Blog Hop Q&A – Princess Half Marathon Race Results

I am participating in a virtual runDisney Blog Hop for the upcoming Princess Half Marathon.  I’m here to write about race results!

For newcomers: What are race results?  Why, they’re how you did in the race.  Yes, each and every runner gets timed.  Disney uses B-tags to time you.  A B-tag is basically a chip on the back of your bib that registers every time you cross a timing mat.  For results, the important timing mats are the one at the start line and the one at the finish line.

That means that you’re timed from when you start, not from when anyone else starts.

If you want instant results, I recommend signing up for Runner Tracking.  (Note – as of this writing, runner tracking for the race is not yet available, but it will be soon.)  With runner tracking, you can have your results and your split times (meaning every time you cross one of those timing mats along the course) sent to your email or phone, and you can post them to Facebook or Twitter as well.  Or you can do all four!

Anyone can sign up for tracking for any runner, so if you have friends or family who wan to track your race but you don’t want to post it on Facebook or Twitter, they can sign up as well and get a little alert as you are on your way.

Note that sometimes, Runner Tracking isn’t perfect.  Occasionally, you won’t get alerts for someone because the system gets bogged down.  But for the most part, it’s worked for me.

For the half marathon, last year, the timing mats were at the start, 5k, 10k, 15k, and finish.  I’m guessing they will be the same this year.  While the 10k is new this year, the 10k in January had mats at the start, 5k and finish.

If you don’t sign up for tracking, after the race, the results will be available on the runDisney website.

What do those results tell you?  Well, you see how you did!  The most important number to look at is your net time.  That’s how long it took you to run the race.  Of course, remember that Disney races are often slower than other races because you slow down to look at things and sometimes stop for photos.  But it’s still fun to see how you did!

And because Disney is fun, a few weeks after the event, you can go to MyDisneyMarathon.com and print out a free finisher’s certificate. Fun to hang on your wall as a memory of your accomplishment!

Now you know all about race results.  Now go check out the other posts in the Blog Hop!