Crowds of Marathon Weekend

[ac_roo]

We are thinking about heading to the world, just my hubby and I for a long weekend. What will the crowds be like during the weekend of the marathon. Will it be a zoo? We've been twice...once in early December and last year at the end of January. Both times...we basically walked onto most attractions and the crowds were very minimual. We love it! So, what will the crowds be like? Thanks

 

[wdwrich]

Our experience is that the marathon does not significantly affect crowds. The only effect we noticed was that some of the WDW roads were temporarily closed before and during the race. Go and enjoy!

 

[k_hase]

The race crowd does little to affect overall crowds, there are about 20,000 runners, and not all even stay or go to the World while there. You maybe slowed down by the race in the mid morning hours as the back half of the runners will be in AK and MGM and Epcot while these parks are operating. The median finishing time is over 4 hours and the race starts at 6AM. The greatest lump of runners will be in AK between 8:30 and 9:45, MGM 9:15 to 10:30, and Epcot 9:45 and 11. The race course is open to runners until 1PM I believe, and the course is marked in the parks with yellow cones. You will be asked to avoid walking in the course area, but are free to cross the course when appropriate.

If you are interested the men's winner will cross the finish line at Epcot around 8:20-8:30 and the women's winner will cross around 9.

Its a very cool time to go and you will see the marathon runners all wearing their finishers medals for the rest of the weekend. If you aren't sure, just watch them walk, they look pretty sore and they move pretty slow!

 

[Mom2RinJen]

We have gone Marathon weekend for the past two years and the crowds are low.....very low! Excellent time to go. Although so far low crowd projections have been wrong the past couple weeks. Word may be getting out that those slow times we have come to rely upon are slowing but surely being phased out

 

[mrFDNY]

can someone tell me please when is this?what dates?thank you again

 

[Giagie]

I do believe it is January 7-9, I will be there around this time; leaving the 8th. So I hope the crowds aren't too bad