Marathon Weekend 2026

[The Expert]

SAFD: I will stop for rare characters within reason, and almost anybody if the line is short enough. I'll stop for a character I'm dressed as almost every time. Those who are wait-worthy for me that I have gotten:

Herc and Meg together
Bolt
Adventurer's Club cast
All the princes (assuming they still do this for the Princess half?)

The one I regret not stopping for was Merlin, who was out just after the start for a race a few years ago and the line was CRAZY. But I should have just done it.

 

[radiodome21]

SAFD: TBH I’m not a huge character person in general and with only one runDisney race (SS 10k) in the books I was pleasantly surprised with seeing them on the course. However I was more concerned with not getting swept so I didn’t stop for any. We have races 2 & 3 this weekend and since I’m in better running shape than I was 6 months ago I might stop. The whole family is doing the 5k and this is the only motivation my 17 year old daughter has for agreeing to do this. I hope she sees someone she likes. I do think my 15 year old son will like it too. He can’t wrap his head around the idea of going to WDW and doing a race. He’s loves Disney world too. He’s a cross country runner so he should beat all of us, or at least give him enough time to see some characters.

 

[MissLiss279]

SAFD: I only stop for characters if the lines are reasonably short (5 people or less) which doesn’t generally happen for me until the marathon. But Like @Barca33Runner, I would stop for Disney Afternoon characters with a little longer line. Darkwing is my favorite, but if I ever see Kit Cloudkicker or Becky or the other characters from the Rescue Rangers, I would stop for them too. I think I remember seeing Monterey Jack recently, so that was fun!

 

[Herding_Cats]

It appears that Sam's Club is going to have a DGC "sale" going from 11/7-9 where you can get a $200 DGC for $180, limit of 4. These are e giftcards, not physical giftcards.

 

[KCO5988]

SAFD: I've only done W&D 2024 and Princess 2025 in recent history so not sure if these are considered rare or not on the courses - but I very excitedly stopped for Lumiere and Sebastian. Hoping Powerline Max will be at one of the days MW because my kindergartener loves The Goofy Movie and I think would love to see a pic of me with him.

 

[jrsharp21]

SAFD: I am also one who really never stops for characters. They are cool to have out on the course and I love seeing who the stops are. I think in all the years I have only stopped twice, Lightning McQueen and Darth Vader. Both times there was not a line. So made it a quick stop. Since we start the races in the dark, I think having some of the Tron characters out there would be cool. Also, has Baymax ever been out there? I think that would be another cool one.

 

[Mr_Incr3dible]

MCM is my only non-rD marathon so far, and it was great! Enjoy the heck out of the whole atmosphere and race route.
My boss will be there running, so I have some amount of FOMO going on.
One hint: one of the tables at the expo had a MCM patch. I grabbed two, one for my backpack and one that I sewed on the sleeve of a MCM t-shirt that I bought at the expo.
Another comment: a surprising number of people see me in a MCM shirt, see just the Marines stuff and not that it is a race, and ask how long I was in the service. I absolutely do not want any underserved valor, so my answer now is "Six hours; just long enough to run their marathon".

 

[princesspirateandrunner]

Sometimes there’s a snake too!
*shudder*

This is why I always had to avoid the animals, even though I really wanted to see all the others. . I was always the person running on the far side of the road, just in case the snake was out.

 

[jpholic]

Question regarding the cancelled spirit jersey. Received the email stating a refund was processed as an 'account credit.' Do I have a credit somewhere in my rD account? Original method of payment was Disney GC but no credit has shown up.

 

[col1]

SAFD: I have never stopped for a character, not even once I think I have done 8 or 9 Disney runs over the years. Each time has only been a single race, I think if I did a challenge weekend I would likely set aside one of the races to get some .

Maybe I should

 

[accm]

Question regarding the cancelled spirit jersey. Received the email stating a refund was processed as an 'account credit.' Do I have a credit somewhere in my rD account? Original method of payment was Disney GC but no credit has shown up.

MY friend who had bought the spirit jersey told me the refund would take 4-6 weeks to be processed. My guess is that it'll go back to the GC you used, but might take some time to show up.

I would contact runDisney just to be sure. Don't expect a response right away though, since Wine and Dine is happening this weekend.

 

[GuinnessRunner]

SAFD: I have never been a huge character picture person. I enjoy seeing them on the course, but never stopped until last year. As I was making that U-turn to head back to the Blizzard Beach parking lot I saw Frozone and there was nobody in line so I decided to do something new and actually stop. No reach connection to him, just trying somethign new. If it was worth doing once, it had to be worth doing twice right? So when I got to Boardwalk and Oogie Boogie was there with no line, I stopped again as he's a character my kids like and they had never seen out. So I can't say "never" any more. If it's the right character and lines are short enough, I can see myself doing it again. Hoping they have some good Star Wars characters out again on the road to AK.