Marathon Weekend 2025

[3princesandaprincess]

Can you tell me how these are charged? Can you hear ambient noise ok if running outside? They look like they might work for me.

Looks like someone beat me to this, but you won’t hear ambient noise. I am usually a treadmill runner, so that works well for me. If I’m outside, I also just use one earbud.

 

[camaker]

Good afternoon RunDisney All-Stars! Welcome to this week's edition of Sundays are for Disney (SAFD). There's been some discussion this week about RunDisney possibly moving away from varied courses for race weekends to standardized courses for each distance across all race weekends. What do you think of the change and do you think it will impact your attendance at RunDisney events?

SAFD: It doesn't bother me much and I can see the benefits to RunDisney and its support crew of not having to adjust to individual details within each race weekend. At this point in my RunDisney career I've pretty much standardized on just attending Marathon Weekend each year. As a result, this potential change doesn't really affect me and likely won't affect my attendance at RunDisney events. As long as the half keeps running through the castle and the full continues to hit all four parks, I'll probably be at Marathon Weekend. It's the theme more than the course that attracts me to the occasional non-MW event, so it likely won't impact those decisions, either.

 

[Zutroy]

SAFD: I’m used to fairly standardized courses. Wine & Dine had the same half layout as Star Wars. The MW half had the same course as Princess. But at least there was variation, with the W&D course leaving the MK parking lot and winding all through AK, and the Princess course going through the castle. If every weekend is now the same, I can’t imagine doing more than one race a year. I’m frustrated because I’ve been doing RunDisney for over 15 years, and each year seems to chip away at what made the races special. The expos are a shadow of what they used to be, activities like kids races are gone, and having each race with a distinct identity and course is now over. This all tracks with the hotels and parks going up in price and down on service. Standardized courses are all about cutting costs and increasing profits. In 2023, Disney made 32.6 billion dollars in revenue, an increase of around 16 percent from the year before. It’s hard not feel like the Disney experience is now being shaken upside down until all the change falls out of your pockets.

 

[Disney at Heart]

SAFD: As my running career is slowing down, it doesn’t bother me. I’ve never tried to run them all in a season, and still haven’t run the Springtime Surprise 10 (not since spring was Star Wars), so it is a little different. Also we may go to Disneyland and run one of those races next year. We haven’t run out there since 2015-2016. I’m NOT running another marathon after January. I know I have said it before, but but it is too hard on my feet and legs, and recovery time takes much longer than it used to!

 

[Herding_Cats]

SAFD: I only run one race weekend per year, but I have to be honest and say that if the only *noticable* difference between weekends is the graphics/signage that’s kind of a turn-off and in no way compelling me to actively plan for more/other race weekends.

 

[disneyrunnergrl]

SAFD: I don’t mind the 10k standardization because I prefer the boardwalk course they seem to have went with for this season over the Hollywood studios course. But I don’t want to run the same half course for all the weekends. I am curious to see what they do for marathon and princess weekends. I doubt they’d remove the castle course, but if they do that would be a deal breaker for me. I also really wish they’d bring back the AK 1/2 course for wine and dine but I don’t think they’ll be moving a start back to Magic Kingdom to make that possible.

 

[matt and beth]

SAFD: Variety is the spice of life! We really enjoy the changes in courses. A standardized course for all the WDW races wouldn’t be very exciting. They have months between races. It’s probably not an issue at all to have a few different layouts. It’s not like they leave all the signs, tables, and music out until the next race.

 

[fatmanatee]

SAFD: I’m not sure if it’ll have much of an impact but the standardization is discouraging. There was a moment with Springtime Surprise where it seemed like they opened up a lot of possibilities, particularly with the 5k. Would we eventually get a short distance race at MK? Different distances for the longer run? And the answer is apparently no. After one year at AK, the 5k has been held at Epcot since, just like the other races. The 10k is one of the 2-3 variations they rotate through for the other weekends. And although I very much enjoyed the Ten Miler when I did it, I don’t have a lot of enthusiasm to do it again. A big appeal for that one was running through GE, and now that DL races are back, I’d rather do it there bc I prefer those courses.

As for the other weekends, you mostly know what you’re getting for Marathon and Princess Weekends, aside from the big changes in the marathon course, which seem to be driven by external factors. I’d be interested in doing Wine and Dine (tempted to pair it with a visit to Epic Universe), but I’m just not enthusiastic about the course they’ve been using for the half. Would MUCH rather get a return to the old course that started near MK but it’s clear that RD likes having everything start and end at Epcot.

 

[Barca33Runner]

SAFD: I am sure there are both economic and logistical reasons that standardized courses for all race weekends at WDW would be beneficial to rD. But I’m also realistic in knowing those savings will not be passed onto us runners in the form of cheaper entry fees or increased perks

I like the 5k and 10k courses at MW and don’t think it’s particularly realistic to expect much more park time than we get at those distances. The Marathon is only run at MW, so standardization is pretty irrelevant at that distance. 2025 will be my 14th straight MW and I’ve run the Half at all but two. The course has changed very little in that time and despite it being my personal worst of the 4 Weekend courses, it gets the job done.

Ultimately, I’m a MW only rD participant and the general sameness of the courses year over year doesn’t necessarily bother me. If the course entertainment is on point, the course itself is not especially important for me.

More broadly about rD and Disney, I am really excited about the rD/Brooks partnership. I hate the cheapness, for lack of a better word, of the Disney manufactured goods they have been selling basically exclusively the last few years. Since we will always be paying premium prices for race weekend merch, I’m glad there seems like there will be at least some options from a more premium manufacturer. It feels like a positive move for rD. On the other hand, the Lightning Lane Premium Pass announcement was the most disheartening thing I’ve seen about the Disney Parks. It was completely tone deaf, from my perspective, and signals that despite seeing article after article about Disney continuing to be unhappy with park attendance they have no intention of stopping the nickel and diming (or in the case of Disney, Grant and Benjamin-ing) at the gates.

 

[DisneyParrothead]

SAFD: all other races I do have standardized courses, so that alone wouldn’t bother me. If they go that route, I hope the 10k course is around the Boardwalk. At least that would get rid of the International Squeezeway.

 

[3princesandaprincess]

SAFD: This will be my first rD event, so I can’t really weight in. I like the thought of some variance between events, especially for the half. That said, if the theme/timing/$$$ all lined up it, a standardized course wouldn’t stop me from signing up!

 

[marty3d]

SAFD: I usually only do MW so in general this won’t impact me much. However, if they want to get me to more race weekends, variety would certainly help to get me there (though given current demand for rD races I’m not sure they have to worry about attracting people to multiple weekends). TBH though, if it’s just the 10k that is always the same, I’d still be ok with that. I find the BW route is the best one for the 10k. Keep the variety to the half.

In any case, I suspect they are going to have to be constantly changing the half and marathon courses over the next 5 or 6 years with all the construction so maybe standardizing the 10k is so that they dont have to worry about one course because they know the longer courses will require more work going forward.

 

[nancipants]

I don’t mind standardized courses for the 5k (it pretty much is anyway) and the 10k, but I like the idea of the halfs being different. The marathon weekend and Princess halfs are basically the same and the “castle” races. The Springtime Surprise is nice with the exception of the backloaded highway miles. It wwould be nice if they could figure out how to get a race through AK and still start at Epcot.

 

[Naomeri]

SAFD: 5Ks have been essentially the same for every WDW weekend I've done, so that doesn't bother me. 10Ks have basically been one of two different routes, I think, so that's not very different. But for the longer distances, I'd like them to keep some variety between weekends.

 

[GuinnessRunner]

SAFD: Having never done anything but MW it doesn’t really impact me. To me it’s still about the idea of being at Disney to run since I’m only doing that one weekend a year so the courses don’t really impact that. There have definitely been some courses in the past that I’ve liked more than others but as @camaker said, as long as the marathon keeps going through 4 parks, I will probably want to be there. I definitely can see how using a standard course for all races might get impact those who are local or do multiple weekends a year.

 

[runwithperseverence7]

SAFD: This will be my first rD event, so I can’t really weight in. I like the thought of some variance between events, especially for the half. That said, if the theme/timing/$$$ all lined up it, a standardized course wouldn’t stop me from signing up!

This is me too! All other races I do are standardized but I think part of the appeal of RD is not only the themes but the different race courses. It gives something special for each weekend if they had their own courses that were different from the others.

 

[gosalyn_mallard]

SAFD: I miss the half course that started at MK parking lot. It was nice that it was different from MW and Princess. The change to a standardized course makes me less likely to do multiple Disney race weekends per year.

 

[Baloo in MI]

SAFD:
When you come down to it runDisney is a small piece of Disney. I am very happy that runDisney exists and provides this nexus of runners who love Disney. I am grateful. But I get worried that runDisney is not getting the love it once did. I would prefer the weekends all had distinct feels and at least partially different courses.

I was drawn to SS because I thought it might provide new experiences - differing courses, distances, themes. I would love to see Wine and Dine offer a
night race again.

So I suppose I am not much of a fan of standardized races. But I remain a huge fan of runDisney and hold out hope for future surprises.

 

[deadvc]

SAFD: I've only done three weekends - MW '23, Rival Run '19, and Springtime Surprise '22 (inaugural). All three occasions were pretty spread out between, so course similarities weren't noticeable to me (outside of the similarities race-to-race during Dopey). So for my purposes standardization probably doesn't change things as much as it would for the yearly/multiple a year folks. That said, if standardization meant taking the castle away from the half I think that would be a massive mistake. Is there any evidence of that?

I will say that the Everest 5k being at AK was pretty fun, I enjoyed that course. So standardization likely meaning courses like that don't happen is a bummer. From reading the comments in this thread though it sounds like they haven't done the AK course since anyway.

 

[DianaMB333]

Hi.. do you know please the finish (arrival) time of the balloon ladies in the past marathon editions?
Thanks!