Marathon Weekend 2023

[HangWithMerida]

I've found that flying in on Tuesday is beneficial to my stress level. The buffer of a day before the Expo means I'm not stressing over every delay from flight to airport transfer to Expo bus impacting my bib pick up.

Absolutely! I am flying down tuesday as well. Flights departure times always get moved and the expo being a limited window makes arriving on expo day too stressful for me.

 

[HangWithMerida]

As of right now, I'm still on the lookout for a DVC reservation for MW, but I'm not holding out hope.

Between the moderates (POFQ, Caribbean, and Coronado), what would be your choice for someone running Dopey? I have already stayed at Riverside, and as I'm trying to eventually stay at all Disney resorts, I'd like to try something new. I'm leaning toward POFQ for its smaller size but like the option of skyliner at Caribbean. Just worried about being stuck far away.

I have also stayed on both sides of PO for race weekends and really liked them both but riverside is my fav. I have only stayed at CB and CS for non race trips. I liked both but not as much as PO.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Now that we are past the first stressful part of race weekend (the registering, or not registering) how does everyone feel about flight prices? I know that a few of the carriers haven't released those dates yet (SW, Spirit, Allegiant, etc) but everyone else is currently "high" according to google flights. I know that's somewhat being fueled by the goings on in Russia/Ukraine, but do we think that they will stabilize and come back down to "normal" prices once some of the discount carriers hit the market? (It's also worth noting that Frontier's calendar is out and they are more than Delta and American at this point.)

If I booked today, I could save over $200 by flying down on Wednesday instead of Tuesday (plus a day of rental car AND a night of lodging), but I want to be camped out at the expo Wednesday morning and nothing lands before 10am that I'm finding.

When I saw putin starting to go to war with Ukraine I booked my airline tickets with points with United. (I am a History teacher so I knew it would make oil prices go up, also filled up all of cars with gas too.) United or Southwest are the two we normally choose from since we fly out of Denver and they are huge here. Went with United so I book early though instead of SW. So flights are already booked, but I thought it was not that risky for me to do since I was just doing marathon and looking at historical data marathon is open forever... not like this craziness that happened this year. If I knew it was going to be that risky I would have maybe not book the airplane that early.

 

[thej]

Well... I managed to get registered for the 10k virtual; and wife and I are registered for the 5k virtual. Guess we'll be doing it on our own around Crescent lake since we are booked at the Dolphin. Sad to not able to experience the whole event this year, but happy we still get to participate in some way.

 

[Naomeri]

Well... I managed to get registered for the 10k virtual; and wife and I are registered for the 5k virtual. Guess we'll be doing it on our own around Crescent lake since we are booked at the Dolphin. Sad to not able to experience the whole event this year, but happy we still get to participate in some way.

At least you get the bling and the Disney trip. And you get to skip the early early morning wake-ups!!

 

[accm]

I'm trying not to think about flights right now. Every time I look I want to cry. We'll be coming from Brazil, and I'm not sure if flights are back to what they were precovid, but the options are terrible and expensive. I'm currently looking at $1500pp one way for 4 people I'm hoping they add more direct flights from Brazil, because the slightly less expensive flights (still expensive) would be a nightmare with two young kids.

 

[ColoradoLime]

Anyone doing a Charity Bib with the LLS Team in Training? Thinking of signing up but wanted to join an existing team if I can find one.

 

[marty3d]

I originally was gonna book for Wednesday to save money but then I realized I live in Toronto and the last thing I'd need is a snowstorm on Wednesday.

You're making me reconsider flying in Wednesday. I'd forgotten how bad the weather was this year and the stress of levels that cause - and I flew in Sunday. Maybe I'll book off-site on Tuesday night and change hotels Wednesday.

 

[Let's Get Kronk]

This past MW I was originally registered for the marathon only (through regular registration) then grabbed a Dopey bib through charity. rD refunded me minus fees to my CC when I sent them my new confirmation # with the charity.

Regarding your other question about experience running with charity - for me it was a little underwhelming. Minimal contact from the organization before and no contact MW or after. But I was grateful I was able to get a Dopey bib and not have any commitments aside from fundraising. In the future if I ran for charity again I’d find a org that was personally meaningful.

This has at least given me some hope that I can get a refund for my Goofy bib! Thank you!

Related question: did you get a runDisney confirmation # from the charity, or are you referring to your confirmation # with the charity? I haven't done this before and I have not really heard anything from the charity yet, so I am unsure how all of this works. I would really love to see the Dopey registration on my runDisney account, because right now I still don't feel like it's real. Lol.

I am also open to any creative fundraising ideas people in this group might have. I set a goal of $6000 (requirement was $5500 but I wanted something more round), and managed to get $700 from FB friends yesterday and this morning. I am going to have to think of other sources though because I doubt I have too many more friends on social media who will donate, and I need to find a larger crowd to pull from.

 

[Let's Get Kronk]

Anyone doing a Charity Bib with the LLS Team in Training? Thinking of signing up but wanted to join an existing team if I can find one.

I am doing Dopey with the LLS Team in Training, but I am doing it as an individual.

 

[kirstie101]

As of right now, I'm still on the lookout for a DVC reservation for MW, but I'm not holding out hope.

Between the moderates (POFQ, Caribbean, and Coronado), what would be your choice for someone running Dopey? I have already stayed at Riverside, and as I'm trying to eventually stay at all Disney resorts, I'd like to try something new. I'm leaning toward POFQ for its smaller size but like the option of skyliner at Caribbean. Just worried about being stuck far away.

I'm in the same boat. I fly southwest exclusively unless it's a destination they just don't fly to. I'm still waiting to book my return flight from Wine & Dine!

I also am planning on coming in on Tuesday as well for much the same reason. I just don't want to stress about it. I usually try to grab the first flight out in the morning too to give me room for delays.

I registered for the full during regular registration and picked up the 10k through a charity. I would prefer to fly out Wednesday night on the redeye but that limits my flight choices. Flying in Wednesday during the day means another hotel night and day off work but it means more flight choices and I can fly southwest. In 2020 I booked my flight as soon as I registered and the airline changed it twice and I really don’t want to deal with that so I’ll probably just wait and keep my eye on things.

Settled on POFQ for this trip. I liked the idea of a smaller resort and one bus stop. Plus beignets. For Dopey I was at Pop most of my stay and loved it for the races. I switched to CSR for the last night (free upgrade) and know I would not have been happy there for the whole race week. It was just soooo big and to me felt very much like a convention hotel. That being said the rooms were very nice!

 

[Kerry1957]

So this is new.

View attachment 664167

"When registration opens, this page will refresh and you will be placed in our virtual queue in random order, regardless of how early you joined this page. Those who enter after booking begins will be placed in numerical order."

Looks like they learned a CYA lesson on Tuesday.

This is indeed a different process/algorithm and will change the strategy. In the past (earlier than yesterday) it seemed to make sense to start a couple of browser windows before registration started, and then a couple right after registration started. Now the "afters" will be behind all of the "befores" so it will make sense to start all of the browser windows early. Random order will also incent people to open even more windows up. We sorta laughed at 12 this week, but that may be a minimum for a lot of us during the next go around.

 

[mlynde78]

Question for the experts!

I ran my first marathon at the 2022 MW. With limited time off it was quite a whirlwind (flew in Saturday morning, ran the marathon Sunday morning, flew home Sunday night and went to work Monday morning). Thanks to @DopeyBadger 's training plan I felt great throughout the entire race and into the next days. My coworkers were surprised that I was (a) at work the day after running the marathon and (b) not limping through the day. My next races were all three Princess and Springtime Surprise races.

My next goals were Dopey 2023 and eventually trying a non-Disney marathon (no specific date in mind). My original thought was the MCM. I still want to go for it at some point in the future, but I was just reminded that there's a local marathon and I think I'd like to attempt that one first.

The race is late October. Am I crazy to consider running that this October, followed by Dopey in January? As a new marathon runner (I still can't believe I can say that!) is it a bad idea? Should I focus on Dopey instead and strive for the local marathon in 2023?

I was figuring I could use the same training plan again for the October race, and then some form of a continuation plan to lead me to Dopey. My plan didn't require me to run the full marathon distance in training, but I know others do so it didn't seem too far fetched. Thoughts? Be brutally honest, I can take it lol.

(TL;DR Is it a bad idea to run my 2nd marathon in October followed by my first Dopey in January?)

I'm running NYC in November followed by Dopey. I have run 10 pervious marathons but never so close together. So, I still have some question marks.

Based on your previous experience, it sounds like you have the ability. Train safe and train smart.

The one concern to consider (which I certainly have myself) is the possibility of injury. There is a risk of injury during the October marathon or during training that could limit your ability to run in January.

The good news though, if you choose to run both, you should have built up a really good base by the time you run October. That should give you an opportunity to take it easy for a couple weeks following the first and continue a modified training November and December. I plan on taking a least one week off after NYC before prepping for Dopey.

 

[FFigawi]

Now that we are past the first stressful part of race weekend (the registering, or not registering) how does everyone feel about flight prices?

Emirates hasn’t changed their prices in months. No stress here.

 

[RunWI1265]

This has at least given me some hope that I can get a refund for my Goofy bib! Thank you!

Related question: did you get a runDisney confirmation # from the charity, or are you referring to your confirmation # with the charity? I haven't done this before and I have not really heard anything from the charity yet, so I am unsure how all of this works. I would really love to see the Dopey registration on my runDisney account, because right now I still don't feel like it's real. Lol.

I am also open to any creative fundraising ideas people in this group might have. I set a goal of $6000 (requirement was $5500 but I wanted something more round), and managed to get $700 from FB friends yesterday and this morning. I am going to have to think of other sources though because I doubt I have too many more friends on social media who will donate, and I need to find a larger crowd to pull from.

I went back through my email and it was the rD confirmation number. The organization I ran with had me register directly through rD, I think through a special link tied to their group. So I got an actual rD confirmation number. That might be different if your org doesn't have you register through rD? I'm not positive. I had to buy my own bib + fundraise. I think some groups you don't have to buy the bib, just commit and possible owe the difference if there is a minimum. So in that case you might not have an rD confirmation number and just a confirmation via the org?? If you have a fundraising page with $$ on it already I think it's safe to say you're in.

I'm terrible at trying to get donations so I don't have any advice. It's actually my nightmare to have to ask people (major introvert and blessed with anxiety ) so hopefully other people have some good ideas. One thing I did do was offer the option of people donating to our local chapter, thinking they may be more inclined to donate if their money was staying local to them, and I matched the donation to my fundraiser. I had a good amount of people do that.

 

[steph0808]

I can't remember if you own or not, but I was able to find a confirmed SS rental on fb yesterday for almost our entire trip. And she posted another one for Friday-Sunday later yesterday as well. So there are a few out there if you're looking at renting points.

And can I just say.....the broker sites were asking like....$23-26/pt for OKW and SS??

No DVC here but I've rented for many marathon weekends! I found a VGF reservation that is perfect for our trip, but it is listed at like $35/point!!! And I found a BRV one but it was already rented!

I'd rather do a monorail if I do DVC. Maybe AKV. I'll probably book a regular room and keep searching DVC.

 

[pluto377]

See ya there!

Settled on POFQ for this trip. I liked the idea of a smaller resort and one bus stop. Plus beignets. For Dopey I was at Pop most of my stay and loved it for the races. I switched to CSR for the last night (free upgrade) and know I would not have been happy there for the whole race week. It was just soooo big and to me felt very much like a convention hotel. That being said the rooms were very nice!

landed on POFQ for MW...only in for the marathon as of now, but booked to cover dopey. holding out some hope that I will be able to upgrade to dopey between now and then. if not, have a nice area to run at POFQ and Riverside leading up to Sunday and perhaps I will press the gas on race day...gotta look at the bright side of things

Meet up for beignets?

As for flights, I only fly SW because I have enough pts to go free. I'm planning on Wednesday, but I'll see what the schedule looks like. Two more months to wait...

 

[Livelovedance]

This has at least given me some hope that I can get a refund for my Goofy bib! Thank you!

Related question: did you get a runDisney confirmation # from the charity, or are you referring to your confirmation # with the charity? I haven't done this before and I have not really heard anything from the charity yet, so I am unsure how all of this works. I would really love to see the Dopey registration on my runDisney account, because right now I still don't feel like it's real. Lol.

When I ran PW the charity I ran for set dates to meet specific fundraising amounts. Once you reached 50% they emailed you a link to register through runDisney. I think they sent them in groups. I know mine came a few days before the POT deadline and the deadline to have your name printed on your bib because they mentioned it in the email and suggested registering right away because of it. I wonder if your charity has a FB group or website explaining their process.

 

[Livelovedance]

I’m DVC also and would’ve preferred a monorail resort, but my home resort is CCV and I know there is very little/no chance of switching by the time the 7 month window rolls around. I love CCV, especially around the holidays, but the monorail loop would’ve just been a little more convenient.

I’m a SW fan as well, solely because I use points to fly, but the amount of direct flights has been incredibly limited since covid. I’m hoping to fly Tuesday evening after work, so I can get to the expo early (probably renting a car) Wednesday morning with limited issues. This will probably mean a nondirect flight though, which makes me a little nervous at that time of year…

 

[kristenabelle]

I’m DVC also and would’ve preferred a monorail resort, but my home resort is CCV and I know there is very little/no chance of switching by the time the 7 month window rolls around. I love CCV, especially around the holidays, but the monorail loop would’ve just been a little more convenient.

I have my res split into two parts, in the very slim chance I'm able to modify my BWV for a split stay near MK at the back half of my trip (post-races). If not, I'll just combine them. Sidenote, stayed at CCV once and loved it - awesome home resort!