Parks during marathon weekend

[hugo]

Wife and I signed up for the 5k next January. We are contemplating if we will even go to the parks this trip. How do the race crowds affect the normal park crowds at that time of year. We are booked from Wednesday to Sunday at art of animation.

 

[DOOM1001]

Crowds are not bad at all,the biggest issue will be road closures causing delays in getting to the parks Saturday and Sunday(mostly Sunday).Most of the runners itinerary includes going to the expo and sleep since there's about 13-14,000 of the runners who are either doing Goofy or Dopey which mean 2-4 days of getting up at 2-3am,getting up that early mean early bedtimes and little park time so trust me the parks themselves are not crowded.If you're doing the 5K that leaves you plenty of good park time.

 

[kashzan]

We have been going marathon week for the past 20 years, and have never had terrible crowds. A great time to go.

 

[lindsey]

Agree with other posters, the parks are not as crowded as you might think. I totally enjoyed the 5K.

 

[Accident]

I do see morning-mid afternoon very crowded the day after the marathon, especially at MK. Generally everyone wearing their medals and enjoying MK before they leave. The plus side is afternoon-evening tends to be a little more empty because the marathons start in the middle of the night and they are at the resort sleeping.

 

[ksueboo]

We ran the 2015 Half. We hit Animal Kingdom Friday, Epcot on Saturday afternoon after the half, and MK on Sunday. We didn't experience major crowds at any time with the exception of late Sunday evening at MK but it wasn't terrible by any means.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Crowds were higher this year than most - much of that could be tied to special occurrences that had people in town longer (stayed later after NYE, or came earlier for the marathon). They included the imminent closure of Soarin' and the last viewings of the Osborne Lights. After those wrapped up on the 3rd and 4th, MK was a hot mess because it got all of the overflow traffic from the under-attended parks like Epcot.

Next year the races are pretty early in the new year, so you might see more people there that week staying past NYE. Maybe.

 

[DC to Disney]

We ran the marathon 2 years ago, and crowds in the parks weren't bad at all.

 

[ironz]

I'm going to agree with buckeyebama that the crowds are likely to be somewhat higher for 2017's marathon weekend than, say, years when the marathon was later, such as Jan. 12. It's entirely possible that some school/holiday breaks will continue through the week before the races and crowds will stay larger until after marathon day (Jan. 8 this year).
Having run there many years now, that seems to be the trend. The week or two AFTER the marathon is usually good. The days before the marathon are more dependent on holiday/school schedules.

 

[hugo]

Thanks for the info. Was hoping that the crowds would be light. We have about talked ourselves into 3 days at the parks. What are the realistic expectations of time to get to a park after the 5k. Do most people go back to the room, shower and hit the park? We plan to see the expo the Wednesday before so don't figure we will be going back there.

 

[rteetz]

Thanks for the info. Was hoping that the crowds would be light. We have about talked ourselves into 3 days at the parks. What are the realistic expectations of time to get to a park after the 5k. Do most people go back to the room, shower and hit the park? We plan to see the expo the Wednesday before so don't figure we will be going back there.

5K starts at 6:00. That's when the first corral goes off though so depending on what corral you get (A,B,C,D,E or F). Each corral starts about 10 minutes apart and then it depends on how fast you do the 5K. We were in corral B and then did about a 35 minute 5K which had us done before 7:00AM which is too early to go right to a park. We went back to BC and showered and then headed to MK for the day. Most people seem to go back to their room and shower then go to a park.