Question about Marathon run

[TiggerDoc]

Planning a trip next April and noticed that Marathon run is scheduled...not participating but wondering what we can expect for morning travel around the property..how long before things get back to normal..any advice much appreciated

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

The only full marathon at WDW is in January. On the other RunDisney weekends (Feb, Apr, Nov), the longest race is a half-marathon, which really only impacts roads on the Sunday of each weekend. The Friday and Saturday races are a 5k and 10k respectively, which have minimum to no impact unless you’re a cast member needing to get to backstage parking. Even for the half-marathons, roads are back to normal by mid-day. The races begin at 5:30am and runners are required to keep to a minimum pace or get swept from the course.

Basically, I would skip a PPO ADR on the Sunday of a half, but besides that, don’t worry about it.

 

[Disneyfan_UK]

We’re hoping to do Early Morning Magic on the Sunday of the wine and dine marathon, will we be able to get to Magic Kingdom easily enough?

 

[AngiTN]

The travel on Sunday morning is bad. About 9:30 on Sunday of the Dark Side this year, going to AK from BWI took 45 min, instead of 10-15. Buses couldn't even get to the resort. We waited about half an hour, watching the bus arrival time move further and further out (not thinking about the half being the problem, it was impacting the MK buses too). We finally called for Uber and realized the problem. Another family waiting called for one to MK, we asked each other in case we could share. We got lucky and got a car that had just dropped someone off so we got right in a car. He told us it was going to take a while. We had time, thankfully, so we were ok there. The traffic was bad. We could see buses stuck in the same mess, as well as cars. Our driver pulled the stay in the left lane and jump in to an opening to cut down on our travel time or we'd have been even longer getting there.

Now, some of it was increased to AK due to it was also their 20th Anniversary celebration. The MK traffic was all due to the race. Bottom line, it will be bad getting around anywhere before noon and yes, i think trying to get to MK for EMM will be quite bad. Where are you staying? I'm very surprised they are having one that day. I wonder if they'll change their mind between now and then? I know the 2 groups don't always talk ahead of time but by now surely someone has looked at the calendar and realized they are on the same day

 

[Disneyfan_UK]

We’re staying at All Star Music, we’re happy to get a taxi/uber but obviously that might not make a huge difference.

It’s looking like maybe we would be better off to cancel for the Sunday and go for the Tuesday instead really then.

Thank you for your response!

 

[rteetz]

Just want to point out the Star Wars weekend is currently the lowest attended runDisney weekend.

 

[AngiTN]

We’re staying at All Star Music, we’re happy to get a taxi/uber but obviously that might not make a huge difference.

It’s looking like maybe we would be better off to cancel for the Sunday and go for the Tuesday instead really then.

Thank you for your response!

If that's an option for you, I would. Just to avoid the stress of worrying about it.

 

[Disneyfan_UK]

I’ve just called and changed the reservation to Tuesday 6th November so we shouldn’t have a problem.

I had no idea the marathon had such a big impact on the roads, we’ll be planning a morning round the resort I think!

 

[AngiTN]

The runners go from park to park, along the roads. They start early, like 5 AM but on the longer races, half and full marathons, they are not done till mid day so there are still runners on the roads, and in some cases even in the parks, till mid day. Full taking longer than the half of course. You can find the routes they have been using if you google them from past years. Though the construction around ESPN has changed things up some

 

[jenniferhouston2]

I wanted to "second" the sentiments by @AngiTN . We were coming for an PPO ADR at the MK from offsite on the Dark Side Marathon Sunday---and ran into problems (never had this experience at prior marathons on Sundays)

Disney was surprisingly woefully unprepared. Without notice, they closed Western Way drive from 429...but only gave you notice of this when you had already exit-ed, causing a huge backup. When we tried to approach via 192, through our old standby, Cherberth Road, we ran into a stand still on Osceola Parkway with half of the road dedicated to runners.

Only after we were stuck in place, did Disney place a notice on the MDE of potential traffic problems. Thanks, but a little late.

We will be skipping early morning PPO activities on Sunday Marathon days, from now on.

 

[AngiTN]

They left a notice in our room about potential travel disruptions but only to MK or Epcot. It didn't mention problems to AK

 

[cgattis]

I wonder if the Dark Side half wasn't slower overall than the other races. When I ran the inaugural one, there were lots of folks in costumes (so not super fast), lots of walkers, and WAY more unique character photo stops than other races. Maybe it was slower than Disney expected and thus more of an impact? Although I'd think they used the same sweep times....? Dunno. I DO know it's my fave RunDisney race

 

[JediQT]

We were at AS movies this past Darkside half 4/22/18) and I was really concerned about getting to MK for our 8:05 BBB. Got on a bus right away at 6:45 (probably too early but we are all morning people) and to the park by 7:05. The buses between AS and MK seemed to be fine (at least that early in the morning).

 

[rteetz]

I wonder if the Dark Side half wasn't slower overall than the other races. When I ran the inaugural one, there were lots of folks in costumes (so not super fast), lots of walkers, and WAY more unique character photo stops than other races. Maybe it was slower than Disney expected and thus more of an impact? Although I'd think they used the same sweep times....? Dunno. I DO know it's my fave RunDisney race

Shouldn’t be any slower. It’s run the same as any other Disney race.

 

[DOOM1001]

I wonder if the Dark Side half wasn't slower overall than the other races. When I ran the inaugural one, there were lots of folks in costumes (so not super fast), lots of walkers, and WAY more unique character photo stops than other races. Maybe it was slower than Disney expected and thus more of an impact? Although I'd think they used the same sweep times....? Dunno. I DO know it's my fave RunDisney race

that's pretty much most RunDisney races,a lot of people doing a run/walk,people waiting 20 minutes to take pictures with characters,I even rode Everest in mile 13 of the full this year,it's my 6th year doing the full and the first time I told myself to just do it.I've done all the WDW race weekends except for the Expedition Everest challenge,I also did Dark Side in its inaugural year and one thing I know is that I'm a mediocre middle of the pack runner or worse at races outside Disney but at Run Disney races I'm magically usually in the top 1/3 if the finishers even though I basically run the same races finishing in similar times.Run Disney races between the character pics and just bringing out more runners who are not fast just take longer to end as runners are out in the course longer than other road races,that's been my experience with them for the 6 years I've been running them.

 

[cgattis]

@rteetz @DOOM1001 I've done all the other halfs too, but Dark Side just had way more characters (since they included the volunteers). Maybe it seemed slower because I was closer to the back of the pack with an injured friend. As you say DOOM, I'm usually a lower-mid-pack finisher, but st Disney, suddenly I'm in Corral A!! LOL For Dark Side, we weren't, so maybe I just saw more of that side.

Either way, I'd just advise folks who will be traveling to parks on race days to check the RunDisney page for race routes. Just like park hours and such, Disney will change those too and destroy the best-laid plans sometimes, so just keep checking back, just in case.