Marathon Weekend 2024

[RunWI1265]

Dopey #3 for me and perhaps the best marathon I’ve done even though not my PR. I had a goal of under 5 hours but due to super hydration before I left my room in the AM I had to peel off to the bathrooms more than I’d like. Then the 7am BG drop happened to coincide perfectly with my castle picture so I stood off to the side to do that. Pit stopped for Everest (which I didn’t intend to) and finished in 5:05. Which tells me I would have comfortably PR’d the marathon had I not had all the shenanigans. Even more so because I was running at a comfortable pace, not pushing it. I also ran the entire race with a new friend who told me she was going to stick with me until she fell off but she stayed with me the entire time. It was a great pairing of her keeping me in check from going too fast and me helping pull her along. We got a post-race beer, walked thru Epcot , and I hung out up on the skyliner sidewalk and cheered on the runners just arriving. I couldn’t tell if they liked it or thought I was annoying.

@The Expert I never saw you but it was still pretty dark when I went by the contemporary. I heard from someone there were multiple accidents on the roads and busses were at a standstill. Traffic was apparently very bad.

Congrats to everyone who participated over the weekend!

 

[Naomeri]

I couldn’t tell if they liked it or thought I was annoying.

Cheering is never annoying!

 

[Chasing Dopey]

Congrats to all my peeps taking on the Drown’d Rat Challenge today! Awesome!

 

[GuinnessRunner]

Another marathon in the books! Overall I am very happy with the result. After injury flare ups in early December I knew I wasn't where I wanted to be. So I ran slower and happily everything held together with none of the issues flaring up on the course. My splits were consistent and I generally felt better as the race went on. The rain sucked but just went with it. I was sure it would mean blisters but thankfully I avoided those too. So while slower than last year, I feel like I got the race I earned and I enjoyed it as much as one can "enjoy" a marathon.

Thanks to all for the pre-race meetups. Looking forward to DATW tomorrow!

 

[GuinnessRunner]

Everest is standby only

Well that stinks. When I was there they opened the Lightening Lane to runners only. Was still more of a line than I have ever had to wait in for it, but was glad to do it.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Congrats to everyone today!

I didn’t post this because it’s a downer and there was so much excitement on the thread heading into the weekend, but my grandmother passed away before New Years and as if that wasn’t bad enough, the funeral was yesterday. My wife and I were both planning on Dopey, and after a lot of soul searching and thinking through various options (skip the funeral, skip the races, skip the half and fly up/back quickly, she run solo, etc), we ultimately pulled the plug on the weekend. I was devastated at first and feels like I went through every emotion… denial, acceptance, the guilt of considering putting myself/my run over family, etc. Being with family yesterday sealed it that canceling was in fact the right decision for us - but boy was that hard and I’d be lying if I said I have not been a wee bit jealous sitting here reading along! I wish that confluence of life events on no one.

Really appreciate everyone’s posts, at first I just wanted to bury my head in the sand and not keep up with the thread, but as I came to accept life’s circumstances it’s been awesome to follow along vicariously. There’s always (hopefully) next year.

Congrats again to all!

 

[AZMermaid]

Cheering is never annoying!

Agreed! Even when I’m tired and dying I appreciate it- but the death face may be stronger at the moment!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Proud coach moment! A runner reached out with a HM PR of 3:40, a previous DNF at the M, and wanted to finish the Dopey Challenge. I told her it would take a tremendous amount of work on her part. She was consistent for months and months of hard work. She ran a HM a few weeks ago as a test run and ran it at just over 4 hrs. I told her not to be overly concerned about it and to trust the process. Long run of 9.5 miles outside of the HM race, but was consistently putting in 7.5 hr training weeks. I've been texting back and forth with her all morning just after the start. I'm happy to report she just became a Dopey Challenge finisher with a 3:46 HM split and 7:41 M finish. I'm tearing up just now writing about this.

 

[The Expert]

@The Expert I never saw you but it was still pretty dark when I went by the contemporary. I heard from someone there were multiple accidents on the roads and busses were at a standstill. Traffic was apparently very bad.

Sorry I missed you! At one point they made us move from the median to the far side of the road. Made it very hard to spot anyone, especially in the dark and then rain.

Riding the monorail to Epcot there were just lines of traffic everywhere on the roads.

 

[1GoldenSun]

@DopeyBadger, I think I need you coaching me next year, haha.

 

[AaronB]

Congrats to everyone who ran this weekend!

Got a marathon PR for myself. I was being cautiously optimistic going into the marathon, because my training cycle had been so good this time around. Thankfully, things went well during the race. The rainstorm hit for me coming out of Animal Kingdom, but I used it as some motivation to not derail my pace.

I am probably a little biased with having set a PR, but I really like the version of the course they have had the last couple years, with Magic Kingdom coming in mile 8/9 (instead of mile 5/6 like the older routes). I find the back half of the course better paced with how stuff like Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, etc. falls, giving a nice boost during those tough final miles.

I also liked this start area configuration; however, I was coral B, so my impressions may be a little different than the others.

 

[accm]

Don't apologize. You didn't say explicitly, but it sounds like you finished. Marathons are hard when everything goes to plan and works like it should. Marathons are a lot harder when things don't go to plan. Be proud of getting the job done under adverse circumstances. Congratulations!



Great job! Congrats on the PR!

I did finish, but it just doesn’t feel like it did last year, where I enjoyed every second of it. Thankfully my body just took over and continued running at my easy training pace as though it was just a training run. Thank you for the kind words.

 

[fatmanatee]

So is this a good time to ask about how it went with volunteers/staffing? Haven’t heard any complaints, which I’m guessing is good?

 

[The Expert]

Spectating is my new favorite! It was so much fun, especially cheering in the back of the pack for the last few hours at Epcot. Everyone loved the tissues, so thanks to whomever suggested I bring those!

Also thanks to the fellow DISer who joined me! I've totally spaced your screen name but it was fun making noise with you.

ETA: It was @superchime !

 

[AaronB]

So is this a good time to ask about how it went with volunteers/staffing? Haven’t heard any complaints, which I’m guessing is good?

It all looked good to me, and I might be remembering wrong but I swear there were more stops this year. I don’t remember them having two banana stops, and some of the Powerade/water stops seemed very close to each other. I even skipped a couple stops because it felt like I had just been through one.

 

[Grabnar]

Even with the rain that was my favorite Disney marathon ever. I finally but the bullet and wore a costume. I went as Ted Lasso and the support from runners and spectators was insanely awesome! I can’t wait for next year!

Lol that was you on the monitor? Big fan

 

[superchime]

Spectating is my new favorite! It was so much fun, especially cheering in the back of the pack for the last few hours at Epcot. Everyone loved the tissues, so thanks to whomever suggested I bring those!

Also thanks to the fellow DISer who joined me! I've totally spaced your screen name but it was fun making noise with you.

Hi! Thanks for letting me cheer with you.

 

[StarGirl11]

The weather descriptions y’all are giving me are reminding me of when I did Berlin 2019. Good nice temp start and then a freezing rain for a chunk of the race. It was miserable. Y’all have my sympathies

 

[morganms22]

Congratulations to all the runners! My husband finished the marathon this morning and we are so proud of him!

Side question- Did anyone think the ears they give out at the end seemed smaller this year? My husband’s fit fine last year and this year almost too small. I don’t think his head has grown

 

[Beeble]

Lol that was you on the monitor? Big fan

Yeah! That was a fun surprise!