Marathon Weekend 2025

[kps7795]

Exciting! For those of us outside the US, would you mind sharing the content of the email? We don't often miss emails from runDisney. Thanks!

It's not really the content of the email that is the focus, but the fact that Max and Powerline were added to the Marathon Weekend picture with all of the characters running.

 

[lukemorenus]

The most important part of yesterday's email? ... We are officially fashion "icons"

 

[MissLiss279]

Exciting! For those of us outside the US, would you mind sharing the content of the email? We don't often miss emails from runDisney. Thanks!

As @kps7795 said, it wasn’t much - just mentioning costuming (be inspired and guidelines).

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Yeah!! Maybe another chance at them...Max and Powerline. I still have never gotten a pic with Powerline. I have gotten Max in Aulani.. but would love him in his Powerline outfit which is the ultimate Max outfit!

 

[Herding_Cats]

I think they’re just pandering to millennials

 

[The Expert]

I think they’re just pandering to millennials

THIS ^^^

As a GenXer I do not get the hype, but y'all knock yourselves out.

 

[runwithperseverence7]

For me, RWR helps with keeping my mind occupied and not stressing how much longer or how many miles. I take it one mile at a time, sometimes one interval at a time depending on how I'm feeling.

Although yesterday was a tough long run for me. I started way too late because someone decided they wanted to go thru my family’s cars overnight. Thankfully nothing was taken but the police came to make a report so I had to wait for that. All this messed with my mind so I was struggling. But I got my 18 miles in.

 

[DHSsenior007]

@runwithperseverence7 - sorry to hear about your cars being broken into! Glad nothing was stolen but that is still frustrating. Kudos for still getting in that long run!!

 

[Lemon Head]

Afternoon All!

Long time lurker and now I've joined I'm keen to ask - how serious do people take the Dopey?

I ask because I'm taking it very seriously (Dopey 2025 is my first ever Disney run). I ran a marathon in October and am desperately recovering and trying to get my mileage back up in time. I see people on here with pretty serious plans too.

But then I hear people say 'if you get a pb, you've done it all wrong' and 'the hardest part is getting up at 2am really'. Theres all the rides, character photos, pictures of people finishing with beers, along with photos of fancy dress and theres lots of youtube videos of people walking.

I'm going to try and be in peak condition regardless, but im still aching from the last marathon - Exactly how serious does the average Dopey participant take this and do I need to be in the shape of my life (I'm generally pretty fit - do average 1:45 HMs and 4:10 Marathons)?

 

[runwithperseverence7]

@runwithperseverence7 - sorry to hear about your cars being broken into! Glad nothing was stolen but that is still frustrating. Kudos for still getting in that long run!!

Thanks! We leave the doors unlocked since we live in a safe neighborhood and our cars sit very far off the road. Lesson learned.

 

[runwithperseverence7]

Afternoon All!

Long time lurker and now I've joined I'm keen to ask - how serious do people take the Dopey?

I ask because I'm taking it very seriously (Dopey 2025 is my first ever Disney run). I ran a marathon in October and am desperately recovering and trying to get my mileage back up in time. I see people on here with pretty serious plans too.

But then I hear people say 'if you get a pb, you've done it all wrong' and 'the hardest part is getting up at 2am really'. Theres all the rides, character photos, pictures of people finishing with beers, along with photos of fancy dress and theres lots of youtube videos of people walking.

I'm going to try and be in peak condition regardless, but im still aching from the last marathon - Exactly how serious does the average Dopey participant take this and do I need to be in the shape of my life (I'm generally pretty fit - do average 1:45 HMs and 4:10 Marathons)?

Dopey 2025 will be my first RD event too. My last marathon I ran 4:16 but that was back in March and I was going for a PR. This time around, I’m not going for a time goal other than to finish(although I have a time in my head that I would like to be done by). I’m more excited about the costumes and the characters and being in wdw to worry about running that fast. I honestly didn’t enjoy the scenery as much because I was too worried with trying to keep my paces. I think you have all sorts of people at RD. I love that it seems to be more fun focused than competitive (even though I’m competitive myself). I think it’s whatever you want to get out of the weekend. So do what will bring you the most joy. It’s a lot of miles over a long weekend but I’m sure you will be ready for it as long as you are training and getting time on your feet. I am thankful for this board and the people who have done this before to share their knowledge with us newbies.

 

[Lemon Head]

Dopey 2025 will be my first RD event too. My last marathon I ran 4:16 but that was back in March and I was going for a PR. This time around, I’m not going for a time goal other than to finish(although I have a time in my head that I would like to be done by). I’m more excited about the costumes and the characters and being in wdw to worry about running that fast. I honestly didn’t enjoy the scenery as much because I was too worried with trying to keep my paces. I think you have all sorts of people at RD. I love that it seems to be more fun focused than competitive (even though I’m competitive myself). I think it’s whatever you want to get out of the weekend. So do what will bring you the most joy. I am thankful for this board and the people who have done this before to share their knowledge with us newbies.

We sound like we're in a similar boat - I feel like I've done my 'serious' marathon where I bust a lung keeping up with the pacers. I was under the impression at MW time wasnt a big deal (for runners, obviously the balloon ladies are the nightmare of walkers...).

Having done my serious marathon I was hoping it would be more of an 'event' than a serious thing. I want to see the parks and characters and have fun with cool people rather than pay all that money to just 'head down and run' then get to the end and its all over quickly.

 

[MissLiss279]

Afternoon All!

Long time lurker and now I've joined I'm keen to ask - how serious do people take the Dopey?

I ask because I'm taking it very seriously (Dopey 2025 is my first ever Disney run). I ran a marathon in October and am desperately recovering and trying to get my mileage back up in time. I see people on here with pretty serious plans too.

But then I hear people say 'if you get a pb, you've done it all wrong' and 'the hardest part is getting up at 2am really'. Theres all the rides, character photos, pictures of people finishing with beers, along with photos of fancy dress and theres lots of youtube videos of people walking.

I'm going to try and be in peak condition regardless, but im still aching from the last marathon - Exactly how serious does the average Dopey participant take this and do I need to be in the shape of my life (I'm generally pretty fit - do average 1:45 HMs and 4:10 Marathons)?

I would say most people are there to enjoy the event. Some will take it serious - I have actually PR’d every race of Dopey before - back when I still had a lot of potential to realize (and I decided to follow a plan and actually use the pacing guidance).
In general I really don’t enjoy running marathons at all hard effort, so I usually run decent efforts for the 5 and 10k (not super fast, but faster than easy). The half and full, I run at what feels good. I’m not huge into stopping for characters, but I love seeing them and I will stop if the line is short. This really helps at the end of the marathon - thinking about getting to the next character.
This will be the first year that I will be using run/walk for MW, so it’s possible that I won’t be thinking about getting to the next character this time - since the intervals will naturally give me short breaks. But I will still probably stop for characters if the lines are short.
So I think you will have all kinds of people with different goals. Run how you want. No one will care (unless you zip by people and run into them in the process).

 

[PrincessV]

Afternoon All!

Long time lurker and now I've joined I'm keen to ask - how serious do people take the Dopey?

I ask because I'm taking it very seriously (Dopey 2025 is my first ever Disney run). I ran a marathon in October and am desperately recovering and trying to get my mileage back up in time. I see people on here with pretty serious plans too.

But then I hear people say 'if you get a pb, you've done it all wrong' and 'the hardest part is getting up at 2am really'. Theres all the rides, character photos, pictures of people finishing with beers, along with photos of fancy dress and theres lots of youtube videos of people walking.

I'm going to try and be in peak condition regardless, but im still aching from the last marathon - Exactly how serious does the average Dopey participant take this and do I need to be in the shape of my life (I'm generally pretty fit - do average 1:45 HMs and 4:10 Marathons)?

I think there are two different aspects to consider:

1. I’d hazard to say that almost everyone here takes training for Dopey seriously. Because whether your goal is a PR or to stop for every photo and ride possible, 4 days and 48.6 miles is a heavy lift. I would be very cautious about mistaking any talk about prioritizing fun over time as an indicator of how seriously they take training.

2. As for how many run for time vs. fun vs. a combination of the two, I’d say it’s probably about equal amounts. Again, I think most folks take the distance and effort required seriously… but that may or may not translate into running a best effort on any given day of Dopey. People have different reasons for being there, different goals, different ideas of what constitutes a “good” race. Speaking for myself as a 6+ hour marathoner, I was very serious about being as fit as I could be going into a Dopey because regardless of how I wanted to run it, my priority was to feel as good as possible doing it. One time, that scored me a 20-minute PR; another year it was taking my slow, sweet time and finishing with a beer in hand. You do you!

 

[runwithperseverence7]

We sound like we're in a similar boat - I feel like I've done my 'serious' marathon where I bust a lung keeping up with the pacers. I was under the impression at MW time wasnt a big deal (for runners, obviously the balloon ladies are the nightmare of walkers...).

Having done my serious marathon I was hoping it would be more of an 'event' than a serious thing. I want to see the parks and characters and have fun with cool people rather than pay all that money to just 'head down and run' then get to the end and it’s all over quickly.

Totally agree. Just want to soak in all the fun! I’ll save the pr runs for when I’m ready to tackle Boston . I was hoping to stay in the 11:00-12:00 pace for the marathon but I may need to slow down since I’m dealing with some hip flexor pain. Im planning on taking the next 4 days off hoping it helps get the inflammation down. Th and Sun are forced rest days for me. And I have an event Friday and Saturday so I had to move my dopey sim up earlier in the week. So I’ll be missing a run for the week but it’s ok.

 

[cburnett11]

@Lemon Head
Most people take the training seriously, but if you have trained hard recently for a “serious” marathon, then I believe you will be ready for Dopey… unless you are planning to run all 4 really hard. I enjoy this weekend more than any other races I do throughout the year and sometimes even get good finish times (for me). I will likely run the first 3 races at about 85-90% and the marathon will depend on how I feel. Since the races get longer each morning, my paces are appropriately a little slower each day. I don’t really love hard 5k/10k effort, so my lungs prefer the end of the weekend more than the beginning even if my body if fatigued.

It’s always a fun weekend. Don’t overthink it and just soak in the experience.

 

[kps7795]

Afternoon All!

Long time lurker and now I've joined I'm keen to ask - how serious do people take the Dopey?

I ask because I'm taking it very seriously (Dopey 2025 is my first ever Disney run). I ran a marathon in October and am desperately recovering and trying to get my mileage back up in time. I see people on here with pretty serious plans too.

But then I hear people say 'if you get a pb, you've done it all wrong' and 'the hardest part is getting up at 2am really'. Theres all the rides, character photos, pictures of people finishing with beers, along with photos of fancy dress and theres lots of youtube videos of people walking.

I'm going to try and be in peak condition regardless, but im still aching from the last marathon - Exactly how serious does the average Dopey participant take this and do I need to be in the shape of my life (I'm generally pretty fit - do average 1:45 HMs and 4:10 Marathons)?

I can obviously only speak for myself, but I am pushing myself in training in order to have a "fun" marathon as part of my Dopey Challenge. Personally, I love stopping to take pictures with the characters and going on rides during a marathon. It's what really sets the Disney World marathon apart from any other marathon in the world. Hence, I have a plan to run at my marathon pace for the first nine miles in order to minimize wait times for characters. Basically, I am "racing" from character to character until I reach Magic Kingdom.

I mentioned this the other day about my race plan but in case you joined the board after that post I can repeat it again...at that point, I am going to see what time it is and run at my easy pace in order to to time it so that I get to Expedition Everest at 7:30 when they will start the ride. Then, it's marathon pace racing from character to character again until DHS where I will meet up with my daughter and go on as many rides as I can and take pictures until I rejoin the race at around 11:00-11:15. From DHS until Epcot, I'll likely go at whatever pace feels comfortable and maybe stop for a cupcake at the boardwalk bakery (DEFINITELY not the CBS!).

This will be my third Disney World marathon, but my first Dopey. Thus far, I have only ridden one ride (Everest) during a marathon which was in 2023. The most characters that I have taken pictures with was 21. Hence, I have ambitious plans for this marathon experience.

You have to figure out what your priorities are in order to maximize your enjoyment. Nevertheless, the great thing about this race is that there is something there for every runner whether you're trying to BQ, get a PR, see the characters as you run past, stop and take pictures with the characters and everything in between.

 

[kps7795]

I will likely run the first 3 races at about 85-90% and the marathon will depend on how I feel.

How are your feet by the time you get to the marathon?

My biggest concern is having a repeat of my Goofy 2023 experience where my left foot was in agony by Mile 14 to the point where I couldn't run more than a few feet and had to walk the remaining 12 miles. Mind you, I wouldn't say that I trained seriously for the Goofy (big mistake...big...HUGE!) when I look back at my training logs. For example, I only ran 116 miles in November 2022 and this month I'm on track to run 185. So, I think that my feet simply weren't prepared for running the half AND the full in two days.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Afternoon All!

Long time lurker and now I've joined I'm keen to ask - how serious do people take the Dopey?

As others have said, Dopey isn't taken lightly but there is definitely an aspect of "what are you trying to get out of your Dopey/Disney experience" and that can and does have wildly different expectations. There are definitely people on social media who are all "I didn't train at all and did Dopey and I'm fine" and those people are very much the exception to the rule (and probably massively exaggerating their lack of training.)

I ask because I'm taking it very seriously (Dopey 2025 is my first ever Disney run). I ran a marathon in October and am desperately recovering and trying to get my mileage back up in time. I see people on here with pretty serious plans too.

But then I hear people say 'if you get a pb, you've done it all wrong' and 'the hardest part is getting up at 2am really'. Theres all the rides, character photos, pictures of people finishing with beers, along with photos of fancy dress and theres lots of youtube videos of people walking.

Getting up at 2am and then standing around for 3 hours is really hard and if you've never experienced it before.....yeah. It's a lot. The standing around in the corrals stinks, and even in corral A there can definitely be some runner etiquette lacking.

I'm going to try and be in peak condition regardless, but im still aching from the last marathon - Exactly how serious does the average Dopey participant take this and do I need to be in the shape of my life (I'm generally pretty fit - do average 1:45 HMs and 4:10 Marathons)?

What are your goals? Do you want to PR all of the distances? There are definitely people in here who have done that or are currently trying to do that. Is this your first/only rundisney? Is this something you think you'll "get into" and become more of a "regular" for? (For the record, a lot of us say "never again" and then sign up for the same thing 3 months later.) Do you want to pay premium race price and then skip out on character pics, rides, etc? For me, those are things that I cannot get at any other marathon.

However. There is the risk of taking "too long" and having too many shenanigans and being on your feet significantly longer than you are used to. All things to consider and balance as you decide what kind of experience you are after.

 

[deadvc]

We sound like we're in a similar boat - I feel like I've done my 'serious' marathon where I bust a lung keeping up with the pacers. I was under the impression at MW time wasnt a big deal (for runners, obviously the balloon ladies are the nightmare of walkers...).

Having done my serious marathon I was hoping it would be more of an 'event' than a serious thing. I want to see the parks and characters and have fun with cool people rather than pay all that money to just 'head down and run' then get to the end and its all over quickly.

Many approach it exactly this way, seeing no reason to try and go all out and rather just run easy to experience the course, photo stops, etc. Some may try to run PR's but that doesn't mean you need to, or even that the majority do.

If the goal is just to complete the races and not worry about time, which is a valid goal for the Dopey, then I think the sentiment that the hardest part is being up at 3am so many days in a row is accurate. If you're in good shape to run a marathon then the first two races are practically warm up runs, and the half and full you just take easy. If you just ran a full you've got the fitness, so let your body recover and then hit a long run or three before tapering again. Be sure to do some back to back running days.