Marathon Weekend 2026

[Dopey 2020]

SAFD I was a lurker here before my first marathon and after I ran it I immediately decided I was running Dopey in 2020, a little bit later I made that my screen name and joined the fun. My avatar is said Dopey medal.

 

[fatmanatee]

SAFD: screen name was the captcha I got when first signing up for Facebook and I decided to use it for other social media sites I happened to be signing up for at the same time because I was stumped about what username I should use. Did not expect it to stick for this long but I've just decided to keep with it.

 

[JackosinDIS]

SAFD: we are the Jackson family, my DH is also known as Jacko. So it’s simply Jackos in Disney! The avatar is a pic of my daughter on a shopping trip to Disney Springs. I just liked the artwork and slogan on the mural there (or maybe it was the shade… it was hotter than the surface of the sun that day)

 

[princesspirateandrunner]

SAFD: My first rD race was the 2013 Princess half, and Pirates is one of my favorite rides. I joined the boards primarily to read the running threads, so there you have it. It’s a bit long, but covers all the important things.

My avatar is a picture of the inaugural Glass Slipper Challenge medal (2014), which is still one of my favorite Disney medals.

 

[Herding_Cats]

SAFD:
My screen name came from the year I quit lurking and started asking questions as I was planning a Christmas Disney trip for almost all of DH’s family (group of around 24), some of who had never even been out of Michigan. We’re talking hotel rooms, rental houses, fast passes, dining reservations, itineraries, etc. I really felt like I was herding cats trying to keep them all on track!

 

[dobball23]

There are also people who will run the 5k fast enough to finish and run it again with the last corral. It’s a fun challenge to kick off the weekend.

I have not heard of that or thought of that as an option. I may have to do that sometime!

 

[dobball23]

SAFD: Back in the mid-90s in the internet's infancy, I made a screenname for an account to represent Don Mattingly (former Yankees first baseman, and my all-time favorite player). His nickname was Donnie Baseball. So my dobball23 represents him (do for Donnie, bball for baseball, and 23 for his number).

I've switched to Todd23 on many things I sign up for, but I still use dobball23 on the DisBoards.

 

[The Expert]

SAFD: I have been on these boards since their first or second year in existence, and I got caught up in a random purge back in the late 90s. I don't remember my original username, but I had to create a new account and The Expert seemed appropriate as I was all over the threads posting in a lot of random topics.

My pic for forever was a Tink illustration that was a temporary tattoo design I used to get every trip (when those were a thing). I updated it when I did almost-Dopey to Dumbo the year the DL races came back -- it's my C2C suitcase medal in front of the DL castle.

 

[garneska]

SAFD: My screen name is very unoriginal, my last name and then my initials. At one point I had a few others trying to keep my anonymity but even back then said whatever. It is easy to remember.

My avatar, OTOH, is extremely special. That is Mallory. I got her in 2008 and she finally crossed the rainbow bridge in June 2021. She went into her wheels in March 2013. She had a brother named Yeti. If my DH posts, Yeti is his avatar. The two were considered the rockstars and took many trips to Fort Wilderness in our RV. In fact for the half in 2017, people thought the storms sounded awful, you should have heard them from the RV. We were paying close attention in case we had to get disabled dog and old dog out of the RV and to the comfort station.

 

[matt and beth]

SAFD:
Our screen name is my wife and I’s name. We both used to scroll the boards and comment off and on together. She doesn’t look as often now (she enjoys WDW and the runs) but just lets me plan most of it.

 

[Barca33Runner]

SAFD: My username represents my fandom in FC Barcelona, that I am a runner, and my favorite number.

My Avatar is from the Marathon in 2015, pre-Toy Story Land and Galaxy’s Edge when we still used to run through a large portion of Hollywood Studios. I was running my third marathon, second Dopey, in the midst of a marathon PR, had overcome a life threatening medical event, and it was just, in general, the best I’ve ever felt on course (among many highs over the years). I saw Mr Incredible and Elastigirl with a very minimal line and felt like it was a cool time to stop. Unfortunately, Elastigirl went on break almost immediately after I joined the line; but I love the picture. At this point, I’m chasing that feeling again and hope to change my avatar when I find it.

 

[Erika10021]

SAFD: Back in 2004, I joined my first discussion forum. It was just my first name (Erika) and my then zip code, when I was very proud of moving to and succeeding in Manhattan. I ended up meeting my husband in that first discussion forum (he posts here with his user name from then too!). This is the second discussion forum I ever joined and I thought I ought to use the same name.

The green E is just the default avatar and I have not yet found figured out what I would use in its place.

 

[MissLiss279]

SAFD: My screen name is a shortened version of a nickname a friend’s mom used to call me growing up. I have no idea why I left the ‘a’ off the end. And then the numbers were part of my childhood phone number.
My avatar is a picture of my dog as a puppy.

 

[DianaMB333]

SAFD: my username is very original, my name, the initials of my last names and what I consider the luckiest number you can randomly see and bring positive vibes.

And the avatar is very proudly when I got to MK on Oct 1st 2021 (the 50th anniversary) at 4 or 5am.

(I thought they were going to be nuts doing all type of stuff to commemorate The day… I was wrong LOL.. but as always is the community that makes everything better; there were so many families together cheering, wearing shirts with printed photos of old trips, even some from the first year, 50yrs of memories, all type of stuff, it was very cool to watch).

 

[nancipants]

SAFD: A former co-worker randomly started calling me Nancipants, and I thought it was funny. I used to always use Star Wars related names on online forums, but when I was trying to come up with a World of Warcraft username, it wouldn’t let me use anything related to Star Wars, so I defaulted to nancipants. It worked since my character was a gnome and the name was cute-sounding. I ended up keeping the handle for most of my other online sites (Twitter (RIP), Bluesky, insta, etc.).

My avatar is a selfie of me on Rise of the Resistance. I’m a huge SW fan and it’s one of my favorite experiences.

 

[Baloo in MI]

SAFD:
My username is based on being from California and loving Baloo Bear. I was born and raised there and after college (where I went to Michigan State) I moved right back to California. Many years later during a career move a job opened up at MSU that on a lark I applied to… 6 Months later, and for the past 16 years I have been living in Michigan. I grew up in a beach town, warm and sunny, the summers in Michigan are wonderful but the winters are not my favorite! And I am often told I am very Californian by my wife’s Michigan family. So for a long time my joke has been I am a Californian living in Michigan. After lurkering on the boards for a long time I decided to join and thought I’m Baloo in Michigan and just shorten it.

The avatar is a rock that sits along the river trail in downtown Lansing that I like to run along. Ran past it lots of times and then one day actually read it and took a picture and decided to make it my avatar.

 

[WDW 4 ME]

find BioFreeze and everything like it to be useless for actual relief of serious pain

It’s never worked on my ITBS. Plus, my husband who is sensitive to smells, complains non stop when I have it on and my dog tries to lick it off. So I just feel like it’s a fail all the way around!

My orthopedist told me to take 2 ibuprofens, twice a day for my ITBS for 2 weeks, when it was at its worse. I was nervous to do it!

 

[WDW 4 ME]

I use Squirrel Nut butter for race morning and then Happy Toes after my post race shower as HT has a moisturizer in it. I have calluses on the outside of my big toe that get rough and irritated on long runs and the HT helps prevent that.

Confession time - I am obsessive about my foot care routine before any long run, but particularly the challenges. Here's what it looks like:

1. Apply Blister spray. Let dry.
2. Slather toes and bottom of foot with Squirrel Nut butter
3. Possibly put KT tape on the back of my heel (if I think that there's a chance of it getting irritated from rubbing)
4. Put on Injinji socks.

Before I started using the blister spray, I used KT tape on any place that was irritated from the previous day's running. By the end of Dopey, I was using a lot of tape. Now I can spray every area that historically gives me problems and move on.




I like Biofreeze for immediate pain relief. It works for me, but it is important to remember that it isn't going to work on all types of pain (bones for example). Post-run, I've become a fan of 27:17. I got a sample of this from The Feed and it is a good combination of some immediate relief and some speeding up recovery. (It is super expensive so I dread the day that I use up the sample.) For straight recovery, I like Bounce Back Body Butter from Fluffy Fizzies.

Great info, thank you! You have unlocked a new fear for me though, with all this foot prep you do! I literally throw my socks and shoes on and that’s it! Maybe I need to be doing something more?! When it is crazy hot out, I have used deodorant on the bottom of my feet to keep them feeling hot on my runs, but that’s it.

I love the idea of the bounce back body butter. Might have to look into that more!

 

[WDW 4 ME]

SAFD: I don’t have an avatar so I guess I need to step up my game!

My username is based off our family saying when the boys were younger, which was WDW 4 US. Since my running has been a me project, I just tweaked my username to reflect that!