Official 2015 Disney Marathon Thread

[SunDial]

I liked the weather yesterday much better. It was perfect.

Today was good at the start. Then it rained at
Mile 20, and was humid for the last 6
Miles. At least for me.

i Preferred today's weather than yesterdays. i am a warmer climate person

 

[jerivera]

Congratulations everyone!!!

What an awesome (if extremely tiring and difficult) experience!!!

Thanks for the advice you've all shared in these pages. It was very, very helpful for a new runner like me. I very much appreciated it.

About the marathon, a few thoughts:

1. OMG why can't they change the course to avoid the water treatment plant?!?!??

2. WWOS... That was sort of dull. And seeing folk who were 30min (or much more) ahead of you running out of WWOS... Not very motivational...

3. I finished 6 min behind Sean Astin and still missed seeing him! Dangit!! That would have been cool to meet him.

4. Was it just me or did the last 2 miles drag on forever? It was my first time ever dreading the World Showcase! It just didn't seem to end...

Again, I hope everyone had a great time!

 

[limabeanmom2003]

Congratulations everyone!!! What an awesome (if extremely tiring and difficult) experience!!! Thanks for the advice you've all shared in these pages. It was very, very helpful for a new runner like me. I very much appreciated it. About the marathon, a few thoughts: 1. OMG why can't they change the course to avoid the water treatment plant?!?!?? 2. WWOS... That was sort of dull. And seeing folk who were 30min (or much more) ahead of you running out of WWOS... Not very motivational... 3. I finished 6 min behind Sean Astin and still missed seeing him! Dangit!! That would have been cool to meet him. 4. Was it just me or did the last 2 miles drag on forever? It was my first time ever dreading the World Showcase! It just didn't seem to end... Again, I hope everyone had a great time!

I definitely prefer the race course before they added WWOS.

 

[disneyhorselover]

Woohoo! I made it! Even being a little undertrained due to all my injuries, I got that goofy challenge medal!! (And was very happy with both of my times-half in 2:50 and full in 6:16...about what I had planned on for both, including picture stops, and I got to ride Everest during the full!!!)

I even managed to limp around MK last night to celebrate

 

[bryana]

After prepping myself to just try and get as far as possible before getting swept due to injury/lack of training over the last 6 weeks since my first full, I am so happy to say that I FINISHED!! I lost a ton of time in mile 2 or 3 waiting for a port o potty so I fell behind rather quickly. I was able to get so many character stops though bevause there were NO lines! I figured if I was going to get swept, I was at least going to get as many pictures as possible. The only thing i didn't do that i really had wanted to was Everest. The cast member at the single rider line was saying it was a 10 minute wait, and I had seen the balloon ladies entering the speedway as I was leaving it. I felt good about my chances of finishing at that point so I didn't want to risk it. I had no problems with my knee or hip and feel great! Well, I feel like I ran a marathon, but I don't feel injured like I did after the first so I am happy!

Congrats all!!! It was an amazing day.

 

[bumbershoot]

So glad...to be finished with what I hope is my last half marathon. Oh I hate that distance. And after the castaway 5k I might be done with rundisney. TOT 2013, 2014 5k and half, DL half, w&d, and this half, and I haven't found "magic" in even one mile. Let alone "every mile".

Really freaked out strangers who got a non-happy answer to casual "so are you excited about the run?" Questions. Lol. Poor unsuspecting strangers.

That said, I resonated with the announcer when he said "I'm going to run the half because I said I would run the half" (or something like that). Yep! That's pretty much me!

 

[Nole95]

WWOS is the absolute worst part of the course. I never ran the old course, so I can't speak to that. I just hate WWOS. From the back and forth that never seems to end, all the turns and having to see everyone coming out at mile 20 when you are going in. Just do not like it.

 

[becca1976]

See the link below, pick the class and enter your bib number

http://trackshack.com/disneysports/results/wdw/wdw15/

Awesome! Thanks so much!

 

[dburg30]

WWOS is the absolute worst part of the course. I never ran the old course, so I can't speak to that. I just hate WWOS. From the back and forth that never seems to end, all the turns and having to see everyone coming out at mile 20 when you are going in. Just do not like it.

This I agree with lol...

 

[wdwjoe13]

Agreed. The old course was so much better as you ran around Epcot for the first 4 miles. Seeing EPCOT in the early morning hours was so magical, knowing next time you were back would be the finish. It really made the first four miles fly by and then by the time you were out of MK area, you were halfway home. AK was at mile 18. Then a rough two mile out and back to get to mile 20, but it beats the 7 mile out and back through WWOS. The speedway is okay, but I don't like the steep ramp entering it.

I am sure runDisney has good reasons for this change, but I wish we could have those first four miles around Epcot back.

 

[limabeanmom2003]

Agreed. The old course was so much better as you ran around Epcot for the first 4 miles. Seeing EPCOT in the early morning hours was so magical, knowing next time you were back would be the finish. It really made the first four miles fly by and then by the time you were out of MK area, you were halfway home. AK was at mile 18. Then a rough two mile out and back to get to mile 20, but it beats the 7 mile out and back through WWOS. The speedway is okay, but I don't like the steep ramp entering it. I am sure runDisney has good reasons for this change, but I wish we could have those first four miles around Epcot back.

I agree. Running through epcot at the start was awesome. The difference in courses for me is that with the new course I get to MK in the dark with the castle all lit up which is pretty cool too.

 

[FFigawi]

WWOS is the absolute worst part of the course. I never ran the old course, so I can't speak to that. I just hate WWOS. From the back and forth that never seems to end, all the turns and having to see everyone coming out at mile 20 when you are going in. Just do not like it.

Can't agree with this. The worst part of the old course was the long out and back on Osceola. Much more boring and dull than going through WWoS. I'll take this part of the new course any day. The old course went through Epcot at the beginning, though, making it a better course overall.

 

[thill]

Glad to see that so many finished their races, met their goals, and had a good time. I finished my first ever marathon and first ever Goofy with times of 2:04 and 4:10. That is much better than I expected and even better that I didn't get injured and not terribly sore, all things considered at least. The long stretch of highways and WWOS was tough as there wasn't anything cool to break up the monotony and keep me going but the start through MK and finish from DHS through the finish line were great and magical. I saw the McDonald's and while I didn't get a McFlurry I smiled knowing someone who would. I didn't get to ride Everest as it wasn't open when I passed it yet and while I liked running through AK, I wish we would have run by the tree. I looked for the beer cooler while running through Boardwalk but didn't see it although I likely would have chosen to keep pushing at that point anyway.

Great job everyone and I have a feeling I will be back!

 

[DOOM1001]

My first Goofy is in the books,2:38 half,5:34 full,definitely could have gotten faster times but I forced myself to walk as I told myself that since I knew I was finishing this thing I want to finish it in good shape and without injury which I did.I did wake up this morning with a swollen ankle and some pain along the outside bottom of my foot.I actually felt some pain in this area when I got off the bus for the full on Sunday.Amazingly that pain went away about 10 minutes before my corral went off.Right now my foot is elevated and I'm applying some icy gel to it,it seems to have gotten better from this morning.I'm going back to just doing the full next year but I plan to do the Gasparilla Michelob Ultra challenge in February 2016 which is a 5K and 15K on Saturday followed by a 8K and a half Marathon on Sunday.I originally wanted to wait until 2018 to try Dopey for the anniversary but something tells me I'll be doing Dopey 2017 and 2018.

 

[FFigawi]

Glad to see that so many finished their races, met their goals, and had a good time. I finished my first ever marathon and first ever Goofy with times of 2:04 and 4:10. That is much better than I expected and even better that I didn't get injured and not terribly sore, all things considered at least. The long stretch of highways and WWOS was tough as there wasn't anything cool to break up the monotony and keep me going but the start through MK and finish from DHS through the finish line were great and magical. I saw the McDonald's and while I didn't get a McFlurry I smiled knowing someone who would. I didn't get to ride Everest as it wasn't open when I passed it yet and while I liked running through AK, I wish we would have run by the tree. I looked for the beer cooler while running through Boardwalk but didn't see it although I likely would have chosen to keep pushing at that point anyway. Great job everyone and I have a feeling I will be back!

Congrats on your finish! Sorry you missed the beer stop. They were out there until they ran out of beer & it started raining.

 

[Nole95]

Since other post race reports have been so helpful to me in the past, I wanted to share my race report from this past weekend.

Last year after running my first marathon at Disney, I decided I wanted to go Goofy for this year. I signed up right when registration was opened. While I officially started training in September, I was pretty much training for it all year while preparing for other races I ran.

Last year I finished the marathon in 5:29, and my half PR time that I submitted was 2:13. This same time had me in corral H for the 2014 marathon. This year that got me into corral J for both the half and the full.

This is pretty much my only gripe with the Goofy. While I was placed perfectly for the marathon, there was no way I belonged in J for the half. My wife submitted a 2:10 time for the half, and she was in corral F. At the Expo, I also noticed that the 2:45 Clif group was in J. I really wish RunDisney would figure out a way to properly assign Goofy runners in the half.

On Saturday, my wife and I were on the bus from Port Orleans at 3:30, and arrived fairly quickly to Epcot. Coming from Atlanta, the temps in the 40s were perfect for us. It was a little cool waiting around, but having a throwaway sweater helped.

Everything started on time and corral J went off at 6:03. As predicted, I had to weave around a lot of slower runners at the start and hit a bottleneck at mile 2 on the on ramp to World Drive. Looking at my GPS, it was my slowest mile of the day. Over the course of the race I found a couple people to pace with and ended up finishing with a PR by about two minutes. I probably could have shaved another minute or two off that if I had not had to do so much weaving early on. One thing I did not know about were the series of small hills at the end of the course as you are going into Epcot. Seeing as I train on hills in Atlanta, this did not bother me that much other than they were at the end of the race.

The temperature was a little warmer on Sunday morning, but still felt good to start the race.

For the marathon I decided to go out with the 4:45 Clif pace group to see what I could do. Once again, corral J went out a 6:03.

Our pace group leader had us on a good pace. We would walk the water stops and walk 30 seconds at the beginning of every mile. Everything was going really good for me until about the halfway point. At that point, my legs were really tired, and I could tell I was running out of gas, so I slowed it down and started doing some more run/walk combinations. At mile 20 it started to rain, and did so for the next mile. Then the sun came back out and with it the humidity, which made the last 5 miles tough. In the end I finished in 5:20, so I shaved 9 minutes off my time leaving me with a double PR for the weekend.

The only thing I can say I hated about the marathon was the stretch from mile 14 to 20. The long hike down Osceola and then the long, with all the twists and turns stretch through WWOS is not fun at all. Other than that, it was a great experience. Many drinks were had at Epcot on Sunday afternoon to celebrate.

 

[croach]

First of all, I've never heard about a cut off. They don't even announce in the staging area that you need to head to your corral until 5. My bus took an hour to get there this morning and I arrived at 4:55. I was at the bus stop at 3:45

Second, how does people being late affect you and your race? It doesn't delay anything. Kinda sounds like you're jealous you didn't get to sleep in a little

It does say in the race booklet they hand out that you have to be in your corral by 5:00 or you won't be allowed to start with your corral. The only place it says that I saw though is under driving directions so I don't know if it's an actual thing or not. I didn't get into my corral until 5:25 marathon morning with no problem.

 

[Pleglech]

So does anyone know what that blue rubber pouch thing in the Goofy packet is supposed to be?

 

[Nole95]

So does anyone know what that blue rubber pouch thing in the Goofy packet is supposed to be?

Wondering the same thing, and I cannot figure it out. It has a sticky back on it, so it must be meant to stick to something.

 

[Benisa]

Wondering the same thing, and I cannot figure it out. It has a sticky back on it, so it must be meant to stick to something.

At packet pick-up we were told you can stick it on your phone, and it will hold you ID etc. I didn't actually see anyone at the races with it, though. Of course, that might have just been my tunnel vision, but I don't think I would ever trust it enough to put my ID in it...