Marathon Weekend 2016

[LSUlakes]

Hmm, I didn't even hear about that. That likely would be a Jet Propulsion Laboratory related announcement, I would guess.

http://www.morningticker.com/2015/11/a-huge-announcement-about-mars-is-coming-thursday-what-is-it/

Here is the story about it.

 

[Kathymford]

I wanted to chime in, although I am not running a full anytime soon, I still want to get better! After reading some of the articles posted earlier, I purposely ran yesterday slower than I would have normally. And my legs are more sore today than after any other 30 minute run! I can see how doing that is just going to help build up the strength in my legs, which ultimately (I hope) will help me become faster, or at least better on the distance?

 

[cavepig]

They did have a jacket in 2015. It's the blue one in this picture (the women's version was lavender - I grabbed one new with tags from eBay about 3 months after the race weekend for $30 ).

Thank you, that's a nice price, not sure if I want to ebay wait though

Just to clarify, but the blue track jacket does have "run, eat, sleep... repeat, repeat, repeat" on the back. I also got the red one in the inaugural year more like a wind-breaker but it only had a small "dopey challenge" emblem on the chest.

Thank you, that's what I'm hoping there's something on the back otherwise it's kind of plain for the prices they go for. That's why I didn't get the Dumbo one, too plain. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

 

[cavepig]

I wanted to chime in, although I am not running a full anytime soon, I still want to get better! After reading some of the articles posted earlier, I purposely ran yesterday slower than I would have normally. And my legs are more sore today than after any other 30 minute run! I can see how doing that is just going to help build up the strength in my legs, which ultimately (I hope) will help me become faster, or at least better on the distance?

From personal experience if you run too slow you can mess up your natural gait so you have to be careful you aren't running oddly trying to go slower. Could be why you are more sore.

 

[Kathymford]

From personal experience if you run too slow you can mess up your natural gait so you have to be careful you aren't running oddly trying to go slower. Could be why you are more sore.

I am pretty slow to begin with, but in the end my avg page was only off by about 20 seconds. But I will watch it, thank you. I was able to run for longer stretches at this pace also.

 

[rteetz]

The Walt Disney World Speedway is for the most part paved with the unpaved parts now getting sod. Sections already have light poles and are getting lines painted. They want this open for the holidays.

 

[Baloo in MI]

This is the coolest thread!!! In the space of 20 minutes I went from reading about the history/future of the marathon world reord, learning that I will get to taste test gels at the expo, benefits to reducing speed in workouts, kinds of cool jackets available at the expo to NASA'a work on Mars! Love it! Hope you all have a good run tomorrow!

 

[BikeFan]

Btw, running or training at that slower pace I think is basically akin to running at a lower heart rate. And this concept of training I have read about and lots of people support so I'll have to stop being pig headed about it.

What kind of weekly mileage are you running? When I'm running lower volume, I tend to run at faster paces, because I have more energy and less cumulative fatigue (naturally). As I ramp up my miles (preparing for a marathon or ultra), my "easy day" paces get a little slower because of the volume. You might want to try the same - increase your weekly mileage (gradually), and see how that affects your paces.

 

[Keels]

The Walt Disney World Speedway is for the most part paved with the unpaved parts now getting sod. Sections already have light poles and are getting lines painted. They want this open for the holidays.

I would say 1/3 is now parking lot and the rest is just (uneven) grass. They looked like they were pretty much done when I went today. The old catch-fence facing the existing entrance to the Villains/Heroes lots is still there, but I expect it to be gone once the new part looks like a real parking lot - likely before I leave Florida for Texas on the 14th.

 

[Z-Knight]

What kind of weekly mileage are you running? When I'm running lower volume, I tend to run at faster paces, because I have more energy and less cumulative fatigue (naturally). As I ramp up my miles (preparing for a marathon or ultra), my "easy day" paces get a little slower because of the volume. You might want to try the same - increase your weekly mileage (gradually), and see how that affects your paces.

Right now i am in the middle of a plan and at about 40 per week and that is slowly ramping up the distance. The pace is the same for the most part for the long runs, but the speed runs are faster now.

2 months ago i was averaging 54 per week. If i did that now I'd collapse

 

[Z-Knight]

btw, Marathon is sold out on the RunDisney site...obviously there are still slots with travel providers, but it seems like today we reached 100% on the progress bar.

 

[JClimacus]

Well, to beat your current half PR, you will need to average 7:57 or better for the race; therefore, an 8:30 for 11 miles would still be 30-35 secs/mi slower than your half marathon race pace. Again, that is a little faster than I would train (I'm usually about 1 min/mi slower than race pace), but it definitely shouldn't kill you.

However, for your long runs for marathon training (i.e. those runs longer than 13 miles), though, I would think you would want to slow down a bit more (maybe in the 9:00-9:15 range at most, but even slower is fine). You and I have similar PRs, and I am usually in the 9:00-9:30 range on my long runs. When I go faster than that, I think it starts becoming detrimental.

I found out one thing last night: The increased training pace isn't hurting my shorter races - I PR'd the 5k by 9 seconds in our weekly fun run, after running 7 miles at sub-9's to get my training in.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I found out one thing last night: The increased training pace isn't hurting my shorter races - I PR'd the 5k by 9 seconds in our weekly fun run, after running 7 miles at sub-9's to get my training in.

And it won't as long as you continue to do one speed workout/week.

Congrats on the PR!

 

[JClimacus]

And it won't as long as you continue to do one speed workout/week.

Congrats on the PR!

Thanks. The real test will be Sunday the 15th when I'm running a half. Five of us from the weekly 5k group will be running it, all with half times in the same ballpark. Some friendly competition is already brewing, it will be a lot of fun.

 

[LSUlakes]

Thanks. The real test will be Sunday the 15th when I'm running a half. Five of us from the weekly 5k group will be running it, all with half times in the same ballpark. Some friendly competition is already brewing, it will be a lot of fun.

Good luck on your half!

 

[roxymama]

This may have already been discussed, but I was thinking about it yesterday after reading a few running trip reports - hi @Ariel484 totally stalking your reports

What is everyone's character picture strategy during their race(s)? And what has worked for those who are race veterans (or not worked.) Any tips or regrets or anything to help a newbie out?
I was thinking maybe I would want to at the very least stop for one picture even if the lines are long...More if the lines are ok. And then try to take some selfies and absolutely want the picture near the golf-ball in Epcot. We are going to Chef Mickey's with the whole family after the race so I know I'm going to get pics with my medal with the fab 4 or 5. I'd regret not doing at least one pic since that's half the fun right, but I fear that in the moment I will give up on the lines.
BTW I'm doing only the 5k this year.

 

[SarahDisney]

What is everyone's character picture strategy during their race(s)? And what has worked for those who are race veterans (or not worked.) Any tips or regrets or anything to help a newbie out?
I was thinking maybe I would want to at the very least stop for one picture even if the lines are long...More if the lines are ok. And then try to take some selfies and absolutely want the picture near the golf-ball in Epcot. We are going to Chef Mickey's with the whole family after the race so I know I'm going to get pics with my medal with the fab 4 or 5. I'd regret not doing at least one pic since that's half the fun right, but I fear that in the moment I will give up on the lines.
BTW I'm doing only the 5k this year.

When I did my 5K last year, my plan going in was to stop for all of the characters. I also had a goal of finishing in under an hour ... and not last.
There were two points where I started to regret it a bit:
1 - Waiting in line for Minnie (first character), everyone passed me - I had started at the beginning of the last corral and quickly passed a lot of people who started before me - and they all passed me while I was waiting in that line.
2 - I waited more than 15 minutes for Mickey (towards the middle) - he left for a break right as I got there and didn't come back out for a while (that I think was an planning fail on rD's part - they should have had another Mickey ready to come back out as soon as one went in).
I finished in 1:10:58 - so well over my goal. I still don't know if I made all the right decisions. But at least I didn't finish last.

This time I will probably stop for all (or most) of the characters in the 5K, but in the 10K I'll likely only stop if the line seems manageable (but my idea of a manageable line is a lot longer than most people's).
The earlier you start, the more manageable the lines should be. Personally, I want to get as many character pictures as I can - even if that means waiting in lots of lines. But I'm also a character fanatic. There are plenty of people who run these races just for the experience of running through Disney and don't stop for characters at all.

My advice: If you're interested in characters, I'd say it's important to know going in that you'll be waiting in lines for the characters. The 5K often has very long lines because people aren't worried about their time. But if you see a character that you want a picture with, definitely stop. You just have to remind yourself that you're there to have fun, not to set a PR, and it's okay to spend some time waiting.

I'm hoping that the people who have run a few more races than I have will also chime in here...

 

[Ariel484]

@roxymama hiiiiiiiii

The 5Ks normally have the longest lines of any of the races, so I try to stop only if the character is rare or if they're in a special outfit. Even with that strategy I didn't get any character pictures at the WDW 5K this year.

ETA: Talking about the 5K because I know that is the race you are signed up for. It's different for the longer races.

 

[PrincessV]

What is everyone's character picture strategy during their race(s)? And what has worked for those who are race veterans (or not worked.) Any tips or regrets or anything to help a newbie out?

Based on past experience, I think my strategy will be to do lots of pic stops in the 10K, but the only ones I really want in the full are a pic in each park, which can just be a quick pull over to the side for a selfie. I'm not really worried about time, but I've found that my body does not enjoy a bunch of stops for pics in a long race; I felt far more beat-up after an epic number of stops (and hence slower overall time) in this year's PHM than after no stops (and close to a PR) in the Jan. half.

 

[roxymama]

Thanks for all the responses so far. That makes sense that more people stop for the 5k and also that there are just less opportunities to stop. I think I still want to feel like I'm running (and not waiting) through Epcot but I still want pics to post on facebook/put in family album to commemorate it. So I think my plan will be probably to try to selfie at the mile markers and in front of anything out of the ordinary that just looks cool. Gonna need to practice my selfie game soon. Hope the neighbors don't mind me taking pics outside of me and random trees. Probably try to get a bunch of pre-race photos especially if I see any of you fine folks. And then bite the bullet and wait in the long lines for one character in the parks....especially if they are in Epcot costuming. Then I can fun-run until my Epcot ball pic towards the end. I'm not concerned about PR-ing...already know that's not my focus...I really want to run this at my easy sight-seeing pace so I don't miss all the fun.

I will say that if I was on a solo-trip, I'd probably just make every single stop since 5k has no sweepers. But the family is along with and they are gonna be chomping at the bit to go to breakfast and get into the Magic Kingdom. They are used to me running 5ks pretty quickly so I've already told them not to expect anything shorter than 45 minutes easily and I doubt I'll be in corral A. Anyone else feel pressure to finish so that family can go about their plans?