Hi Greg!
Thank you for bringing your question to the Disney Parks Moms Panel!
This is actually a great question and one that I wrote two blog posts about a few years ago. The posts basically gave some pros and cons for visiting before a race, or after. You can find the links here:
1.
runDisney vacation before a race 2.
runDisney vacation after a race. My short answer is that I prefer to vacation after a race, mainly because I don't want to worry about how much time I'm spending on my legs and whether what I'm eating is good as a pre-race meal. I love to shut down the parks and try new and different foods while at Walt Disney World.
However, a big majority of my trips have been weekend trips with the race being on the last or next to last day. Those are great, too! But, if it fit my schedule, I would always choose to race first, play later!
I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions.