If you have put the proper thought, and heart, into your personal Disney bucket list, it ought to contain the following: dinner at Club 33; a night in the Cinderella’s Castle Suite; working a shift as captain on the Jungle Cruise; one entire day circumnavigating Epcot’s World Showcase Lagoon stopping exclusively at La Cava del Tequila and L’Artisan des Glaces.
With the introduction of the latest runDisney event, it is time to update that list. If a Disneyland Paris Half Marathon Weekend does not shoot to the top of your Disney must-dos, then perhaps you don’t realize what it entails. Everything that bears the runDisney stamp is automatically incredible.* Since this one includes a trip to Paris, it’s something you ought to do before you die. Doesn’t seem feasible? That’s part of what makes it so attractive, and why it belongs on your exclusive wishlist rather than among your “Things to do today.”
Why would you go all the way to Europe to go to Disneyland? Ask the millions of satisfied Disney cruise-line veterans. Because of the incredible opportunity it represents. Of course there’s plenty to do in France, but can you say any less about Florida and California?
This runDisney weekend will invoke the kind of envy now reserved for those who’ve had the privilege of participating in the Castaway Challenge. The Paris Resort is modeled more after Walt Disney World than Disneyland specifically. That is, there’s a bunch of Disney-exclusive real estate, and the race course itself will remain exclusively on Disney property. Each Disneyland Half Marathon is divine, but it doesn’t hold a Lumière to Walt Disney World races, which scarcely venture outside the Parks, and absolutely don’t venture off to Cerritos Avenue.
This is not something you’ll be able to do last minute. Registration is now open, and runDisney events tend to sell out. Paris is a fairly major commitment, but this one could go quickly. At the very least, sign up for the race so you don’t get stuck in corral “zhee.” runDisney veterans will attest you can finish from any starting position, though waiting that extra half-hour to get going is something you want to try to avoid.
*We do not hold runDisney responsible for unfortunate, if reoccurring, shuttle difficulties or Health & Fitness Expo overcrowding. It’s no one’s fault we all try to pick up our bibs at the same time, but seriously, if Disney can’t manage certain capacity issues, then they are quite literally unmanageable.
