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.

 

[princesspirateandrunner]

Question for DVC people: We have a reservation at Pop for most of MW (1/9-1/12) and are moving to Yacht Club on Monday for one night. We were considering splurging and changing the Pop days for Poly. I checked with the big rental site, and they said there is nothing available for those dates (not just at Poly, but they couldn’t even offer alternatives like they usually do). I’m assuming that that means it wouldn’t help to chase down rental points at all, and that the only way to do it would be to go through Disney reservations (still showing availability, but way more expensive). Am I right about that? I can’t imagine that anyone has a confirmed reservation that they’re trying to sell, so I think I’m right that there’s just nothing to do DVC-wise at this point. Can someone who knows about DVC reservations confirm that they’re all gone for then?

 

[Erika10021]

Question for DVC people: We have a reservation at Pop for most of MW (1/9-1/12) and are moving to Yacht Club on Monday for one night. We were considering splurging and changing the Pop days for Poly. I checked with the big rental site, and they said there is nothing available for those dates (not just at Poly, but they couldn’t even offer alternatives like they usually do). I’m assuming that that means it wouldn’t help to chase down rental points at all, and that the only way to do it would be to go through Disney reservations (still showing availability, but way more expensive). Am I right about that? I can’t imagine that anyone has a confirmed reservation that they’re trying to sell, so I think I’m right that there’s just nothing to do DVC-wise at this point. Can someone who knows about DVC reservations confirm that they’re all gone for then?

We were lucky enough to snag a DVC reservation (via a waitlist) at the poly longhouses a couple of months ago. But we are still watching for a couple more days to add to the trip. There seems to be very little available for DVC. But good luck!!

 

[LilyJC]

Question for DVC people: We have a reservation at Pop for most of MW (1/9-1/12) and are moving to Yacht Club on Monday for one night. We were considering splurging and changing the Pop days for Poly. I checked with the big rental site, and they said there is nothing available for those dates (not just at Poly, but they couldn’t even offer alternatives like they usually do). I’m assuming that that means it wouldn’t help to chase down rental points at all, and that the only way to do it would be to go through Disney reservations (still showing availability, but way more expensive). Am I right about that? I can’t imagine that anyone has a confirmed reservation that they’re trying to sell, so I think I’m right that there’s just nothing to do DVC-wise at this point. Can someone who knows about DVC reservations confirm that they’re all gone for then?

There’s unfortunately no DVC availability at this point for Marathon Weekend. Your best bet would be to check with the different rental companies for any confirmed reservations they may have. Good luck though - You never know what might pop up!

 

[pluto377]

SAFD: Like many others I try to stop for rare characters or the Fab 5 in rare costumes. I don't have anyone I'm particularly hoping to see at this point as I've gotten a lot of pics over the years.

It's officially three weeks since I've done any kind of physical activity. I've got pneumonia again. Last year I got it around Thanksgiving and it wasn't so bad because I was only doing 10K and half. I've been working so hard all year to have consistent training and really set myself up for Dopey success. At this point, I'm feeling very down about my chances of finishing and I have no idea what to do with training. I don't expect to be able to run for another week at least with how I'm currently feeling. Sorry, pity party over now.

 

[marty3d]

SAFD: Like many others I try to stop for rare characters or the Fab 5 in rare costumes. I don't have anyone I'm particularly hoping to see at this point as I've gotten a lot of pics over the years.

It's officially three weeks since I've done any kind of physical activity. I've got pneumonia again. Last year I got it around Thanksgiving and it wasn't so bad because I was only doing 10K and half. I've been working so hard all year to have consistent training and really set myself up for Dopey success. At this point, I'm feeling very down about my chances of finishing and I have no idea what to do with training. I don't expect to be able to run for another week at least with how I'm currently feeling. Sorry, pity party over now.

I hope you feel better soon! Getting over pneumonia and getting healthy is more important than the lack of training right now. You still have time once you're better to get into enough shape to finish - you won't lose all the work you put in beforehand.

 

[Stitch&Co.]

Hope you feel better soon @pluto377. Don't stress about Dopey. You've still got time. The important thing is to get better and then go from there. You've got enough training behind you and enough time ahead of you to still be in a good spot for Dopey.

 

[AZMermaid]

I’m so sorry Pluto. I’m in the same boat with tendonitis and have all the same feels. I was doing so great and then bam. But I’m starting to see a bit of light and as soon as I saw it…. I’m feeling much more encouraged. I’ve done a couple of short walks this week and was itching to run (but didn’t) but it made me feel better that I didnt lose as much as I feared.

 

[Mr_Incr3dible]

SAFD: Like many others I try to stop for rare characters or the Fab 5 in rare costumes. I don't have anyone I'm particularly hoping to see at this point as I've gotten a lot of pics over the years.

It's officially three weeks since I've done any kind of physical activity. I've got pneumonia again. Last year I got it around Thanksgiving and it wasn't so bad because I was only doing 10K and half. I've been working so hard all year to have consistent training and really set myself up for Dopey success. At this point, I'm feeling very down about my chances of finishing and I have no idea what to do with training. I don't expect to be able to run for another week at least with how I'm currently feeling. Sorry, pity party over now.

Get over the pneumonia first, then back to training. You'll still have appx 2 months to train and that will be enough time to be trained up. You may not be trained back up enough for a Boston qualifying time, but enough to finish. And maybe not as much time as you'd like for character photos, but enough to finish.
Get well, then start a RWR at whatever pace you can manage as you ramp back up. Since basic walking is enough for the 16min/mile pace, I'm sure you'll be able to be more than fast enough for Dopey by race weekend. You've got this.

SAFD: My first couple of rD events (09 and '11) I had very few character stops and the races were over with way too soon. I didn't necessarily go for rare characters, but I did stop for guys like Phineas and Ferb since my sons liked watching them so much.
When I resumed rD again in 2022, it was with an eye toward PR-ing for fun, and that meant running in costume and stopping for good characters. That said, with my kids grown, I haven't watched as much Disney and have run past quite a few characters because I don't even know who the heck they are.
So now it is a case of I'll stop for a character I really like, such as the Mandalorian, or one that is interesting, or maybe if it is a short line. When I did my Dopey, yeah, I'm going to stand in a long line because I want that photo for that race. Another time, as were about to go by the teacups, here comes Alice just walking out. Since the wait was going to be about 1 minute, I jumped in line for that photo op.
So it all depends. YMMV