runDisney Opening More 5k Spots in 2026-2027

In the leadup to the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, runDisney quietly announced on their website that they would allow more registration availability for their 5k races starting with the 2026 Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend next October. For anyone that has participated in a runDisney 5k, this initially seemed to make little sense. Every runDisney race, even the 5k's, seem incredibly crowded already. Having run the 2025 WDW 5k with my son in C Corral, there was never a stretch of Epcot or the surrounding roads that wasn't crowded. Furthermore, the character lines were all pretty long - the shortest wait was about 15 minutes. So how was runDisney going to add more runners?

With the W & D theme release, we finally have an idea on the participant increase. According to the W & D 5k page, the race will start at 4:30am instead of the usual 5:00am. The start times will range from 4:30am until 7:30am depending on start group. The page also notes arrival times will vary based on the start time.

This is a big departure from previous runDisney 5k's. The earlier start time isn't a big deal - the WDW Marathon already starts at 4:30am, so what's another race? But spreading out both the starting times and arrival times starts to add a lot of questions. Namely, will 5k races now feature the dreaded balloon ladies to sweep through to ensure participants are still leaving the course in a timely manner? I can definitely see some runners lingering on the course to hit every character stop along the way. Will the start times correlate with the current Corral structure or move in reverse? It makes a certain amount of sense to leave the "faster" runners to the end so Epcot can still open on time. Will there perhaps be more character stops to help "soak up" the extra runners on the course?

The different arrival times also raises questions. The current 5k course runs along the bus area. I've been able to finish the 5k only to sit on the resort bus until the final wave cleared the area. If the busses will be consistently coming and going for start times, will there be a different course or different bus staging area? Also, I'd be curious to see if the different start times allows for runners to "sleep in" and just default to 7:30am release. This could still cause crowding when I'm sure runDisney most wants to get runners on and off the course prior to park opening.

How will all this work in practice? No idea! I'm sure runDisney has thought through the changes beyond "more participants=more $", since I do believe runDisney is mostly concerned with putting on a fun and safe event. Demand for runDisney has likely never been higher, and getting more runners on the course is a good thing so long as it's not at the expense of the guest experience. Kudos to runDisney for trying something different, and hopefully this works better than the "Dopey merch only for Dopey runners" experiment at the WDW Marathon Weekend Expo. Ultimately, we'll have to see how this will all play out at W & D.