runDisney News Roundup, August 2025

Mid-August means hot, humid running weather, the return (or impending return) of school, and the big ramp-ups for fall marathon season. The last couple months in the runDisney calendar has featured some race registrations (the Springtime Surprise 10-miler is still available several weeks later, btw) along with some other news and tidbits.

Disneyland Halloween Weekend Medal Reveal and Map Release

The second-to-last Disneyland race weekend for a while is less than a month away. Earlier this summer the villains-themed medals were revealed to much fanfare. Disney villains are always popular, so much so that Disney World is still planning to add a Villains Land to Magic Kingdom in the next few years (hot take: the glorification of 'villains' doesn't really fit in Magic Kingdom where the overwhelming themes of hope, adventure, and fantasy seem to clash with villainy... but that might just be me). The medals are admittedly cool, with some nice designs for each race. I'm partial to the Cruella de Vil 10k medal as my wife is a big 101 Dalmatians fan, but overall runDisney did a good job on these designs.

The race maps were also released for the Disneyland Halloween Weekend. The routes follow previous years pretty closely, with the 5k and 10k races going mostly in the parks and the half marathon spending a good portion throughout Anaheim. The 10k course is largely considered one of the best runDisney courses, as you spend almost all 6.2 miles in Disneyland and California Adventure. On the other hand, the half marathon course is among the least popular courses, with the second half of the race running through the streets of Anaheim with no character stops. Granted, almost every other race anywhere is bereft of character stops... but when you're in a runDisney race you expect the runDisney experience. Regardless, Disney and Halloween is a solid mix so I'm willing to bet the runners enjoy the weekend at any distance.

Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend Medal Reveal

The Wine & Dine Half Marathon also released their medals, or as I refer to them, meh-dals. Personally these aren't quite as nice as the Halloween medals, or many of the medals from the past few years. The Mulan-themed 5k is okay, and the Challenge medal of the cake from Sleeping Beauty has a nice effect of opening up to reveal the anniversary. But the 10k and half marathon medals are a little goofy. Again, these are solely my tastes (no pun intended), so if you're running the races you'll enjoy the medals regardless.

12ks of Christmas Theme Revealed: It's the Muppets!

I'm not usually one for the virtual races, as it's akin to paying for medals if you're already in training mode. But with the Muppets featured for the three race medals/ornaments it's definitely more tempting. With Hollywood Studios closing down MuppetVision 3D, it's good to see some effort to keep the Muppets involved in some way. I'm still waiting for the day we get a Muppet-themed Disney World race where actual Muppets are available for photos, but in the meantime the virtual 12ks of Christmas should sell out sooner than previous years.

As summer wraps up, the Marathon Weekend medals should be revealed relatively soon, followed by the Princess Weekend medal revealed around the same time as the Wine & Dine races. The official runDisney season is about to kick off with the Disneyland Halloween Weekend, so let's go!