Any word on 2016 Marathon Course

[crewmatt]

I would hit the castle before dark in both courses. I really miss the before sunrise epcot. Plus running around and catching the tail at the start was so cool. WWoS is just hot, sunny, lonely, lots of 90 degree turns, nothing fun really. And echoing the points as much as the turn around sucked it at least was only half a mile each way.

 

[Baloo in MI]

The old course was much more enjoyable than the new one. Running through World Showcase in the dark with the torches lit was the best part of the race.

That sounds awesome. Would be great to get to experience that!

 

[ZellyB]

I never ran the old course, but there was plenty I didn't love about the new one. The first year I ran it I actually thought the speedway was fun. They had Lightning McQueen and Mater out for pictures as well as the spectators with their cars, so I found the loop around it pretty enjoyable and distracting. The two years after that, no Cars characters and it seemed like there were fewer cars and spectators, so I was a bit disappointed with that.

WWoS...sigh. I HATED this portion the first year, but a lot of that was due to the heat and just feeling lousy at that point of the race. The other two years I didn't enjoy it, but it was at least more tolerable. I have to say that hearing about the old course sounds like it was better. I hope they incorporate some of that back in the new course. I'm not running this year, but I'm sure we'll be back in 2018 for Dopey if not in 2017.

 

[Barca33Runner]

I know it's not an option for everyone for many different reasons, but one of the reasons I love doing the Dopey Challenge is being able to do the 5K and 10K and getting the Epcot in the morning experience. If I was running the marathon only, I would definitely miss being able to run around the world showcase both with the torches lit and later coming into finish. If it's a choice between one or the other I prefer doing it at the finish and getting to run past all of the park goers and spectators.

The Half is the course that is in much greater need of an overhaul. Magic Kingdom is great, but that is a lot of highway and overpass and very limited park running. It would be nice if they tried to incorporate one of the other parks since you barely enter Epcot at the end.

 

[Keels]

I played around to see if you could fit the entire marathon in the TTC parking lot. It's close. Going down every row in the parking lot I was able to stretch the race to 19 miles. You could just do that then loop through the magic kingdom once.

OMG. I think I would never want to step foot in a parking lot after that.

Is there such a thing as fear of parking lots??

 

[Ariel484]

The Half is the course that is in much greater need of an overhaul. Magic Kingdom is great, but that is a lot of highway and overpass and very limited park running. It would be nice if they tried to incorporate one of the other parks since you barely enter Epcot at the end.

I definitely agree with you there. One thing I didn't love as a Goofy/Dopey runner was the fact that the marathon and half course are the same for the first 8ish miles. It was good in some ways (for the marathon I could skip the characters I'd gotten the day before and just sort of zone out and go on auto-pilot)...but having the different start in 2012 was nice.

I'd say the WDW/Princess Half course is probably my least favorite at WDW. I still like it but you're totally right that there is very limited park time.

 

[Baloo in MI]

Depends on your pace. It was much easier to ride the coaster, though. We hit that spot in AK at mile 17, not mile 13 as it is now.

Now that is a good point!

 

[LSUlakes]

Not sure if this would be practical, but what are the odds of the course going into Downtown Disney/Disney Springs? I'm no Disney expert in regards on where this is relative to the course as we know it, but it would be somewhere new to run to/through and it would give spectators another place to watch as well as have access to shops/food.

 

[Barca33Runner]

T

Not sure if this would be practical, but what are the odds of the course going into Downtown Disney/Disney Springs? I'm no Disney expert in regards on where this is relative to the course as we know it, but it would be somewhere new to run to/through and it would give spectators another place to watch as well as have access to shops/food.

The geography of the entire Disney layout confuses/escapes me, but I think this would require a good number of additional road closures and would likely affect transportation to and from a higher number of resorts for both runners and non-runners. We spend a lot of time in Downtown Disney/Disney Springs during Marathon Weekend and the main walkway is pretty narrow/winding and would probably not be very conducive to the volume of runners. I like any ideas that would bring more excitement to the course, but I think this one may be logistically impossible.

 

[DOOM1001]

Not sure if this would be practical, but what are the odds of the course going into Downtown Disney/Disney Springs? I'm no Disney expert in regards on where this is relative to the course as we know it, but it would be somewhere new to run to/through and it would give spectators another place to watch as well as have access to shops/food.

I think it's possible,you could reverse the direction of the start in Epcot and head out on Disney Vacation club way to a short stint on Buena Vista Dr to reach Disney Springs.After running through Disney Springs you could maybe head to DHS and AK to then head back to Epcot.This would be for a half marathon which as another poster mentioned has too much time on World Dr.I would be all for something different as the half course doesn't have much appeal to me,but going to Disney Springs would mean no MK as its just too far away,so no monorail to get to MK for spectators and who knows if the mileage even adds up.I don't see Disney changing it as there's 26,000 people running the half so its not like its not a popular race,I would love something different but I can't see it happen.It won't happen for the full either as that's a perfect course.

 

[WhereInFlorida]

I think it's possible,you could reverse the direction of the start in Epcot and head out on Disney Vacation club way to a short stint on Buena Vista Dr to reach Disney Springs.After running through Disney Springs you could maybe head to DHS and AK to then head back to Epcot.This would be for a half marathon which as another poster mentioned has too much time on World Dr.I would be all for something different as the half course doesn't have much appeal to me,but going to Disney Springs would mean no MK as its just too far away,so no monorail to get to MK for spectators and who knows if the mileage even adds up.I don't see Disney changing it as there's 26,000 people running the half so its not like its not a popular race,I would love something different but I can't see it happen.It won't happen for the full either as that's a perfect course.

Certainly would take a major reconfiguration of the course and don't think that is going to happen. Really like running through DTD (re:Springs) early in the morning when staying at SS or one of the hotels nearby, fun to run when no one there but cleanup crew. And there are bathrooms and water fountains aplenty.

 

[IamTrike]

Certainly would take a major reconfiguration of the course and don't think that is going to happen. Really like running through DTD (re:Springs) early in the morning when staying at SS or one of the hotels nearby, fun to run when no one there but cleanup crew. And there are bathrooms and water fountains aplenty.

I've done the run from OKW along the golf course to SSR to DTD a couple times. It's really peaceful early in the morning.

 

[IamTrike]

So I was looking at the old course and it seems like there are 2 easy places to tack on .48 mile out and backs to make up for the mile lost from the speedway. After leaving Animal Kingdom they could take you to the right to animal kingdom lodge and the could also have you go 1/2 mile further on Osceola either before or after ESPN. I'm guessing they couldn't do the AKL leg because it would mess up access to the resort. I can't really find many places on the current course where they could just add on a mile without tacking on an out and back

 

[Dug720]

So I was looking at the old course and it seems like there are 2 easy places to tack on .48 mile out and backs to make up for the mile lost from the speedway. After leaving Animal Kingdom they could take you to the right to animal kingdom lodge and the could also have you go 1/2 mile further on Osceola either before or after ESPN. I'm guessing they couldn't do the AKL leg because it would mess up access to the resort. I can't really find many places on the current course where they could just add on a mile without tacking on an out and back

The stupid speedway (hooray it is no more) wasn't in the course at last as 2012 - I got a year without it and honestly even though it was my first full and my stomach decided to reject the GU I'd trained with the whole time, I loved that course so much better. (It may have still been out in 13, but I can't remember). So there has been a full course that didn't include it or WWOS.

 

[Ariel484]

The stupid speedway (hooray it is no more) wasn't in the course at last as 2012 - I got a year without it and honestly even though it was my first full and my stomach decided to reject the GU I'd trained with the whole time, I loved that course so much better. (It may have still been out in 13, but I can't remember). So there has been a full course that didn't include it or WWOS.

The course you're talking about was last used in 2012 (I got to run that one, yay!). They changed it in 2013 as a "yay it's the 20th anniversary!" thing.

 

[FFigawi]

Cue the complaints about the big mile 20 extravaganza in 3...2...1...

 

[ANIM8R]

Cue the complaints about the big mile 20 extravaganza in 3...2...1...

Wait - what was the matter with the Mile 20 stuff?

 

[ZellyB]

OMG. I think I would never want to step foot in a parking lot after that.

Is there such a thing as fear of parking lots??

Raedamaphobia. Raedam is Latin for Parking. Seriously, is there any answer you cannot find on Google.

Cue the complaints about the big mile 20 extravaganza in 3...2...1...

Fine, I won't say anything. But, I now have Luxuraphobia (fear of extravagance).

 

[Ariel484]

Cue the complaints about the big mile 20 extravaganza in 3...2...1...

I *almost* whined about it in my post above, but took it out at the last second.

 

[LSUlakes]

So have we ruled out the possibility of running the old courses that are called the Red and Blue Starts? While the route looks like it would solve the Indy track problem and no sports complex run either, it looks like I would be a big headache to pull off. Another issue I see is the course is actually different from one another for the first few miles. That just seems strange as well.