Marathon Weekend 2026

[scrowl]

If you have your own transportation or are willing to take a rideshare, the campground isn't too far and the loops would make a nice running route. There really isn't much around the MK area if that MK path isn't open. (Also I've heard security will stop you from crossing the bus loop at MK, so you'd have to do an out and back.)

Thanks! I considered taking a rideshare to Crescent Lake, but didn't think about the campground!

 

[The Expert]

Thanks! I considered taking a rideshare to Crescent Lake, but didn't think about the campground!

There's a boat too but it doesn't run that early.

 

[Naomeri]

At W&D last weekend, I saw a new way of keeping up with each other. Two people had little “squeakers” of some kind. I’d hear “squeak, squeak” and immediately in front or behind me, I’d hear the answering, “squeak, squeak.”
Two advantages of lighted bracelets over squeakers are 1) in the wee dark hours, people behind us can clearly see when we raise a hand for a walk break, and 2) it’s wearable and doesn’t have to be carried or pressed.

Also, lights are probably less annoying to people that are at your same pace, and therefore stuck listening to your squeakers for 13.1 miles

 

[AZMermaid]

I’m “only” running the marathon and planning out park days- Sat and Mon. I’m thinking DHS or AK on Sat. We are staying at Poly. If we did AK…. How are the buses early in the morning? It looks like last year Poly was at the 4 mile mark with the TTC at 7.5ish. I’m thinking the back will be past the 4 mile around 7 or so? Are the buses running before that? If we do DHS it seems less of an impact?

 

[jmasgat]

Saturday is a bad day to navigate since World Drive is closed til 9:30-10. You will be most likely be routed Vista Blvd to Bonnet Creek to Buena Vista to Victory Way to get to AK or HS. Not sure with those 2 parks it will make a difference.

Here’s a link to a website that has last years road closure maps, Even if there are course changes, they’re going to be close.

https://disneydiary.com/2025/01/road-closures-due-to-the-disney-world-marathon-weekend-2025/

 

[WDW 4 ME]

Does anyone do medal Tuesday? Since this is my first marathon, not sure how I will feel afterwards. I do know the more movement I get in after running, the better I feel. Just not sure if I will be up for a park on Monday. We leave on Wednesday so was debating on skipping the park on Monday and going on Tuesday instead.

 

[nancipants]

Does anyone do medal Tuesday? Since this is my first marathon, not sure how I will feel afterwards. I do know the more movement I get in after running, the better I feel. Just not sure if I will be up for a park on Monday. We leave on Wednesday so was debating on skipping the park on Monday and going on Tuesday instead.

Monday is DATW at Epcot. We walk and sit. It’s great for recovery.

 

[The Expert]

I’m “only” running the marathon and planning out park days- Sat and Mon. I’m thinking DHS or AK on Sat. We are staying at Poly. If we did AK…. How are the buses early in the morning? It looks like last year Poly was at the 4 mile mark with the TTC at 7.5ish. I’m thinking the back will be past the 4 mile around 7 or so? Are the buses running before that? If we do DHS it seems less of an impact?

Seconding that Saturday is a bad day to try and get out of the MK area before about 10am via roads. The nice thing about that is that MK tends to be empty in the morning! I have stayed at Bay Lake for MW and it's kind of awesome to just walk (or monorail) over with nobody there (until about 10:30-11). Bonus, you could get up a little early and cheer on the not-so-fast runners going by at Poly, in front of MK or at TTC!

If you really have your heart set on another park and want to avoid the roads, you could monorail to Epcot and, if you have a park hopper and the park is open, cut through Epcot and take the Skyliner to DHS. Buses from Epcot would also be rerouted due to road closures, and probably for longer than Poly since that's where the race ends, but if you really want the full planes/trains/automobiles experience you could then grab a bus from DHS to AK!

 

[princesspirateandrunner]

This will be our first time changing resorts two times during MW. We’ve done split stays lots of times, but this will be a new twist. We’re driving down on Friday and staying at Pop, making it easy to take the Skyliner to HH for the meetup,then heading over to the expo from there. I’m running the half on Saturday, then we’ll check out of Pop and move to Poly. DH is running the marathon on Sunday, so we can take advantage of the monorail for the race. Then, on Monday, we’ll move over to Yacht Club, which will be convenient for DATW. In all the years we’ve gone to Disney, we’ve never stayed at Poly or YC, and we collect the resort pins once we’ve stayed at a resort, so we’ll add two to the collection this trip!. Eventually, we’ll have them all, I hope!
I just realized that somewhere I have SoG pins that need to go in the display. For years, they didn’t have pins. Last time we stayed there, they were celebrating 30 (?) years, and had pins for sale. Now, I need to go find where I put them!

 

[princesspirateandrunner]

And BC! Where are my pins, and why didn’t I add them to the display?! Now, I’ve got to go find them!

 

[DisneyGamer11]

Looking at a preferred room at Saratoga. It'll be my first visit there - would this be a convenient location for the race buses (I believe it'd be either in Springs or Congress Park)? Do the race buses only pick up from the stop closest to the pool/lobby?

I've only ever done my race weekends at Swan/Dolphin.

 

[princesspirateandrunner]

Found them! I also found an All Star Music that was separate from the generic All Star pin I had displayed. I’m thinking I also have a couple of Christmas resort pins somewhere that I need to dig out.

 

[Naomeri]

Looking at a preferred room at Saratoga. It'll be my first visit there - would this be a convenient location for the race buses (I believe it'd be either in Springs or Congress Park)? Do the race buses only pick up from the stop closest to the pool/lobby?

I've only ever done my race weekends at Swan/Dolphin.

You want the Springs, it's right next to the only race bus stop, by the lobby. It was a really nice place for MW.

 

[Disney at Heart]

Looking at a preferred room at Saratoga. It'll be my first visit there - would this be a convenient location for the race buses (I believe it'd be either in Springs or Congress Park)? Do the race buses only pick up from the stop closest to the pool/lobby?

I've only ever done my race weekends at Swan/Dolphin.

Just stayed at SSR for W&D. The only runDisney stop was across the street from the Disney bus stop, but we were in the closest building to it in the Springs area. We DID share a bus that picked up at OKW first, but had no problems although I heard that someone did. I believe that @Naomeri said they did not share busses last marathon weekend.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Just stayed at SSR for W&D. The only runDisney stop was across the street from the Disney bus stop, but we were in the closest building to it in the Springs area. We DID share a bus that picked up at OKW first, but had no problems although I heard that someone did. I believe that @Naomeri said they did not share busses last marathon weekend.

SSR doesn’t share pre-race bussing with OKW, but they do share post-race bussing.

@DisneyGamer11 if you want to be closer to the quiet pool and Disney springs (my preference when you’re doing few/no park days) pick Congress Park. It’s a 10min walk at most to the bus stop in the morning from the furthest building. If you want to be closer to the bus stop/QS (and resort mug options)/main pool then pick The Springs.

You can catch a park bus from the CP bus stop and get off at the next stop the springs (the are the 2nd to last and last stops respectively) to limit walking for daytime activities.

 

[camaker]

Good afternoon RunDisney All-Stars! Welcome to this week's edition of Sundays are for Disney (SAFD). We're about two months out from Marathon Weekend at this point, so it seems like a good time for a training check in. How's your training going? Any fall races recently or upcoming? Feeling good about your MW prep? Let's hear about it!

SAFD: Things are going ok for me, thus far. I ran the RDC Marathon last weekend as a test case for my hamstring recovery and fitness level. It went very well with no hamstring issues and pacing consistent with my training. All in all, a big confidence booster as holiday training approaches. I took this week off to recover and will get back into the flow next week. November will be a challenging month for training, though, as DW and I are headed to Scotland to celebrate our 20th anniversary in a couple of weeks. There won't be any running during that trip, so I'll be leaning heavily on December training.

 

[Herding_Cats]

SAFD:
I’ve never felt less prepared. Achilles tendinitis (in both legs, though significantly worse in one) means my PT has requested that I don’t run during my first few weeks of treatment. Even walking around at XC meets for my kids has made things sore. If I don’t see a big improvement in the next couple of weeks I will start to seriously consider contacting Rundisney about a refund/GC as I’m not interested in making it way worse and DNF’ing the half or full.

My PT has me doing this range-of-motion test and something in my hips/hip flexors is super tight and not allowing me to move the way I’m supposed to in my hips. It’s all annoying and worrisome as basketball season is imminent (DH has games tomorrow.)

 

[col1]

Good afternoon RunDisney All-Stars! Welcome to this week's edition of Sundays are for Disney (SAFD). We're about two months out from Marathon Weekend at this point, so it seems like a good time for a training check in. How's your training going? Any fall races recently or upcoming? Feeling good about your MW prep? Let's hear about it!

SAFD: Things are going ok for me, thus far. I ran the RDC Marathon last weekend as a test case for my hamstring recovery and fitness level. It went very well with no hamstring issues and pacing consistent with my training. All in all, a big confidence booster as holiday training approaches. I took this week off to recover and will get back into the flow next week. November will be a challenging month for training, though, as DW and I are headed to Scotland to celebrate our 20th anniversary in a couple of weeks. There won't be any running during that trip, so I'll be leaning heavily on December training.

Enjoy Scotland it’s a lovely country (I’m biased of course )

 

[RuntheMouse]

SAFD: Training is going well. My marathon DNF last month allowed me to jump right back into my training without much downtime so that’s been a positive. I’m currently at WDW and have had some of my best runs here. Luckily my hamstring tweak playing Bocce was a big nothing. DH and I have a fun race next weekend but other than that nothing on the schedule until the marathon! Decided I’m doing a mix of running for time and for fun so there will be a time goal AND a number of photo stops goal.

 

[JackosinDIS]

SAFD:
I’ve never felt less prepared. Achilles tendinitis (in both legs, though significantly worse in one) means my PT has requested that I don’t run during my first few weeks of treatment. Even walking around at XC meets for my kids has made things sore. If I don’t see a big improvement in the next couple of weeks I will start to seriously consider contacting Rundisney about a refund/GC as I’m not interested in making it way worse and DNF’ing the half or full.

My PT has me doing this range-of-motion test and something in my hips/hip flexors is super tight and not allowing me to move the way I’m supposed to in my hips. It’s all annoying and worrisome as basketball season is imminent (DH has games tomorrow.)

Oh no! Sorry it’s not going well. I’ve had Achilles problems before and it’s not nice. Hope for an improvement soon.