Now there’s more than one way to earn a free day at Disney World. For 2010, those who volunteer in their local community can sign up for a free trip to Disneyland or Disney World. Next year, anyone who completes the Walt Disney World Marathon gets free admission to the park the following day.
The official Disney Parks blog announces “Marathon Monday,” taking place on January 10, 2011. Everyone who finishes the 26.2-mile Disney World Marathon on January 9 can bring their finishers medal in place of a ticket to one of the Walt Disney World parks the following day.
“A marathon runner, after they run that race, [never wants] to take that medal off,” said a representative for Disney Parks in a video posted on the Parks blog. “So we said, ‘why don’t we let that go one more day?’ This is a great opportunity for all those runners who are together on Sunday in that mass to come together and celebrate.”
Disney World’s offering even more than free admission to participants of the Walt Disney World Marathon. All marathon runners and even just fans of the run, get the chance to vote in a contest deciding the new design for the marathon medal.
Everyone who has finished the marathon for the entire 17 years of its existence received the same medal. This year Disney World decided to redesign it, and thought that they’d honor the marathon runners and their fans by letting them choose how it will look.
Those interested in participating in the 2011 Walt Disney World marathon should go to its web site to sign up. Elsewhere on the web site is the link to vote for the new medal. But those who want to help pick the redesign need to do so soon; voting opens now and runs only until July 28, with the winner announced at the beginning of August.
I cannot imagine running a nearly 30-mile marathon; I can barely handle the mile or so I run with my dog every morning. So I think it’s really great of Disney World to honor those people who make such an accomplishment within its walls. Though I’m sure Disney gets something good out of it too; likely those who finish the marathon will attend the park the next day with their families, for whom they’ll have to buy tickets. Still, it’s a win-win situation all around.
I admit I’m a little surprised that Disney World isn’t saving something like its medal redesign for the 20th anniversary of the marathon. Maybe marathon participation is down and they’re trying to drum up more interest in the 2011 run. Or maybe someone just got the good idea now and they decided to implement it sooner rather than later.
Either way, I’m always happy to see Disney encouraging fan interaction with its events, and it’s also cool to see the sense of camaraderie they’re trying to promote amongst the runners of the marathons and the people coming out to support them.
Remember how I said earlier that I couldn’t ever imagine running nearly 30 miles? Well, though I don’t know if I’ll ever get into that kind of shape, I admit that an incentive like a free Disney World day certainly wants to make me entertain the possibility.
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