Marathon Weekend 2025

[runwithperseverence7]

We drive to WDW. It’s only about 11 hours for us. Although the last time we drove down almost broke us. It was the day after Christmas and between the traffic on I95 and then stopping to visit my dad in Lake City and the traffic on I75. It turned into a total of 16 hours of drive time.

 

[pinkxray]

I would love to stay at the Fort Wilderness cabin but worried about doing it on a race weekend. I know I’ve seen people post here about staying there race weekends. How exactly does it work to get to the runs? Where are the Run disney buses to the race? Im guessing up front? Do you have to use the internal buses? Are they running that early?

Thanks!

 

[runwithperseverence7]

I would love to stay at the Fort Wilderness cabin but worried about doing it on a race weekend. I know I’ve seen people post here about staying there race weekends. How exactly does it work to get to the runs? Where are the Run disney buses to the race? Im guessing up front? Do you have to use the internal buses? Are they running that early?

Thanks!

Same @pinkxray I have All Star Music suite booked but this was a close 2nd and I’m thinking about switching. Would love to hear thoughts.

 

[matt and beth]

I would love to stay at the Fort Wilderness cabin but worried about doing it on a race weekend. I know I’ve seen people post here about staying there race weekends. How exactly does it work to get to the runs? Where are the Run disney buses to the race? Im guessing up front? Do you have to use the internal buses? Are they running that early?

Thanks!

We’ve stayed at WL and we shared a bus with FLW. The buses dropped off and picked up out front. I’d guess you could rent a golf cart during your stay to get around any long walks

 

[garneska]

I would love to stay at the Fort Wilderness cabin but worried about doing it on a race weekend. I know I’ve seen people post here about staying there race weekends. How exactly does it work to get to the runs? Where are the Run disney buses to the race? Im guessing up front? Do you have to use the internal buses? Are they running that early?

Thanks!

Spent many race weekends at Ft Wilderness. The internal buses start running at 2 am I believe, maybe 2:30. You pick up the bus to the race start at the front of the campground. They are in front of the check in building. Never had an issue, but I am an early bus person. Pro tip though, if you have a car, drive to the front and park in the parking lot, then take the race bus. After the race you will thank me. I have driven from ft Wilderness for the 10k and also recommend that. I usually do the marathon and for that I prefer Disney transportation, but taking the car back from the lot is much nicer than waiting for the internal bus, you do have some loops close to the front, you could walk if you wanted.

 

[kps7795]

During a race, do you pause your watch during character stops or do you let it go? I generally have not paused my watch. That being said, I was planning on having lap pace on my main screen and hitting the lap button at each mile marker to guide my paces. However, wouldn’t character stops completely mess up the pacing in this scenario? What do others do? As inaccurate as it might be, I wonder if real-time pacing would be better than lap pace for a runDisney race to guide you.

 

[SheHulk]

During a race, do you pause your watch during character stops or do you let it go? I generally have not paused my watch. That being said, I was planning on having lap pace on my main screen and hitting the lap button at each mile marker to guide my paces. However, wouldn’t character stops completely mess up the pacing in this scenario? What do others do? As inaccurate as it might be, I wonder if real-time pacing would be better than lap pace for a runDisney race to guide you.

I never pause my watch at character stops, but I'm definitely not worried about pacing if I'm stopping for characters anyway.

 

[GollyGadget]

During a race, do you pause your watch during character stops or do you let it go? I generally have not paused my watch. That being said, I was planning on having lap pace on my main screen and hitting the lap button at each mile marker to guide my paces. However, wouldn’t character stops completely mess up the pacing in this scenario? What do others do? As inaccurate as it might be, I wonder if real-time pacing would be better than lap pace for a runDisney race to guide you.

I keep my watch running. I also don't pause at stoplights on my training runs. I understand why you're asking, but the official clock doesn't stop so I don't either.

 

[kps7795]

I keep my watch running. I also don't pause at stoplights on my training runs. I understand why you're asking, but the official clock doesn't stop so I don't either.

What metric do you use to try to keep your pace in between character stops or do you just go by feel?

 

[WillRunForPizza]

During a race, do you pause your watch during character stops or do you let it go? I generally have not paused my watch. That being said, I was planning on having lap pace on my main screen and hitting the lap button at each mile marker to guide my paces. However, wouldn’t character stops completely mess up the pacing in this scenario? What do others do? As inaccurate as it might be, I wonder if real-time pacing would be better than lap pace for a runDisney race to guide you.

I pause my watch (or rather, I leave it set to pause automatically when I stop) because I'm curious what the difference is between my moving time and my actual finish time. However, if I were to tell anyone else my finish time, I'd use the official time.

I also use current pace most of the time, so it doesn't really make a difference for me in that respect.

 

[Naomeri]

During a race, do you pause your watch during character stops or do you let it go? I generally have not paused my watch. That being said, I was planning on having lap pace on my main screen and hitting the lap button at each mile marker to guide my paces. However, wouldn’t character stops completely mess up the pacing in this scenario? What do others do? As inaccurate as it might be, I wonder if real-time pacing would be better than lap pace for a runDisney race to guide you.

I pause my watch at character stops. I might not if I ever needed to be worried about the balloon ladies, but so far (knock on wood) that hasn’t been a concern

 

[GuinnessRunner]

During a race, do you pause your watch during character stops or do you let it go? I generally have not paused my watch. That being said, I was planning on having lap pace on my main screen and hitting the lap button at each mile marker to guide my paces. However, wouldn’t character stops completely mess up the pacing in this scenario? What do others do? As inaccurate as it might be, I wonder if real-time pacing would be better than lap pace for a runDisney race to guide you.

I typically don’t stop for characters so no practical experience, but couldn’t you just hit lap when you get in a character line and again when you get back on the road? You would obviously have more than 27 laps when done, but it would (1) reset your lap pace so the stop doesn’t throw off the pace and (2) after the race it would be easy to eliminate the character stop times if you wanted to evaluate just your running times/paces.

 

[PrincessV]

During a race, do you pause your watch during character stops or do you let it go? I generally have not paused my watch. That being said, I was planning on having lap pace on my main screen and hitting the lap button at each mile marker to guide my paces. However, wouldn’t character stops completely mess up the pacing in this scenario? What do others do? As inaccurate as it might be, I wonder if real-time pacing would be better than lap pace for a runDisney race to guide you.

I have two devices going: my phone app, iSmoothRun, I leave on autopause because I like seeing later just how much stoppage time I had for characters, restrooms, beer stops… But I also wear a watch and keep that running throughout to see what my actual total time is.

 

[1lilspark]

During a race, do you pause your watch during character stops or do you let it go? I generally have not paused my watch. That being said, I was planning on having lap pace on my main screen and hitting the lap button at each mile marker to guide my paces. However, wouldn’t character stops completely mess up the pacing in this scenario? What do others do? As inaccurate as it might be, I wonder if real-time pacing would be better than lap pace for a runDisney race to guide you.

I let my device run but since I have my phone out for pictures I’ll just screenshot the time on my lock screen when I enter/exit lines and subtract it from my official and note it as moving time

 

[GollyGadget]

What metric do you use to try to keep your pace in between character stops or do you just go by feel?

I mostly run by feel. I'll still glance at lap pace but I know that if I stopped for a character it will be slower than expected.

ETA - I also kept my watch going for my ride on Everest. That really messed with my pace and distance

 

[Herding_Cats]

During a race, do you pause your watch during character stops or do you let it go? I generally have not paused my watch. That being said, I was planning on having lap pace on my main screen and hitting the lap button at each mile marker to guide my paces. However, wouldn’t character stops completely mess up the pacing in this scenario? What do others do? As inaccurate as it might be, I wonder if real-time pacing would be better than lap pace for a runDisney race to guide you.

I don’t pause. And I manually lap when I pass the mile markers because I’m rather bad at running the tangents.

I do this because, especially in the marathon, I want to know how much time I have on the balloon ladies and how much I can dilly dally around. Yes, I know that I can do that without running things without pausing, but it also helps me know when I should walk less, walk faster, etc. And after I exit AK, I like to look at everything and make announcements like “We can do 20min miles for the rest of the race and be completely fine.” It’s at that point that I’m more willing to make character stops, and the lines are usually significantly shorter.

 

[jmasgat]

During a race, do you pause your watch during character stops or do you let it go? I generally have not paused my watch. That being said, I was planning on having lap pace on my main screen and hitting the lap button at each mile marker to guide my paces. However, wouldn’t character stops completely mess up the pacing in this scenario? What do others do? As inaccurate as it might be, I wonder if real-time pacing would be better than lap pace for a runDisney race to guide you.

Character stops? What are those? .......It is possible with a Garmin to set your watch up to auto lap at 1 mile and then auto pause when you stop. You can also then track Elapsed Time, which is clock time from when you start recording a run to when you end the recording (which may be different from Timer).

 

[camaker]

Good afternoon RunDisney All-Stars! Welcome to this week's edition of Sundays are for Disney (SAFD). Disney World is an ever-evolving place. New attractions and events are constantly being introduced and existing things are being changed up. What has been changed or removed that you miss and would love to see again?

SAFD: I've got thoughts on this in three of the four parks. I've always enjoyed the ticketed events at Magic Kingdom and would love to see the Pirate and Princess Party back. Epcot has the bulk of my disappointment with the recent redesigns. I loved the Fountain of Nations and miss it. The changes in that area don't do much for me, outside of the Moana water area. The second isn't really nostalgia for the past, as IllumiNations had gotten a bit dated and was in need of update and modernization, but somehow they've managed to make the shows that followed it progressively worse. To me, at least, they've somehow inexplicably managed to make the current show boring. Finally, please please please bring back Tangierine Cafe in its former form! It was one of my favorites. I'll close out my list in Hollywood Studios with a controversial take that I know will draw mixed opinions. Bring back the Sorcerer's Hat! I loved it as the iconic centerpiece of the park.

 

[Herding_Cats]

SAFD:
Osborn (or however it's spelled) Family Lights. Those were pure Christmas magic.

The Merida character meet (? I think this is gone in favor of Mirabel now) because Merida.

 

[Baloo in MI]

SAFD:
I can think of two.

I know there is no place for them as where they were no longer exists, but I would love to see the Osborne Lights in HS one more time.

For nostalgic reasons I really miss Primeval Whirl. It was a fun ride, but also the first coaster I ride with both my daughters and it became a tradition for the three of us to ride together on, wonderful memories.