Marathon Weekend 2023

[stiebermom]

This will be my first run Disney event and my first half marathon. If the balloon lady’s scoop me up, do I still get a medal?

 

[camaker]

This will be my first run Disney event and my first half marathon. If the balloon lady’s scoop me up, do I still get a medal?

Balloon ladies don't do any sweeping. They're just there to provide a visual reference for the 16:00/mile pace. You can fall behind them without getting swept immediately. There are official sweepers behind the balloon ladies that do the actual sweeping largely at set points along the course. So if you should fall behind them, you may have an opportunity to make up the time before a sweep point.

As far as medals go, you will receive the medal for the race you're running if you get swept, but not any challenge medals associated with the race.

 

[lookingforsunshine]

This will be my first run Disney event and my first half marathon. If the balloon lady’s scoop me up, do I still get a medal?

Yes.

 

[bryana]

In case you guys were wondering, karma got me today for being so thankful yesterday that I just got to spectate the rD debacle since I had already signed up via a charity. FEST in Gainesville went on sale today and it was almost as bad as registration yesterday. The ticketing site crashed, then it came back up and was showing "processing errors" when checking out, but it was actually going through. I lucked out and only hit check out once, but some people kept hitting it and now have 20 weekend passes when they needed 2 or multiple hotel packages.

What a week for trying to register for events in Florida...

I'll also make this a running related post: anyone know of any good races in Gainesville the weekend of Halloween?

 

[BigBoneDaddy]

Yes. This happened to me before. I had changed my email at some point and the system saw it as two accounts. At some random point my registrations disappeared and got assigned to the other phantom account. I contacted support and they straightened it out.

I had the same situation. I never got through to runDisney support but I had my confirmation email. I went to customer support at event registration and they took care of it in about 1 minute. As long as you have your confirmation email they'll figure it out.

 

[Marebear_runs]

I managed to get in for Dopey #2! I had pretty much given up hope. Was at a hotel with terrible Wi-Fi and worse cell service, so I was worried even before all the technical issues. While I was prepared to not get all the races I wanted, I was not prepared to sit staring at multiple screens for 3 hours. Yikes. For what it’s worth, I had 4 devices open and it was the first one I clicked at 9:40-ish that got me in.

 

[Ariel484]

In case anyone is looking for a charity bib, here are some options:

- Team in Training is opening their registration tomorrow, Thursday April 21 and 2PM Eastern. https://www.teamintraining.org/events/walt-disney-world-marathon-weekend

- Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism: https://www.flutiefoundation.org/walt-disney-world-marathon-weekend

- Not open yet but you can add your info to get contacted: Parent Project for Muscular Dystrophy: https://www.parentprojectmd.org/events/walt-disney-world-marathon-weekend-orlando-fl/

- A-T Children’s Project had 10K and half bibs as of this morning: https://www.atcp.org/event/wdw2023/...KIvTGgpkw7EqsEcXIPvtOaMApiv85VkpJ6ZQwWGHO-iTU

- Team JDRF, to fight type 1 diabetes: https://www2.jdrf.org/site/TR/Challenge/JDRFNationalChallenge?pg=entry&fr_id=8496

- No link but reach out to Alicia Hodge of Boys and Girls Club of Central Florida ahodge@bgccf.org - earlier today they had bibs for everything except Dopey.

- Girls on the Run Central Florida interest form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeLQHg9Opz5FGX2VH8ghlbXcUmK0z7oSgE-l5mSRqOB0xrvXA/viewform

runDisney’s list here: https://www.rundisney.com/events/di...jaZ4mLTVTQMfBOUv7MGtvnm5zWI4Xh2ER5LXZucAsWyrk

 

[Livelovedance]

Does anyone here know the year of the first marathon weekend 5K? I’ve been trying to find info on each race but I figured I might have better luck here.

First MW…
5K - ? (A post on a forum website said 1996 but I haven’t seen that anywhere else)
10K - 2014
Half - 1998
Full - 1994
Goofy - 2006
Dopey - 2014

If any of these are wrong please let me know!

 

[Ariel484]

Does anyone here know the year of the first marathon weekend 5K? I’ve been trying to find info on each race but I figured I might have better luck here.

First MW…
5K - ? (A post on a forum website said 1996 but I haven’t seen that anywhere else)
10K - 2014
Half - 1998
Full - 1994
Goofy - 2006
Dopey - 2014

If any of these are wrong please let me know!

2023 will be the 30th, so same as the marathon.

EDIT: I don’t have a link for you but I did the 5K and marathon in 2013 and both of them were listed as being the 20th anniversary that year.

EDIT #2: medallion from 2013:

 

[Livelovedance]

2023 will be the 30th, so same as the marathon.

EDIT: I don’t have a link for you but I did the 5K and marathon in 2013 and both of them were listed as being the 20th anniversary that year.

Thank you!

 

[stiebermom]

Thank you, carmaker, for your discreptive reply.

 

[dancingtodisney]

There are mini-waves within the starting groups. So if you and three others are in s3 together, but you arrive as the first person in the starting group, middle person, and last person, then you wouldn’t be standing next to each other. If the three arrive together then you'll be together. The mini-waves delineation within starting groups is mostly random (and doesn't occur until the walk towards the starting line begins), but is caused by volunteers running a ticker-tape across the group and holding back sections of s3 from the start line. There are something like 800-1200 runners or so per wave. The amount per starting group is much more variable, but only about 10-12% of runners had a POT under 2 hrs. I don’t have the data in front of me, but I believe the 2:00-2:15 group (or 4:00-4:30 group) historically has about 10% of the runners in it. So approximately 20% of runner will have a POT in 2023.

This is great thanks for explaining!

 

[Disney at Heart]

We may be staying at Swolphin for the first part of our trip since I can't get us into Shades of Green for the first few days. That means my runners would be catching the race buses from Swolphin. Is it better to be on the Swan or Dolphin side (or Swan Reserve??) or is it irrelevant?

We also couldn’t get SOG. They didn’t have one day available (Friday) in the middle of our stay, so we chose POFQ instead. We just couldn’t start at SOG, move out for a day, and move back!!! I wonder if they still don’t have all their rooms open yet, but may open more later?

 

[jpeterson]

We also couldn’t get SOG. They didn’t have one day available (Friday) in the middle of our stay, so we chose POFQ instead. We just couldn’t start at SOG, move out for a day, and move back!!! I wonder if they still don’t have all their rooms open yet, but may open more later?

It's always worth checking back. I grabbed a reservation at rack rate that I would be ok with but plan to stalk other openings and discounts as the year goes by. If nothing pans out, I have a room at least.

 

[Herding_Cats]

WHOA. All of the DVC availability for studios for MW went *poof* yesterday.

 

[kristenabelle]

WHOA. All of the DVC availability for studios for MW went *poof* yesterday.

I've been sitting on mine since the 11 month mark because I was so nervous. Now I'm nervous because I heard BoardWalk had bussing issues last year. It's always something lol.

 

[QueenFernando]

We may be staying at Swolphin for the first part of our trip since I can't get us into Shades of Green for the first few days. That means my runners would be catching the race buses from Swolphin. Is it better to be on the Swan or Dolphin side (or Swan Reserve??) or is it irrelevant?

My friends and I always stay at Swolphin for Princess weekend and DH and I have stayed there for W&D. Usually we stay at the Dolphin because it's historically a bit cheaper than the Swan for the same room. In the past the buses to the race in the morning have been single stop. An empty bus would pull up to the Dolphin waiting area, fill up, then go directly to the race start. However, last Princess it would make multiple stops (starting at Swan), not filling up at any one stop. Very inefficient. Last Princess we stayed at Swan reserve (loved it!) and walked over to the Swan for the bus. Very easy walk.

Return, like everyone said, shares with Beach Club and Boardwalk. Stops at Swan first then Dolphin.

As a $ data point: Last Princess we paid around $530 for a one bedroom suite at Swan reserve. Looks like next Princess weekend the same room will cost above $800.

 

[Herding_Cats]

I've been sitting on mine since the 11 month mark because I was so nervous. Now I'm nervous because I heard BoardWalk had bussing issues last year. It's always something lol.

Yeah we are trying to rent points, and I was pretty sure that registration day would be crazy, so we waited until we for-sure got registered to start looking to book. It's a wasteland now, and we have turned into total resort snobs after renting dvc for 3 trips in a row (not really, but we definitely would rather stay there than at All-Stars.) I'm scrambling like crazy today trying to find people who own at the available resorts and NOT have to do a split stay.

 

[jpeterson]

WHOA. All of the DVC availability for studios for MW went *poof* yesterday.

I'm kinda shocked there was any available at all. I would expect it to be gone at the 11 month mark.

 

[PrincessV]

It's still a little difficult to read the excited posts from people who got what they wanted (envy is an ugly emotion) but it really does help when I read posts like @PrincessV's. So thank you.

Thank you for this. I'm literally in tears reading your post - I am so sorry you weren't able to get in. I, too, am bitter about it all, and struggling to feel good about my registration because dear friends I planned to run with didn't get in.

But I'll share with you what I've shared with them: hope. Charities are a valid option to get in, and I'm watching in real time people's fundraising going really well really quickly. I do think we'll see various races open between now and race week, too, but you'll have to keep an eye on it and be QUICK. It is also possible that late in the game, charities may release bibs without the required fundraising, though with so much interest, those may be few. Lastly, there is the virtual option - though I'll be the first to admit it's not the same at all.

I've been sitting on mine since the 11 month mark because I was so nervous. Now I'm nervous because I heard BoardWalk had bussing issues last year. It's always something lol.

IDK if this helps, or just makes it worse, lol, but EVERY resort has had bus issues at some race in time. BUT, to my knowledge, nobody has ever missed a race entirely due to bus issues.

That said, I refuse to use the buses and will only drive myself to the races. I do not do well with unknowns!