Marathon Weekend 2026

[nancipants]

This Dopey weekend was literally everything I dreamed of when I decided I wanted to try it again. I really didn’t think this was possible back in October when I was knocked down with pneumonia. I’ve worked so hard this year so I’m glad it paid off and didn’t get derailed by illness.

Today was amazing, although too hot. I had an ice pack on my head for the last 6 miles. I’m so glad I got to do blizzard beach because I can now say with 99% certainty that my Dopey career is over. I can’t imagine it ever going better than this weekend so I will end on a high. I will come back to MW as many times as possible but only one or two races at a time!

Hope to see you all tomorrow in Epcot! Treat yourselves kindly today!

I’m so glad I got to see you on the course!

Also shared some time with @AZMermaid

 

[Disney at Heart]

DH and I finished Goofy, but the last 4 miles were brutal. My left hip and back were hurting and I was leaning terribly to the right, so much that at the finish line a handsome young medic rushed to me to see if I was okay, and DH started having a pain in one knee. We walked most of the way from CS to the end with a few run intervals here and there. At least we finished! But I AM NOT RUNNING ANOTHER MARATHON! Hopefully there will be a “Happy Challenge” for me next year and some spectating during the marathon.
Hope to see many of you tomorrow at DATW, or S(nacking)ATW, or just building friendships while having a baguette (with @nancipants ) and a Cola. Someone will be posting where the group is so you can join for all countries or just come hang out for one or two.

 

[Herding_Cats]

FTFY

Oh, I’m sure! I don’t mean to downplay the impact of heat: I run through endless weeks of heat indexes of 90-100º all summer. It’s uncomfortable, unpleasant, and can be dangerous if folks aren’t acclimated and/or don’t take actions to mitigate the impact of heat.

My point is that for those who are fine, why should they be diverted if they’re still on pace? Sounds like it’s due to rD not planning/staffing adequately and IMO that’s unacceptable: they've been in this game long enough to know better and do better. If they can’t get adequate medical staff to handle the size of the race field, they should cap the race lower. But that means raking in less money, so that won’t happen. I know others feel differently, and that’s fine - this is just one person’s opinion!

Let’s talk about other things they weren’t adequately staffed for: challenge medals and ears in the finish chute.

After you go through the arch/banner, past medical and turn left they were handing out cooling towels. Great. Super.

Then you turn right to make your way toward water, then Powerade, finisher ears, then challenge medals and lastly the snack box.

Unless of course, you finish when I did and you grab your water and then you turn around and backtrack to get in a line that stretched all the way from the challenge medal tent back past the first water table.

They were frantically unboxing ear hats and passing them over the barricades to hand out. And there were 6 people handing out challenge medals. The very LAST thing I wanted to do was stand in line for this. Pretty much everyone was upset about it. I understand a few people in front of you. I do not understand a 75 yard long line, 3-4 people wide.

When I was still on western way I heard someone say something about cutting BB so I sent a text to nancipants and pluto377 since they were about a mile ahead of me. They said no, it was still open. When I was halfway down the “in” driveway they messaged me saying that YES, the course had been cut at the traffic light intersection of Western way and Osceola Pkwy. I was the 2nd to last person to get a pic with Pluto in the parking lot, even though there were still runners entering the parking lot. This also meant that by the time I got back onto Osceola Pkwy that all of the very back people (minus the balloon ladies who waited) were already through or on a bus, so I didn’t have unbearable course crowding. It was still crowded, but no more than usual. They had pulled the photopass people from the corner of HS where you get the pic with ToT in the background (they were THERE but standing off to the left on the sidewalk and not taking pics. There was no character when you fist entered that backstage area, and there was no character in the usual spot on the left side before you turn to exit HS.

I’m also pretty sure they ran out of water for the back of the pack people at the last aid station exiting MK parking lots/turning onto Bear Island road. There were only 6 partial tables with cups of water, and I was 2 miles ahead of the balloon ladies.

On the plus side, they handed out bags of ice behind Nemo, sponges on Western Way, and more ice backstage at Epcot

 

[AZMermaid]

Ill post my race things later but the cliff notes version- I’m a marathoner and I had an overall great experience!

 

[PrincessV]

Let’s talk about other things they weren’t adequately staffed for: challenge medals and ears in the finish chute.

After you go through the arch/banner, past medical and turn left they were handing out cooling towels. Great. Super.

Then you turn right to make your way toward water, then Powerade, finisher ears, then challenge medals and lastly the snack box.

Unless of course, you finish when I did and you grab your water and then you turn around and backtrack to get in a line that stretched all the way from the challenge medal tent back past the first water table.
View attachment 1037777
They were frantically unboxing ear hats and passing them over the barricades to hand out. And there were 6 people handing out challenge medals. The very LAST thing I wanted to do was stand in line for this. Pretty much everyone was upset about it. I understand a few people in front of you. I do not understand a 75 yard long line, 3-4 people wide.

When I was still on western way I heard someone say something about cutting BB so I sent a text to nancipants and pluto377 since they were about a mile ahead of me. They said no, it was still open. When I was halfway down the “in” driveway they messaged me saying that YES, the course had been cut at the traffic light intersection of Western way and Osceola Pkwy. I was the 2nd to last person to get a pic with Pluto in the parking lot, even though there were still runners entering the parking lot. This also meant that by the time I got back onto Osceola Pkwy that all of the very back people (minus the balloon ladies who waited) were already through or on a bus, so I didn’t have much course crowding. They had pulled the photopass people from the corner of HS where you get the pic with ToT in the background (they were THERE but standing off to the left on the sidewalk and not taking pics. There was no character when you fist entered that backstage area, and there was no character in the usual spot on the left side before you turn to exit HS.

This is just so maddening. I feel like I’ve said this at least once a year since post-2021, but it’s come to feel like amateur hour at rD (at WDW, at least), which is inexcusable. I understand that the changes they made to staffing rD events resulted in less available manpower to manage things, but then STOP INCREASING RACE CAPACITY! It’s such a shame because I used to rank MW high above all other rD events, but nothing I’ve seen the last few years makes me want to do it again.

 

[The Expert]

I hate to tell you @Z-Knight but your quote is now Instagram famous! Carissa posted this to her stories.

 

[KCO5988]

So this was my first time doing the TTC parking lot and blizzard beach parking lot and gosh the TTC parking lot was rough. Blizzard because wasn’t hot yet but could see how that would’ve been brutal one the sun comes up.

 

[LSUlakes]

Race went decent for the first half, and awful for the second half. Finished around 4:10 with a 1:50 first half and 2:20 second half.

 

[nancipants]

I just let the dog out and ***, it’s cold now??? Where was this five hours ago???

 

[jrsharp21]

So this was my first time doing the TTC parking lot and blizzard beach parking lot and gosh the TTC parking lot was rough. Blizzard because wasn’t hot yet but could see how that would’ve been brutal one the sun comes up.

TTC lot is super boring. But better than it was when they had a bunch of switchbacks. Funny though, when we were leaving TTC, the DJ started playing random WWE wrestlers entrance themes. Being a big WWE fan, he had me singing out loud to the detriment of the runners ear drums around me.

 

[3princesandaprincess]

Congrats to everyone who ran today!!! For those with a redemption race,1st marathon, or unexpected finish- great job! It was hot out there .
We had a good run - we finished behind expected time, but felt better than expected! There wasn’t a real time goal since it was our 1st Dopey. All in all, very happy with the experience.
It was great to put so many names with faces this weekend. Hopefully we see all you again at another race.

 

[matt and beth]

I got a shout out today from Carissa as the first finisher with food they bought in the park! Mobile ordered from Boardwalk but same thing I think hahaha. The crowd in Epcot was loving me walking through with a bacon, egg and cheese in hand

I heard this!

 

[dobball23]

Finished! As expected, my IT BAND acted up on me. Right before MK which was both a good and bad thing. Bad because I was in too much pain to enjoy it. Good because there were benches to sit and try to relax it some. Thanks to everyone for their support! And @dobball23 team for cheering me at TWO spots! LOVED IT!!!
View attachment 1037739

Congrats! Good job getting through the IT band issues.

It was mainly @Erica1016 doing the cheering. Watching at the exit of Epcot I had just mentioned that we should start looking for Minnie Mouse and the very first person we saw was you! We then looked up your tracking info and knew we'd be outside DHS near the Skyliner by the time you came past.

 

[dobball23]

WE DID IT!!!!

View attachment 1037740


So proud of Erika for gutting that out. It was very tough. Especially the last half in the heat. I guess we made it through before it was shortened

And thanks to everyone this weekend. We got a lot of encouragement from all of you.

Great job! Congrats! We were looking for you outside of DHS, but you snuck past.

 

[nancipants]

acknowledging all of rD’s other issues, can we give photopass a shout out for already having pics loaded??

 

[lookingforsunshine]

I did it. It was the hardest marathon/Dopey of the last three years and I feel blah. I’ll try to post a recap if I bring back my training blog. Thanks to @The Expert tor a much needed coke and uncrustable!

 

[matt and beth]

Let’s talk about other things they weren’t adequately staffed for: challenge medals and ears in the finish chute.

After you go through the arch/banner, past medical and turn left they were handing out cooling towels. Great. Super.

Then you turn right to make your way toward water, then Powerade, finisher ears, then challenge medals and lastly the snack box.

Unless of course, you finish when I did and you grab your water and then you turn around and backtrack to get in a line that stretched all the way from the challenge medal tent back past the first water table.
View attachment 1037777
They were frantically unboxing ear hats and passing them over the barricades to hand out. And there were 6 people handing out challenge medals. The very LAST thing I wanted to do was stand in line for this. Pretty much everyone was upset about it. I understand a few people in front of you. I do not understand a 75 yard long line, 3-4 people wide.

When I was still on western way I heard someone say something about cutting BB so I sent a text to nancipants and pluto377 since they were about a mile ahead of me. They said no, it was still open. When I was halfway down the “in” driveway they messaged me saying that YES, the course had been cut at the traffic light intersection of Western way and Osceola Pkwy. I was the 2nd to last person to get a pic with Pluto in the parking lot, even though there were still runners entering the parking lot. This also meant that by the time I got back onto Osceola Pkwy that all of the very back people (minus the balloon ladies who waited) were already through or on a bus, so I didn’t have unbearable course crowding. It was still crowded, but no more than usual. They had pulled the photopass people from the corner of HS where you get the pic with ToT in the background (they were THERE but standing off to the left on the sidewalk and not taking pics. There was no character when you fist entered that backstage area, and there was no character in the usual spot on the left side before you turn to exit HS.

I’m also pretty sure they ran out of water for the back of the pack people at the last aid station exiting MK parking lots/turning onto Bear Island road. There were only 6 partial tables with cups of water, and I was 2 miles ahead of the balloon ladies.

On the plus side, they handed out bags of ice behind Nemo, sponges on Western Way, and more ice backstage at Epcot

Yep that’s bad

 

[PrincessV]

I just let the dog out and ***, it’s cold now??? Where was this five hours ago???

I heard the wind pick up, rain start falling over here a couple hours ago and thought, “Seriously?! Where were you when the marathoners needed you?!”

 

[marty3d]

I heard the wind pick up, rain start falling over here a couple hours ago and thought, “Seriously?! Where were you when the marathoners needed you?!”

It’s freezing! Everyone is hiding in the Emporium.

 

[nancipants]

It’s freezing! Everyone is hiding in the Emporium.

I can wear my race shirt tonight!