Marathon Weekend 2023

[lukemorenus]

SAFD: I'm here to give a HUGE shout-out to Altra. The Torin 5 and Escalante 2.5, specifically.

Background: natural forefoot stride, petite person, dancer (which means strong feet and ankles, and used to being barefoot or in ballet slippers - a transition to zero-drop running shoes was easy). Slow run-walker, but oddly light, efficient gait: I'm mostly slowed by age, lung damage, and chronic tendonitis.)

I ran in Brooks Glycerin 16s for a couple years, and they were fine: heavy and not very efficient for my mechanics, but didn't hurt anything, which was a coup - I have a lengthy history of many, many shoes not working at all. But the 17s and 18s were uncomfortable enough, and reviews of the Altra Torin 5 glowing enough, that I opted to try a switch only 2 final long runs out from Dopey 2022. And I could not have been happier!

I'm easily 30-45 seconds/mile faster in the Altras, not because the shoes are magically faster, but because they don't interfere with my natural stride. My stride length is longer at the same cadence. My feet are stupidly happy in them. My chronic pain points - knees, hips, back - are much less touchy using Altras than any other shoe I've tried.

I tried Altra waaay back when they first arrived on the scene, but the fit wasn't great for me. This current iteration is perfection! So I fully expect them to ruin it with the next versions. I'll be stockpiling when they go on sale...

I love, love, love Altra… they resurrected my running ability after battling turf toe for a long time.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

SAFD Marathon Weekend 2023: Currently undecided. I'm going to WDW in December 2022 with some friends which may impact things. But it's an anniversary year for the Marathon and Dopey, so that intrigues me. I am leaning Dopey.

I do think Chip and Dale is better than Oswald. I know chip and dale are my sons two fav characters.

After some internal argument about Goofy vs Dopey for both 2020 and 2022, I decided on Dopey because if the 10K was ever Chip and Dale, I would be very disappointed that I did not run it and if I'm doing the 10K, what's another 5K to run Dopey.

Also, when all the races went virtual in 2021, I talked to my sister and registered my nephews for the kids races. They each got a shirt, but they had to share the medal because I "needed" a Chip and Dale medal.

I would love to see Chip and Dale take the 10K. Nothing against Oswald, but I just think that Chip and Dale are a better fit given the other characters in the race weekend.

I don't have anything against Oswald, but I wish they would go back to the old theming of Pluto 5K, Minnie 10K, Donald half, Mickey full. (sorry Daisy!) I love the tradition of the marathon being just Mickey's race, and likewise I think it's great for Minnie to get her own race (polka dot medal ribbon and all!).

In 2019, Minnie decided to have her 10K medal kiss the Marathon medal. Now that can't happen because they're on the same medal. In a sense I kind of feel like having two characters host races takes away from each character's moment in the sun as it were. That and all my displays will rarely show Minnie because Mickey has been my favorite from childhood. Minnie is not far behind, but still.

Today’s question: What is your go to running shoe(s)?

As a tall, but not very big person, I have a hard time finding shirts that fit me. Most men's apparel companies define XL as a lot shorter than me and XXL as a lot bigger than me. Except Nike. Their stuff seems to fit perfectly almost every single time. I find this applies to shoes as well. I tried New Balance once and while they were good shoes for shorter distances, I had problems with them for anything much longer than 5 or 6 miles. I used them a lot in training and shorter races, but never for long runs or half marathon distances.

I usually go by feel since I cannot always find my preferred Nike in my size. #tallguyproblems So I go with how a particular model feels in comparison to the ones that have worked the best for me. Similar feel usually results in similar success so far.

 

[Baloo in MI]

SAFD:

Good morning runDisney All-Stars! It is Sunday and time for a new Sundays Are For Disney. Today’s question comes from @sandam1.

if you could retheme the Marathon Weekend races (all of them including Goofy and Dopey), what themes/characters would you like to see?

My answer - first, thank you @sandam1 for today’s question and if others have question ideas please send them to me. I think it would be cool to have the races themed after different lands of one of the theme parks. The races could begin or finish in the respective land, The medals could have an image that represents that land and the challenges could be the whole park and entire resort. Something like the Adventure Land 5K, The Frontier Land 10K, The Fantasy Land Half Marathon, The Main Street Marathon and then the Magic Kingdom Challenge and the Walt Disney World Challenge.

Excited to see what you all come up with, but for now back to my daughters dance competition.

 

[FFigawi]

SAFD: I’d retheme the races by having one race for each park. I’d even go so far as to change the entire weekend's logistics to allow the race for each park to spend as much time there as possible (looking at you DHS).

5k - AK
10k - DHS
Half - MK
Full - Epcot
Goofy - Monorail Challenge
Dopey - Park Hopper Challenge

 

[DisneyParrothead]

SAFD: I’d retheme the races by having one race for each park. I’d even go so far as to change the entire weekend's logistics to allow the race for each park to spend as much time there as possible (looking at you DHS).

5k - AK
10k - DHS
Half - MK
Full - Epcot
Goofy - Monorail Challenge
Dopey - Park Hopper Challenge

I really like this idea! The first 5k I did at Disney went through the Magic Kingdom and it was magical. That course lasted two years I think before moving to EPCOT.

 

[Barca33Runner]

SAFD:

I’d revert it back to the theming they introduced with the 10k and Dopey. 5k-Pluto, 10k-Minnie, Half-Donald, Full-Mickey, Original Challenge-Goofy, New Challenge-Dopey. They are the Fab 5 for a reason and I think the multi-layered retcon they’ve done inserting Oswald and adding Minnie and Daisy to the Full and Half as if they only exist in relation to their partners is bizarre and ill-conceived.

Oswald is certainly important in the history of Walt Disney the man, but his influence on WDW or the Disney corporation at large is nebulous. When I see him in the lineup with the rest of the weekend I hear something from a non-Disney property, “one of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong…” Assuming they were going to make the choice they did with Minnie, I think that other characters with an animated history with Disney and the Fab 5, like Chip and Dale, would have been more appropriate.

I also think they over-thought the Minnie/Daisy change. It appears they equated Minnie being the host of the 10k, a “lesser” race, as misogynistic. I think this was creating a narrative that simply wasn’t there, is disrespectful to runners not running the max distances, and personally feel that Minnie being moved to the Marathon next to Mickey is a demotion from hosting her own race. Daisy never needed to be a part of the Weekend, but I see why she is in the context of the decisions they’ve taken.

ETA: Overall, I think it is well themed. If it stays the way it is I’m not thrilled about Oswald but I’ll live. If they wanted to do something with the courses to make it feel like we are actually getting an old school Disney magical experience (rather than being tolerated as an inconvenience that needs to clear out of the parks as fast as possible), I’d be all for it. I’ll question my reality if that happens, but I’d be all for it.

 

[Naomeri]

SAFD: I agree with removing Oswald and replacing him with someone else. I think it would be neat to rotate which race the characters hosts each year, so all level of runners have a chance to get medals with all the characters through the years.

 

[lookingforsunshine]

Dopey - Park Hopper Challenge

This is so cute!

I like having consistent characters every year and that they are “mainstay” Disney characters. I would definitely change Dopey, though… a. I am not a fan of Snow White at all and frankly Dopey is a problematic character. I have a graduate specialization in Disability Studies so I am well-aware of the depictions of disability in popular culture and Dopey is just not it for me. Honestly, it’s one of the main reasons I am considering Goofy instead of Dopey this upcoming year… but I’ll probably still do the full challenge because I want to try all of the races.

With that said, I’m not sure what a good replacement would be although I love the Park Hopper idea. Maybe the medals could be associated with parks and characters, with a Pluto/AK 5K, Goofy/HS 10K, Donald & Daisy/Epcot half, and Mickey & Minnie/MK full. Then the challenges could be not character related but park related.

 

[The Expert]

SAFD: As I think you all know by now, I'm a HUGE Oswald fan and appreciate his presence in the races simply because he isn't anywhere else (in the US parks anyway -- the Asian parks love his "lucky" connotation). That said, I agree that he does seem to be a bit shoehorned in. Give Oswald his due in the parks, and I'd be okay with taking him out of the race lineup.

I also agree with @lookingforsunshine about Dopey. Sure, it is kind of clever (ie "I'm Dopey for doing all four races in one weekend"), but I just don't like the character at all. Maybe they could lean into the whole Stitch-messing-with-Mickey thing from a few years a back and make all four races a "crazy" Stitch challenge?

 

[DisneyParrothead]

This is so cute!

I like having consistent characters every year and that they are “mainstay” Disney characters. I would definitely change Dopey, though… a. I am not a fan of Snow White at all and frankly Dopey is a problematic character. I have a graduate specialization in Disability Studies so I am well-aware of the depictions of disability in popular culture and Dopey is just not it for me. Honestly, it’s one of the main reasons I am considering Goofy instead of Dopey this upcoming year… but I’ll probably still do the full challenge because I want to try all of the races.

With that said, I’m not sure what a good replacement would be although I love the Park Hopper idea. Maybe the medals could be associated with parks and characters, with a Pluto/AK 5K, Goofy/HS 10K, Donald & Daisy/Epcot half, and Mickey & Minnie/MK full. Then the challenges could be not character related but park related.

Why not do Chip and Dale for the half and full since they’re two, and it’s two races. Then have Goofy be all four?

 

[The Expert]

Why not do Chip and Dale for the half and full since they’re two, and it’s two races. Then have Goofy be all four?

They could call it the Nutty Challenge!

 

[lookingforsunshine]

Why not do Chip and Dale for the half and full since they’re two, and it’s two races.

They could call it the Nutty Challenge!

GENIUS

 

[BigEeyore]

5k - AK
10k - DHS
Half - MK
Full - Epcot
Goofy - Monorail Challenge
Dopey - Park Hopper Challenge

OK this is pretty brilliant! Though if they did something like this, they would need to also incorporate the race mascot into it, but it works!
As I've mentioned before - Minnie needs her own race again! I miss the old theming.

 

[1lilspark]

OK this is pretty brilliant! Though if they did something like this, they would need to also incorporate the race mascot into it, but it works!
As I've mentioned before - Minnie needs her own race again! I miss the old theming.

For the park themed ones you could use ip
DAK- yeti
Epcot-figment
MK-orange bird
Unfortunately with studios idk if there is any original ip there

 

[Kitty-chan]

Unfortunately with studios idk if there is any original ip there

All I can think of is Waldo, the Spirit of 3D

 

[jpeterson]

All I can think of is Waldo, the Spirit of 3D

Brilliant! They should use that!

 

[GreatLakes]

SAFD:

I think MW should have a consistent theme and not have it change year to year.
Donald and Mickey should stay for the half and full without Daisy and Minnie.
I also think Goofy should stay for that 2-race challenge.
I get why they did Dopey but as a mascot one random Dwarf from that franchise doesn't really make sense even though the name does. I like making the parks the mascot for this one since you will run through all of them. The PP that mentioned Park Hopper is a good idea so I'll go with that.
That leaves the 5K and 10K. I like Pluto for the 5K and if Daisy and Minnie need to be involved I think they should co-mascot the 10K. They don't need to force a female race mascot just to have one. They have never forced in a male mascot for Princess weekend to my knowledge.

I'm still waiting for the kids races to be announced. I'm not sure why they still don't have them lined up for W&D. There is no logical reason they don't.

 

[kps7795]

SAFD:

I think MW should have a consistent theme and not have it change year to year.
Donald and Mickey should stay for the half and full without Daisy and Minnie.
I also think Goofy should stay for that 2-race challenge.
I get why they did Dopey but as a mascot one random Dwarf from that franchise doesn't really make sense even though the name does. I like making the parks the mascot for this one since you will run through all of them. The PP that mentioned Park Hopper is a good idea so I'll go with that.
That leaves the 5K and 10K. I like Pluto for the 5K and if Daisy and Minnie need to be involved I think they should co-mascot the 10K. They don't need to force a female race mascot just to have one. They have never forced in a male mascot for Princess weekend to my knowledge.

I'm still waiting for the kids races to be announced. I'm not sure why they still don't have them lined up for W&D. There is no logical reason they don't.

I don't know if I'm alone on this island, but I'm not a big fan of the spinner medal. Personally, I would rather the marathon medal be just one character. I get what they were going for, but I'm not a fan.

 

[1lilspark]

All I can think of is Waldo, the Spirit of 3D

I would 100% of listed him however he has shown up in older pre Muppet vision Henson content

 

[sandam1]

5k - AK
10k - DHS
Half - MK
Full - Epcot
Goofy - Monorail Challenge
Dopey - Park Hopper Challenge

Love this idea!

The only thing that I've been able to come up with is replacing Dopey with Tigger. I think anyone who runs Dopey needs Tigger's energy.