OP here...just checking in to report on our experience and how things went - thanks to all for your advice in this thread as it was helpful!
I confirmed with the front desk at OKW that I could take an Lyft from our resort to the TTC - bypassing the road closures and allowing us to leave quite a bit later (as buses stop running at 5am). We called our Lyft right as the marathon was starting (we could hear the fireworks from our room) - at 5:30am. My wife was in Corral C so didn’t start until about 5:45am... We had no plans to see the start but were planning on seeing here at the TTC, at Grand Floridian, and at the entrance to Epcot and the finish...
The Lyft worked great - until the end...Plenty of Lyft available at 5:30am - called and were picked up in < 10 minutes. We were on the way - bypassed World Drive and took the route that goes from OKW up in front of Fort Wilderness and then plugs right into the TTC on World Drive...I thought everything was going great.
We reached the entrance to TTC about 6am - plenty of time as my wife was due to reach TTC about 6:45 or so. We were turned around at the usual guest drop off area at the TTC and told to circle back and drop off in the “Zurg lot” - as this was the official spot for spectator drop off. Great! We were dropped off in a completely empty lot - no one else within hundreds of yards, except for one transportation CM who told us where to walk...
We walked up to the course - followed it under the tunnel and up into the main TTC area - I thought everything was perfect - except we were on the wrong side of the course! We were on the right side (facing MK) - and all Monorail access was on the left side. I started to worry - and starting asking CM’s - who all told us there was a gate underneath the tunnel where we could cross the course. There was no such gate - and so were out of luck. We did stay in this area and were the only spectators on that side - so it was easy for my wife to see us - we got a chance to see her and cheer and take her extra layer from her.
At this point two different CM’s told us there was nothing we could do and we have to wait where we were until the last runner crosssed and the course was opened. We wandered over to the bus area - which was on the right side of the course - and found an awesome CM who took pity on us - and called us a CM transportation van who gave us a private ride on the road over the course to the left side - and dropped us off right in front of security. So awesome!
We went through security at TTC and then boarded the resort monorail - headed over to the GF - got off and walked straight to the road on the west side of the resort -and made it about 3 minutes before my wife came by! Got to see her again here..
We then walked back to the monorail station, went through security again, boarded the resort monorail back to TTC, walked off and around and boarded the Epcot monorail and headed to Epcot. We actually were able to pick her out on the road from the monorail and have a great video of her running from the monorail en route to Epcot.
Off the monorail walked to the right of the entrance where the runners came in - waited about 15 minutes and saw here again there!
Then walked through Epcot bag check and security - over across the other lot where the finish line was - made it in plenty of time to see her finish!
Overall it was a great experience - everything about the plan went perfectly - with the exception of the drop off location of the Lyft putting us on the wrong side. I can’t say I would recommend that strategy as I think we got lucky - if we hadn’t found the sympathetic CM who totally saved the day by calling the van over for us we would have only seen her at the TTC and then been stuck. I got the sense from multiple CM’s that in the past it would have been easy to cross the route somewhere from that drop off location but this year they had changed the rules so no can do. I also got the sense that things change every year so you can’t rely on previous year’s experience as a guarantee of what to expect going forward.
I hope this is helpful for others - if I had it do over I would board a bus at 4:50am - go to Epcot - check out the starting area - monorail to TTC - watch my runner at TTC - monorail to GF - watch my runner at GF - monorail to TTC - monorail to Epcot - watch my runner enter Epcot - and then walk to finish and watch my runner finish.
My wife’s time was roughly 2:25 if that helps anyone plan in the future...
Thanks!