Marathon Weekend 2022

[Herding_Cats]

If you missed out on a specific distance and still want to run it, charities are starting to release their bibs at-cost (no fund-raising requirement) but I think tomorrow (maybe thursday?) is the last day to register. I've seen DragonMaster, GKTW, and PiFoundation so far.

 

[Mr_Incr3dible]

Will i massively regret *not* wearing a hat/visor for the full? Have sunglasses, but just realized I haven't planned for a visor.

Nearly-hairless me will have a hat for all the races.
My finish time will be over 5 hours, so hat for warmth at race start and hat later for sun protection (plus my el Cheapo sunglasses).
I have had success with tucking baseball hats into the pocket of my running shorts, so a visor should be even easier. Or tuck the headband in your running belt. Or put it on upside down late in the race as a rally hat....
YMMV ;-)

 

[acurls]

For packing: I was planning to wear my vest, not so much for water as for carrying gels, phone, and airpod case. I expect to take about 6 hours to finish, so that amounts to rather a lot of gels to carry otherwise! I also hate having my phone flop around in my shorts pocket, but don't want to hold it for that long. The main downside of the vest, of course, is the photos!

Are there any particular running belts folks would recommend looking into? Are they just about all created equal? (I'm a male, about 205 lumbering, foot-destroying pounds, if that makes any difference.)

Running belt: AMPHIPOD AIRFLOW ENDURANCE™ WAISTPACK - I got it for this training cycle and really like it. Fits my phone, gels, little baggies of stuff and doesn't move!

I'm planning on wearing my vest and belt, which has room for all my gels, phone, money, chapstick, ID, etc. Based on everyone's recommendations, will bring some sunscreen and will pack my sunglasses now so I don't forget them Will stuff a mask in the vest and some hand sanitizer, too!

 

[PrincessV]

I desperately don't want to cover my costume with my vest. I paid too much for the shirts to cover them.

If it's warm-to-hot weather my shorts have 2 pockets, and I have a SPI belt. I *think* I would put my phone in one pocket, a gel in the other. and stuff all the remaining gels/fuels in the SPI belt. As a 6ish hour marathoner, this is going to be quite a few things. Probably a combination of almond butter packets, gu, and possibly a stroopwaffle....although that might be my start corral fuel item.

If it's cold my leggings only have ONE pocket. So the SPI belt will be even more stuffed. I know they make one with gel loops, but I'm pretty hesitant to keep spending money unless there's a super cheap used one on some resell site.

I have a SPI belt... when you have a few free minutes, stuff a bunch of gels in there. Then stuff some more. And a couple more. You will be amazed by just how much can be jammed into the little pouch lol! BUT, and this is key: once you've stuffed it as full as it can go, put it on and jump around... my experience is that if it's too full, it bounces. And I can not stand bouncing. I also have a single-pouch Fitletic belt that doesn't hold as much, but doesn't budge because it's less stretchy. I think much as to do with body shape and tolerance for bouncing, in addition to belt construction/materials, so I strongly recommend doing a trial long before you need to actually use it!

Everyone was talking previously about heat in 2020. Living in the upper Midwest decided I would run my long runs underneath the heat vent on the treadmill (70s with no breeze) to be prepared. Now everyone has me worried about be acclimated to cold temps. Now having some bad PTSD flashbacks of a trail marathon in 6” of snow.

As a Floridian well-acclimated to extreme heat, please allow me to reassure you: when acclimated to hot running, yes, extreme cold feels awful and all the layering is a giant PITA, IMO, but doesn't hurt my performance (beyond needing to stop 5 times to remove layers lol). But extreme heat? Yep, major problem when it comes to performance. Be ready for any type of weather in terms of clothing, but training for warmth will not hurt you if it happens to be cold!

Will i massively regret *not* wearing a hat/visor for the full? Have sunglasses, but just realized I haven't planned for a visor.

Maybe, depending on your sensitivity. I always wear both in the sun because the brim of a hat/visor reduces light in my eyes, but also provides shade for the top half of my face, so I don't need to apply sunscreen up there.

 

[PrincessV]

Oh goody - it's going to be "summer"* for my final 3/5/11/20 Dopey training sim! I've already done a 3/9/18 and a 2/4/10/20... I can back off the mileage on this final 20 if I'm overheating, right?! (I know the answer - I just need to hear it from someone else to make it real lol!) I've already decided I'll aim for time, not distance.

*Summer by most people's standards - high 60s overnight, 80+* by noon. Not FL Summer, which is something else entirely.

 

[sandam1]

I had my first MW stress dream last night. I was spending the day in the parks at Disney (MK, I think) with my best friend (who is coming on this trip), my mother (who isn't coming), my grandmother (who is deceased) and maybe a few other family members. It was later in the evening. All of a sudden, I'm like "what day of the week is today?" and was told "Thursday." And suddenly I'm freaking out that we missed running the 5K that morning and that I messed up a chance at running Dopey by completely forgetting what day of the week it was. AND, to boot, I wasn't going to be able to run the 10K the next morning because it was too late to get to the Expo.

It was disturbing enough that it a) woke me up and b) is still lingering with me hours later. It's getting real, folk!

 

[Herding_Cats]

RACE - 5k
DIS'er name - Herding_Cat's husband (not on the DIS)
Costume/Clothing - will have to figure this out quickly
Bib# - ?
Estimated Pace/Finish/POT from Registration - 8-10min/mi
Club runDisney Platinum? - No
Pre-Race Meet-up? - Probably not
Front, Middle, or Back of starting group - Front?
Early Bird or Late Arriver - early
Expected Race Pace - 10:00 plus pic stops

 

[Edeyore]

Nearly-hairless me will have a hat for all the races.
My finish time will be over 5 hours, so hat for warmth at race start and hat later for sun protection (plus my el Cheapo sunglasses).
I have had success with tucking baseball hats into the pocket of my running shorts, so a visor should be even easier. Or tuck the headband in your running belt. Or put it on upside down late in the race as a rally hat....
YMMV ;-)

Is that a hat or are you just happy to be running today?

 

[sandam1]

I am toying with the idea of signing up for runDisney next year and not doing anything else with Disney. I am thinking of staying over at Universal and spending my time in the parks over there.

This is what I've done for both of my Disney race weekends and it works out fantastically.

After I signed up for my first half marathon, my friend/traveling partner and I talked about doing either Disney/staying off-site or Universal/staying on-site/getting an annual pass. The costs were fairly equal. My friend had the best way of putting it. She said that the goal of the weekend was to finish the half. If we do Disney, I was going to feel the need to "do Disney," jam the time full in order to get our monies worth and basically run myself ragged. That is going to take away from the ultimate goal of finishing the half. However, if we do Universal, the pace can be A LOT more relaxed, we can adjust things on the fly depending on how I feel, and we're staying on-site so we can move independently of each other (i.e. I can go back to the hotel and she can stay at the parks) if need be. Plus our Universal tickets were annual passes so there wasn't as much pressure to "do it all" because we knew that we'd be back. And she was sooooooo right in her assessment. I wound up feeling quite ill after the half (I didn't eat enough post-race) and when we went to the park, I basically parked myself on a bench and people-watched. I never would have let myself do that at Disney because I would have always been thinking "but the tickets cost this much and I only have this FastPass for this night." And this was pre-Genie!

If anyone wants a price comparison, for MW2022, I am paying $204 for a standard room at Royal Pacific for Wednesday thru Friday (AP rate). With this, I get Express Pass for 3 days which I am primarily using to try to minimize my time on my feet. Then we are moving to a family suite at Cabana Bay for $134 per night (again, AP rate) which has a kitchenette and a sitting area, for the rest of our stay. Even adding in a rental car and parking at Universal, the savings are crazy. I'm honestly surprised that there aren't more people that do this.

(Note: I did cave to Disney for the Princess 2020 race and bought tickets to the after-hours event the Monday after the race and LOVED IT. It was just enough taste of Disney to keep me satisfied. But there were extremely low crowds and lots of food and the price was reasonable. It's hard to say that about the current Disney offerings)

 

[Naomeri]

Will i massively regret *not* wearing a hat/visor for the full? Have sunglasses, but just realized I haven't planned for a visor.

I don’t know about regretting it or not, but my grandma got me this great headband/visor from Gone For A Run for St Nicholas Day that can be folded/rolled small enough to fit in a pocket. And the headband part can even be pulled over your ears for warmth if the weather decides to be that way.

 

[HangWithMerida]

I don’t know about regretting it or not, but my grandma got me this great headband/visor from Gone For A Run for St Nicholas Day that can be folded/rolled small enough to fit in a pocket. And the headband part can even be pulled over your ears for warmth if the weather decides to be that way.

I have one of those and I really like it! Super lightweight even in the heat.
Like someone above said, I like visor/hat options so I don't have to put sunblock above my eyes. I am a heavy sweater and no amount of sweat-proof/water-proof will keep sunscreen from running in your eyes!

 

[FFigawi]

Oh goody - it's going to be "summer"* for my final 3/5/11/20 Dopey training sim! I've already done a 3/9/18 and a 2/4/10/20... I can back off the mileage on this final 20 if I'm overheating, right?! (I know the answer - I just need to hear it from someone else to make it real lol!) I've already decided I'll aim for time, not distance.

*Summer by most people's standards - high 60s overnight, 80+* by noon. Not FL Summer, which is something else entirely.

Sounds more like winter to me

 

[kps7795]

Nearly-hairless me will have a hat for all the races.
My finish time will be over 5 hours, so hat for warmth at race start and hat later for sun protection (plus my el Cheapo sunglasses).
I have had success with tucking baseball hats into the pocket of my running shorts, so a visor should be even easier. Or tuck the headband in your running belt. Or put it on upside down late in the race as a rally hat....
YMMV ;-)

Is your estimated finish time taking into account stopping for pictures with characters? I'm trying to figure out when I might finish and it's hard being a first-time runner and wanting to take as many pictures as I can.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Is your estimated finish time taking into account stopping for pictures with characters? I'm trying to figure out when I might finish and it's hard being a first-time runner and wanting to take as many pictures as I can.

This data might be helpful in trying to come up with a ballpark figure (link). This is the starting position of runners (corrals in 2018) vs their actual finish time.



So for instance, runners who had a POT for 4:01-4:30 (which was a 1:24-1:35 10 miler or 1:54-2:08 HM) finished the race at expected time about 20% of the time. And about 50% of runners who had a POT for 4:01-4:30 finished in about 4:30-5:00. So if you consider yourself an average person experiencing the runDisney race, and have other race times of about 5:30 marathon equivalent or less, then you'll finish about 30-60 min slower than your estimated marathon time based on a POT type submission (other personal historical race).

At the extreme end, about 90% of runners in each of the different corrals finished in less than 2 hours compared to their estimate. So for those 4:01-4:30 runners, almost all had finished in 6:00-6:30 or less.

So in value terms, let's say you ran a 2:15 HM recently. That would slot you in the 4:30-5:00 POT bucket in previous races. So if you're average, then assume something like a 5:00-5:30 hour finish. If you're on the extreme end, you'd finish in 6:30-7:00 hours.

The amount of runners who drop back in corrals is minimal in comparison to the whole field, so that part is being ignored in my above analysis.

 

[Mr_Incr3dible]

Somewhere I have a similar running belt that I really like, but can't find it after moving, so I replaced it with this Nathan belt. The main pouch is just big enough for my cell phone in its case, and the smaller pocket can hold a key, cash, license, etc. After putting the belt on, I turn it around so that it rests in the small of my back and it sits there without bouncing around. I've worn it for a couple of 10Ks and didn't even know it was there. I'll probably tuck a couple of tylenols in there for the full, but otherwise the bare minimum (don't forget some cash for post-race massages. OMG, will they be doing that or not?!). There are people handing out food and water along the course, so unless I tuck a packet of goo in, I won't carry anything else. Maybe some gum or Mentos in my shorts pocket. I can get 3-4 miles out of a single Mentos. Sunglasses will probably hang from my collar, or maybe I'll hang them from one side of the belt. TBD.

 

[Mr_Incr3dible]

Is your estimated finish time taking into account stopping for pictures with characters? I'm trying to figure out when I might finish and it's hard being a first-time runner and wanting to take as many pictures as I can.

I'm an engineer and I like numbers, but DopeyBadger has me beat for compiling empiricle data and numbers.
That said.....When I did the half, it was right around 2.5 hours and that was with a few photo stops. Alice and the Hatter were just walking out to the teacups and I got that picture with no waiting. Buzz Lightyear took just a few minutes. Cinderella and the whole castle gang took a few minutes of waiting. My longest wait was for the all the Pirates of the Caribbean guys and the boat backstage. I think I waited a few minutes on that. For the full, I don't remember a ton of photo stops, but it looks like I did a few, and again, they were short stops.
I would like to do more photos this time around, but I still don't know if there is anyone I want/need a picture with so badly that I'll wait more than 5 or 6 minutes. If I remember to do so, I might hop off the course long enough to ride Rockin' Roller Coaster if I beg my way to the front. (Mile 22 split: 2.5 minutes!)
So at this point, I may have a half closer to 3 hours, and the full will probably be closer to 6, maybe 6.5 if I wind up in any Goof Troop type shenanigans.
I had pondered going for a PR on the 5K, but after Sunday's 6 mile run, I think I'll just pace myself for all 4 races, take pictures, have fun, and save the PRs for local races.

 

[opusone]

If I remember to do so, I might hop off the course long enough to ride Rockin' Roller Coaster if I beg my way to the front. (Mile 22 split: 2.5 minutes!)

...and a personal best for fastest acceleration!

 

[kps7795]

I'm an engineer and I like numbers, but DopeyBadger has me beat for compiling empiricle data and numbers.
That said.....When I did the half, it was right around 2.5 hours and that was with a few photo stops. Alice and the Hatter were just walking out to the teacups and I got that picture with no waiting. Buzz Lightyear took just a few minutes. Cinderella and the whole castle gang took a few minutes of waiting. My longest wait was for the all the Pirates of the Caribbean guys and the boat backstage. I think I waited a few minutes on that. For the full, I don't remember a ton of photo stops, but it looks like I did a few, and again, they were short stops.
I would like to do more photos this time around, but I still don't know if there is anyone I want/need a picture with so badly that I'll wait more than 5 or 6 minutes. If I remember to do so, I might hop off the course long enough to ride Rockin' Roller Coaster if I beg my way to the front. (Mile 22 split: 2.5 minutes!)
So at this point, I may have a half closer to 3 hours, and the full will probably be closer to 6, maybe 6.5 if I wind up in any Goof Troop type shenanigans.
I had pondered going for a PR on the 5K, but after Sunday's 6 mile run, I think I'll just pace myself for all 4 races, take pictures, have fun, and save the PRs for local races.

This is exactly my attitude. I'm going to start training hard core after the marathon for a PB in a half marathon in April. For now, I want as many pictures as I can get. For me, I'm excited about picture opportunities that I have not seen elsewhere like the grave diggers.

 

[Herding_Cats]

I have a SPI belt... when you have a few free minutes, stuff a bunch of gels in there. Then stuff some more. And a couple more. You will be amazed by just how much can be jammed into the little pouch lol! BUT, and this is key: once you've stuffed it as full as it can go, put it on and jump around... my experience is that if it's too full, it bounces. And I can not stand bouncing.

I have used one we have quite a few times for runs where I practiced my nutrition strategy and as long as I get it tight enough I don’t have problems with my phone bouncing. I’m wondering if it would be easier (less chance of stuff falling out everywhere) if I put my gels in something like a bar soap travel box and put THAT in the spi belt. Those are only $1 each at the store which is a much less expensive experiment than another belt at this point.

 

[Mr_Incr3dible]

For me, no goo or gels packs for the 5, 10, or the half. Maybe a few jelly beans in the half. Which leaves just the full.
I totally agree with not wanting to fumble in a spi belt and have everything wind up on the ground. OTOH, by the time I need food in the full, I'm going to have plenty of walk breaks where I can (literally) slow down or even stop a second while accessing stuff. If I'm going to stop for pictures, it is a false economy to worry 30 seconds or a minute to fish out a gel pack. And with using the food being handed out last time, I still had my goo in my bag at the end of the race.