Disney Marathon 2007?

[tikilyn]

This is such wonderful news for me. Dh had declared the next 3 years non disney years. We had our first trip in Dec of 04 and our second trip in Sept 05 (thanks to free dining).

Anyways Dh is into running and has been doing 5 and 10k runs recently. So one day at work he see's a running mag and see's the Disney Marathon. He comes home and tells me that he want's to do the marathon or maybe the half marathon (don't remember which). So we're going back to Disney in January.

Can anyone tell me how busy it is, and of course what season is the first of January?(hoping for value) I'm thinking about leaving the kids at my parents house and make it an adults trip.

TIA
Sabrina

 

[MouseWorshipin]

I think it is value season at all the resorts. You should contact the marathon people, because they usually get a discount on a big block of rooms. Don't know if they stay in WDW, though.

The parks aren't that busy. I *think* they run through Magic Kingdom. We saw a lot of marathon supporters there. I know they run through Epcot, saw 'em myself.

The half marathon was the day before the full one.

The traffic on marathon day was a big pain in the buttinski.

 

[Deb & Bill]

You are in trouble now. We started with 5K races. Two years ago my husband did the 1/2 marathon. Last year the marathon. A few weeks ago, the Goofy Challenge - 1/2 marathon AND full marathon. We're going to San Diego in June for the San Diego marathon (plus a trip over to DL for a few days afterwards). We've gone to Dallas two times for the White Rock Half Marathon. Husband is signed up for the Little Rock 1/2 marathon in March and the Big D 1/2 marathon in April. We're going to Brenham TX (Yes the home of contented cows and Blue Bell Ice Cream) for the Blue Bell 5K and 10K.

He's talking about Boston and New York and Marine Corps Marathon and Chicago. This is a more expensive addiction than Disney.

 

[CanadianPaco]

DD is so hooked on WDW - me too for that matter! But I needn't to figure a way to get DH to go for a 3rd trip and the marathon did it for me! So my fourth marathon will be the WDW in 2007! I agree though, running and racing are addictions no different that WDW!

 

[tikilyn]

Well at least I know I will get something out of his hobby next year. I'll have to tell him about all the other races Deb & Bill post about. I told him to have fun running and while he's doing that he can be thinking about all the fun I'll be having riding the rides . I definnetly want to book a package with dinning and tickets to the parks. So staying on site is a must for us.

Thanks for feeling me in
Sabrina

 

[Rachael Q]

Hi Tikilyn,

I did the haf marathon in 2005 (when the half and full we still run on the sameday - Sunday)

My DH and I arrived on Friday night and just went to bed (we flew from Vancouver, BC so it took all day!)

We stayed at POP Century - it was value season. We booked our room ourselves, as the rates through Disney world of sports weren't great. We were able to use a room only rate for the public, and we brought passes.

Saturday morning we went to the expo to pick up my bib number and chip - I have forgotten what time we were there - but the expo was quite empty -no line ups. When we came out of the expo, the line up to get in was huge - so try to go earlier in the day.

Saturday afternoon we spent off site - at Bass Outdoor World and Victoria's Secret (we dont have either store in BC)

I had a nap and then met some other Disers at Trails End Buffet for dinner. I had a quick dip in the pool, stopped at everything POP to grab a bagel, banana & peanut butter for the morning and then was in bed by 8.30pm. Didn't really sleep solidly but dozed while DH watched TV.

Sunday morning I was up at 3am to be on the bus. For me it wasn't cold ( it was snowing when we left BC on Friday), so I just wore my running gear. I ate half my bagel and PB and then the banana, and drank a small bottle of water. I was excited and nervous, so I couldn't really eat much. But I had eaten lots of Carbs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

After the race, DH met me at the finish, we went back to POP, ate something (I don't remember what), had an ice bath (filled the tub with about 3inches of cool water, then DH added two buckets of ice) to help with recovery - I did it after all my long runs and it works a treat. Then I had a warm (not hot) shower, followed by a dip in the pool. I napped until about 5pm, and then it was EMH at MGM, so we had dinner at a stall, watched Fantasmic, rode a few rides, and we were back at POP for bed by 10pm.

By Monday I was good to go - I took 2 eight hour tylenol each morning, had a cool bath (or a dip in the pool), and lots of stretching every day and we spent the rest of the week in the parks.

It wasn't busy - the longest we waited for rides was 15 minutes, until the Saturday after the Marathon weekend and then it go real busy, so we stayed out of the park.

Going to the parks for the week after the marathon weekend was better for me, than going the week before. I really enjoyed the parks without having to worry about the upcoming race.

Rachael

 

[tikilyn]

Hi Tikilyn,

I did the haf marathon in 2005 (when the half and full we still run on the sameday - Sunday)

My DH and I arrived on Friday night and just went to bed (we flew from Vancouver, BC so it took all day!)

We stayed at POP Century - it was value season. We booked our room ourselves, as the rates through Disney world of sports weren't great. We were able to use a room only rate for the public, and we brought passes.

Saturday morning we went to the expo to pick up my bib number and chip - I have forgotten what time we were there - but the expo was quite empty -no line ups. When we came out of the expo, the line up to get in was huge - so try to go earlier in the day.

Saturday afternoon we spent off site - at Bass Outdoor World and Victoria's Secret (we dont have either store in BC)

I had a nap and then met some other Disers at Trails End Buffet for dinner. I had a quick dip in the pool, stopped at everything POP to grab a bagel, banana & peanut butter for the morning and then was in bed by 8.30pm. Didn't really sleep solidly but dozed while DH watched TV.

Sunday morning I was up at 3am to be on the bus. For me it wasn't cold ( it was snowing when we left BC on Friday), so I just wore my running gear. I ate half my bagel and PB and then the banana, and drank a small bottle of water. I was excited and nervous, so I couldn't really eat much. But I had eaten lots of Carbs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

After the race, DH met me at the finish, we went back to POP, ate something (I don't remember what), had an ice bath (filled the tub with about 3inches of cool water, then DH added two buckets of ice) to help with recovery - I did it after all my long runs and it works a treat. Then I had a warm (not hot) shower, followed by a dip in the pool. I napped until about 5pm, and then it was EMH at MGM, so we had dinner at a stall, watched Fantasmic, rode a few rides, and we were back at POP for bed by 10pm.

By Monday I was good to go - I took 2 eight hour tylenol each morning, had a cool bath (or a dip in the pool), and lots of stretching every day and we spent the rest of the week in the parks.

It wasn't busy - the longest we waited for rides was 15 minutes, until the Saturday after the Marathon weekend and then it go real busy, so we stayed out of the park.

Going to the parks for the week after the marathon weekend was better for me, than going the week before. I really enjoyed the parks without having to worry about the upcoming race.

Rachael

Great info. Sounds like it's going to be fun for the both of us. Thanks
Sabrina

 

[Deb & Bill]

You will have fun. This year on the morning of the marathon, I dropped my husband and his buddy off at the corrals (not too far from OKW entrance) and his friend's mom and I headed over to Epcot. Had to go the long way around past Disney Studios and the Epcot Resorts to drive into Epcot. We got there about 5:30AM, parked the car and got a good spot to watch the runner. After the guys ran through, we took the monorail over to MK to watch them there. Stood out on Main Street to see them, then headed over to the Castle to catch them running out. We took the monorail back to Epcot, got the car and drove over to AK, and saw my husband running out of AK (we missed her son by about 10 minutes - she was following him on the text messages on her cell phone). We drove back over to Epcot, parked the car again and waited for them to finish. Then, because we were parked so far back at Epcot, the guys took the bus back to OKW and we drove. We didn't think they needed to walk quite so far to get to the car. We picked them up at the Hospitality House and headed back to the villa.

So, don't plan on just sleeping in and doing the attractions. It's really quite fun to watch your runner coming down Main Street at the MK and across the Finish Line.

My son and I did the 5K race on Sat after the 1/2 marathon was over. Our race was supposed to start at 11AM, but didn't start until 11:20AM. We went through the back areas of Epcot, then into Epcot by Spaceship Earth, around the World Showcase and back out of Epcot by Spaceship Earth.

Tell him to check it all out on the Disney Sports site. The 1/2 marathon usually closes pretty quickly, maybe by June or earlier. So tell him to get his registration in. There were 30,000 runners this year, about 15,000 for each race. Out of those 30,000, 10% were trying to finish the Goofy Challenge (both races). The medals are really neat if you finish these races.