OFFICIAL 2014 WDW Marathon Countdown: WE DID IT! Congrats everyone!

[stephielela]

Good question - would love to hear feedback from previous races.

With the 180 ADR window opening, I am wondering where people are thinking of eating for their post marathon dinner!

I would love feedback on the party too! My sister really wants to go, I plan on spending the evening drinking around the World our ADR window opens on Monday (we arrive the 10th) and we are booking Via Napoli post race

 

[Calcio]

I'm a few days late here on the posts about walking from OKW, POFQ, and POR to the starting corrals for the Half Marathon and Full Marathon, sorry about this, but . . .

You can make this walk quickly and easily, and you do not have to cross a ditch to get to the corrals. From each of the resorts work your way to Disney Vacation Club Way, and then turn toward the corrals. You cannot miss them, with the music, chatter, general noise, and search lights. There is a small bridge over the ditch, and once you are over the bridge you are right next to the corrals. If you go to Google Maps and search for Old Key West, you will see the layout of the roads out of each resort and the bridge over the ditch.

It is true that Disney Vacation Club Way (coming out of OKW) and Bonnet Creek Parkway (coming out of POFQ and POR) will have some car traffic, but at 4:30 in the morning, there isn't much. When cars approach you'll need to step out of the road and up onto the curb, and there are no sidewalks here, so it's possible that your shoes would get a bit damp from the dew. If you come out of the South and Main Entrance to POFQ and turn left on Bonnet Creek, I suspect you will be on Bonnet Creek for 200 yards at most before you turn right over the bridge to the corrals, so it isn't a long distance. I don't think I've ever had more than 5 cars go by on this stretch, and my shoes didn't get wet when I stepped out of the road.

This strategy does allow you to sleep a bit longer, get to the corrals quicker and with less stress, and we'll be doing it both Saturday and Sunday in 2014. It sounds like we'll see some of you out there on the 11th and 12th as well.

 

[jeanigor]

If you choose the walking route, you bypass bag check, so remember that.

And runDisney could (there is a possibility) decide that it is too dangerous for people to traverse those roads and put up a barricade and post people/officers there to turn people back. Likely? I'm not sure. Possible, yes.

 

[annmarieda]

The cool down party is what you make of it. There wasn't a ton of things there special to the race. A sign here and there. The entertainment was pretty typical of a DTD.

We enjoyed it though. 8 of us went out to dinner, the discount was lovely. It beat my TIW discount. Just unwinding in a atmosphere like DTD was helpful.

We shuffled (all were sore from running so hard) around a bit, laughed at each others painful winces when we tried to move too quick, got some neat pix of our friends and medals, then headed home for some more rest.

Thanks! That helps. Dinner in DTD that night might be the plan then. I imagine it isn't all the restaurants that offer the discount though, right? How do you know which do?

 

[Calcio]

If you choose the walking route, you bypass bag check, so remember that.

And runDisney could (there is a possibility) decide that it is too dangerous for people to traverse those roads and put up a barricade and post people/officers there to turn people back. Likely? I'm not sure. Possible, yes.

jeanigor is absolutely correct on both of these. If you walk over from the OKW and the PO's, there is no bag check, so travel light and you won't be able to pick up clothes, shoes, and treats after you finish.

And the runDisney folks could stop the walkers. I've been running halfs, fulls or Goofy's since 2004, and people have walked to the corrals every year since then (I've done it maybe 5 of the 10 years I've participated). It's possible that they decide to shut this down in 2014, but that would require them to either add staff for the morning, or move people over from EPCOT or the corrals.

Since I'll be sleeping at POFQ before the race I sure hope they don't stop the walkers, or at least if they do, I hope we get plenty of advanced warning.

 

[aladdinsgirl]

Peeking my head in and saying . I just signed up for my 3rd full.

 

[Calcio]

Aladdinsgirl

Just you, or are Stephen and Carter making the trip in January as well?

Craig

 

[aladdinsgirl]

Aladdinsgirl

Just you, or are Stephen and Carter making the trip in January as well?

Craig

We will be there! Stephen is running the full as well, Kristi is watching Carter for us.

 

[Calcio]

Wonderful Krista.

I am doing the Full and Martha and Lesley are doing Saturday's half. We look forward to seeing your 3 in January.

Craig

 

[papaof3]

All my dining reservations made for marathon week this am. Now to see if ee can run a marathon & goofy without gaining weight like the last few years

 

[creativeamanda]

All my dining reservations made for marathon week this am. Now to see if ee can run a marathon & goofy without gaining weight like the last few years

Got all of my dining reservations this morning as well. I was nervous about getting BOG, but I did!

 

[leopardmickeyears]

ADR's were this morning. After a failed attempt at 6am using both the old website and the new one, I called at 7 and got everything I wanted with the times I wanted. Well almost everything...not Yachtsman's Steakhouse...but I got my backup and she did say they weren't in the system yet...??? So there's that.

Anyway

Saturday January 11, 5:00pm - Kona Cafe
Sunday January 12, 5:00pm - 'Ohana (nice post marathon celebratory/refueling dinner)
Monday January 13, 12:00pm - Nine Dragons
Tuesday January 14, 4:30pm - Be Our Guest (I'm still in shocked that I got this ep!)
Wednesday January 15, 9:30am - Chef Mickey's
Thursday January 16, 11:45am - Sci-Fi

Still trying to decide if I should add anything for the last day and/or the first few days or just DTD wing it

 

[leopardmickeyears]

Still trying to decide if I should add anything for the last day and/or the first few days or just DTD wing it

And not even 15 minutes after I posted that, just added 2 more.

Friday January 10, 5pm - Olivia's Cafe
Saturday January 18, 11:30am - Bongo's Cuban Cafe

 

[kmchisholm]

Granted - we will have just been in Oct for ToT but trying something completely different and going with no dining reservations! Yep, this from the person who puts together spreadsheets for her vacations. Don't even know if we'll even go to the parks or use our free day or Universal or Sea World. We've both done plenty of halfs but this will be our first full, so really want to see how our body responds. We'll be at AKL with a savannah view - worst case is room service while watching zebras! However, I've heard there are good counter service places there. Anyone with reviews?

 

[cutigress]

Hi everyone! So both DH and I are running the WDW Marathon in January. Can't wait! It's our first Run Disney events for us both. DH and I will be running our 4th HMs this fall but WDW will be my 1st marathon (his 2nd). Can't wait.

We are planning to come down on Friday morning and leave Tuesday morning.

(Edited - saw previous food posts already)

 

[PrincessV]

We'll be at AKL with a savannah view - worst case is room service while watching zebras! However, I've heard there are good counter service places there. Anyone with reviews?

I loooove room svc at AKL - that gets my vote! But I always enjoy counter svc at Mara, too; great falafel wrap, yummy soups.

 

[annmarieda]

All my dining reservations made for marathon week this am. Now to see if ee can run a marathon & goofy without gaining weight like the last few years

Yesterday was ADR day for me too... got most of what I wanted.

Got all of my dining reservations this morning as well. I was nervous about getting BOG, but I did!

Congrats on getting BOG! I was nervous too... but was able to snag it for the time I hoped for.

ADR's were this morning. After a failed attempt at 6am using both the old website and the new one, I called at 7 and got everything I wanted with the times I wanted. Well almost everything...not Yachtsman's Steakhouse...but I got my backup and she did say they weren't in the system yet...??? So there's that.

I had to call too... spent a half an hour trying to get the online system to work.

 

[megsablue]

We'll be at AKL with a savannah view - worst case is room service while watching zebras! However, I've heard there are good counter service places there. Anyone with reviews?

We really enjoy the food at AKL (Boma, Mara & Sanaa). We have Boma scheduled after the marathon just in case we can't walk very far afterwards (we're also at AKL). We have Boma, Sanaa and Jiko scheduled this visit

Yesterday was ADR day for me too... got most of what I wanted...

I had to call too... spent a half an hour trying to get the online system to work.

It was a headache for us too - both DH & I spent a lot of time on the phone earlier this week (since it wouldn't work online). We were able to get BOG too - at an early time (4:50pm). But I can't complain too much because we were finally able to get everything we wanted


How's training for everyone going?

 

[2gr8DisneyKids]

So excited! I just booked my room at AoA for Marathon Weekend!!!

 

[MapleGirl]

Anyone find any good car rental deals yet? I've started a watch thread over on the transportation board.