Disney Marathons

[lovetotraveltx]

My daughter is wanting to do the Princess 1/2 marathon next February. Have to go to health fair Saturday, day before Sunday's race. Those that have done disney's races, when have you arrived? Did you get to WDW a couple of days before race. Or, close to race and then enjoyed the parks, etc., later??

Thank you!

 

[runner_princess]

I like to arrive two days before- get settled in, do some park touring, then enjoy the expo the day before. I try to keep the bulk of my trip after the race though.
Not related to your question, but your daughter should join one of the Princess Half Marathon training facebook groups - great people!

 

[Luv2Run]

If she's just doing the half marathon and not planning on picking up race-specific merchandise at the Expo, then she should plan to arrive early on Saturday at the very latest to allow for any transportation hiccups. I mentioned her skipping race-specific merch since it's typically pretty slim-pickings by that day (think only XS or XL size tshirts, that sort of thing).

In the past, when I've stuck to running just the half marathon, then I try to arrive on Friday night, then have Saturday as my Expo day, then early to bed on Saturday night. Now that I'm running all of the races, though, arrival & Expo day is Thursday before the races on Friday/Saturday/Sunday.

ETA: I also created the 2016 Princess Half Marathon thread in the W.I.S.H. Events/Competitions forum here: http://www.disboards.com/threads/official-2016-princess-half-marathon-thread.3389091/

 

[Jewel3k]

We arrived on Friday morning this year and stayed until Monday afternoon. We were able to pick up our stuff at the expo Friday afternoon. It wasn't overly crowded when we were there. We headed to Downtown Disney for the rest of the day. We went to the EMH hours at MK on Saturday and headed back to the hotel early. Thanks to the early wake up on Saturday going to be at 8-9 PM wasn't to hard. We also were able to hit everything we wanted to do at MK except for the night time entertainment. We went to EPCOT after the race on Sunday. We were tired, but managed to enjoy a leisurely pace through the park. We rode everything we wanted, but Test Track. We had the time to wait in line, but had been up about 18 hours at that point. We called it a night skipping Illuminations. I think some of our party could have visited HS for a half day on Monday before our 4:50PM pick up by the Magic Express, but some were to tired. We enjoyed ourselves, but were unable to see any of the night time entertainment.

 

[jbish]

I did the PHM in 2014 and arrived mid-day Friday (I didn't have a lot of vacation days available to me so this was the earliest I could get down there) - depending on where you are coming from, weather is always a factor with travel, so a Saturday arrival is risky, in my opinion. I went to the expo Friday afternoon and did Pasta in the Park that evening. We had a leisurely day on Saturday (no parks for us that trip) and we flew out Sunday evening - so a whirlwind trip just for the half. I highly recommend the thread that Luv2Run linked to above - I loved following that thread throughout my training.

If/when I ever do another Disney race, I'd like to turn it into a longer trip and I would probably do the park visits after the race. Good luck to your daughter!