Marathon Weekend 2026

[WDW 4 ME]

SAFD: I am not as far into my training as I would like to be. I’ve posted here about my ITBS. It’s been so frustrating. I did make it to mile 10 this weekend so I’m not throwing in the towel yet. My goal was to run all but a few miles of the marathon, walking a few. Now my plan is to run half of it and walk the second half. This should keep me from being swept. Sadly, I can’t do intervals as that sets my ITBS on fire, or else that would be my strategy. Hoping for slow and steady improvements over the next couple of months.

 

[dobball23]

SAFD: My training has been going well. I am nine weeks into my plan. Coming off a hiatus from running over the summer due to surgery, I don't feel as strong as I've felt in recent years. But I've been getting there. Luckily, I don't need to be ready for Dopey until Jan. 8, and I think I will be. This coming week I have 48 miles and more than 7 hours of running time. Looking forward to it!

 

[nancipants]

DATW??

Drink Around the World (Showcase)

 

[marty3d]

SAFD: My training this summer/ fall was focused on the NYC Marathon which I ran yesterday. I’m taking the next 10-14 days off running and will work on my Goofy training plan. I just want to maintain my fitness/ endurance as much as possible. I also have to be careful about not letting excuses like holidays or “it’s too cold to run” mess me up.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Drink Around the World (Showcase)

Where we start in Mexico (as God intended) at around 11am and slowly meander around. There's a lot of snacking, a lot of laughing, and sometimes some table rearranging to accommodate everyone. My 6yo will be coming along with us, and I think possibly nancipant's kiddo that's a similar age. Some people have adult beverages, and some do not, but it's really a fun time.

How fun? Well my DH, who rolls his eyes about how much time I spend on here leading up to race weekend, shut down my idea to leave on Monday after we finally made it to DATW this past January. "If we left on Monday, we would miss DATW, right?" Yes. "Then we aren't leaving on Monday."

 

[The Expert]

SAFD: I am not as far into my training as I would like to be. I’ve posted here about my ITBS. It’s been so frustrating. I did make it to mile 10 this weekend so I’m not throwing in the towel yet. My goal was to run all but a few miles of the marathon, walking a few. Now my plan is to run half of it and walk the second half. This should keep me from being swept. Sadly, I can’t do intervals as that sets my ITBS on fire, or else that would be my strategy. Hoping for slow and steady improvements over the next couple of months.

You can always jump in with Team Not-So-Fast! We have a proven track record of dragging fellow DISers across that finish line.

How fun? Well my DH, who rolls his eyes about how much time I spend on here leading up to race weekend, shut down my idea to leave on Monday after we finally made it to DATW this past January. "If we left on Monday, we would miss DATW, right?" Yes. "Then we aren't leaving on Monday."

One of us! One of us!

 

[nancipants]

How fun? Well my DH, who rolls his eyes about how much time I spend on here leading up to race weekend, shut down my idea to leave on Monday after we finally made it to DATW this past January. "If we left on Monday, we would miss DATW, right?" Yes. "Then we aren't leaving on Monday."

It was the souvenir beer stein he got with @marty3d (I think that's who it was) that sealed the deal.

 

[GuinnessRunner]

SAFD: Training is generally going ok. Focused on HM in mid December as I am trying to renew my Disney POT. Unfortunately I had PF creep up on me starting about a month ago for the first time in years. It hasn't really stopped or altered my training much until I made the voluntary decision this weekend to rest because of the PF and some crazy work stuff and sports travel for my DS. Doing a lot of stretching and active release has helped keep it in check and reduce the initial pain, but still hasn't gone away. I am getting an appointment scheduled with foot doctor this week. When I had this before, the only way I was finally able to shake it was a cortisone shot in the heel. Not fun, but effective so looking to see if I can make that happen again this week.

 

[nancipants]

SAFD: My training this summer/ fall was focused on the NYC Marathon which I ran yesterday. I’m taking the next 10-14 days off running and will work on my Goofy training plan. I just want to maintain my fitness/ endurance as much as possible. I also have to be careful about not letting excuses like holidays or “it’s too cold to run” mess me up.

Congrats on NYC! I hope it was an amazing time.

 

[marty3d]

It was the souvenir beer stein he got with @marty3d (I think that's who it was) that sealed the deal.

That beer stein sits proudly on my desk at home!

 

[marty3d]

Congrats on NYC! I hope it was an amazing time.

Thank you ! It was fantastic! I’ll post a mini recap in the running thread when I have a little more time.

 

[KCO5988]

SAFD: Training is tentatively going well haha. I took the first week of my official training plan off because of shin splints. They are mostly under control now and I'm going to a PT, but I'm trying to build a bit slower so I still am not up to the mileage I would have been running. I'm about 3 miles behind on my long run distance and about 10 miles shy of the weekly mileage. But last week I had a great 4 miles at lactate threshold run. My long run last week went fantastic as well even though it was only 11 miles instead of 14. I felt like I could have done 14 but stuck to my plan. I was originally going to do 12 this weekend but thinking I can bump up to 13 if the shins feel okay leading up to it.

 

[jrsharp21]

SAFD: It just dawned on me this past weekend that we are essentially two months from MW. I have been so focused on triathlon training that I lost track of the ramp up for MW. Good thing is that my pace is up. Now just need to pick up the mileage. Sat down on Saturday to draw up the gameplan to get the mileage up to where I need it to be before MW. So looking like week before Xmas I will get to my max mileage for training and then will start my taper. I definitely do need to go see my sports doctor though for some scraping and cupping. I can feel everything super tight in my lower back, upper thighs, that is pulling on my hamstrings and lower quad into my knee. It's not painful, but just super tight. Last time I thought the actual muscles were the issue. He told me it was everything from above was where the tightness was and it was pulling the muscles below it. So need to go get "unlocked".

 

[jrsharp21]

Anyone starting to wonder if this airport mess will be resolved come January? I am flying to California on Wednesday morning and IAH is an absolute mess. They shut down security in the largest terminal, but you still have to check your bags there. They are saying wait times are 3+ hours for normal security lines. I have seen TSA precheck lines have been anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes.

 

[Naomeri]

Anyone starting to wonder if this airport mess will be resolved come January? I am flying to California on Wednesday morning and IAH is an absolute mess. They shut down security in the largest terminal, but you still have to check your bags there. They are saying wait times are 3+ hours for normal security lines. I have seen TSA precheck lines have been anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes.

If the airport mess isn't sorted by January, I think we all may have bigger things to worry about, unfortunately.

 

[Kerry1957]

SAFD: I'm just just doing the HM. I've run 2 HMs in the last 4 weeks so I am looking to maintain my fitness during Thanksgiving and Christmas. I will be getting some advanced training for DATW over the next 2 weeks in Budapest and Munich.

 

[RuntheMouse]

Anyone starting to wonder if this airport mess will be resolved come January? I am flying to California on Wednesday morning and IAH is an absolute mess. They shut down security in the largest terminal, but you still have to check your bags there. They are saying wait times are 3+ hours for normal security lines. I have seen TSA precheck lines have been anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes.

It’s definitely on our minds. We cancelled our quick December Disney trip because any delays would destroy that trip. If it’s still going on in January, we’ll end up driving.

We didn’t have any problems when we flew on 10/27 but that was before the missed paychecks. We’ll see what happens when we fly home on Wednesday. We flew out of MCO during the last shutdown and the TSA agents were borderline hostile.

 

[Stitch&Co.]

SAFD: Training has been going good so far (Knock on wood). I'm using last year's DopeyBadger plan with a few tweaks. I did miss a few days at the end of September/beginning of October, but that was early enough in training that I wasn't too worried about it. I have added in 2 sessions of Step Aerobics per week and 2 days of easy pace with a weighted vest. I can really tell a difference. Last year I could not hit my M Tempo pace and had to adjust down to slower paces. This year I am hitting all my paces and I can look back at last year and see a drop in my average HR for the same workouts. So very encouraging. Now if I could just get some of that pesky strength training in.

 

[DisneyParrothead]

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.)

I dealt with that during Princess training. My podiatrist switched my shoes and told me to start using Voltarin. That was a kick to the ego, but ignore that it’s for arthritis and focus on it being an anti-inflammatory cream.

 

[LSUlakes]

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!

Feeling good so far. Im 8 weeks into the 18 week plan and knocked out my first 20 miler this weekend! A few weeks ago I ran a half as part of 16 mile training run and was able to hit my desired pace. I have a 5k Turkey trot coming up but not much else. There is going to be a 10 mile race the weekend before the marathon that I may just run for fun. Confidence is growing with each week and hopefully I am able to achieve my race goal and a PR at the marathon.