Running Universal

As someone who signed up for the virtual Jurassic World races, my medals came while I was at Disney World Marathon Weekend. I still need to take them out and look at them, but sadly they've been overshadowed by Marathon Weekend. But for anyone who did the virtual runs, they are coming.
 
As someone who signed up for the virtual Jurassic World races, my medals came while I was at Disney World Marathon Weekend. I still need to take them out and look at them, but sadly they've been overshadowed by Marathon Weekend. But for anyone who did the virtual runs, they are coming.
I got mine too. I was wondering when I left for Disney when they were planning to send them and I think they arrived the day before I got back. They are pretty nice but I probably would have liked them better if I wasn't laying them out next to six new shiny Disney medals.
 
I got mine too. I was wondering when I left for Disney when they were planning to send them and I think they arrived the day before I got back. They are pretty nice but I probably would have liked them better if I wasn't laying them out next to six new shiny Disney medals.
Exactly. I feel like they got lost in the shuffle of the 2020 Dopey Challenge especially given the conditions on the course for the marathon. That said, I do like the drawstring backpack that they sent out. I feel like it's something they did not need to do for virtual runners, but did so anyways. Hopefully some day I'll get a chance to run Universal in person. Now I just need a theme I like even if they did give me a near perfect theme with Jurassic World even though the timing didn't work on my end.
 
I definitely recommend it. I am not coming out for the Trolls race, though I like the Orlando 5k medal and would love a Shrek race. Orlando is probably a much easier run because it's so much flatter, but I grew up going to Universal Hollywood and so it's more sentimental for me, hills and all, plus you get to run through the actual movie sets.
 


Thanks! I am not doing this time since I was down for Marathon weekend and am returning in March but I wanted to see the routes so I know what they will look like if they do this again :) Looks like only the 10K will include HP running so that is what I will be doing for sure!
 


My daughter and I are doing the 10k, and were definitely glad that's the one we chose (it will be her first 10k, she was worried about that long of a distance, but liked the medal better, haha.)
 
I'm doing the 10K Sunday. Because who doesn't want a medal with a dinosaur on it? XD Oh, and HP. Fun times. :)

Anyway, I'm a little worried about how this is all going to go down. Especially with what I've read on this thread about the CA races. The corrals thing sounds like a mess.

On top of that, the information online is - to say it nicely - limited, and when I emailed them last week with questions, they had no clue. I followed up yesterday and got a reply today, nothing. I mean, it's the day before the race (5K). How do you still not know what drink will be offered on course? Their reply was basically 'you'll find out the day of the race.' Um, what?

But I did get an answer today about runner tracking - No. Which is disappointing. But not as disappointing as Universal not having their act together. At all.

Am I just spoiled by runDisney? ^^'

Full disclosure: I haven't done any "normal" races so I dont have a frame of reference lol

PS - If anyone on here is running the 5K tomorrow, will you post how it went in the morning with parking and the corrals? Thanks!
 
Am I just spoiled by runDisney? ^^'
That's an interesting question. Setting aside questions of how "serious" a Disney race can be given the circumstances of running through theme parks, character photos, elaborate costumes, and possibly riding a roller coaster during a race, runDisney also provides certified courses that can be used for BQ or even Olympic qualifying.

I think Universal is still figuring out just what they they the Running Universal experience to be.

Do they want it to be a couple of untimed fun runs where people get together to run through the parks, stop for fun photos, and maybe spend a few hours in the parks afterwards?

Or do they want to go for the full on race weekend experience with everything that entails such as runner tracking and the disruption of theme parks that comes with races? Whatever they decide, I wish them well because competition means everybody wins. As much as I love Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, I'm not sure Disney would have spent the money to build it if Universal had not done such a spectacular job with Wizarding World. Disney had to raise their game and they did.

Good luck to anyone running this weekend and if you already ran today, I hope you enjoyed it.
 
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On top of that, the information online is - to say it nicely - limited, and when I emailed them last week with questions, they had no clue. I followed up yesterday and got a reply today, nothing. I mean, it's the day before the race (5K). How do you still not know what drink will be offered on course? Their reply was basically 'you'll find out the day of the race.' Um, what?

Am I just spoiled by runDisney? ^^'

This sounds like it could be a matter of the "Run Universal" being staffed by interns or others that are not runners themselves.

Where we runners (OK, I'm more of a 'jogger') see Gu, Clif Shots, CarbBoom non-runners see "gel". Where we see Orange Gatorade and (IMO the god-awful) Cherry Ice Powerade, they see all of it as "Gatorade" or "Sports Drink".

Sadly, they probably don't care that these are consideration many runners take into account planning out their runs. Hopefully, it's a case of being a new organization and they will adapt to the customer eventually.
 
Well, the race had water. No on course nutrition or electolyte. Definitely a disappointment in that regard. There is definitely some room for improvement, but the course and character interactions were pretty great, so I think it has some potential in the future once it gets the issues ironed out.
 
I wonder if the Trolls runs will go ahead or not what with all the COVID park closures.......
 
How do you still not know what drink will be offered on course?

I know this is an older post, but I think you’re spoiled by *current* Disney.

I’ve been doing rundisney since 2013 and I only remembering such info being available in very recent years.

And frankly it shouldn’t matter. If you train to specific things, bring those things. If the course has what you’re used to, it’s a lagniappe and you don’t have to use as much of yours. (That’s what I do now that Disney uses sports beans, but they could change at any point.)

Even with Disney you can’t get the exact drink. They have used a powered mix that you can’t get as a normal consumer, so if you are sensitive (as I most certainly am) you still won’t get what you trained with.
 
I know this is an older post, but I think you’re spoiled by *current* Disney.

I’ve been doing rundisney since 2013 and I only remembering such info being available in very recent years.

And frankly it shouldn’t matter. If you train to specific things, bring those things. If the course has what you’re used to, it’s a lagniappe and you don’t have to use as much of yours. (That’s what I do now that Disney uses sports beans, but they could change at any point.)

Even with Disney you can’t get the exact drink. They have used a powered mix that you can’t get as a normal consumer, so if you are sensitive (as I most certainly am) you still won’t get what you trained with.

I didn't expect a branded answer (e.g. PowerAde vs "Sports Drink") and I certainly did not expect to get what I trained with. My complaint was about the complete lack of knowledge (not to mention the blase attitude) about what - to me - seemed like basic information.

This sounds like it could be a matter of the "Run Universal" being staffed by interns or others that are not runners themselves.

This is probably likely the problem. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing; it's just the organizational staff should try to anticipate some of the basic questions a runner would have and equip their people with information.

To me, RUO still has a long way to go if they even think they want to compete with rD. The 10K course route was great and I definitely had a fun time, but there were many things about the weekend that I didn't like.

As I said before, perhaps I'm too used to seeing how rD does things both from a runner and volunteer perspective that I get easily annoyed by these things, lol. :laughing:
 
My complaint was about the complete lack of knowledge (not to mention the blase attitude) about what - to me - seemed like basic information.

And I still think you’re spoiled by current rundisney.

And this sensitive-stomach person wouldn’t find non-specific info to be useful at all. What’s the point, to my mind, of knowing if it’s gel or something else, if Gu gel kills your belly while some other gel wouldn’t? Etc. If you have a belly of steel I don’t see why the question would be asked.

Modern rundisney gives the info in the event guide (brands) based on who their sponsor is. When it was clif wr got little clif bars in our bags at packet pickup. Oh I miss those days.

Anyway. At USH Minions I felt that I had all the info I needed ahead of time. And for nutrition I carried my own, as I always do, because of my sensitive stomach. (And rundisney has let runners down in the past by being out of the nutrition at mile 8 of the Halfs by the time slower (but still inside of the allotted pace) runners got there. Old rundisney has taught me well by their mess-ups!
 

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