runDisney Announces Upcoming Pause to Disneyland Races, It Could Last for Awhile

runDisney recently returned to the Disneyland Resort for the first time since 2017 with the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend in 2024 and has offered events since then, including the return of Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend and the Disneyland Halloween Half Marathon Weekend. Now, as we are looking ahead to some major new additions coming soon to Disneyland, runDisney has announced an upcoming hiatus for its races at the resort.

runDisney offers events at Disney World and Disneyland that include race routes that wind through the theme parks. You can see more details on the race experience from our article on participating in the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend. While the runDisney events will continue to happen in Disney World next year (see all scheduled runDisney races here), races at Disneyland will be paused for an unspecified amount of time. Keep reading for more details and our commentary…

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runDisney Races at Disneyland Pausing

According to an update posted on the runDisney website, runDisney races will go on hiatus in 2026 after the scheduled 2026 Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend from January 29–February 1, 2026 “due to upcoming construction impacts.” runDisney shared that Disney World events and virtual events will continue to be offered during this time.

There are a lot of major projects on the horizon or already in the works for new rides and experiences coming to Disneyland. One of these projects is the Avengers Campus construction, which will double the size of the land with two new attractions, including an e-ticket multiverse Avengers ride. We also know that there is a new Coco ride that will begin work in 2026, as well as an Avatar Land coming to Disney California Adventure with a new attraction.

We’re a bit surprised to see that the races are going to be paused again. Previously, the races were paused during the construction of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland Park in 2017. That was also during a period when the relationship between Disney and the City of Anaheim was very tense. There were a variety of exchanges from Disney where the City of Anaheim blocked expansions.

To my knowledge, that has shifted dramatically in recent years coming out of the pandemic closure when the City of Anaheim realized how closely tied their fates were with Disneyland and the tourism tax dollars it brings in for the city. This led to the passing of the massive DisneylandForward rezoning and investment commitment.

So, it’s a bit surprising to me that we would see runDisney paused again when that relationship appears to be strong and the when the Disneyland races remain popular to the point of selling out. Of course, this could all be related to construction at Disneyland for Avengers Campus and beyond or the simple fact that these races really shut down the entire city but it sure seems like they would be able to cut an interesting enough path through to continue the races.

As I wrote in my look at what the new Disney California Adventure rides are replacing, the major construction that is planned for outside the berm of the park is likely still a ways off. The previous Disneyland President said to me that they would want to push off building the new parking structure as long as possible. That doesn’t quite add up with what we’re hearing today that the construction is the reason for runDisney’s ending in Anaheim.

Whatever the final reasoning for the runDisney shutdown, I would expect that we won’t see a race here again for a little while. I would like to take that as good news that construction is going to kick into high gear at Disneyland and that once races are paused in 2026, the resort is only going to get busier with construction work.

General registration opens for this last Disneyland runDisney race weekend on April 29, 2025 at 7:00 am PT. I am sure this one will be very popular.

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