WDW Marathon info requested!

[Heather]

Just wanted to see if anyone had any experiences with the WDW marathon -- any at all, from booking a room (any good packages?) to how many days either before or after the marathon the marathoner was good for at WDW. Also, for the spouse and kids, were the parks open during part of the marathon while the runners went through (I know it starts at 6 a.m.) or is it just a "wasted" park day? Is the weather decent in early January? Thanks for any advice!

 

[PammyK]

Okay...I'm not a runner but I have been at the parks for the marathon and actually was a finish line volunteer for the 1/2 this past January.

I can't help with accommodations questions but I do know that there were events the Friday and Saturday of Marathon weekend. There was an expo at the Coronado Springs Convention Center and I believe that is also where registration was.

The bulk of the marathon clears parks before park opening. Epcot is the park that is primarily impacted because that is the finishing point. By noon, most of the athletes had cleared all of the parks except for Epcot. However, even with the marathon going through the park, guests are not terribly impacted once they reach the park. Of course, traffic along WDW roads is another story. If possible, I'd recommend that your family go to a park that they can get to via monorail or boat to avoid driving.

Regarding weather - it is usually quite cold at the start, we're talking low to mid-30s. As a volunteer, I was wearing denim jeans, wool socks, a t-shirt, a sweatshirt, a windbreaker, a hat and gloves. Also remember that if you are running you'll need arrive at your starting corral well before 6am and you'll be standing around for quite a while. Disposable, thin layers would be your best bet for clothing because you may not be able to retrieve items you've shed along the course. I've seen runners using plastic trash bags to keep warm.

 

[welovedis]

Heather-
Hope I can answer at least some of your questions, although I will be partipating in the marathon for the first time in Jan 2004.

It seemed from the information I was given that the packages offered are not the best as far as money savings or any terrific benefit. Here's the contact info from the latest newsletter:
To book a package, call (407) 939-7810, or send an e-mail to wdw.disney.sports.travel@disney.com.

As the previous poster mentioned you'll be out there pretty early in the AM (I think the buses for the marathoners start running around 2 or 3 AM) and you'll be with your 'corral' pretty early. Most runners just use disposable clothes or garbage bags, you can have them save your clothes and wait at the TTC (I believe) the retrieve anything you have tossed along the way and kept your info on.

The marathon goes in and out thru some of the parks so the day is not wasted by any means. I plan on arriving the day before the race and staying for more than a week afterward to enjoy my time there after I recover from the actual race. Others are arriving earlier and staying until the race and I'm sure there are some that are just going for the race weekend. I think your family could see you run, but you would have to have an idea of your running time so they could be at the right place at the right time.

If you want any more info you might want to check out the yahoo group team penguin disney--we are a large, non-competitive group that has many members who have already participated and will be there again in January.

HTH!

 

[lazarru]

I ran it 4 years ago so I can answer most of your questions.

I think they do offer packages but you'll likely get a better price using one of the other programs than trying to do their package. But since I havn't looked at what they actually have you'd have to just price it out both ways.

We got there 2 days prior and just hung out the day before. Don't try and do any parks or pools the day before. Just relax, try not to have to walk all that much. We then stayed for the week after. The day after it was a little tough to get around but after that it was fine. The parks were not all that busy so it was a good time to go.

There are parts of the parks open. I recall that main st and I went through there at around 7:30 I think. Epcot is not open to others at the start, but by the time you get back there it is open. I think all the other parks are already open by the time runners reach them.

Regarding the weather, it was cool and I think it typically is at that time of the year. You do need to get on buses very early to get to the start. One word of warning, don't rush to try and get on the 1st bus because you'll just be standing around in the cold. You can wait and take a bus a little later. they do their normal good job of getting people to where they need to be. Also once you get to the starting area it's about a 3/4 mi walk to the actual start. Bring a plastic bag or just some old clothes that you can just dump and you should be fine at the start.

The marathon itself is alot of fun, going through Epcot when it's dark is very cool as is running through the magic kingdom when it is totally empty. There are some very long boring spots however getting between the parks where there is nobody out there. One other thing is to be aware of the entry/exit onto bridges. I don't know how many they have now but when I ran there were 3 bridges that you had to take the exit/enterance ramps onto. The uprise itself is not all that bad, in fact it is a bit welcome with how flat the rest of the race is. The problem is that the ramps are heavily sloped so that rain can run off of them. There's really nothing you can do about it, but it's something to be aware of because I know alot of people were caught by surpise to these areas.