Marathon Weekend 2025

[DHSsenior007]

Just finished the BMW half marathon in Dallas this morning! It was pretty humid, but I am overall happy with how I did- negative splits, hit my pacing goals, etc. Plus, I figured the weather would give me a good preview of what it could be in Disney next month! Next race- Disney Marathon! Just have to get through my 20 miler next week then taper.

SAFD: we have a couple of things that are new. First, it will be my daughter's first trip to Disney. She is going to be 20 months old, so who knows how it will go. We are keeping plans pretty open, but I'm excited to see how she reacts to the rides, characters, and just the overall ambiance. The second thing is my husband and I will be doing the extra hours event at MK that Monday night. Will be a good chance for us to do the rides our daughter can't do, plus enjoy all the mickey bars post marathon!

 

[Z-Knight]

let me do some quick “runners math” for you, because finishing is TOTALLY doable imo.

Let’s round things off and say the castle is mile 10. Let’s also say you started WITH the balloon ladies.

At 13:00/mi, you would be 30 minutes ahead of them at the castle. That leaves 16mi of race. 16x2=32, let’s round down to 30. You could walk approximately 18:00/mi for the rest of the race and finish. If you want to know what that feels like, put a treadmill on 3.3. Want more time cushion? Run to AK (mile 17) and you’d have a whopping 51min lead on the balloon ladies. Or try to start further forward in your corral (if you put in 13:00 equivalent for your finish time you’d be starting probably 15-20min ahead of the balloon ladies. You finishing is completely doable “just” running to the castle and then walking with a little strategy.

this is literally the bargaining I am doing at this point because training has been awful...lol

 

[pluto377]

Do you mind me asking why you DNF dopey?
I’ve done plenty of marathons but never a Dopey so I’m after all the advice I can get.

There's probably a million reasons why it didn't work out in the end, but I think the main thing was heat. For me, it was waaaay to hot that year (I like to run in 30s/40s ideally). I got to about mile 20 and realized I was absolutely miserable, my fingers were swollen like sausages and I felt like I was on fire. It was a solo trip leaving my DH and 3 boys at home and all I could think was if I end up in the hospital or worse what would be the point of that? I had finished Dopey in 2019, plus finished several other marathons, so I didn't feel like I had anything to prove.

Some other major contributing factors were my slow pace, suboptimal training leading up to and through Dopey training. and pushing a little too hard during the half.

SAFD- I'm hoping to ride Tron and Tiana this year. I'm staying at POR in a Royal Room. I'm hoping to try at least one new restaurant.

 

[Kerry1957]

Just wanted to post to remind everyone that we are once again putting together a great packet of info encompassing the entire marathon weekend. You do not have to include your individual information, but the more folks who do helps to make it a better document. It will be available as a pdf available to all once finalized.

Look for the thread titled DIS LIST for MW 2025 for a better description of what we are up to. https://www.disboards.com/threads/dis-list-for-mw-2025.3958689/

 

[Herding_Cats]

SAFD-

New this year:
-AH at MK the day after the marathonan. I’m usually in bed by 10pm, so it’ll be interesting to see how my body reacts
-monorail crawl for drinks/apps
-a few new restaurants (raglan road, turf club, whispering canyon for breakfast)
-one night at boardwalk (with a BW view!)
-DH is golfing

-the biggest “new” thing is sharing our weekend with BIL/SIL as this has always been just myself and DH (and DD the first year.) I’m looking forward to having a 2BR with a real fridge, our own washer/dryer, and more space.

 

[Psymonds]

noob question and I searched but didn't see it anywhere else, but the expo says I need a check in code to pick up my bib. where do I get that?

also I assume I'll need to pick up my (under 18) son's bib as well?

 

[Herding_Cats]

this is literally the bargaining I am doing at this point because training has been awful...lol

Yoooooo. I’ve run like 8 miles this month. I’m banking HARD on refereeing to bridge the gap in my fitness.


ETA: if you don't read training journals, I referee middle and high school basketball, and have been averaging about 10-12hrs/week of that in December, and a few less in November. My peak weeks with a straight running marathon plan peaked at about 8.5 hours, so even if I get 75% of the benefit with refereeing, I'm still getting the time on feet in. I've done 3 Saturdays that were 6 hours, 7 hours, and 4 hours, so I'm getting some long stretches in there as well. (If I'm only getting 50% of the benefit I'll have a horrible weekend....so we'll see. I should have 2.5 weeks where I can "just run" during winter break)

 

[Baloo in MI]

SAFD:
Outside Tiana, we are not doing anything truly new this year but we are meeting my folks (who are coming from Oregon) and my oldest daughter will be coming with her boyfriend and staying with him instead of us - that will be new! We are officially entering a new era for our Disney Trips I suppose. At least we get to have our younger daughter with us at the resort. Time simply goes too fast!

Talking about time moving too fast. This will be Dopey #9, with one Goofy as well, so we are going have a 10 years of MW celebration dinner after the marathon.

 

[Herding_Cats]

noob question and I searched but didn't see it anywhere else, but the expo says I need a check in code to pick up my bib. where do I get that?

also I assume I'll need to pick up my (under 18) son's bib as well?

You’ll get an “expo pass” in your email (or rundisney account since Disney IT is terrible)
IF you live in the US, only if you’ve completed your waiver ahead of time. It’s essentiallly your bib number, and you won’t get that until a few days before the expo opens. There will def be discussions in here surrounding bib numbers and potential corral placement when they go out.

 

[runwithperseverence7]

SAFD: running at Disney will be new to me. We are staying at a new resort. Hoping to ride some of the new rides that opened since we were last there 2021 NYE. That’s about it. Getting excited and nervous!

 

[jmasgat]

SAFD: Well this year I am really going to try to do (part of) DATW. In the past, I've somehow missed meeting up with people, and I've also finally realized that I don't have to do the whole thing--or even drink. My limit for "slowly meandering and socializing" is fairly low--mainly cause I don't really like to stand around, and after a while I just want to be on my own.

Beyond that, I would like to do Tiana (missed the VQ every day during W&D). And hit a few more happy hours--best prices and early (yes, I'm that old/boring/frugal)

 

[Psymonds]

SAFD:

This is our first runDisney. so that's new.

we are also trying a different resort this time (in part because of the running, wanting reliable transportaiton for the non-runners in our group).

It's also our first winter trip in 18 years

 

[princesspirateandrunner]

I’m finally caught up on reading through the thread. I need to go back and answer the last several SAFDs, but I might as well answer this one now, and I’ll (hopefully) get some time to post some other things soon. I’m behind on quite a lot in my life, including training.

SAFD: We’re planning on joining up for DATW this year! We also have one night at Beach Club, which is new to us. We had reservations at Pop and got upgraded to a POR Royal room, which is also new. We’ve stayed at POR before, but it was many years ago, and it was before they had royal rooms. We then decided to add on a night, and wanted to try Beach Club, since we eventually want to stay at every resort (and collect the resort pin!). That led to our decision to get an Epcot ticket and join in the DATW fun. We also are currently planning to rope drop at DHS after the 10k (that plan was when we thought we were at Pop and doing a skyliner trip, so it might change). We made a reservation at Mama Melrose’s, so if we keep the current plan, we’ll run the 10k, rope drop DHS, go clean up at POR, meet up at HH’s, then go back to DHS for dinner and Fantasmic. I might or might not have the stamina for all that, but we’ll see. On our last trip, we were going to try Jelly Roll’s (which would have been new to us), but it was cold and we were tired, so we bailed. All plans are subject to change!

 

[smileyanna]

SAFD: 1. Dopey is my first challenge race 2. Staying at WL for the first time 3. Kids aren’t coming
Until the last few weeks, I’d assumed I would take advantage of the adults only trip by running around the parks or trying new restaurants. But lately I’ve been thinking that I don’t want to jeopardize the Dopey finish. So it might turn into a resort - only trip, which would also be a first for me!

 

[Naomeri]

SAFD: I have 2 firsts for this trip: Dopey (and Marathon Weekend in general) and staying at Saratoga Springs

 

[nancipants]

SAFD: First marathon.

 

[marty3d]

Regarding marathon training fatigue. Totally get it. I’m there again which is why I also skipped Dopey 2024. Now training for my third Dopey in 4 years I’m really feeling it. I’m not ready to give up on Marathons completely. I am still determined to do NYC one year and also want to do Honolulu. But I like @The Expert ’s idea of alternating the marathon from year to year. I’d was already 90% certain I’d skip Dopey in 2026 for various reasons but I’m almost certain I will now. Only way I can see training for a marathon next year is if I get in to NYC.

SAFD: 3 new experiences this year:
1 - First run in costume - the 10k
2 - first half with my DS (after several 5k 10k together)
3 - first time joining in on DATW!

 

[fatmanatee]

Yeah I totally get the commiserations about training, how the race itself takes a lot out of you, etc. I thought training went about as well as possible for my marathon in November, way fewer skipped days, sticking with the plan, but that came at the expense of a lot of free time. I had hoped that the race itself would be easier due to all the training I had done, that I could run on autopilot and enjoy this one, as opposed to surviving it. Then race day came, things were going well, but I felt a pull at my thigh after mile 17 and spent the next nine miles making sure that pull stayed just a pull and not worse. If I weren't trying for a PR I would have dialed it back a lot, maybe stopped to try to massage it out or something, but instead I just muscled my way through it. The PR happened by a minute, but anyway no matter how well you think you're doing in training in the end it's still a marathon!

Haven't decided what I'll do after this one. At one point I had an idea that I would do WDW one year, then DL the next, and just go back and forth, and that's still an option. Jumping in for Dopey here, two months after NYC, probably wasn't my finest decision. It happens at a busy time at work and I'm expecting to be working during the day for all but maybe one day that I'm down there. But I like this community and I like this race weekend in general. I also wasn’t entirely thrilled with Dopey #1 in 2022 so I felt like I had to get back at this.

Anyway, we’ll see what happens but I think I’m more at peace with whatever might be next than I was two years ago.

SAFD: going to be a few firsts for this one…

- First after hours event
- Hopefully marathon everest ride
- Haven’t done Tiana (and DID do Splash for the first time last month at TDL)
- Saturday pre-marathon meal is at Via Napoli. TBH i don’t go hard with carbs the night before but the option was available so why not, chicken parm time

 

[KellyKateri]

SAFD:
1) Running my first half marathon!
2) Making a new challenge at MW by doing the 10k and the half (trying to come up with a challenge name lol)
3) Expanding the group… which is honestly what I’m most nervous about. Last year it was my sister and I running the 10k, this year we have about 11 people running across the whole weekend.
4) trying chef art smiths brunch! I was lucky getting a reservation for all of us at a prime time

 

[cburnett11]

SAFD - Doing my first After Hours event at MK. Not sure if I think after hours is a good or bad idea, suppose I’ll find out.

We did this in 2023 the Monday after the marathon. It was fantastic AND we had a super early morning Tuesday flight. We only got nap-sized sleep before we had to uber to MCO.