This morning I registered myself and my son for the runDisney Wine and Dine 5k that will take place in November 2022. Even though there’s a part of me that has missed participating in runDisney events, I must admit that I did not miss all of the chaos that comes with actually getting signed up for a race.

I was ready and at my computer 45 minutes before registration opened because I know by now to be prepared for anything to go wrong. Well, as the time grew nearer, the runDisney website went down and gave me the Seven Dwarfs error page right as they opened registration for the 5k. Registration for the other races opened a few minutes before that but I guess when they opened access to the 5k, Hades took over, or maybe someone talked about Bruno. As it was, they opened registration around 15 minutes early for most of the events and then about 5 minutes later the website crashed. I kept refreshing and after about 2 more minutes I was able to get into the site and saw the 5k registration was now open too and I was able to get into the queue. Then I waited…

And I waited…

And I waited some more.

I was in queue in two different places. The one I joined first showed a wait time of 44 minutes once the official registration time hit. The queue I joined separately a few seconds later showed a wait time of 17 minutes. By 9:13am my time (10:13am EST), it was my turn to register! I was able to get through to register myself pretty smoothly and quickly, but for some reason, I didn’t see the option to add a registration so that I could get my son signed up too. In the past, there was an option to register someone else right after I signed myself up but I didn’t see this and I panicked for a moment. The only thing I could do was go to my runDisney account summary or leave the page altogether. I figured I was going to have to just wait the 10 minutes for the other queue position I had to let me in. I decided to go back to the runDisney website from the browser I had already used to register myself, and I clicked on the 5k again to get in a new queue in case something went wrong with the one I was still waiting in, but it let me right in to register my son.

By 9:21am my time, I had us both signed up and I was able to breathe a sigh of relief (with no pain from my broken rib). If you’ve never signed up for a runDisney race, you might wonder why I got in the registration queue from more than one browser.

If you do a search on YouTube or even just on Google, you’ll find numerous posts and videos with tips on how to get registered for one of these events. Some of the tips involve using two or more devices in order to wait in the virtual line in an attempt to get in as soon as possible and get signed up quickly. It’s suggested that people don’t bother trying to buy the race related merchandise during registration because that extra time deciding on these offerings could result in you missing out on getting successfully signed up because some of the events sell out quickly. Apparently, you can go back later and buy merch separately, but I’ve never tried to do that.

Even though I had no plans to try to buy merchandise during the race and I was marginally confident that I’d be able to get signed up for the 5k, the level of pre-registration preparation was a little annoying. It’s not like I had to take an entire day off of work to be available as soon as registration opened (although some people do take the day off from work because the races could be sold out by the time they get home), but I definitely had to plan my work schedule so that I gave myself a couple of hours off. In the days before registration opened, I had to make sure that I was able to log into my runDisney account without any issues and I double-checked that all of my information was correct in my account to avoid having to correct it during registration.

Based on one year where my bank declined my card that I was using for the race registration fee because they wanted to make sure it was me and not a fraudulent transaction, I chose to use a Disney Gift card to pay our race fees. Luckily, I have been using Disney Gift cards for my Disney Vacation Club dues so I already had a gift card ready to use for today. I also quadruple checked with my other son to make sure he still was not interested in doing the 5k with us because I know the 5k sells out quickly in most cases and he probably wouldn’t be able to change his mind later and get signed up.

I made myself a little crazy by checking over and over that registration began this morning and I kept looking at the time that it opened to make sure I knew what time it was going to be in my time zone. I think I just felt more pressure to make sure to get us signed up since my son wanted to do his first runDisney race the year he graduated high school, which was 2020, and of course the Great Unpleasantness happened and Disney World temporarily closed that year and all runDisney in-person races were halted. I wanted to make sure we could finally get signed up for a race since he’s been looking forward to it for a while now.

I would have rather done the Springtime Surprise runDisney race weekend because they are having the Expedition Everest 5k which includes a scavenger hunt. That was my first ever runDisney event and it was so fun and I think my son would really enjoy it, but the timing was all wrong and I guess it worked out for the best because with my broken rib, I wouldn’t have been able to comfortably do the 5k on March 31st anyway.

All I know is that now that we’re signed up, I feel like I deserve a nap and Mickey ice cream sandwich. But I have to work the rest of the day and I didn’t plan ahead and buy the Mickey ice cream sandwiches from Walmart. Oh well. °O°