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Walt Disney World Marathon Interview with Jon Hughes(Disney Race Director): by Gary Cohen

Disney Marathon Race Director Jon Hughes Interview – October, 2008

Jon Hughes is Race Director of the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend and the Disneyland Half Marathon. He is President of Track Shack of Orlando, selected numerous times as one of Runners World magazine’s ‘Top 50 Running Stores.’ He is also President of Event Marketing and Management International, which coordinates over 50 events each year. Jon was named 1999 Race Director of the Year. He has also been recognized by USA Track and Field, the Pan American Junior Games and the Governor of Florida for his leadership and achievements. The Florida Track and Field Hall of Fame inducted him in 1987. Later this year the Independent Retailers Hall of Fame will induct ‘Pioneers of Sport’ for running and this select group includes Nike’s Phil Knight, running guru Jeff Galloway and the owners of three running stores including Track Shack’s Jon and Betsy Hughes. Also, Winter Park High School is inducting Jon and Betsy into their Hall of fame for their combined athletic exploits in high school and subsequent efforts supporting high school athletics in central Florida. A talented runner, Jon ran his personal best marathon of 2:34 at New Orleans in 1979. He competed collegiately for two years at Seminole Community College and for one cross country season at Appalachian State University. While at SCC he set the school record in the 6-mile run, was Junior College All-State and qualified for the National JUCO Cross Country Championships. As a high school senior Jon finished 10th in the 2-mile at the Florida State 4A Championships with a time of 9:30. He resides in Orlando, Florida with Betsy, his wife of 25 years and has a daughter, Emma and a son, Chris. Jon took time to answer some questions for www.garycohenrunning.com in October, 2008.

As Race Director of the Walt Disney World Marathon since its inaugural year in 1994, you have seen tremendous growth. When you look back at a marathon with just over 8,000 entrants blossoming into a marathon weekend with 40,000+ entrants in the marathon, half marathon and 5k, does it seem almost unreal?

I never could have imagined the growth that has continued year after year and that shows no sign of ending. It is a true testament to the running boom which has in recent years segued into a walking and fitness boom. Also it shows how exciting it is for participants who desire to run a marathon that goes through all four of the Walt Disney World parks – the Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park. Qualifying for The Boston Marathon has always been a goal of serious runners while the New York City and Chicago marathons have been popular race choices. Now it seems that the Walt Disney World Marathon is on many marathon runners ‘to do list.’

In 1998 a half marathon was added to give participants the option of going half the distance. How has this been received by participants and their families?

We felt it would be successful but it’s amazing that we grew to 16,500 half marathon entrants in 2008 and the field for the January, 2009 edition of the half marathon closed out within three months of the start of race registration at our field limit of 17,500 participants. Some people may not want to be out there on the roads for six or seven hours in a marathon but they feel that completing the half marathon is a more attainable goal. Also, many spouses, family members and friends of marathon runners can compete in the half marathon on Saturday and cheer the marathoners on Sunday.

A truly unique idea came to fruition in 2006 with the addition of the Goofy Challenge. The half marathon was moved to Saturday and racers could now run both races. What was the response to this compared to your expectations?

This one really blew me away. It was totally unexpected. I thought we would have maybe 400-500 runners who would attempt the Goofy Challenge. Registrations started streaming in and suddenly we surpassed 2,000 entrants so we put a limit on the field size the first year at 3,000 for logistic and safety reasons. For the January, 2009 race we increased the size of the Goofy Challenge Field to 4,500 and reached our field limit in less than three weeks. I believe there are several reasons for the popularity of the Goofy Challenge. First, runners that have been competing for a while want to try an additional challenge. It’s similar to the challenge of the extremely difficult Pikes Peak marathon or the draw of an Ironman triathlon. Second, even novice runners can get additional bragging rights if they’re ‘Goofy.’ Finally, all runners like the ‘bling’ of earning that extra Goofy medal.

Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend participants treasure their finisher’s medals. The Donald Duck, Mickey and Goofy medals for the half, full and Goofy Challenge, respectively, are great momentos to show family, friends and fellow runners. The 15th anniversary marathon medal this past January is possibly the best finisher’s medal I’ve ever seen. How challenging is it to come up with fresh designs?

It is difficult to come up with new and creative medals. One positive factor is that at Disney World there are many creative minds to lend their thoughts and ideas. But this also makes it hard to get consensus without much discussion. Additionally, there are copyright and legal ramifications that are considered. All in all a lot of thought goes into creating great finishers medals that our race participants will treasure for years to come.

The WDW Marathon recognizes top Florida marathon racers with its ‘Florida’s Finest’ program. Discuss this, how it came about and its future.

During the first two years prize money was offered to top finishers in the marathon. When the decision was made to shift attention from the elite runners to all of the race participants there was a desire to try to do something special. We didn’t want to totally lose the competitive aspect of the race and came up with the idea to reward outstanding runners in the state of Florida by naming ten top runners as ‘Florida’s Finest.’ These runners receive complimentary entry, hotel accommodations, theme park tickets and other perks. It has been a popular program and now we get applications from over fifty of the top runners in the state each year. In 2008 the top three overall women finishers were all members of the ‘Florida’s Finest’ team. Four of the five men on the team won their age groups. It has been so successful that we may increase the size of the line up in the future.

As you mentioned, the first two editions of the WDW Marathon included prize money and attracted a faster field up front. Is there any possibility that this may return in the future?

This is an idea that has been kicked around during brainstorming sessions in recent years. To implement this on a scale that competes with the top marathons for the fastest racers would take large sums of money in terms of prize money, time bonuses, appearance fees, travel and accommodations that could run into seven figures. If we attempted this on a smaller degree we would have a faster race up front than we do now, but the question would be, ‘will this bring increased media coverage and attention to the race?’ For either of these scenarios to be put into action would probably involve a sponsor so the latter would be more likely. On a side note regarding increased visibility of the Disney Marathon Weekend, as sites were considered for the 2004 Olympic Trials the WDW Marathon was in the discussion.

Marathon running continues to grow as a participatory activity in the United States. Total U.S. marathon finishers topped 300,000 for the first time in 2002 and exceeded 400,000 in 2007. What is the draw of the marathon and can this growth continue?

There are many reasons that marathon running has had such sustained growth. The aura of the marathon draws many runners who start out for fitness in 5k races and then progress to longer distances. Many marathons are added to runners’ ‘to do’ lists and those who run multiple marathons add to the overall participation numbers. Some books even have lists of ‘100 things to do before you die’ that include running a marathon. So the marathon becomes a part of the ‘Bucket List’ for many people who aren’t even runners. Plus many charitable organizations have combined raising money for charity with running a marathon. Some marathons have numbers of charity runners in the thousands. The thought process is, ‘If I’m running, I may as well do it for a worthy cause.’ Another area is the attention in the news media about obesity and diabetes. Some people start exercising for health reasons and before they know it they are walking and running 5k races. Inevitably many of them think about completing a marathon. So the draw of the marathon is multi-faceted and it seems there is no stopping the growth in numbers.

Despite the tremendous growth in total marathon finishers, only 1.7% of marathoners broke three hours in 2007. Discuss the change over the past 20 years from the marathon as a competitive racing challenge to predominantly a participatory event. Also, what is the significance of breaking three hours?

In the 1970s and well into the 1980s very few runners ran marathons unless they were well-trained. Most were competitive post-collegiate runners. When the first time limits of five hours were set for completing the marathon we thought, ‘Wow – that’s slow!’ Now the emphasis as the more and more people have taken up marathons is on finishing and earning a medal and so time limits in most marathons have been lengthened to seven or eight hours. When asked about the running boom in the early 1980s, Fred Lebow, deceased former New York City Marathon Race Director showed great foresight when he said, ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet. It hasn’t even hit the masses.’ Some of our participants never competed in any sports so finishing a marathon under five hours or in less than six hours is a great personal accomplishment. As far as a sub-three hour marathon, it has always been a ‘holy grail’ of distance running. It’s a bit less than seven minutes per mile and everyone understands the effort required. It’s probably similar to breaking a five-minute mile as in both instances you are in the upper echelon of racers at that distance.

The Walt Disney World Marathon is the eighth largest in the United States with nearly 13,000 finishers in 2008 and has experienced 30% growth in the number of finishers from two years ago. Are the race and entire weekend’s events at the right size or can there be additional growth in upcoming years?

Even though the events have grown constantly over the years we can still manage continued, slow growth in the future. We have increased the field limits in 2009 as compared to the prior year. The marathon is now at 22,000 entrants versus 18,000 in 2008 while the half marathon field size is up to 17,500 from 16,500. There has been a major change to the start of the 2009 half marathon that allows for smoother flow of the runners and will permit the number of entrants to possibly equal the number of marathon entrants in future years. The really good news is that even as we increase the field sizes there is a corresponding interest from runners and our races reach their limits each year.

Most races have a few glitches along the way that become learning experiences. Have there been any stumbles along the way in the WDW Marathon that you learned from and have made the event better in subsequent editions?

In one of the early years some of the buses that transported runners from their hotels to the starting area were late and we had to delay the start of the race for about 20 minutes. That was an easy issue to fix and has been avoided since then. We also have made the starting area more ‘relaxed.’ We used to keep the race participants in the staging area of the EPCOT parking lot until an hour before the race. Now they can make their way toward the start earlier and it isn’t such a mass stampede so to speak. Another improvement has been in baggage claim. Rather than numerically it is now done alphabetically which has spread out the claimants. Every year we learn ways to make the race better as we benefit from our experience not only at the WDW Marathon Weekend but from all of our events. We also gain knowledge by going to and observing other events around the country.

United States marathon finishers have held steady at 60-62% men and 38-40% women for several years. The Walt Disney World Marathon is almost even with 52% men and 48% women. Why are there such a greater relative percentage of women participating at the WDW Marathon compared to national averages?

One reason has been the tremendous increase in the number of runners who are running to raise money for a charitable organization. The vast majority of these participants are female. Also, this is a destination marathon and many of our entrants are a husband and wife or a family that is visiting. Often multiple members of a family race the marathon or one runs the marathon while others go half the distance.

In Anaheim, California, the Disneyland Half Marathon had its inaugural year in 2006. What was the thought process behind adding the ‘sister event’ and how successful has it been?

Walt Disney World’s Sports marketing staff met with us in 2004 to discuss the possibility of adding a race event at their Disneyland Park in California. There were similarities and differences when compared to the genesis of the WDW Marathon. In 1992 Disney did not have a specific sports marketing department and were interested in attracting runners to central Florida for a yet-to-be-determined event. Track Shack conducted research which was then corroborated by a research firm that led to the first WDW Marathon in 1994. This time Disney had an established Wide World of Sports marketing staff. We met to determine if a similar event could thrive at Disneyland. Due to the smaller size of that park and the increasing popularity of the half marathon the Disneyland Half Marathon came to fruition. The race entries for the third edition of the race in September of 2008 closed out at the field limit of 13,500 so the race has been very successful.

For the remainder of the interview with Jon Hughes where he discusses topics including his running store, event management company and some cool "Inside Stuff," visit www.garycohenrunning.com, click the "Interviews" tab and then Jon's picture. Also enjoy articles Gary Cohen has written for Florida Running and Triathlon magazines, other great interviews and dozens of "All in a Day's Run" essays on a variety of running topics.