Marathon Weekend 2026

[3princesandaprincess]

@Herding_Cats That’s quite the change in temps from Disney!

 

[fatmanatee]

The half course has never been just oodles of fun, but the current iteration is pretty rough.

REALLY hoping they can finish out some construction and improve it.

If they want to knock that out by next January, that would be fantastic.

Would love it but I'm expecting this route for at least the next two years. Entire problem is the exit out of MK, I believe it's going to end up being the new Cars area, so you'll need all that settled and at that point there's still a question of if that space will have a path to run through. It SHOULD, but you never know.

On the plus side, at the end of all of this there is potential for a significantly larger run through MK between the two new lands. Probably more applicable to the full, would be able to potentially cut out some of the parking lot junk.

 

[Baloo in MI]

Been Radio silent for a few days - no drama or anything, just got super sick after the marathon and pretty much slept until Tuesday and then travelled home. I had the forethought to take Wednesday off as well so I have had today to unpack, decompress and try to catch up on the boards! Wow, so many great pictures and recaps of a tough and triumphant Sunday. These boards are always so inspiring!

Thank you again for the feedback to my question the other night, I did run out of C and I am thankful for a supportive family and running partners who understood and made the best of the situation. I am happy to share that all three of us finished! My DD, with no surprise to me, crushed it. Even coming out of F she still passed me in Blizzard Beach with a big hug, words of encouragement and blazed on! So proud of her! It was her first marathon. My SIL struggled more and I felt horrible that he had to do that alone. But we waited for him at the finish and got to see him walk up to us with his newly earned Mickey ears over his hat and all three medals across his chest; it was his first marathon as well!

As for me… Well I finished, in my worst time ever, but I did finish and that had become my singular goal. I missed about 5 weeks of training in October and November and never got beyond 16 miles in any of my training. My hip/ankle were bothering me as we walked to the bus on marathon morning. And we were all a hot mess on Sunday morning running late, missed a bus, late bus stuck in traffic, etc. In fact I slipped into the C corral and it literally closed behind me. I cut that way to close! Next thing I knew I was moving into the starters chute and time to run. To keep it short. I went extra easy, stuck with my intervals all the way to the road into AK where the angle of the road seemed to really upset my hip. I walked for a long time, stopped for Baloo and got running again once off that devil of a road! I am proud to have finished and felt pretty good about choices during the race. I did get the Disney crud but feeling better today/still resting a bit. A couple maintenance runs between now and DL Half Marathon Weekend and I think my Coast to Coast is still achievable.

Sorry to have missed DATW on Monday, was pretty much asleep the entire day. With all my family commitments this trip this was the one thing I was really hoping to work out, hopefully next year. Anyway, I so appreaciate these boards and you all. Looking forward to doing it all again for MW2027!

 

[Z-Knight]

I forgot to mention one cool interaction I had at MK on Sunday after the marathon. My wife and I were sitting upstairs in Harbor House. A lady sees my Dopey shirt and tells me congrats. Tells me that she did the half marathon and one day wants to do Dopey. Then her husband walks up and we all start chit chatting. The subject of the weather comes up and she says for her, this feels cool as its always so hot running in Houston where she lives. Then I tell her we are also from the Houston area. As we start digging down to where we live, turns out they live just down the street from us. LOL. It was pretty funny. Then we start talking about visits and it turns out they are traveling back the same time we are for Princess HM.

i live in Webster....if you be coming down to my 'hood then let me know.

 

[Stitch&Co.]

Seeing some of the numbers of total bibs for the 2026 races, minus the 5k.

10k - 5,772
HM - 10,224
Full - 7,133
Goofy - 1,054
Dopey - 8,202

So nearly 20k runners on the course for the half marathon. Whoa.

What surprises me is the total number for the 10k. I would think rD would want a higher number of runners for that one since it doesn’t effect the parks too much.

 

[jrsharp21]

Are these finishers or total bibs? The 3k difference in the half vs full sticks out to me. Not that I want more folks on the marathon course, but are they really selling fewer bibs? Or is this a result of more folks not starting and/or finishing the marathon?

Seems against rD culture to not sell as many bibs as possible.

The article said this was total bibs.

 

[rick1zoo2]

Those totals line up with the chart from teamrundis.com with total bibs and finishers:

 

[Naomeri]

Influencer that occasionally gets to my IG feed (non-running, non-dis) decided to sign up for Dopey Challenge with his wife. Had not run a half before (not really sure what their running experience level is like in general TBH). Finished half, DNS full, took the half to realize that they weren't ready for the full.

You know, it's one thing to take on Dopey as your first full. It's full-on insanity to take on Dopey as your first HALF

 

[fatmanatee]

You know, it's one thing to take on Dopey as your first full. It's full-on insanity to take on Dopey as your first HALF

Every year at around registration time you'll get a few posts on the RD reddit that are something along the lines of "hey I just started running, can I do Dopey?", and it feels like half of the responses are "YOLO, you'll never know if you don't try!" and the other half is me (party pooper) saying "can you see how you feel after a half first?"

 

[disneymomof8]

it has been so much fun reading all about the weekend. i did dopey in 2025. while i had my share of annoyances with new course and corral squashing, it was quite memorable and magical. when my major FOMO hit at the holidays realizing you were all heading for a fun time, i came back here to live vicariously through all of you!!!
so thank you for helping me through and making me feel like i was there running with all of you. i hope to be back for 2027 assuming the registration gods shine down on me!!!!
what i would like to find out is where to get this coin you all speak of from the meetups? it would be wonderful motivation to carry with me throughout the year for training and…..life!!!! if someone can help, please let me know!!
congrats to all of you for your grit, determination, and accomplishments!!!! hope to join in on DATW in 2027

 

[jrsharp21]

i live in Webster....if you be coming down to my 'hood then let me know.

Definitely! I think there may be a run or two down that way. I am up in The Woodlands. So definitely holler if you are up this way.

 

[jmasgat]

what i would like to find out is where to get this coin you all speak of from the meetups? it would be wonderful motivation to carry with me throughout the year for training and…..life!!!! if someone can help, please let me know!!

The coin was developed and produced by @Z-Knight as a labor of love. He gave them away this year, and also did this last year (different coin). And not just to those that did Dopey—it was available to all. A truly generous gift.

 

[Z-Knight]

The coin was developed and produced by @Z-Knight as a labor of love. He gave them away this year, and also did this last year (different coin). And not just to those that did Dopey—it was available to all. A truly generous gift.

@disneymomof8 send me a PM with your address or po box you want one shipped to and I'll send one. tell me also which one you want...there is coin thread so you can see the versions.

 

[RuntheMouse]

How long is everyone taking off from running after MW? My quads are finally relaxing a bit today and I’m actually thinking about an easy peasy cruise around SSR tomorrow morning. Crazy???

 

[Herding_Cats]

How long is everyone taking off from running after MW? My quads are finally relaxing a bit today and I’m actually thinking about an easy peasy cruise around SSR tomorrow morning. Crazy???

I'm supposed to work 4 nights next week. So I guess I'm taking off 8 days. My quads are way better today, but my toes are still a little swollen from both the marathon and the travel (because I didn't put on my compression socks before flying.)

 

[JackosinDIS]

How long is everyone taking off from running after MW? My quads are finally relaxing a bit today and I’m actually thinking about an easy peasy cruise around SSR tomorrow morning. Crazy???

I still can’t touch my toes and I only did the 10k will try a little jog at the weekend!

 

[The Expert]

I "only" did the first three races and feel pretty normal. I have all three races coming up at Princess, so I'll probably pick back up with some maintenance this week. I meet with my coach tomorrow, so I'll know more then.

 

[Dopey 2020]

How long is everyone taking off from running after MW? My quads are finally relaxing a bit today and I’m actually thinking about an easy peasy cruise around SSR tomorrow morning. Crazy???

I’ve gone down the rabbit hole before on how long but disagree. Some say as much as two weeks but I say you know your body. I got home yesterday and did nothing today other than a short core workout and moving around however much was necessary to function and I feel pretty good. Tomorrow I will take my dog out for a slow mile run, if it goes well another on Friday. Then the weekend off and back to normal next week. At least that’s the plan. I don’t think it’s crazy, just as long as you don’t push it past easy. And if anything at all says “I don’t think so” walk back and try again another day.

Can also say I’m jealous, SSR is a way nicer run than New England right now

 

[DianaMB333]

I did only the 10k and HM, I feel good /notmal.. but still took Monday and Tuesday off and overslept

I’m still in property, working remotely… double yeyyy

Perhaps tomorrow go back to normal training schedule.. will see..

 

[Zutroy]

How long is everyone taking off from running after MW? My quads are finally relaxing a bit today and I’m actually thinking about an easy peasy cruise around SSR tomorrow morning. Crazy???

I ran the half and the full, both at decent paces (I finished the full right after the sun came up). I was decently sore, and did 30-min of yoga on Monday, lifted weights and did yoga on Tuesday, and did an easy 3.5 miles this morning at an 8’50” pace followed by 20 min of yoga. I’m planning on running tomorrow, and by next week being fully back in my normal run schedule.