ANAHEIM, Calif. — Disney fans, get your Mickey and Minnie Mouse training shoes ready for a walk, jog or race in and around "the happiest place on Earth."
After a six-year hiatus, runDisney — the park’s series of themed-racing events — is set to return to Disneyland in January 2024. The Disney running series returned to Walt Disney World last year.
“We’re so excited to bring runDisney races back to the West Coast in 2024 and are even more excited for the return of the fan-favorite Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend,” wrote Sarah Harris, Disney Sports Social Community Manager, in the official Disney Parks blog on Tuesday.
The Disneyland Half-Marathon Weekend event takes place Jan. 11-14, 2024, and includes several events throughout the weekend, such as a health expo and separately ticketed 5K, 10K and 13.1-mile half marathon in and around the Disneyland Resort, Disney officials said.
Runners could also participate in the 10K and half-marathon challenge.
After the completion of each racing event, runners receive a Disney-themed medal.
Registration for the racing event begins Feb. 14, 2023.
Disney officials did not release the cost of next year’s Disneyland half-marathon event. However, runners who participated in the runDisney Walt Disney World half-marathon events paid around $100 for the 5K race, $150 for the 10K and $213 to $223 for the half marathon, the price depending on how early they paid for the ticket.
A Disneyland official told Spectrum News Tuesday that they would share pricing details of the much-anticipated race event at a later time.
The half marathon is one of Disney’s premier runDisney racing events that attract thousands of people to pay to run in and around Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, Downtown Disney and surrounding streets.
Before postponing the event at Disneyland in 2017, the company held four annual themed-racing events at the Anaheim parks.
While a few runners take the race seriously and sprint to the finish, many are casual participants, often dressed and jogging in cosplay as their favorite Disney character or Disney outfit.
It’s common to see people wearing Mickey Mouse ear hats and dressed as Tinkerbell or Captain America throughout the race, as well as Mickey and Minnie Mouse and the rest of the Disney gang cheering on — and giving “high fours” to — participants as they navigate the course within the Disneyland Resort and surrounding streets.
Disney postponed the race series at Disneyland in 2017, initially due to the construction of “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge” and, later, the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down the theme park. RunDisney events still occurred at Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris before the pandemic hit.
In the last runDisney half-marathon race at Disneyland in November 2017, more than 24,000 runners participated in the weekend-long Super Hero-themed racing events. The top male runner finished the half-marathon race at 1:09:28, a record.