Marathon Weekend 2025

@camaker how are you feeling this afternoon?
Thank you for asking! Getting warmth and ibuprofen into the leg has helped. I could barely put weight on it when the parade bus came and even when I got back to the room. I can walk now, albeit with a limp, and was able to get out and get something to eat. I've already been emailing with my PT and I'm shut down for a minimum of 2 weeks while we try to figure this out.

It's been good to follow along with everyone's stories as they've come across the finish line today. So happy to see everyone make it in the end! What a group!

Looking forward to seeing everyone at DATW tomorrow!
 
You and @The Expert saved my bacon for sure.
I’m so glad we’re able to help you get over the finish line!

I had a major breakdown back at the resort. I had nothing to drink in my room but tap water (which I don't mind, on general terms) but I was in desperate need of sugar and caffeine, so after my hot bath, I dragged myself out in search of a vending machine, only to find that the buttons are obviously fake, because it never registers when I hit them, for either Coke or Cherry Coke. I dragged myself all the way back up to my room, and called "the front desk" (which isn't actually, of course) and traumatized some poor guest services so bad with my breakdown (I wasn't rude or anything, just having an exhaustion-induced breakdown) that she said she'd have the actual front desk call me to arrange for someone to bring me a bottle of Coke, I got a call back like 3 minutes later, and traumatized another CM, but the bottle of Coke was ordered.

It took forever, like almost an hour, in which I was curled up on the bed, dying, but Mason the runner finally knocked on my door, with a bag with 3 BOTTLES OF COKE! I will be sending a cast compliment to him and to Thomas at the front desk.
Mason helped me and DH on our first day too! He’s super nice and we sent him a cast compliment as well.
PS: I was able to walk down the bus stairs like normal, and I took the stairs up to the fourth floor at almost-normal human speed. 😜😜 I mostly had to be careful because of my flip flops. I expect now that I can eat some food, get some caffeine, and get the advil on board while I rest, I should be semi-functional by the time I need to leave for dinner.
In the words of Tally the Elf, “NAUGHTY!” 😂
I hope you are feeling more like your normal self soon.
 
For those with blisters— I used to have a terrible blister problem but have found slathering my feet in RunGoo, Injinji toe socks, and Altras (wide toe box) have done the trick. Haven’t had a blister since making the switch!
I haven’t had a blister problem in 3 years with my shoe/sock combo. I think having damp/wet feet at the start of the HM instigated the original blister, and then I just aggravated it today.
 

I haven’t had a blister problem in 3 years with my shoe/sock combo. I think having damp/wet feet at the start of the HM instigated the original blister, and then I just aggravated it today.
I also got a blister, which I took haven't had in years. I think the combo of wet feet and all the camber maybe my shoes rub different.
 
So we made it through Animal Kingdom and were starting to feel good enough that we would be able to finish when my wife tripped on a traffic cone and fell hard. It was about 19.5 miles right before the medical tent, where we watched the balloon ladies go by. We got a ride in an ambulance to the main medical center at the race finish. The medical staff there were wonderful.

We are still at urgent care. Looks a wrist fracture and some bruising.

But up to that point it was an amazing experience.
 
Did anyone else think the mile markers seemed off towards the end of the marathon? My watch was hitting the miles earlier than the signs, which I first attributed to not running the ideal tangents. But then my watch would register the mile after the signs. I checked my distance on my watch, and it was 26.26 miles, so I ran pretty close to the total distance.

And then I remembered my encounter with mile marker 25 for the second time. The first time was between miles 2 and 3 inside Epcot, and mile marker 25 was on the other side of cones near Rafiki. And then three hours later about to enter the International Gateway, there was mile marker 25 again, except this time the numbers were missing. Very weird.
 
You ladies SAVED me. Thank you for waiting for me.
I was so glad we got to finish together! Seeing your sweet family cheering you on in Epcot really got me in the feels.

Everything hurts and I’m dying. Not really though. Mostly just my feet would like to have a word. My blister re-blistered 3x bigger somewhere around mile 22. Had an amazing time running with @The Expert as always. We both got a crazy amount of shout-outs on course from other runners which was a great distraction. Picked up @Naomeri on Western Way and then @nancipants at Boardwalk so we could all finish together. All in all, a good day!
Definitely the best of our 3 together. We rocked those intervals for so long! I'm convinced the universe told us to walk when we did so @Naomeri and @nancipants could catch up.

You and @The Expert saved my bacon for sure. I had a major breakdown back at the resort. I had nothing to drink in my room but tap water (which I don't mind, on general terms) but I was in desperate need of sugar and caffeine, so after my hot bath, I dragged myself out in search of a vending machine, only to find that the buttons are obviously fake, because it never registers when I hit them, for either Coke or Cherry Coke. I dragged myself all the way back up to my room, and called "the front desk" (which isn't actually, of course) and traumatized some poor guest services so bad with my breakdown (I wasn't rude or anything, just having an exhaustion-induced breakdown) that she said she'd have the actual front desk call me to arrange for someone to bring me a bottle of Coke, I got a call back like 3 minutes later, and traumatized another CM, but the bottle of Coke was ordered.

It took forever, like almost an hour, in which I was curled up on the bed, dying, but Mason the runner finally knocked on my door, with a bag with 3 BOTTLES OF COKE! I will be sending a cast compliment to him and to Thomas at the front desk.

PS: I was able to walk down the bus stairs like normal, and I took the stairs up to the fourth floor at almost-normal human speed. 😜😜 I mostly had to be careful because of my flip flops. I expect now that I can eat some food, get some caffeine, and get the advil on board while I rest, I should be semi-functional by the time I need to leave for dinner.
So glad we could help with our shenanigans and support!
 
Did anyone else think the mile markers seemed off towards the end of the marathon? My watch was hitting the miles earlier than the signs, which I first attributed to not running the ideal tangents. But then my watch would register the mile after the signs. I checked my distance on my watch, and it was 26.26 miles, so I ran pretty close to the total distance.

And then I remembered my encounter with mile marker 25 for the second time. The first time was between miles 2 and 3 inside Epcot, and mile marker 25 was on the other side of cones near Rafiki. And then three hours later about to enter the International Gateway, there was mile marker 25 again, except this time the numbers were missing. Very weird.
The mile markers were not exactly where they should be for much of the course. If you looked carefully, you could see the spray painted lines on the ground marking the mile with the actual sign close by whenever there was a convenient spot for it. I will add that running the tangents definitely brought my mileage ahead of many of the markers like yours. At least until Everest after which everything went haywire. Still ended with only 26.4 though.
 
Did anyone else think the mile markers seemed off towards the end of the marathon? My watch was hitting the miles earlier than the signs, which I first attributed to not running the ideal tangents. But then my watch would register the mile after the signs. I checked my distance on my watch, and it was 26.26 miles, so I ran pretty close to the total distance.

And then I remembered my encounter with mile marker 25 for the second time. The first time was between miles 2 and 3 inside Epcot, and mile marker 25 was on the other side of cones near Rafiki. And then three hours later about to enter the International Gateway, there was mile marker 25 again, except this time the numbers were missing. Very weird.
That explains why I never saw 25 on the way in. I was a bit confused.

My watch ended up registering 26.72 for the mileage.
 
Did anyone else think the mile markers seemed off towards the end of the marathon? My watch was hitting the miles earlier than the signs, which I first attributed to not running the ideal tangents. But then my watch would register the mile after the signs. I checked my distance on my watch, and it was 26.26 miles, so I ran pretty close to the total distance.

And then I remembered my encounter with mile marker 25 for the second time. The first time was between miles 2 and 3 inside Epcot, and mile marker 25 was on the other side of cones near Rafiki. And then three hours later about to enter the International Gateway, there was mile marker 25 again, except this time the numbers were missing. Very weird.
Didn’t notice the end but I think it was 18, maybe 19? Leaving AK was 1.2 miles then the next was .75. I was running tangents as best as I could, came in at 26.39. That particular one the pacer even said something to the effect of wow, don’t pay attention to that, we’re good.
 
@StarGirl11 How was negotiating the hump leaving Grand Floridian then the immediate left onto the path?
Just saw this. I didn’t get on this morning before the race. First time through went surprisingly smoothly. By luck the Marie stop got me into a position that was perfect to take the turns.

This morning? Not as much. Somehow coming out of Jack wasn’t the same as experience and ended up having a brush with the hay bales they had set up for our safety
Sadly, it was Pain and Panic when I stopped, but I did get Herc & Meg last year at the half.


We passed Everest about 9:30 and they were telling runners they didn't have time to ride. Standby was posted 30 min.
I think they were supposed to have separate stops and then didn’t for some reason. Because there was definitely a spot set up for them after the rolling portion going by the fact it was blasting Megs song.

Wonder why it was changed.
Oh i meant RnRC. I wanted to ride it yesterday but wasn’t able to fit it in. Actually went by when it had a 45 min wait and I asked how long single rider might take so I could maybe jump in and out and they said “45 min”. 🤷‍♂️
So I’m pretty sure that wasn’t done to discourage runners but just how RnRc is. When I was at DHS on Wednesday to ask about riding (though that didn’t pan out because of crowds). The CM I was talking to said that single rider consistently can get up to as long as standby.

More thoughts when I have a minute
 
I did it! I'm Dopey!! The most fun you never want to have again.

I absolutely could not have done it without @DopeyBadger who got me to the starting line uninjured, through the half with the effort necessary to stay ahead of balloons but not overtax myself, and through today by keeping me on pace and knowing exactly the right thing to say when I was so very done.


IMG_2548 2.JPG
 
After a shower and 90 minute nap I think I’m coherent enough to share some thoughts on the marathon and the weekend in general. I know there were several issues but I’m going to focus on the positive for this post.

TLDR - Finished Dopey #3 / Marathon #5 and these were my best of each of them (ignoring time) ever in no small part to the support of this board.

The longer version. My goals for this weekend were pretty simple
- Focus on having fun and not care at all about my pace or overall finish time.
- have a great first half with my DS
- Ride both Everest and TOT during the full
- Stop as often as possible for pictures
- Attend more of the meetups - I managed 3/4 mornings, HH and look forward to my first DATW tomorrow.

In the end I think I hit most of these. And because I didn’t push myself for time in any of the races, I didn’t finish the marathon feeling like death. I’m sore but I’ve felt worse after a hard 10k.

Thanks to @The Expert and her Team Not so Fast thread for reminding me that pace isn’t everything (and honestly, even on my best days I’m not that fast anyway ….). Thanks to @Fischstick and @Z-Knight for keeping me company in the corral for the 5k and 10k and @Z-Knight for running with me through the MK parking lots! (Though I lost you after I stopped for a couple of phot ops!)

This weekend did not help my decision process for 2026 though!
 















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