There's a Great Big MARATHON Tomorrow: Goofy Challenge/Marathon Weekend '15 FINALLY COMPLETE!

[rteetz]

Woohoo congrats on the half! I think that's my next race. I'd love to run the full but one I'm not 18 and when I do it I want to run dopey. I have never met Abu so that's a good meet and greet.

Love the photo pass pictures at AK. I was really surprised to see the tree as well and picked that one as my favorite from the parks. I have seen Devine and she's interesting and I guess she's not suppose to do anything because she's a vine and not a "human". I have never eaten at Yak and Yeti but it's on my list as well as flight of wonder haven't done that either.

That sucks that your dinosaur FP didn't work out.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Great to take the time to get some PP photos first thing. PLUS, you HAVE to show off those medals at every opportunity.

That's interesting you said that because I felt the exact same way last trip. I had way less focus on AK because of all the construction. The focus will return when the park returns.

I try to see Flights of Wonder from time to time. It's not an every trip thing, but once in a while it's a nice change. The whole tour group angle sure does fit perfectly too.

 

[disneyhorselover]

Woohoo congrats on the half! I think that's my next race. I'd love to run the full but one I'm not 18 and when I do it I want to run dopey. I have never met Abu so that's a good meet and greet.

Love the photo pass pictures at AK. I was really surprised to see the tree as well and picked that one as my favorite from the parks. I have seen Devine and she's interesting and I guess she's not suppose to do anything because she's a vine and not a "human". I have never eaten at Yak and Yeti but it's on my list as well as flight of wonder haven't done that either.

That sucks that your dinosaur FP didn't work out.

Thanks!

I think we are tentatively planning on Dopey in 2018 for the 25th anniversary of the marathon....gotta get those special anniversary medals!

I don't think I've ever seen Abu anywhere (maybe he's at the halloween party) so that picture was a must do.

It was definitely disappointing about Dinosaur since we had really been looking forward to riding it. We could have waited around to see if it opened back up, but it didn't seem worth it at that point since we were exhausted and trying to get some rest before the marathon.

Great to take the time to get some PP photos first thing. PLUS, you HAVE to show off those medals at every opportunity.

That's interesting you said that because I felt the exact same way last trip. I had way less focus on AK because of all the construction. The focus will return when the park returns.

I try to see Flights of Wonder from time to time. It's not an every trip thing, but once in a while it's a nice change. The whole tour group angle sure does fit perfectly too.

I know construction walls are a part of Disney and usually they don't bother me, but I was definitely overwhelmed by them in AK. Hopefully the finished product will be worth it!

The tour group angle was hilarious, though I was surprised at how openly Disney (tongue-in-cheek) makes fun of them.

 

[accountingbabe08]

Great reviews.i like your writing style

 

[emmysmommy]

Hi Emily! Wow! You make running 13 (let's not forget the point one!) miles seem effortless and you look fabulous while doing it. Loved your fun Lilo/Stitch theme, too bad those characters were not out to cheer you on. Boo to people hogging up the photo ops - I don't think that is etiquette anywhere.

Other moments that stuck out while reading through... RnRC single rider date competition. That would have been hilarious to watch.
I've not seen Minnie's meet and greet area at Animation building in HS - it is so perfectly themed. I need to get myself back to WDW post haste so I can check out her new area.
Elsa in Cindy's castle during the 1/2 - that's just wrong!

I'm looking forward to reading the next chapter with your full marathon.

 

[emilyindisney]

Hi Emily! Wow! You make running 13 (let's not forget the point one!) miles seem effortless and you look fabulous while doing it. Loved your fun Lilo/Stitch theme, too bad those characters were not out to cheer you on. Boo to people hogging up the photo ops - I don't think that is etiquette anywhere.

Other moments that stuck out while reading through... RnRC single rider date competition. That would have been hilarious to watch.
I've not seen Minnie's meet and greet area at Animation building in HS - it is so perfectly themed. I need to get myself back to WDW post haste so I can check out her new area.
Elsa in Cindy's castle during the 1/2 - that's just wrong!

I'm looking forward to reading the next chapter with your full marathon.

Thank you so much, Brenda! So excited to see you stop by!! Hope all is well with you and Emmy!

Minnie is tucked in the back of the building and off the beaten path which I think keeps her line kinda of short. It's a cute area and the sparkles on her dress are adorable!! She was the cutest!

 

[emilyindisney]

Great reviews.i like your writing style

Thank you! Glad you're enjoying!

 

[emilyindisney]

Walt Disney World Marathon Part One (Miles 1-5)
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The alarm went off at 3am again, and I pretty much jumped out of bed-it was time to run a marathon! We got dressed quickly, thanks in part to the warmer temps this morning!

I broke another huge rule of running this morning-I wore something new for a race: compression calf sleeves! I was really worried about my calf from yesterday, and I figured worst case I could take them off and tuck them in my belt-and thankfully it worked tremendously well! Just goes to show, there’s a time and place to break all the running rules, haha.

After another quick stop at the food court, we hopped on a bus right around 3:30 again. Following our routine from yesterday, we staked out some spots behind the bleachers and ate our breakfast and tried to relax. My calf was feeling good, but my old foot injury had definitely been aggravated during the half.

Around 4:30, we headed over to the corrals. We found a spot in our corral and sat down for a while and listened to the announcers chat. Before we knew it, Mickey came out to start the race! We inched forward and started shortly after 6, just like yesterday.

Our strategy for this race was to run for a good portion of the miles, then take walk breaks up to the mile markers and through the water stops. We were aiming to get to Everest right at 9am, and carefully planned our pace to make that happen! I was a little nervous-my longest run before the race had been 18 miles, and neither of us had done any back to back long runs. There was no more time to worry though, it was time to run our first marathon!

Miles one and two went by quickly.​

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We wanted to bank a little time for character stops, so we didn’t stop for the picture in front of the MK gates. Since we got mile marker 3 yesterday, today we decided to stop on the other side of the street for this next photo op:

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We ran around the speedway and waved to some runners on the speedway who were about 5 miles ahead of us at that point...yikes!

Next up was a character stop we were pretty excited for, but first, we met these dapper gentlemen in line!

Their costumes were so good! The funniest part was that one of them got to the line, and put his broom up in the air to flag down the others and the group just kept growing and growing.

Now, onto the “real” characters...we had never met this pair before, and I love their movie, so I was pretty excited to see Wreck it Ralph and Vanellope!

After that, we continued on towards the TTC. I didn’t take any pictures here, but the crowd support and signs were great. From there, we headed up past the Contemporary, by mile five and into the Magic Kingdom!​

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[emilyindisney]

Walt Disney World Marathon (Miles 6-10)

We ran down Main St, USA, grinning like idiots the whole time, and look, they left the castle lights on for us again!​

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Once again, we looped through Tomorrowland and Fantasyland and back down through the castle! In Liberty Square we passed this friendly looking gator with no line:​

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Just after we passed the mile 6 marker, I saw a runner’s best friend: real bathrooms with no line! Definitely a benefit to a Disney race! I stood there waiting and took a picture of the crowds running by.

After a quick pit stop in Frontierland, we were on our way out of MK. The princes and princesses were out once again with a long line. On the stretch behind MK, the song of the day was “Best Day of My Life” by American Authors. Once again we were on the stretch coming around the Grand Floridian and the Poly where the same, few character stops were out. We passed on the characters but stopped at each mile marker.​

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Right after the mile eight picture we took a sharp left to head towards the speedway. There was a steep downhill followed by a steep uphill to reach the track which I think we walked all the way through. Once we got up on the speedway I remember thinking how big it was! We ran across the racecar finish line and I sort of wished that was our finish line too, haha! There were lots of cars out so we stopped for a picture (but didn’t ask for a ride.)

On the far side we reached mile nine!​

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Once we got off the speedway we were headed down all backstage roads to Animal Kingdom with the unfortunate, stinky detour of running by the sewage treatment plant. Luckily the stink was manageable because it wasn’t terribly hot this day. Somewhere on this stretch we saw the runDisney tourists (they’re characters who are dressed as half runners, half hokey tourists and shout funny things) and the big villains character stop. We had originally really wanted to get this picture but the line must have been at least ten minutes long so we kept going.

Mile ten was out on this back stretch!

No...it wasn’t foggy...the camera lense is just a little sweaty...oops! We got a split time texted to us at this point that told me we were perfectly on pace to get to Everest!

After mile ten we ran into the Country Bears with a short wait so we figured we’d jump in line since we hadn’t stopped for a character since MK!

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Though I’ve never seen their show and know nothing about them, they were a fun stop!​

 

[Biggie Smalls]

Finally all caught up- great job on the half ladies!!

I was cheering on the stretch at the poly for a while and it was so tight through there, I wonder if that's why they cut out characters?

 

[emilyindisney]

Finally all caught up- great job on the half ladies!!

I was cheering on the stretch at the poly for a while and it was so tight through there, I wonder if that's why they cut out characters?

Thanks for cheering! There were tons of people out in that area which was a nice surprise! The course did seem to get kind of narrow there so maybe you're right!

 

[courtneybelle]

I love that magic shot of Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa! It looks like you had a fun and semi-relaxing day at AK!

See, to me the only thing that sounds worse than running a marathon is waking up at 3 a.m. You guys are some brave souls…

I love that Ralph and Vanellope meet with the candy truck! And meeting Louis is so exciting because he's so rare.

 

[Ariel484]

Woohoo! Marathon time!

Looks like you ladies are off to a great start! Isn't it weird that the character stops are exactly the same for the half and full through the first 8 miles?! And by weird...I mean disappointing. Although I guess it's good for banking time.

Glad the calf sleeves helped! Looking forward to more.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Well, if you're going to run your first marathon, I can't imagine a better place to it. There has to be an extra bit of motivation that comes along with a Disney marathon.

Oh wow, I first thought the Chimney Sweep guys were a meet. Hahah, they're runners!!! That's awesome!

Goodness, the castle lights even look beautiful in the daytme.

Awww Country Bears, but really said there was no Big Al.

 

[Adgie128]

Hi, Emily and Caitlin!

First, congrats on your Goofy status! I'm a runDisney enthusiast and love this report. You're doing a great job taking us through every mile and it has been super fun to follow along with you girls. What is your next race?

Can't wait for the rest and to see you finish the full!

 

[rteetz]

Yay marathon time! I will eventually run that race and hopefully dopey.

It will be interesting to see how they change the course now that the speedway is closing. It will also be sad to see all those classic cars go.

I love the country bears that would definitely be characters I'd stop for.

 

[disneyhorselover]

I love that magic shot of Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa! It looks like you had a fun and semi-relaxing day at AK!

See, to me the only thing that sounds worse than running a marathon is waking up at 3 a.m. You guys are some brave souls…

I love that Ralph and Vanellope meet with the candy truck! And meeting Louis is so exciting because he's so rare.

That magic shot is my favorite! I expected to get Stitch so that was a pleasant surprise.

Having the candy truck there was awesome. And its funny, I almost forgot that Louis is rare, because I've seen him so many times on the race courses? Perhaps a sign that we run disney too much? (JK, no such thing...)

Woohoo! Marathon time!

Looks like you ladies are off to a great start! Isn't it weird that the character stops are exactly the same for the half and full through the first 8 miles?! And by weird...I mean disappointing. Although I guess it's good for banking time.

Glad the calf sleeves helped! Looking forward to more.

Yes it was definitely a weird slightly disappointing deja vu for sure...I'm surprised with the number of challenge runners that they don't try to change it up a little.

Well, if you're going to run your first marathon, I can't imagine a better place to it. There has to be an extra bit of motivation that comes along with a Disney marathon.

Oh wow, I first thought the Chimney Sweep guys were a meet. Hahah, they're runners!!! That's awesome!

Goodness, the castle lights even look beautiful in the daytme.

Awww Country Bears, but really said there was no Big Al.

Yes, the chimney sweep guys were so awesome...I wonder how many pictures they posed for over the course of the race!

Hi, Emily and Caitlin!

First, congrats on your Goofy status! I'm a runDisney enthusiast and love this report. You're doing a great job taking us through every mile and it has been super fun to follow along with you girls. What is your next race?

Can't wait for the rest and to see you finish the full!

Thank you, and welcome!!!! Always glad to have fellow rundisney enthusiasts here and would love to hear your input on any races. Unfortunately, it looks like our next race won't be until Wine and Dine 2016 That's a long time to wait, but we've been lucky enough to do 3 race weekends in the past year so can't complain I guess.

Yay marathon time! I will eventually run that race and hopefully dopey.

It will be interesting to see how they change the course now that the speedway is closing. It will also be sad to see all those classic cars go.

I love the country bears that would definitely be characters I'd stop for.

Yes I definitely wonder what they will do with the course. As much as I didn't love the speedway portion of the course, I'm glad I got to run on it before it closed.

 

[emilyindisney]

Walt Disney World Marathon (Miles 11-15)


Next we reached mile eleven!

I think it was a little after this mile marker that Robin Hood and one of his pals were out. The line was a decent length and I didn’t know this movie that well (aka I didn’t know who all the characters even were) so we kept running.


Finally we were escaping the garbage/sewage areas and seeing some of Disney’s nicer backstage sights- like their horticulture center! Here they grow all the plants and topiaries used on property!

The CMs were standing at the end of the driveway holding signs for one of their coworkers who was running today which I thought was nice! We then headed into backstage AK which felt lengthy compared to the other park’s backstage areas that we saw. There were some Lion King type parade guys (honestly, I’m not even sure what they were) out here waving to runners. There were also a run of animals out greeting runners with their own personalized race bibs pinned to their collars!

The animals were super cute and very cooperative considering all the people running up for pictures...even Disney’s animal cast provides good customer service!


We hit mile twelve a few minutes before we ran by the enclosures that house the safari animals at night!

Finally we were entering the park! We came in to the left of Yak and Yeti and took a left in the Asia direction. Thumper or some other bunny character was greeting here but we didn’t stop-we had a mountain to conquer! Caitlin took another bathroom break before we headed for Expedition Everest!

According to our pictures we got in line at 8:58 AM!

Pretty much all of the line was runners (aside from a few scattered regular park go-ers). The ride was literally a walk/run on. Tons of runners were riding and everyone wanted their EE selfie- us included!

This was probably the most fun I’ve ever had on EE. Everyone on the train was screaming, yelling and cheering the whole time! We were wearing our Magic Bands so it picked up our ride photo automatically!

As fun as conquering Everest was it was time to get down to business because we had another half marathon to run! We ran through Chester and Hester’s and hung a left where we exited AK. We came across mile thirteen and another water stop soon after.

There were lots of people cheering with signs in the AK parking lot which was really nice. Here’s where we saw our favorite sign of the race: BYE FELICIA! So we didn’t actually stop and take a picture but someone had a ‘Bye Felicia’ sign which we thought was hilarious (if this makes no sense to you look up ‘bye felicia’ on urban dictionary.) I just explained this joke to Caitlin last night (after I tried to insult her with it and she had no clue what I was talking about) so this was hilarious timing!

Mickey was out with a safari truck in this area but we didn’t stop for another picture until we hit mile 14 by the overpasses near the parking lot exit.

At this point we were feeling a little tired so we opted for a little nap...courtesy of the local haunted establishment’s grave diggers!

Yikes! (In case you were wondering- getting back off the ground was easier than I was anticipating haha!)

After that hair raising nap, we ran to mile 15.

McDonald’s is to the right at the bottom of the overpass but ain’t nobody got time for a fast food stop right now! (Except for McFlurry John!)​

 

[rteetz]

Only in Disney can you ride a roller coaster in the middle of a marathon. One day I'll run the WDW marathon and hopefully dopey. Can't wait to hear about the rest!

 

[Ariel484]

BYE FELICIA!!

So awesome that you ladies got to ride Everest. I'm insanely jealous!

Can't wait for more.