Marathon Weekend 2022

[FFigawi]

SAFD: far too many pictures to choose from, though this is one of my favorites. It’s a dear friend & I enjoying the full together in 2017 after we ran the Not a Half around & between Epcot and DHS the day before. Being the first runner who stopped at Thirsty River made it even better.

 

[DisneyParrothead]

My one and only character stop. I had a great training for Princess 2019 but Colorado doesn’t have central Florida’s humidity. I threw my time goal out the window and decided to just enjoy the course.

 

[BikeFan]

Lots of great pics since I've started dragging friends, family, and running club members down with me to WDW for RunDisney events, but nothing so far beats Marathon Weekend 2018, when my wife, son, and brother-in-law all finished their first full.
Pic 1: Pre-race pic, marathon morning. L-R: my son Sam (first-timer); me; my brother Andrew (experienced marathoner and triathlete); my wife Lolita (first-timer); our running club friend Emily (experienced marathoner, but first Goofy), and; Tony (first-timer), my brother-in-law.


Pic 2: The final .2 miles with my son. He'd run track and cross country in high school, but hadn't done much endurance work and massively hit the wall in the final 10K. My brother took off and left us but of course I stayed with my son, until we passed that final Mile 26. He saw that finish banner and took off like a rocket! I about died sprinting after him to get finish line photos together. I still give him grief about that finish to this day!



Pic 3: After crossing the line with my son, I got some fresh clothes, took a bus back to Disney Studios, and joined the rest of our group for the final 3 miles of their race. I got to finish again with my wife and friends, which really made it an amazing day.


Pic 4: And of course since running Disney races with family is too much fun not to do again, we returned later that year for Star Wars Weekend. My oldest daughter Maggie joined me and my brother-in-law Tony for the Dark Side Challenge:



Can't wait to do it again!

 

[Barca33Runner]

SAFD: Like others, ive got way too many to post them all.

The trip that started it all. The day after the 2012 Half in the MK with my nephew.

Full circle. Finishing the 2020 MW 5k with the same nephew.



A few from one of my favorite races with my sister. I’m believe it was the 2015 MW Half

From my only Disney Cruise.

The only time I’ve had all my nieces and nephews with me at the parks. My dad had to stay home, but we found a serendipitous spot to take the picture with Jiminy Cricket, his favorite character.

Just my nephew and I and our friend Chewbacca

First time in Galaxy’s Edge

My favorite MNSSHP picture. It was tough to get the kids to stand in line for 30 minutes for a picture, but I think it was worth it.

Looking forward to so many more in the future.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Me, my wife Amy, a close friend Annette and my oldest son Kyle - We decided that we were going to finish this together as it was the first half marathon for Annette and Kyle.

 

[1GoldenSun]

I'm loving all of these pictures everyone is posting! I can't wait until I have some of my own!

I know this has been discussed but I scrolled back over many pages and can't find it. Are there any resorts that are better or worse than others to stay at for Marathon Weekend? Does anybody have a specific preference? I think I'm going to go ahead and get reservations SOMEWHERE, but as it gets closer to the date (assuming it happens) I may try to rent DVC points. I just want to be sure I'll have somewhere to stay, but I have no idea which resort to choose.

 

[PCFriar80]

SAFD:
Great pics everyone! Here are some of ours.

Alone on TOT:



Appreciating New England weather after running in the Florida heat [Star Wars 2019] and why is the
guy behind me so happy?



Social distancing on the Boardwalk after the 10K:

 

[PCFriar80]

I'm loving all of these pictures everyone is posting! I can't wait until I have some of my own!

I know this has been discussed but I scrolled back over many pages and can't find it. Are there any resorts that are better or worse than others to stay at for Marathon Weekend? Does anybody have a specific preference? I think I'm going to go ahead and get reservations SOMEWHERE, but as it gets closer to the date (assuming it happens) I may try to rent DVC points. I just want to be sure I'll have somewhere to stay, but I have no idea which resort to choose.

Everyone has their preferences for different reasons. I'll give you mine and then a general sense for the other resorts. We've been going to marathon weekend since 2006. We own at BCV so I'm a little bias, but have stayed at CB [which was great by the way] for two event weekends. We make marathon weekend a vacation event. I only run the 1/2 and then the 10K when they introduced it later. We love the location of BCV for pre and post vacation walking access to Epcot and HS.

You can not walk to start for any races from an Epcot resort.......but, if you're not running the 10K or full it's a great spectator location! Bus transportation from all resorts for the 5K and 10K. Magic Kingdom resorts get the advantage with monorail service to/from the start for the 1/2 and full.

If you're there just to run then I would suggest any resort that fits your budget. If you want to enhance the experience, transportation or park-wise then either MK resorts or Epcot resorts. Let us know if you have any questions!

 

[Barca33Runner]

I'm loving all of these pictures everyone is posting! I can't wait until I have some of my own!

I know this has been discussed but I scrolled back over many pages and can't find it. Are there any resorts that are better or worse than others to stay at for Marathon Weekend? Does anybody have a specific preference? I think I'm going to go ahead and get reservations SOMEWHERE, but as it gets closer to the date (assuming it happens) I may try to rent DVC points. I just want to be sure I'll have somewhere to stay, but I have no idea which resort to choose.

Let me first preface this by saying that I believe we will be seeing changes to a lot of things when Disney normalizes (for lack of better word). Although I won't go as far as others, the current CEO of Disney can fairly be described as much more concerned with the bottom line than the magic. It's also fair to say that's his job; but I am very interested, if not yet worried, to see what comes back, how it comes back, and how pricing is affected. Assuming race weekends are relatively unaffected in how they operate...

Every resort acts as a host resort for race weekends. This means there is transportation to and from the Expo and to and from each of the races. From this perspective there are no resorts you absolutely can't book; if you want to stay somewhere you should be able to book it and know your experience race-wise will not be negatively affected. I've stayed at POR, AoA, POP, and off-site for race weeks and have had a good time at each. My only issue was at POR which listed multiple bus stops as open on race morning. In reality, everything was filling at the main bus stop and the back depots were left to watch full bus after full bus pass wondering if we would make it on time (we did, but it was unneeded stress).

Personally, I loved staying at a Skyliner resort. The Skyliner provides no direct benefit for the races, but I was absolutely in love with the convenience it provided for other aspects of our stay.

 

[lhermiston]

I'm loving all of these pictures everyone is posting! I can't wait until I have some of my own!

I know this has been discussed but I scrolled back over many pages and can't find it. Are there any resorts that are better or worse than others to stay at for Marathon Weekend? Does anybody have a specific preference? I think I'm going to go ahead and get reservations SOMEWHERE, but as it gets closer to the date (assuming it happens) I may try to rent DVC points. I just want to be sure I'll have somewhere to stay, but I have no idea which resort to choose.

The monorail loop resorts are very popular for MW, but I don’t think there’s any resort that won’t work in some capacity. POR can be a hassle given the multiple bus stops, but it worked for me for Dopey. I’ve also done Pop and ASMovies. Both were great.

 

[Krandor]

I'm loving all of these pictures everyone is posting! I can't wait until I have some of my own!

I know this has been discussed but I scrolled back over many pages and can't find it. Are there any resorts that are better or worse than others to stay at for Marathon Weekend? Does anybody have a specific preference? I think I'm going to go ahead and get reservations SOMEWHERE, but as it gets closer to the date (assuming it happens) I may try to rent DVC points. I just want to be sure I'll have somewhere to stay, but I have no idea which resort to choose.

A lot depends on you and what you are looking for. For myself I'm normally solo or with a friend and I just don't spend enough time at the resort to want to spend a ton of money. There was I thinik it was a motel 6 commercial once that used "every hotel looks like same when you turn the lights off" routine. My typicaal routine for race weekend is get up, race, come back and shower/change then head to the park (except for Sat/Sun of MW) and then get back just in time for bed. So I'm normally Pop or All stars though lately love pop more due to the skyliner. So nice for getting to epcot and DHS.

One thing to watch for is resorts with multiple bus stops since it could make getting the bus to the start line tougher if it is already full when it gets there.

 

[1GoldenSun]

I only intend to run the marathon, but will probably go up very early Friday morning and watch Friday and Saturday's races as well (I live about an hour and a half away). I'd like to stay somewhere convenient for watching (and cheering for!) the runners in the 10k and half-marathon, but I'm not sure what the course is.

I'm not too worried about park time because we go often, so park access isn't an issue.

 

[shellott-hill]

SAFD:

The weekend that started this obsession with runDisney races.

My DD running the mile race...



My DS and I running our first Princess Weekend Half Marathon...



And our EPCOT celebration...

 

[Krandor]

I only intend to run the marathon, but will probably go up very early Friday morning and watch Friday and Saturday's races as well (I live about an hour and a half away). I'd like to stay somewhere convenient for watching (and cheering for!) the runners in the 10k and half-marathon, but I'm not sure what the course is.

I'm not too worried about park time because we go often, so park access isn't an issue.

The 10k will start in the epcot parking lot, circle around a bit then enters epcot around mile 3 and then finish back in the epcot parking lot. So I'd say for this one probably near the finish line area would be best. This one also goes through the boardwalk area so that can be good too

The half course starts agaain in epcot parking lot, runs up to magic kingdom, through magic kingdom then back to epcot and finish in the epcot parking lot, TTC, MK main street, are all good area (as well as finish line).

Here are the 2020 maps.

 

[1GoldenSun]

So it looks like one of the Epcot resorts might be best. Or I could Skyline over from Pop. I think maybe I'll get reservations at Pop for now and consider renting DVC points for one of the Epcot resorts later on, possibly.

 

[Barca33Runner]

So it looks like one of the Epcot resorts might be best. Or I could Skyline over from Pop. I think maybe I'll get reservations at Pop for now and consider renting DVC points for one of the Epcot resorts later on, possibly.

I wouldn’t count on the Skyliner being operational when the 10k is ongoing. The skyliner has not served as race transportation in the past as the International Gateway is nowhere near the staging area for the start of the races. It’s possible it will be open early for spectators to use, but normally it’s schedule is entirely based on park openings.

ETA: Anyone using the skyliner would also be trapped in the loading area assuming the same course for the 10k. The course exits at the international gateway, runs over the bridge to Boardwalk, around, back and then heads backstage next to the Skyliner terminal. They could rope off a decent sized area for spectators there, but I doubt they’d do it.

 

[Krandor]

I wouldn’t count on the Skyliner being operational when the 10k is ongoing. The skyliner has not served as race transportation in the past as the International Gateway is nowhere near the staging area for the start of the races. It’s possible it will be open early for spectators to use, but normally it’s schedule is entirely based on park openings.

ETA: Anyone using the skyliner would also be trapped in the loading area assuming the same course for the 10k. The course exits at the international gateway, runs over the bridge to Boardwalk, around, back and then heads backstage next to the Skyliner terminal. They could rope off a decent sized area for spectators there, but I doubt they’d do it.

totally agree on both points. The only transporatioon other then race buses I remember running were monorails but those do have the advantage of dropping off near the start/finish area at epcot and spectator areas of MK.

I do think for the 10k the boardwalk area is a real good spot for spectators since there is a lot of room there to find you a spot. But if you are not staying there uber/driving is going to be your best bet to get there (and driving dependent on rules for visiting other resorts being relaxed from where they are today)

 

[PrincessV]

I only intend to run the marathon, but will probably go up very early Friday morning and watch Friday and Saturday's races as well (I live about an hour and a half away). I'd like to stay somewhere convenient for watching (and cheering for!) the runners in the 10k and half-marathon, but I'm not sure what the course is.

Any resort in your budget is fine for the races. I usually stay offsite, but I drive to WDW and have a car to get to the races.

For spectating both the 10K and half, one of the BW resorts is going to be your best bet. Probably*. Both races have historically utilized the BW *The only hitch could be if rD changes the courses, opts not to open certain resorts (unlikely, but we never imagined WDW would close altogether, either, so...), or prohibits spectating.
ETA: Nope, nope, nope. I was thinking 10K and Marathon. There really isn't any one resort great for spectating the 10K and Half. But what you could do is take a race bus to the start of both races and spectate the start, finish, and/or a bit just outside EP.

FWIW, I won't book a hotel until waaay down the road. I know lots of folks like to get rolling early, but there are also plenty of us who don't, and we all find places to stay in the end. So don't feel like there's any pressure to do something NOW!

 

[Krandor]

For spectating both the 10K and half, one of the BW resorts is going to be your best bet. Probably*. Both races have historically utilized the BW *The only hitch could be if rD changes the courses, opts not to open certain resorts (unlikely, but we never imagined WDW would close altogether, either, so...), or prohibits spectating.

The 10k and the full use the boardwalk loop. The half typically doesn't. In fact the half normally doesn't even do world showcase. You come in one side of the park, past SSE then back out. One year IIRC you did loop up to world showcase entrace and then back down.

 

[Baloo in MI]

SAFD:

Fantastic question! I love seeing everyone’s pictures and I loved going through all mine trying to figure out what to share. Here is what I came up with.


This is my all time favorite picture of my wife and girls at Disney World. It is from LONG ago though. The girls are teenagers now. Here they were 2 & 6. It was out first trip to WDW and our first morning at Pop. A wonderful memory.


My youngest first ever Run Disney race, she was about 10. She was still bringing her favorite stuffie on trips then - Racoony. He was a big hit when she met Pocahontas!


The last one is from two years ago. We just finished the Tea Cups. We always go on this and make it spin as fast as we can. I try not to throw up and managed to get a picture.