runDisney News: Disneyland races "on hiatus" starting in 2026

RunDisney announced today via a banner on their website that Disneyland races will be "on hiatus" following the 2026 Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend from January 29, 2026 through February 1, 2026. The banner (pictured above) cites "upcoming construction impacts" as the primary reason for the hiatus, although a detailed post by Disney Tourist Blog implies more going on.

Previously the Disneyland races took a break from 2018 until 2023, at the time also citing construction impacts to the courses. While Disneyland and runDisney are scant on providing details on the construction concerns this time around, it would not be entirely surprising to see another multi-year pause on the Disneyland races.

Since returning in a shorter race series in 2023 before restoring the Half Marathon Weekend in 2024, reactions to the Disneyland races have been mixed. The 5k and 10k courses have been extremely popular, as much more of the race courses went through Disneyland and California Adventure than the WDW races go through their parks in respective distances. However, the half marathon distances have been a challenge as they focused heavily on Anaheim outside the Disneyland footprint. Prior to 2018 the Disneyland races dipped into Angel Stadium, a highlight outside the parks, but that portion of the half marathons did not return. Venturing into Anaheim meant no character stops and less control over the environment. While the Disneyland Halloween and Coast-to-Coast themes were still very popular, sentiment was the Disneyland race weekends fell short of the WDW counterparts.

The Disneyland races are fundamentally different from the Walt Disney World races as rely much more heavily on proper egress throughout the parks to build the mileage. The WDW races have the benefit of space - if a portion of one of the parks is impacted runDisney can cobble together miles from other parts of the resort area. During the 2025 Marathon Weekend some course deviations navigated construction and runDisney made it work. On the flipside, losing a portion of Disneyland or California Adventure would greatly impact the races. But impact so much that runDisney couldn't make them work?

"Construction impacts" is probably a convenient excuse to (hopefully temporarily) phase out the Disneyland races. Logistically it couldn't be easy for runDisney to organize WDW Marathon Weekend and then turn around for Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend a few weeks later. Planning with City of Anaheim officials also likely added an extra complication for the Disneyland race weekends. Add to that the popularity of the various Virtual Race Series, and runDisney is likely looking to keep things simple withe the WDW and Virtual offerings. Hopefully Disneyland can return to the fold at some point, but in the meantime I'm sure there will still be plenty of runDisney to keep everyone busy and training.