If you add up the size of the four Walt Disney World theme parks, they come out to nearly 1000 acres.
So it’s no wonder that with all that running around, people sometimes joke about it feeling
like you’re running a marathon.
However every year, for tens of thousands of people, it literally is running a marathon.
The runDisney Walt Disney World marathon has been around for a while, but when did it begin,
and where did it come from?
Now the very first Walt Disney World Marathon took place in 1994, however Disney’s involvement
in running actually began two years prior, in Indiana of all places.
Every year in Indianapolis a special event is put on to celebrate the Indy 500 that is
fittingly called the 500 Festival.
It’s mainly comprised of a big parade, some smaller community events, and a series of
running events.
The most popular running event at the festival, to this day, is their “mini-marathon”
which is one of the largest half marathons in the country.
In 1992 Disney chose to sponsor the entire festival as a promotional move to celebrate
Walt Disney World’s 20th Anniversary, which had just occurred seven months earlier.
With Disney footing the bill that year it was estimated that the usual $60,000 budget
would balloon to as much as $300,000, and for the first time in its history, the festival
would be nationally televised.
As a part of it all, Indianapolis’ channel 8, WISH-TV, would have a TV crew sent to Walt
Disney World for a full 20 days to cover the resort and the 20th anniversary celebration
going on.
In retrospect, that’s a whole lot of air time for Disney for what would ultimately
amount to under half a million dollars.
In honor of the sponsorship the mini-marathon during the festival was renamed to the “Minnie
Marathon”, complete with Disney branded t-shirts for the 10,000 participants, and
costumed characters to greet the runners as they reached the finish line.
It was just one part of the larger event, but it would be the first steps towards a
future of similar ones.
In 1994 the concept of a Disney themed run would make its way to Orlando Florida.
According to the race director, Jon Hughes, it wasn’t the first time the idea was proposed,
saying “we approached Disney with the idea 10 years ago, but that was at a time when
they were still expanding and building much of the resort area.
It’s only in the last two years that we’ve finally been able to get the race off the ground.
That makes sense too.
Ten years earlier was 1984, and that was a tumultuous year for Disney.
In the time since they would add a third theme park, a number of resorts, and all around
see a growth in attendance.
The initial marathon was set for January, with a two mile fun run that would take place
the day before.
Registration for the event was $50, however that fee was waived for any participants who
were staying on Disney property that weekend.
Runner turnout was expected to be between six and eight thousand people, and with their
various family members and friends the total event attendance was estimated at ten thousand.
Now while Disney lacked the history required to put this event on the map, they were willing
to buy their way in.
With a prize bank totaling $125,000 the inaugural Walt Disney World Marathon instantly became
the 5th highest paid marathon in the country, and the 8th in the world.
Hughes argued that “we knew if it was to be done, it needed to be done world-class.”
The event would feature Fred Lebow, the founder of the New York City Marathon, as the event’s
honorary chairman, and the race would attract runners from far and wide.
One notable name at the time was 47 year old Jerry Dunn, who over the course of that previous
year had completed 104 marathon-length runs in honor of his late father and his own sobriety.
The Walt Disney World Marathon would be his first of 1994.
Officials expected the Disney event to result in better times than usual due to the prize
pool attracting more elite runners and the generally flat route making for an easier run.
“Race day comes still wrapped in a pre-dawn chill as thousands of athletes gather at EPCOT’s
starting line to challenge their months of training, focus, and determination.”
In the early hours of January 16th, over seventy-two hundred runners gathered at the Epcot parking
lot to kick off the marathon.
Featuring all of the elements that the marathon is still known for today, the race included
characters, fireworks, and music.
Leading up to the race there was concern that setting the event in Florida would lead to
overheating issues for the runners, but the early January morning temperature hovered
in the 40’s (4C-10C) for most of the race.
In fact, Disney had monitors posted all along the route who were trained to look for signs
of runners potentially suffering from hypothermia.
In Just a little over two hours after it began, Leonid Shvetsov of Russia would cross the
finish line to win the men’s division and Judit Nagy of Hungary would win the women’s division.
All in all, the marathon received praise for being a smooth event, with a few minor exceptions,
such as the music being too loud.
The biggest complaint was that the layout of the route was such that runners would turn
into the Epcot parking lot to see the finish line ahead of them… only to realize that
the route actually looped around the parking lot and they still had one more mile to go.
Disney heard enough about that to make sure it was fixed by the following year.
But overall the feedback from the event was so positive that beyond just planning for the 1995 marathon,
Disney also began to plan for a west coast Disneyland marathon as well, which would take
place just three weeks apart from the Los Angeles marathon.
The second annual Disney World Marathon would also be broadcast on ESPN.
A few years later in 1998 Disney would introduce a half marathon, however this time rather
than Minnie it would be Donald in the spotlight.
In 2010 Disney would formally create the runDisney brand, and today the subsidiary puts on over
25 racing events across the globe every year.
What started as this novel idea of setting a marathon in theme parks to draw 10,000 people
to the resort has become an annual tradition that takes place everywhere from Walt Disney
World to Disneyland Paris to Castaway Cay in the Bahamas.
They feature special themed runs based on properties like Marvel and Star Wars
And while it started small with just a little over 7000 runners
runDisney events now draw in over 160,000 runners a year from all around the world.