Marathon Weekend 2017!

[lhermiston]

Thanks everyone, this is helpful. My qualifying pace was 9:38/mi, so hopefully I'll be in one of the earlier corrals. My power walk is about 15 min/mi.

Are you cross training at all? Swimming, biking?

 

[DopeyBadger]

Thanks everyone, this is helpful. My qualifying pace was 9:38/mi, so hopefully I'll be in one of the earlier corrals. My power walk is about 15 min/mi.

So unofficially (because the corrals aren't out yet) a 9:38 min/mile would probably (no guarantees because year to year doesn't have to be equal) put you in corral E for the half. If they maintain the same starting sequence as year's prior then your estimated start time would be 5:44am. The balloon ladies corral (P) is estimated to start at 6:35am. They take 3.5 hours (16:00 min/mile) which means they'll finish around 10:05am. That gives you 4 hours 21 minutes to finish (10:05am - 5:44am) which would be a 19:55 min/mile based on your starting corral. This assumes you maintain this pace throughout and never fall behind it because of the sweep points. Hence, you couldn't start with a 25:00 min/mile and then speed up to a 17:00 min/mile because you might fall behind them sooner than the finish line. Once the official corrals come out, we'll have an even more accurate answer.

 

[WhereInFlorida]

I watched a video of a woman on youtube who walked the wine and dine half in a boot. She started in corral C though so she had a lot of time.

I understand this is just the way that placement in the corrals work but it does suck for the thousands of runners properly placed to have to navigate around someone who knowingly starts in a corral much faster than they can go. Dropping back is allowed.

 

[Ariel484]

@singastory what does your ortho think about potentially run/walking the half? I hope there is no concern for long-term damage.

 

[rteetz]

I understand this is just the way that placement in the corrals work but it does suck for the thousands of runners properly placed to have to navigate around someone who knowingly starts in a corral much faster than they can go. Dropping back is allowed.

She was the last one to start in that corral so its not like she started from the front but I understand. She is someone who runs most of the runDisney races and happened to have an injury in which of course with no deferral she didn't want to lose out.

 

[ZellyB]

@singastory I'm so sorry about your injury. I completely understand still wanting to do the race and it would seem that you could maybe do it at a slower than usual pace, but please be sure you check with your doctor. No individual race is worth a long-term injury. I hope you get some good news on doing the race after some rest and healing.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I understand this is just the way that placement in the corrals work but it does suck for the thousands of runners properly placed to have to navigate around someone who knowingly starts in a corral much faster than they can go. Dropping back is allowed.

Totally disagree. You pay your money and qualify for corral C, then get hurt, you deserve to start in C - even if you have to walk in a boot. If going around one person is the worst thing that happens to a person in a 13 mile race, that race went pretty well.

Drop back with a boot and risk getting swept? I wouldn't do it.

 

[lhermiston]

Totally disagree. You pay your money and qualify for corral C, then get hurt, you deserve to start in C - even if you have to walk in a boot. If going around one person is the worst thing that happens to a person in a 13 mile race, that race went pretty well.

Drop back with a boot and risk getting swept? I wouldn't do it.

My thoughts exactly. If I were in her shoes, I know I would use every competitive advantage available.

 

[taffy]

My thoughts exactly. If I were in her shoes, I know I would use every competitive advantage available.

Whilst I see peoples point about qualifying and deserving to stay in that coral. The bigger issue is safety and the number one reason behind coral placement especially if you are in one of the very front corals. Especially at disney it has been a huge problem. We have slow runners complaining about people knocking them over and people running complaining about slow runners blocking the way. We will never solve the problem but if people are responsible and try and self place better then hopefully we can avoid any accidents. At the lightside last year I know of a few cases of people being knocked over and injuring themselves . I think the frustration comes from some issues with what the disney races are all about with photo stops that many slow runners want to enjoy so try and find ways to get in earlier corals so they get to have some photo ops before they close.

Hopefully you can make it work for you whatever you decide. And goodluck with the recovery.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

The bigger issue is safety...

rD races have thousands of people passing other people throughout the course because of the character stops. I caught myself in my first rD marathon doing exactly that. My qualifying time put me in a very early corral and I was running 8 minute miles. But after the third or fourth character stop I was surrounded by runners who were running 10 minute miles. By the time I got the the WWoS complex, I was surrounded by people running 12 minute miles. So, I had to slow down - way down. For a while I tried running at my pace by running a lot on the grass, but after a while I realized that I might hurt myself so I just slowed down and had fun with whoever was around me.

My point - the person in a boot was only one of many thousands of people getting passed constantly by folks who stop to get their picture taken and then start running again at their regular pace, a pace that is much faster than the people that they find themselves mixed with later in the course.

At other events, the person with the boot might present an anomaly and a risk. At a rD event, they are not - they are just another person on the course moving at their own pace while faster folks navigate around them.

 

[Ariel484]

Pretty sure I passed the person in the boot at one point - she was way off to the side and not in the way at all.

 

[camaker]

Whilst I see peoples point about qualifying and deserving to stay in that coral. The bigger issue is safety and the number one reason behind coral placement especially if you are in one of the very front corals. Especially at disney it has been a huge problem. We have slow runners complaining about people knocking them over and people running complaining about slow runners blocking the way. We will never solve the problem but if people are responsible and try and self place better then hopefully we can avoid any accidents. At the lightside last year I know of a few cases of people being knocked over and injuring themselves . I think the frustration comes from some issues with what the disney races are all about with photo stops that many slow runners want to enjoy so try and find ways to get in earlier corals so they get to have some photo ops before they close.

Hopefully you can make it work for you whatever you decide. And goodluck with the recovery.

I find the safety argument that gets brought out for the corrals to be overblown. Somehow local races manage to release several thousand runners at once with no corralling, often with multiple race distances with their different associated paces going out all at once without systemic issues. Runners work it out until the crowding eases. The marathon I just ran recently had a mass start of 3-4,000 mixed between 10k, half and full runners with no issues that I saw beyond the initial crowding.

The front corrals at Disney races are smaller (often much smaller) than the back corrals where the majority of the fast/slow runner issues seem to be clustered. If someone is not up to the full average pace of the corral, simply starting at the back of the corral and letting the faster runners leave them behind mitigates the concerns. With the delay between corral releases, the following corral will have had time to spread out before catching up with the person and a solo runner between corral groups poses no course blockage concerns.

The other problem with the safety argument is that it ignores the difference in racing strategies and assumes all runners in an ideally-paced corral will run at similar paces throughout. It completely ignores the differences between even pacers, time bankers, negative splitters and run/walkers, all of whom have different paces at the start of a race, especially the run/walkers who would alternate between dramatically faster and dramatically slower paces to meet their ideal average pace.

Finally, in the interest of full disclosure, I was one of the "safety hazards" at last year's WDWMW. I started in corrals B, C & E based on a proof of time established before I tore a hamstring. I was limited to run/walking about 4:00/mile slower than my corral mates on average. Using the strategy I outlined above and staying to the far right of the course I didn't have any issues blocking or being passed by faster runners. I also passed a tremendous number of runners and played "leapfrog" with countless other run/walkers.

Count me fully in the camp of "you earned the corral placement, use it to your advantage".

 

[UNCBear24]

For this week's question . . .
I'm most looking forward to spending time with my Orlando family. That includes a son, DIL & her parents, brother, SIL, nephew & his family, and a niece & her family. That totals 17 great relatives! Should be an awesome 11 days!!

 

[Wendy98]

What's some recent race results that you would believe are indicative of your current fitness level? With that I could make a suggestion on long run pace.

In the end though, finishing a run strong and faster than the beginning is a good thing and should happen on nearly every training run. It's a sign you're doing the training duration and pace your body can handle. The only caveat is to look at this over the long term as well as the short term. Because we don't want to "waste" our race effort on a training run. So let's say you do three 20 mile runs, all with the same intended pace. The 1st is a 9:00, the 2nd a 9:10, the third is a 9:20. This is also a sign of fading even if the run itself wasn't a fade within the run. It's a sign that you aren't fully recovering from week to week, and that come race day you might enter with too much fatigue for optimal performance.

In fact, I intentionally try to run progressive runs on nearly every training run. I want to train my body to accept going slow in the beginning and then progressively get faster. Train the way you want to race. Ideally the best strategy is an even split from beginning to the end. But it's soooo tough to know the correct pace at the beginning of the race, thus I advocate for the negative split because it ensures that you can't start too fast and surpass the Lactate Threshold too soon.

I am a huge believer in progressive runs. I do a 10 mile progressive treadmill run a few times each week in a marathon training cycle. I credit that workout with greatly improving my times.

 

[Tinkerbelle14]

I'm new to this: how long is there between corrals? So once the first corral is released, how long do they wait before they let the next go?

 

[Ariel484]

I'm new to this: how long is there between corrals? So once the first corral is released, how long do they wait before they let the next go?

For the 5K and 10K it's every 5-10 minutes. At Wine & Dine it was every 5 minutes for the 5K, for the 10K it was closer to every 10 minutes.

For the longer races (half marathon, marathon) it's every 2-5 minutes. The earlier Corrals are smaller and leave closer together. The latter Corrals are larger and leave a little further apart.

Also...my phone automatically capitalizes the word "Corral" and I have no idea why.

 

[DopeyBadger]

I'm new to this: how long is there between corrals? So once the first corral is released, how long do they wait before they let the next go?

This isn't perfect, but it's close. Time is time of day.

 

[Keels]

5 and 10 are definitely like corral releases, whereas the half and Full were most certainly more like "waves", if that makes sense. For the 5 and 10, you definitely get "loaded in" to the start area and then there's a definite start.

For the half and full, once your side starts moving, you never really stop - you just hit the start mat and it's off to the race(s).

 

[StarGirl11]

As someone who started in her assigned corral at Tink but with was much faster runners I'll just say if proper running etiquette is in place it's not a problem. I came into Tink off of a horrible surgery/pneumonia recovery. Meaning I was just regaining my speed. As soon as we were clear of the start I made my was as far over to the right hand side as possible keeping pace for as long as I could with the faster runners (about a quarter of a mile) before signaling a walk break. Never had any issues.

Also as someone who has done races with a mass start and it's like 'LOL good luck figuring out where the rest of the people who run at a similar pace to you are'. I'll say this it's a matter of being aware of your surroundings when dealing with a pace group.

On the other hand the worst safety issue I ever experienced wasn't at Tink but actually at last years WDW half where I came in with zero issues. Was at the very front of the J corral and while starting a guy to my left came out at a diaganol nearly colliding with me on the course since I was going straight. 11 months on still have no clue why he did that.

 

[SheHulk]

As someone who started in her assigned corral at Tink but with was much faster runners I'll just say if proper running etiquette is in place it's not a problem. I came into Tink off of a horrible surgery/pneumonia recovery. Meaning I was just regaining my speed. As soon as we were clear of the start I made my was as far over to the right hand side as possible keeping pace for as long as I could with the faster runners (about a quarter of a mile) before signaling a walk break. Never had any issues.

Also as someone who has done races with a mass start and it's like 'LOL good luck figuring out where the rest of the people who run at a similar pace to you are'. I'll say this it's a matter of being aware of your surroundings when dealing with a pace group.

On the other hand the worst safety issue I ever experienced wasn't at Tink but actually at last years WDW half where I came in with zero issues. Was at the very front of the J corral and while starting a guy to my left came out at a diaganol nearly colliding with me on the course since I was going straight. 11 months on still have no clue why he did that.

Was he heading to the right, toward the little woods there? I have noticed lots of people rushing to the woods to pee immediately after the start, in the first mile or so.