Marathon Weekend 2021

SAFD: We visited WDW for our 10th Anniversary (Dec 2011) and, of course, had a great time. The last time we visited prior to that was our honeymoon. In January, I had gotten sick - nothing serious, just a long flu. I gained a bunch of weight. I also had Disney withdrawal. I was just goofing around on YouTube looking at WDW videos and stumbled upon some marathon videos (Lee Hoedl? I think?) and I was HOOKED...they got to run BACKSTAGE!!!! (For some reason I treat that as hallowed ground and was awed by the opportunity to run there)

I used to run to get in shape for my adult baseball league but 5K was my max. I ran one half marathon many, many years prior - in the "olden days" (i.e., no medals!!) but had not really run too much after that except to lose weight.

Then I saw the medals! With Disney characters!! I didn't know medals had become a "thing" until I saw those videos. On top of that, I saw the Goofy challenge (this is pre-Dopey <officially>). I thought "How bad-a$$ is that!". I told my wife about it and her immediate response was "You can't run a marathon."

IT. WAS. ON!!! Now, I know she didn't mean it derisively, but it was an honest-to-goodness reaction and that's all I needed as motivation - it kind of stung a little. The 2013 Marathon Weekend and Goofy was my new obsession. I used the Galloway plan as my foundation. Thank goodness I found out about the "unofficial" Dopey of including the 5K (No 10K back then). I am very happy I got in one "unofficial" Dopey before it became "official".

Even better - my wife, who HATES running, still loved coming down every year and eventually caught FOMO. She ran a couple of 5Ks. Then she wanted "a metal medal" - the 5Ks had only plastic medals until recently. So, now she has 4 or 5 Disney medals!!!

That's why we runDisney - the medals, the backstage area, FOMO...but it all started with a "You can't run a marathon"!
 
SAFD: I run Disney because it is an excuse to go back to Disney World every year. From the time I enter the bubble to the time I get back to the airport I feel like a kid again. So runDisney is my enabling agent. I keep coming back every year because there is something new and different yet the Disney feeling is comforting and familiar. Marathon weekend gives me purpose and a goal to try and stay in shape throughout the year. I've done so many of these events I eventually lost count, but every medal is on the wall in the hallway. Every medal is an accomplishment. I did my first Disney marathon with my wife, and as my kids grew older they also did races from the kids 100 to the Mickey Mile to the 5k to the 10k to both the 5k and 10k in the same weekend. Eventually they might also do their first half marathon with me. My kids are why I've registered for all of the Dopey challenges on top of the Goofy challenges since 2006.

My DNF marathon 2020 that cost me Perfect Goofy and Dopey still stings, especially when I mentally replay the 19 miles I completed before I pulled myself with dehydration and heat stress. So that could be my driving factor to come back for 2021 - redemption. I can never get "Perfect" back but I can get up once more and show my kids and myself that failure is ok. It is what you learn from it and what you do with that knowledge and feeling that is really important.
 
FFigawi said:
Rowing for 26 miles sounds terrible, and fascinating. Where was the race?
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Natchitoches, LA
It was outdoors on a Lake and by the end my hands were covered in the grossest blisters. I had to wash my hair with my elbows for a few weeks while they healed.
I don't know if they still do it, but there were other divisions. Like canoe. And like most regattas different divisions of length of boat. I rowed in a women's 8 (so 8 people plus our cox)
There were indoor erg races but I HATED the erg so did not participate.

Edited to add in our times if you want comparison to running. I was in the Varsity boat. Looking back at the results they did have a kayak division too. We of course never saw them.
73Womens Novice 8+ Tulane University3:34:47
74Womens Open 8+ Tulane University3:24:09
 
SAFD: I was training for my first half marathon and, during a long training run, someone in our running group mentioned, "Hey, did you know Disney does a marathon?" High on endorphins, I checked into it as soon as we finished our training run and convinced my husband it was a great idea. We ran our first Disney marathon in 2013 and we've been hooked on runDisney ever since. We love Disney. Love the vibe of marathon weekend. Love the unique qualities to the races and that they are truly just for fun for us. Couple that with getting to know so many of you on this board and getting to see some of you during race weekends, it's simply irresistible.
 
SAFD: I am a lifelong Disney nerd (my first job was at DL!), and though I ran track in HS I didn't run regularly until after the birth of our second daughter in 2009. Post-baby, I wanted to do something to challenge myself and get my mojo back, so I signed up for a sprint triathlon and got into a running routine. I built up my triathlon distance and set my sights on doing a half Ironman, but I wanted to do a half marathon before I took on the 70.3 distance. I decided that my first half HAD to be at Disney, so I signed up for Princess in 2011. The whole experience exceeded my expectations, and I teared up running down Main Street. When I decided to go for a full marathon, it HAD to be at Disney too so I decided to do the 2013 marathon. Since then, I have returned for 4 more marathon weekends, all 4 Star Wars weekends, one W&D and another Princess. I have also done the SW race at DL before that went away (RIP).

As to WHY I keep coming back - I love the race experience at Disney, and even though I don't run the Disney races competitively, they keep me motivated to keep running. It's also an excuse to go to Disney, and meeting the people on these boards is a bonus. I also love walking around the parks after the races, wearing my medals - such a great way to celebrate!
 
SAFD: I ran my first runDisney in 2008, I've already ran a couple of marathons and was in a running group. One of the members suggested doing a disney trip, his family had DVC, so we rented 3br at SSR. My first impression at the time was all around awesome. The atmosphere, the bib pickup venue, the afterparty (was on Paradise Island that year) was all much better than other marathons. Of course, the highlight was the course, running through the parks, all the supporters up at ungodly hours, that nice flat surface. I was hooked and registered for 2009, then did goofy for 2010, and then last runDisney was 2012.

I tell my wife that without a doubt, the best 1st marathon to run is Disney Marathon. The course/crowd/atmosphere will keep you going!
 
lhermiston said:
For this week, I want to know: why runDisney? Whether this is your first rD event or 50th, what drew you to it? What keeps you coming back?
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Thank you so much for asking this... it allowed me to do a little research that I always wanted to do. Feel free to skip the first two paragraphs of background.

My story is this... I am a born again Mouseketeer, and although I have been a runner for most my life, I didn't find out until 2008 that Disney had running races (and this by accident), and I didn't participate until 2016. When I was really young, we lived in Southern California, and so my parents took us to Disneyland a few times, but I have very few memories as I was so young. In my late elementary/middle/high school years, my dad took my brother and me to Magic Kingdom maybe 2-3 times but only single days as we were passing through Orlando in the car on our way to the Florida Keys. Back then, we were big fans of the E-ticket rides, so we focused on the "thrill" rides and didn't really try the smaller rides nor the shows, etc. Bottom line, I never really had the whole stay-on-property/try everything/get immersed in the Disney experience as a child.

Fast forward to when my wife and I had kids. When the kids were really young, it didn't even cross our minds to consider a Disney vacation (probably since it never was a vacation for either of us when we were young). However, in 2008 when my daughter was five and son was three, we somehow decided to try a Disney World vacation... although I truly don't remember how we came to this idea. After doing some research, we ended up booking a 1-bedroom at Boardwalk Villas during the week of Columbus Day. Although offsite would have been much less expensive, I decided that, unlike my childhood, we were going to experience Disney properly: 1 full week, in the bubble, all four parks, a water park, lunch in the castle, etc. I wanted to do it right. We arrived on Saturday, October 11, 2008, DME'd to Boardwalk Villas, had something to eat on the boardwalk, and tried to get to bed in preparation for a full day at Magic Kingdom.

As it ended up (and I had no idea the layout of resorts/parks at the time), but our ground-floor room looked out onto the DHS path/canal. The next morning, I woke up with my son, who was a very early riser at the time, and we watched some TV until the others woke up. Once everyone was up and as we are making/eating breakfast, through the translucent curtains, I see a few runners pass by on the path. As a runner, I was thinking how cool that they have a path here. Then, many other runners start passing by. It quickly dawns on me that this must be a race, so I go open the sliding glass door, and sure enough, the runners have bibs on, and there are folks cheering them on. I filed this away in the back of my mind, but it was still many years (probably 5-6 years) until I actually searched for running races at Disney. That is when I found the runDisney website; however, it was still a few more years before I actually registered and participated (Star Wars Dark Side in 2016 & 2017).

Given that I now know the rD race schedule pretty well, the one question that has eluded me until today is what the original race was that I saw outside our room on October 12, 2008. Did Wine & Dine exist back then? If so, was it in October instead of November? After searching for a bit today, the race was called Disney's Race for the Taste 10k that started in WWoS went through DHS and ended at Epcot. I assume rD put it on, but it is unclear. Also, there was a charity... "Participants and spectators are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to the event for donation to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida." Pretty cool to finally figure this out.

As far as "what keeps you coming back?" Well, nothing so far as I haven't participated since 2017. Both my rD trips were solo for me. I would really like to do more, but the timing of the events isn't great with kids in middle school and high school, and I really prefer being at WDW with the kids. My daughter, who runs cross country in high school, would really enjoy the races, but I'm not going to pull her out of school for a race. I am hoping once she goes to college that we can meet for marathon weekend during her winter break! I really want to try marathon weekend one of these years... mostly for DATW on Monday.

ETA: wow, that was long... sorry.
 
opusone said:
Given that I now know the rD race schedule pretty well, the one question that has eluded me until today is what the original race was that I saw outside our room on October 12, 2008. Did Wine & Dine exist back then? If so, was it in October instead of November? After searching for a bit today, the race was called Disney's Race for the Taste 10k that started in WWoS went through DHS and ended at Epcot. I assume rD put it on, but it is unclear. Also, there was a charity... "Participants and spectators are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to the event for donation to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida." Pretty cool to finally figure this out.
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Wine and Dine officially started in 2010 as 2019 was the 10th running. Like you said though they had the race for the taste 10K. Second Harvest is still the presenting charity for Wine and Dine.
 
SAFD: Disney fandom came first for me. Growing up I hated running. Sometimes in college I would try jogging, but usually wound up walking and not enjoying it all that much. I remember hearing about Disneyland races and literally thinking to myself that a Disney medal sounded very cool, but there is no way that I could actually complete go half a mile let alone 13.1.

Then in 2008 I went to Disneyland over Labor Day weekend and saw all the runners with their medals in the parks afterward. I sort of filed that away, but did nothing about it. In 2009, I again went to Disneyland over Labor Day weekend only this time I decided to talk with some runners about their medals and what that entailed. They were more than happy to explain to me that the minimum pace is not impossible and can even be walked if necessary. So over the course of maybe 5 minutes, this nice couple had persuaded me that what I had thought impossible may not be so impossible after all. I mentioned this to my youngest sister and she told me that a half marathon was on her bucket list. We decided to register for the 2011 Disneyland Half. When the time actually came, I attempted to back off my promise, but my sister persisted in bugging me about it and I did eventually register.

Even then, I had managed to convince myself that I would fail. It was hard to motivate myself to get out there. Training happened, but mostly haphazardly although I did manage to get all the long runs in. I headed down to race weekend still convinced that I would fail. On race day itself, my nerves got the better of me and I started out way too fast and felt a shin splint like pain maybe half a mile into the race. I was done. There was no way I could continue another few feet in this kind of pain, let alone 13 miles or so. Honestly, if I had known that they gave out medals just for starting the race, I may well have withdrawn, collected my souvenir, and gone back to my hotel room to get some sleep having learned that running is not for me.

But ignorance is bliss, so I concluded that I would slow down and walk that course until they either removed me because I was too slow or I crossed the finish line, whichever happened first. Well, I finished with never a warning about being too slow. But honestly, I did not have a great first race experience. I was intensely sore for almost all of it. I don't know that I wanted to do it again. But then runDisney announced that the 2012 Wine & Dine Half would be in November. I now had a viable path to that Coast to Coast medal. I decided I could tolerate running 2 more half marathons in order to earn that really cool medal. But then a funny thing happened. I took quite a few of the lessons I learned from mistakes in race number one and made sure to apply them both in training for and actually running race number two. And I had a great time.

A major professional exam took up my free time for about 18 months, but I started to get the running bug again in 2014. The announcement of Star Wars races at Disneyland was all I needed, except this time I attempted another once "impossible" task and did the first Rebel Challenge. That began a process that eventually resulted in more "impossible" running tasks that culminated in training for and finishing the 2017 Dark Side Challenge and Kessel Run/Coast to Coast during the busiest time of year professionally and later finishing the 2017 Avengers Half Marathon on just 3 weeks training. By this point all sorts of internal running barriers had been broken down and I wound up registering for 2019 Dopey as part of my first marathon just a few months after I had wondered if my racing days were behind me. Since 2015, I have run at least one runDisney race weekend each year, with 3 race weekends in 2017, and 2 race weekends this year.

I suppose I keep coming back because of the experience. There's also something to be said about the sense of accomplishment I have after finishing a race.
 
I found a roommate for Marathon Weekend 2021. I was starting to doubt I would go because nobody wanted to go with me and I wanted to split room costs. I'm so excited now! I'm going to book my DVC at AKV, but may end up using those points for the 2021 Star Wars weekend instead, so I'll have a cash room as backup. Having a room booked makes 2021 seem a lot more real. :flower1:
 
Sleepy425 said:
I found a roommate for Marathon Weekend 2021. I was starting to doubt I would go because nobody wanted to go with me and I wanted to split room costs. I'm so excited now! I'm going to book my DVC at AKV, but may end up using those points for the 2021 Star Wars weekend instead, so I'll have a cash room as backup. Having a room booked makes 2021 seem a lot more real. :flower1:
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Yay!! I’ll be at AKV (Jambo) too!
 
Has anyone stayed at Art of Animation for marathon weekend (or another race weekend)? We've stayed there twice in the past on family trips, and while we prefer other resorts we did enjoy our stays there. We are planning on bringing the family and I like the idea of our own room to get ready vs. us all being in the same room as we're a family of 5. I know I can look at the DVC properties too, just curious if anyone has experience with AoA.
 
Booked my DVC Boardwalk reservations for MW 2021! I love the location but sleeping with a Boardwalk view room (and noise from the evening performers) is tricky, so we booked one room standard and the other Boardwalk view so I can sleep in the quiet one and everyone can still spectate the races from the one with the view!
 
lovingeire said:
Has anyone stayed at Art of Animation for marathon weekend (or another race weekend)? We've stayed there twice in the past on family trips, and while we prefer other resorts we did enjoy our stays there. We are planning on bringing the family and I like the idea of our own room to get ready vs. us all being in the same room as we're a family of 5. I know I can look at the DVC properties too, just curious if anyone has experience with AoA.
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I stayed at AoA in 2016. It was just me, so I was in the Little Mermaid building, so if you're doing a family suite, you have a good chance of being closer to the main building and the buses. It was nice for marathon weekend, no bus issues, their food court was good and now you'll also have the Skyliner there.
 
lovingeire said:
Has anyone stayed at Art of Animation for marathon weekend (or another race weekend)? We've stayed there twice in the past on family trips, and while we prefer other resorts we did enjoy our stays there. We are planning on bringing the family and I like the idea of our own room to get ready vs. us all being in the same room as we're a family of 5. I know I can look at the DVC properties too, just curious if anyone has experience with AoA.
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My family stayed in a family suite for Marathon Weekend 2019. It was nice having two bathrooms with multiple runners. If you’re using both of the beds out in the main room it can be kind of cramped, but it worked well for us. Buildings were a little old and musty at the time (I don’t think carpet was ideal for the ventilation in the building and the heat/humidity of Florida); not sure if there have been any changes to the rooms since then.

For MW specifically buses to expo and races functioned the same for us there as it has at any other resort. No issues, but nothing great.
 
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