Marathon Weekend 2019

[jennamfeo]

We have SO MUCH DARK BEER!!!!!!!!!!!!

SAME. When I get home tonight I will post a picture of our "cellar". We just moved into a super small house and had no where to put our beer, so it's on a pot shelf in my 6 year old's room. She was REALLY upset. Hahahaha.

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

My "fear"* is scenario 3: I enter my PoT and select 2:31 - 2:45 and rD decides my PoT doesn't support that range so I go to the back, lol! I may try emailing.
(*I'm not really afraid. I'm just sick of being stuck in the 7,000-10,00 person corral because - rD, are you reading? - MINI WAVES ARE NOT WORKING! )

I wouldn't worry, I submitted a 2:45:15 for Super Heroes and was placed in the corral ahead of those without POT.

 

[run.minnie.miles]

Best advice then is to tuck behind someone whenever you can feel the headwind. Get right up in their draft. The data seems to suggest that even if you have to slow down your pace by 20-30 seconds to follow someone else's draft you will save significant energy once the wind directionally changes. For a theoretical example, if the goal was a 12:00 min/mile, and you maintained goal pace through a headwind (kept up 12), then your body wouldn't perceive it as a 12:00 min/mile anymore. It would be like you were running an 11:30 or 11:40 min/mile. So dropping back to a 12:20-12:30 would be similar to the same 12:00 min/mile pace. That's all to say trust the effort of what feels like goal pace and when possible tuck behind others to draft even if it means letting up a bit. Of course, allow others to draft off you every once in a while as well.

I have nothing to lose with this race, so it will be an experiment for sure. I am hoping that my race adrenaline > wind. And if I crash and burn, I'll have a memory.

Besides tumeric (which I can only take on food so often it's a little odd for me), I'll use ginger and cinnamon in stuff more often, even cayanne pepper. A lot of herbs help like oregano and are easy to add to cooking. Otherwise I'm into spinach and eat it almost daily now. Dark chocolate is supposed to also & eat a square almost daily. Oh and strawberries & blueberries too. It all seems to help I have found.

Oh my gosh I have photo shoots and saw the wind and was like seriously enough already with wind! Hopefully it will be blocked for you somewhat. Spring is being stubborn sadly

I have been (obsessively?) checking the weather for the past week and kept hoping they'd decrease the wind.... Nope. Just the opposite. I assume tomorrow the forecast will be "Wizard of Oz winds. Stay home."

 

[roxymama]

I am probably the only person who doesn't care about corral placement, which makes me wonder SHOULD I care?...

Sorry I said I would lurk away.

I feel like you have to get to disney races and wait around SO MUCH LONGER than any of my local races (even the big Chicago ones.) So for me, being farther up means I don't have to wait as long. There are the character line benefits and more elbow room and running with liked pace people. But the waiting thing is the big thing for me. Once I get to a race I kinda just want to get going!
I honestly think if the wait wasn't so long and character lines didn't exist it would be like all the local races...I don't think that many people really care...beyond personal challenges to see if they can improve year over year which ultimately has more to do with running than the corral letters...it's just an easy representation of growth.

I'm rambling so much today!

 

[Princess KP]

Could you beat your current HM POT right now if you ran a HM? The 10 miler is a little more forgiving because in general the shorter the distance the less required endurance to succeed. In general, that's why runners see better conversions between 5k to 10k, then HM to M. Most have the speed but lack the endurance to match the race equivalency. The more focused the training on improving endurance the closer one gets to race equivalency. So a 10 miler is slightly shorter than a HM, thus you are likely to perform better at it (based on race equivalency). BUT, if you don't feel as if you could beat your HM POT next weekend, then the chances of improving your POT via 10 miler is medium-low. If you feel you're in better shape then when you ran the HM POT (and the course/environment is near equivalent), then I say go for it.

When making these types of decisions, I usually ask myself whether this upcoming race gives me optimal conditions. Am I in good shape relative to past performance? Is the weather ideal? Is the course ideal? If yes, then it is likely to be a good full effort race.

Thanks for the feedback! I definitely feel I am in better shape now than last May when I ran my HM POT. Weather will probably be the same - cold. Course will be new for me. It's on the cart paths of a golf course so that's scaring me a bit. I guess I should just go for it. Even if it doesn't give me a better POT at least I can test my performance before my HM in May.

 

[PrincessV]

I am probably the only person who doesn't care about corral placement, which makes me wonder SHOULD I care?...

Generally speaking, I don't care overmuch about corrals placement. And I really, truly HATE racing for time, so I'm not super motivated to go run a race to use for PoT. And I was perfectly happy entering the fastest finish time that doesn't require PoT and starting in whatever corral that wound up being... until they moved to throwing aaaaaalllllll of the fastest-time-not-needing-PoT people into one huge corral. As I said earlier, it was okay the first time they did that, but it was "only" 6,000 people, they split that into a bunch of waves, and took plenty of time between waves. Since then, they've gone with more people in that corral and fewer waves and it's really not worked as well, in my experience. My actual pace would put me ahead of that corral, so I finally got motivated to race a stupid race for stupid time... and missed the time I needed by less than 30 seconds because I had to stop an re-tie a shoelace. So now I'm trying to care less again, lol!

Why does corral placement matter? Personally, I just find the whole race experience to be more pleasant when I start with people more or less the same speed as me. I find it mentally and physically draining to be "stuck" in a sea of humanity moving slower than my body is used to traveling, and that drain = major fatigue after many miles of it.

 

[SarahDisney]

Why does corral placement matter? Personally, I just find the whole race experience to be more pleasant when I start with people more or less the same speed as me. I find it mentally and physically draining to be "stuck" in a sea of humanity moving slower than my body is used to traveling, and that drain = major fatigue after many miles of it.

+1 this. I got stuck behind slower people at the 10k two years ago, and it was hard.
Since I do run/walk, my run speed is faster than my overall pace, so I will be corralled with continuous runners who, at any given moment probably run slower than I do. For me, moving up a corral means that I'm starting with people whose run pace is a little closer to mine.

I think runner ettiquite also plays a part here, because if people always ensure that there's room for someone to pass it's easier to not get stuck behind people, but that doesn't always happen.

 

[ZellyB]

Corral placement for me is also just about showing improvement year over year by moving up a corral. But, for sure since moving up some, there are decided advantages in shortened waiting around time both before the race starts and character lines.

 

[SheHulk]

Sorry I said I would lurk away.

I feel like you have to get to disney races and wait around SO MUCH LONGER than any of my local races (even the big Chicago ones.) So for me, being farther up means I don't have to wait as long. There are the character line benefits and more elbow room and running with liked pace people. But the waiting thing is the big thing for me. Once I get to a race I kinda just want to get going!
I honestly think if the wait wasn't so long and character lines didn't exist it would be like all the local races...I don't think that many people really care...beyond personal challenges to see if they can improve year over year which ultimately has more to do with running than the corral letters...it's just an easy representation of growth.

I'm rambling so much today!

I like to get as much running done before the sun comes up! Earlier corral = cooler temps

 

[lhermiston]

My biggest concern, re: coral placement is making sure I’m started soon enough to see what I want to see on the course. Specifically, I want to run through MK when it’s still dark and everything is lit up.

Otherwise, I’m pretty confident I’ll run my race regardless of where I start.

 

[cavepig]

For me corral placement is all about running with like paced people, the worst is starting and running right into people moving much slower. When I was sick in '16 I still started in my corral but stayed way in the grass for most the first few miles and anytime I could till I was with like paced folks, as I wasn't giving up my corral. I like the not having to wait as long to start benefit of an earlier corral & for hot races it means cooler temps and no sun longer if it's scorching. I could lie and say character stops don't matter, but they do to me, mostly in the shorter races.

 

[IamTrike]

I am probably the only person who doesn't care about corral placement, which makes me wonder SHOULD I care?...

For me corral placement is about 2 things. Course crowding and Character lines. In the earlier corrals there are a few hundred runners. In the last corral there were 3000 people. When you have 10x the people on the course with you it's a very different experience. Character lines get longer the farther back you are in the corrals. Starting earlier makes it easier to stop for more/all characters.

 

[tidefan]

@DopeyBadger , So, I just ran a HM at 2:28:02 for a POT for next year's marathon, and based on McMillian, I was going to put a 5:12 estimated time. Should I move that to 5:15?

Also, according to last year, would that place me in Corral E?

 

[FlashAM7]

I am probably the only person who doesn't care about corral placement, which makes me wonder SHOULD I care?...

Yes. My experiences from one of the last corrals and one of the first were completely different. Much less crowding and little to no wait for characters. It was night and day.

 

[DopeyBadger]

@DopeyBadger , So, I just ran a HM at 2:28:02 for a POT for next year's marathon, and based on McMillian, I was going to put a 5:12 estimated time. Should I move that to 5:15?

Also, according to last year, would that place me in Corral E?

Based on the 2018 corrals (and if they use the same system again), you are squarely in E (5:00-5:30). The "estimated time" is a drop-down menu at registration (thus selecting a range rather than an actual time) and I can't remember what the ranges are exactly for the marathon. It may be either 5:00-5:30, or 5:00-5:15. Either way, I think it's safe to say you can choose an estimated finish around a drop-down of 5:00-5:15 as there's no reason to believe that isn't around the race equivalency of a 2:28 HM (around a 5:10-5:15).

 

[tidefan]

Based on the 2018 corrals (and if they use the same system again), you are squarely in E (5:00-5:30). The "estimated time" is a drop-down menu at registration (thus selecting a range rather than an actual time) and I can't remember what the ranges are exactly for the marathon. It may be either 5:00-5:30, or 5:00-5:15. Either way, I think it's safe to say you can choose an estimated finish around a drop-down of 5:00-5:15 as there's no reason to believe that isn't around the race equivalency of a 2:28 HM (around a 5:10-5:15).

That would be great! My whole goal for the HM I just ran was to avoid Corral F or higher! (I am assuming that there is a big difference between E and F)...

 

[Keels]

RunDisney uses McMillan + 90 seconds for Challenges, regardless of race combination (19.3 v Goofy v Dopey).

 

[AFwifelife]

I won't have a PoT (most likely) for these upcoming races so I'm planning to get there as early as possible and stake out my spot at the front of the corral. Moving is really going to mess things up for me and I won't be PR ready for a race until September when there aren't many FL or GA races.

 

[DopeyBadger]

RunDisney uses McMillan + 90 seconds for Challenges, regardless of race combination (19.3 v Goofy v Dopey).

That's interesting! So are you saying the pace of marathon predicted by McMillan + 90 sec (like 12:00 predicted and seeded by 13:30)? Or total predicted time + 90 sec (predicted 5:00 and seeded by 5:01:30)? Seems like the latter.

 

[FFigawi]

That's interesting! So are you saying the pace of marathon predicted by McMillan + 90 sec (like 12:00 predicted and seeded by 13:30)? Or total predicted time + 90 sec (predicted 5:00 and seeded by 5:01:30)? Seems like the latter.

I'd imagine it's the former. Seems a bit extreme though.