Marathon Weekend 2024

[Cabius]

I was at the parks in December and bought my kids popcorn. One of them spilled it on the ground and began eating the popcorn off the ground at Storybook Circus. No amount of sanitizer can kill the plague I have potentially unleashed upon us all, and for that I apologize.

I always tell me kids: we only eat food off the floor at our own house.

 

[fatmanatee]

My buddy who is doing to Coast 2 Coast said that the buzz around the DL rD events is that there a bunch of runners who were doing C2C and had to drop out because they came down with covid.

Flights over to LAX were filled with people having coughing fits. I’m having the same mindset I had with my last marathon weekend in 2022… assuming I’m going to be exposed and hoping it doesn’t hit me. For MW 2022 I somehow avoided it (probably still had antibodies at the time) and got it three weeks later .

 

[2girlsR2good]

At risk of inviting controversy, but in great hopes of helping someone in the process, I’m going to share that I’ve continued to wear a KN95 mask at WDW

Hopefully not controversial. I don't feel like it is important that those around me put on masks just because mine is on. My mask is for me--you do you.

I don't think it should be controversial. We all make decisions to try to balance safety with convenience/hassle/annoyance/fill in your own word. My family decided to wear KN95 masks in crowded indoor lines; that's sort of a middle ground. Other folks will find the balance that they feel is appropriate.

I did the same thing--had my KN95 mask handy anytime I was in close proximity to others for extended time. For me, this meant in the corrals, indoor line time, waiting for food, etc. And definitely on airplanes! And no one said anything to me at all at Disney, no eye rolling or anything. Sometimes I get an eye roll on planes, but again, it's for me, you do you.

I 100% support people who choose to wear masks (especially N95), and I think it’s crazy that it should even be controversial. Washing hands, proper hygiene, and avoiding becoming a disease vector are just basic human courtesy.

Yup--and no one owes anyone else their "reason" Mine is that I don't want to get sick. I've had Covid once and that was enough. Yes, I also have a very frail 83 year old mom who we've managed to protect from Covid all this time and we are diligent about continuing to do our best to keep her safe.

 

[Mr_Incr3dible]

FWIW, I managed to get a sinus infection at Christmas, to the point where I went to the doc and got a steroid shot (told the wife I finally had a younger woman checking out my backside...) and anti-biotics.
Still had some congestion-based coughing for MW (in part due to abusing my lungs with the running. Apologies to anyone who thought I was still sick), but..... managed to make it through the weekend and make it back home healthy. I'm definitely counting my blessings.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Wanted to log our generally positive experience with runD regarding us having to cancel the weekend at the last minute due to a death in the family. I often have this view of runD as being inaccessible with all roads leading to “No” no matter the topic, but that wasn’t really the case, I’m happy to report.

My wife and I both e-mailed 12/31 (a Sunday) and received replies 1/3, better then I expected considering the holiday and probably one of the busiest weeks of the year for runD.

In the e-mail my wife included a link to the obituary and asked if it was possible to get a credit for a future race. I didn’t include a link and didn’t ask for anything - wrote it more as an FYI/I’m heartbroken to miss the weekend type of e-mail (not really my nature to ask for anything and the intent was more to let them know in case a spot could be used to someone else’s benefit).

They offered my wife a refund via Disney gift card. They replied to me with a kind e-mail but did not offer anything other than condolences (which honestly was fine with me, I’m content that it’s the risk we bear when signing up for races).

Obviously YMMV but if you ever find yourself in similar life circumstances (which I hope you don’t!), runD seems to be pretty reasonable. I think the takeaway is if you have a resolution in mind don’t be afraid to respectfully suggest it and I’m assuming having documentation (in our case, the obituary) may have helped as well.

Onward to 2025!

 

[Herding_Cats]

Flights over to LAX were filled with people having coughing fits. I’m having the same mindset I had with my last marathon weekend in 2022… assuming I’m going to be exposed and hoping it doesn’t hit me. For MW 2022 I somehow avoided it (probably still had antibodies at the time) and got it three weeks later .

I can see how that would be disconcerting. But also, we joke about the "100-day cough" in our house right now. I've had one for about 2 months now. I got something (not Covid) in November, and then it came back in December, and the cough that accompanied it didn't disappear until we got back home from MW.

 

[WDRunner37]

After finishing Dopey (and BTW taking one of the Disney Characters home with me..COVID), I tried
to look up the results of the 4 races by age group and cannot find it....is it possible to find
the age group results of the Marathon Weekend races...TIA

 

[dobball23]

@WDRunner37 Choose the age group you want from the "Select a Division" drop down on this page (for the Marathon): https://www.trackshackresults.com/disneysports/results/wdw/wdw24/mar_results.php

Similar pages for the 10K and "half" can be found here: https://www.trackshackresults.com/disneysports/results/wdw/wdw24/

5K was an untimed race, so there are no results, other than for Dopey runners.

 

[RunWI1265]

I can see how that would be disconcerting. But also, we joke about the "100-day cough" in our house right now. I've had one for about 2 months now. I got something (not Covid) in November, and then it came back in December, and the cough that accompanied it didn't disappear until we got back home from MW.

This is me as well. I believe it started late October. My son got adenovirus and shortly after I came down with an absolutely terrible cough that lasted weeks. Negative for everything and the dr said I most likely caught whatever my son had. Since it has been a few weeks into my cough I was told it’s not contagious but try convincing the public that, right? My cough had lessened but lingered for a couple months and has come back as it was before since I’ve been in CA. I spoke to a physician and was told the dry cold air could be the reason. I am testing negative for Covid so at least there’s that.

 

[Jason Bryer]

This is me as well. I believe it started late October. My son got adenovirus and shortly after I came down with an absolutely terrible cough that lasted weeks. Negative for everything and the dr said I most likely caught whatever my son had. Since it has been a few weeks into my cough I was told it’s not contagious but try convincing the public that, right? My cough had lessened but lingered for a couple months and has come back as it was before since I’ve been in CA. I spoke to a physician and was told the dry cold air could be the reason. I am testing negative for Covid so at least there’s that.

All my life I would develop a cough after a cold (no matter how mild) that would last months. It wasn't until I turned 40 that I got diagnosed with an asthmatic cough. That has made all the difference as now I start the right inhaler regimen right away the cough doesn't last that long.

 

[1GoldenSun]

It always makes me a little sad when this thread slowly dies. But I guess it's time to migrate over to the Marathon Weekend 2025 thread.

 

[Mr_Incr3dible]

Posting on this thread because it is 2024 MW. I took almost no character photos for the half, mostly because so few appealed to me.
In contrast, I'm not even at Mile 1 for the full when we have an excellent character!
So Jan 7th was the day I finally caught Capt Jack Sparrow....

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I liked the idea of Disney 100 going through each race, but that also took some weird turns. Celebrating 1964 Mary Poppins with the 10K running up through 1959 and then returning back to the 1960 movies before Mary Poppins the next day during the Half felt off.

I really didn't understand so many Disney Junior characters during the full. Although I did hear one runner who was excited, so clearly some people liked it. With the Disney 100 idea, I would have loved to see some Star Wars and Marvel (that they can use) along the course for the Marathon.

I had a great time. It's been quite the journey to this particular race weekend after being in the hospital in early October, so I felt more reflective and quiet than usual. Dopey corresponded to being in the hospital with a chest tube in and hooked up to oxygen 3 months earlier to the day, so I felt incredibly grateful to be able to participate at all. And finish.

Right now, I think I will take Marathon Weekend 2025 off. I enjoy the event immensely, but with Disneyland races now back and the various ways that Marathon Weekend impacts my Disney World visits (a lot less park time) and my professional life, a bit of a break feels good right now. I still enjoy the distance, as challenging as it is, so I think I'll return to Marathon Weekend, but after running the last 5 in person Marathon weekends, I feel like it's time for a break.

In the same vein, I do not think I ever want to do back to back race weekends again. It wasn't so much the running, although I was certainly ready to be done with the early morning wakeups as it is how the back to back weekends impacted my time in Disneyland. Fortunately, I visit Disneyland multiple times a year so this really only effected this one visit, but there's still a lot I love to in Disneyland that I couldn't/didn't do this visit. And that's on top of how races impact Disney World visits as well.

I'm still reflecting on the entire experience. Part of me still can't quite believe I did it. It's unlike anything I've ever done before in running.

 

[Stitch&Co.]

Posting on this thread because it is 2024 MW. I took almost no character photos for the half, mostly because so few appealed to me.
In contrast, I'm not even at Mile 1 for the full when we have an excellent character!
So Jan 7th was the day I finally caught Capt Jack Sparrow....

I stopped for this one too and who got in line right behind me…Jogging Jack Sparrow! So I got a selfie with him while waiting for a photo with Jack Sparrow. Pretty cool.

 

[nancipants]

I stopped for this one too and who got in line right behind me…Jogging Jack Sparrow! So I got a selfie with him while waiting for a photo with Jack Sparrow. Pretty cool.

I hope they did the Spider-Man pointing meme.

 

[WDRunner37]

Does anyone have the statistics of how many runners participated in the Marathon
and the Dopey challenge? You can add up the runners from the rundisney charts in
regards to how many ran the races but I was curious how many started the races but
unfortunately did not finish...this would just add to the thought that these are difficult
races to finish...

 

[dobball23]

Does anyone have the statistics of how many runners participated in the Marathon
and the Dopey challenge? You can add up the runners from the rundisney charts in
regards to how many ran the races but I was curious how many started the races but
unfortunately did not finish...this would just add to the thought that these are difficult
races to finish...

Following up this question...I'm still hoping someone put together a ranked list of Dopey finishers.

Something like this from 2022: https://shapenoise.com/dopey/Dopey-2022-Ranked-Results.pdf

 

[GollyGadget]

Does anyone have the statistics of how many runners participated in the Marathon
and the Dopey challenge? You can add up the runners from the rundisney charts in
regards to how many ran the races but I was curious how many started the races but
unfortunately did not finish...this would just add to the thought that these are difficult
races to finish...

I think you can find the number of bibs from the tracking website but I’m not sure how to do that and it wouldn’t account for uncollected bibs.

 

[fatmanatee]

Does anyone have the statistics of how many runners participated in the Marathon
and the Dopey challenge? You can add up the runners from the rundisney charts in
regards to how many ran the races but I was curious how many started the races but
unfortunately did not finish...this would just add to the thought that these are difficult
races to finish...

Per @DopeyBadger:

Marathon only bibs - 7037
Goofy bibs - 1014
Dopey bibs - 8068

Total Marathon bibs - 16119

HM only bibs - 10055

Total HM bibs - 19137

10k only bibs - 5525

Total 10k bibs - 13593

Bear in mind that this is total bibs, and you'll have people who finished, people who ended up not participating in the race at all (DNS), and people who started but didn't finish (DNF). Apparently there are more people who DNS as opposed to DNF.

 

[The Expert]

There are some rD folks on IG crunching numbers, but more for C2C and not necessarily DNF. I posted some stats over on the Disneyland race thread.