Guide to runDisney, Disneyland Edition, available from Theme Park Press, and on Amazon. Join the privileged guests who have discovered the extra, incredible layer of magic afforded to participants in the amazing runDisney events:

from "Author’s Note"

"If you are considering a Disneyland-based runDisney event, you must stay at the Anaheim/Disneyland Resort. It is not an actual requirement to participate. If getting a room did not carry a potentially prohibitive financial investment, I would push for making it mandatory. As it is, if you’re going to do it at all, seriously consider getting local accommodations.

This will be addressed again, and at length. It appears here as an admonition, because decisions involving where you stay and how you get to your runDisney race are as important as signing up in the first place. “Get a Room” was to have been the title of this book, though I was led to understand it would be misleading.

If you do not live close enough to Disneyland to walk to the starting line in the very early morning of your race, you need to find a hotel room that will allow you to do so. The unavoidable chaos that driving and parking adds to your runDisney day has the potential to ruin it. Additionally, the Expo, which you are required to attend to get your race bib—unless you have better friends than I, who will get the waiver and retrieve your bib for you—is not open early enough on the morning of any race. If you do not stay or reside nearby, it means driving into the storm of detours and impacted parking structures twice.

Disney does a yeoman’s job with human and spatial management. There are just certain confluences that are beyond even the most capable of coordinators. Stay close at least the night before your race. The next day and thus the rest of your life will be the better for it.

An incredible accommodation for runDisney participants, and one more reason not to drive, is that the city of Anaheim provides free transportation for guests of every motel and hotel within ten-square blocks of Disneyland throughout the weekend. With a valid race waiver and/or bib, you may request Anaheim Rapid Transit (ART) passes from any shuttle driver for you and any attending members of your family, for the entire weekend. Shuttles provide transportation between the Disneyland Resort and a laundry list of area hotels. If you are staying in the area, but are arguably beyond walking distance, the frequency and convenience of ART buses ought to help you keep your car in the lot.

Seriously, do whatever it takes to not get behind the wheel on race day."

Please return here for more Complete Guide to runDisney Chronicles, and stay tuned for the upcoming Guide to Disney Drinking, covering the most glorious Walt Disney World and Disneyland adult pursuits.