I've never been to Disney world, but just booked for marathon weekend at pop thru a
travel agent for dopey. Crossing my fingers marathon weekend happens, but I may keep the reservation either way. I'm more intimidated by figuring out the planning then the multiple races in the same weekend, which I've also never done!
Folks on this board can help you with both planning and the joy of running multiple races. Some common words of wisdom I've seen around here:
- If you've trained up to be able to run a marathon, you can do Dopey (assuming good health)
- Bring multiple pairs of shoes (I don't necessarily subscribe to this advice, but many around here do)
- The hardest part about Dopey isn't the miles, it's getting up early each morning
Can all of you wonderfully experienced runners talk to me about SOLO rD trips? Sil and I just got back from our “princess weekend” trip and I could seriously take the money she’s paying me for her half of the trip and pay for most of a registration and room reservation. But I would 90% likely be going by myself (well, I would take the 2 year old and drop her at grandma and grandpa’s since they are about 2 hours from Orlando during the winter.)
Marathon day will be ON my birthday if they have in person races next year and that seems like a “well you obviously have to do that!” coincidence.
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@camaker, I've done Marathon Weekend as a family trip (Dopey 2019) and a solo trip (Goofy Challenge + 10K). In my experience, a family runDisney trip involves having one leg in two worlds: the family vacation world and the running world. Can they co-exist? Totally. But it takes some juggling. In 2019, I was up at 2-2:30, ran my races, came back to the hotel, showered and then barnstormed the parks with my family. By the end of the week, I was beat, but I don't regret a second of it. I had a blast.
With my solo trip, everything - rides, meals, bedtimes, etc. - was on my schedule. If you've traveled to WDW with kids, you know how unique that is. So, it was freeing in a way. Without having to schedule breaks or time for rides like it's a small world and Peter Pan that I would only do with my kids, I found I had a lot more free time, which was okay.
For me, my solo trip didn't feel very "solo" at all. I watched fireworks from Top of the World my first night with
@Princess KP. I ran all three races with people. I had parking lot beers after the races. I did the Hurricane Hanna's meetup we do each year and Monday was spent doing DATW. All of those meetups were arranged through these boards. So, a solo trip is really only as solo as you want it to be. FWIW, I really enjoyed myself, while also really missing my kids.