Looking for advice from all of the RunDisney fans out there!

I'm doing the 5K in January and the 10K in February for Princess (and the half marathon for both events) so I can give you more info then on running through the Epcot area and the 10K.
That being said, I have done the 5K at the Wine and Dine and that half. The 5K's (other than the Expedition Everest challenge) are run in the morning before the park opens. The one I did was at Animal Kingdom. It was a blast! The 5K is not timed ( meaning you don't have to worry about keeping the 16 minute per mile pace). There are characters for photo ops, lots of volunteers and spectators cheering you on etc. So much fun

You really should do one. They allow walkers too as long as you keep pace for the 10K. The races are a great way to experience something new and sometimes backstage areas. I'll let you know what the 5K in January is like in about a month

Also don't count yourself out of doing a Half. Once you do a 5K or 10K you might catch the RunDisney bug like I did

The 5K's are fun, easy to train for, and super beginner friendly! My kids and I did the Princess and the Halloween ones and had a great time at both!

I did the Princess 5K this year and walked the whole thing with a sprint across the finish line. It was a lot of fun. I will be doing the 5k at Tink in May. I have also signed up for the ChEAR squad for the half.

The January and Princess 5Ks and 10Ks are exactly the same course around EPCOT, so it just depends on if you want a girlie theme. The 5K takes you just through Epcot, where for the 10Ks you run around the boardwalk as well. The Boardwalk is a fun run, but can be slippery depending on the weather. The October 5K has been postponed for 2015, and we haven't been told if it will happen in 2016. The 5K associated with Wine & Dine is through Animal Kingdom and Christmas themed with "snow" at the start line.

They're all very fun with character picture opportunities before, during, and after the races. The dates have all been announced through RunDisney's facebook page through some of 2016. There is always the chance that they will add more races though as it gets closer!

Hi Kris, I never thought I would run a race--even a 5K. I was on my high school track team as a jumper and I could barely handle the required sprinters' workout. I quit after one season thinking that if I could barely run 1/4 mile at a time that I would NEVER be able to be a distance runner because a minimum distance of 3 miles seemed completely impossible. It turns out, that for me, distance is easier. I can't RUN a long race, but I can survive a long race. And at runDisney events, surviving the event to the finish is half the battle. Here's the training timeline that I used to run/walk the ToT 10-miler this fall:

September 2012 - My real estate company requested that all agents participate in the 5K to benefit Muscular Dystrophy that is sponsored by our agency. I walked the whole thing and I was exhausted. My finish time was 45 minutes and the 65-year-old agent that I was walking with was kicking my butt. (Oh, btw, I was 31.)

I didn't think much about running until August 2013 when I decided that at this year's event, I wanted to improve my time and run at least part of the course, so I started to train. This year the even was in October, so after training 3 times per week for 6 weeks, I ran/walked the race to a time of 42 minutes. I was excited about my progress and I knew that Disney had running events, so I started to research the possibilities.

My preference was to do a 10K because I felt like 6 miles was an accomplishable distance, but of our four trips that we had scheduled, the only race weekend that we were set to overlap in the next year was ToT 10-miler, which meant that my options were a 5K or a 10-mile. I felt like 5K was something that I could do locally with ease, so I decided to dive in a go for the 10-miler. I used the running calendar on the runDisney page under the training tab and set up my training schedule. I wrote it on the calendar and stuck to it--sort of. It's a fairly intense schedule if you have other obligations and responsibilities in your life and if you prefer to run outside because weather can be an issue. So I did probably 70% of the training that I intended to do from March 2014-September 2014. It was T/Th 3 miles each day and alternating weekends with 3 miles and gradually increasing mileage. I intended to run 10, 11, and 12 miles 1 time each before going to Disney, but I actually only ran 10 miles twice. I was averaging anywhere from 11-13 min/mile (depending not he distance) by the time we left for Disney.

This level of training made me feel reasonably confident, but still slightly nervous about being able to complete the race. While on property (our vacation was 11 days and the race was on the last day), I ran three 2ish-mile training runs just to keep in running shape for the week. Not only did I finish the race, but I did so 8 minutes faster than I told Disney that I thought I would on my registration paperwork. Our annual 5K was held the following week and with all of the 10-mile training, my finish time dropped to 31 minutes. Now I'm training for wine & dine 1/2 next November.

The reason that I chose to do ToT and now Wine & Dine is that they are night races. I love the 10pm start time because I'm the exact opposite of a morning person.

Moral of the story: don't sell yourself short. You're capable of more than you think you are!! Develop a plan and go of it. If you get off track on your plan, on't sweat it. Just work hard to get back on track. Good luck, Kris!!

I just made a post today about possibly doing the Expedition Everest Challenge! It is a 5k/obstacle course/scavenger hunt and looks super fun. It takes place at night in the Animal Kingdom which sounds great to experience. It would probably be good for a beginning runner too since its not quite as speed based due to the obstacles.. It does till have the 16 min/mi. minimum but that should be doable for a beginner, especially for a 5k. This is the last year of it because they are replacing it with a Star Wars themed run but if you think you could swing a trip in May it looks like such a good time. Registration begins next week