Poor Unfortunate Soles: A 2013 Marathon Weekend (5K, Half and Full Marathon) Trip Report!

Another Marathon Weekend at Disney has come to a close. Let me tell you about it!

The cast includes me (Shannon, 28), my husband Will (27), my brother Craig (aka Princess Craiggy, 26), my mom, Kriss, my aunt Laurie, and my mom’s childhood best friend Barb. I got no photo of all 6 of us, and in fact have no photos at all of my mom, aunt or Barb (not my choice). Le sigh.

Anyhoo, as the title of this report suggests, this year I participated in the 5K, half marathon and full marathon (unofficially known as the Dopey Challenge) during Disney’s Marathon Weekend. Originally this trip was strictly for the Goofy Challenge (the half and full), but the idea of the 5K had been in the back of my mind for a while...eventually I pulled the trigger and signed up in August.

In my previous race reports (for the 2011 Princess Half and the 2012 WDW Full) I rambled on quite a bit about training. This time around I’m going to restrain myself. I actually did document my training on a different message board (not sure why I didn’t do it here…I guess I wanted it to be somewhere where I felt more “anonymous.” I’m weird), so if anyone is interested in reading about that, shoot me a PM and I’ll send you the link. Or if anyone wants the Cliff’s Notes version I can post that here too. I will say that I am extremely Type A and was very, very diligent when it came to preparing for these races. I should also warn you that you won’t find any speedy fast times here, but if you’re looking for a somewhat detailed play-by-play of all 3 races with lots of character pictures, you’ve come to the right place.

4 parks. 3 races. 42.4 miles. Let’s do this!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Shannon! Is it weird that I absolutely hate running and yet love trip reports about running? I can not believe you did all three!!
I would have been upset by the CM encounter too, I'm sorry.
I love love that Dooney!
Awesome Mickey picture.
And what awesome pictures you got in the half!! How could anyone resist?
I don't run, of course, but I would have been very frustrated having to walk in the middle!!
You guys had a meet before the marathon?!! I am in awe of you.
Oh, and best report title -ever.

 

[imagination30]

We are staying at Wilderness when we go with my sis. Luckily my sis and BIL are laid back so there shouldn't be any drama with meals. Better not because Dan and I are going to babysit so they can have a date night! Can't wait to try the waffles there!! My 'Ohana experience was before the no show charges thank goodness!

krista - roaring fork has awesome breakfast!!!! , and whispering cayon , isnt crowded for lunch ... , but wilderness is awesome!... and so convinet!

 

[Kristia]

krista - roaring fork has awesome breakfast!!!! , and whispering cayon , isnt crowded for lunch ... , but wilderness is awesome!... and so convinet!

I have stayed at Wilderness before and loved it. I don't think they had the waffles when I was there though. We are looking forward to trying Whispering Canyon with my niece. I think she will love it!

 

[dreamfinder]

I totally thought the lines were longer than ever. I had never done the half marathon so I just assumed that that was the case for this race. The marathon character lines were more what I was use to but still long especially at the beginning of the race. I think the half has reached capacity. I felt crowded the whole race except when running on 4 lane roads (aka running into MK).

They definitely had alot longer lines at all 3 races this year. Not sure why, it's not like they had that many random and rare characters. The only thing I can think of is that many of the characters only had 1 handler this year. In past years they have had 2, who would trade off guests to greatly speed up the line. I was in corral A for the 1/2 and full, and the lines were getting pretty long at that point as well, so I don't think it was just overall numbers. That's not to say that it didn't feel way more crowded this year.

3. I'm not sure what was going on, but getting people to the starting corrals seemed a little disorganized this year. We were there early and had a long wait before we could start walking to the corrals, yet we only arrived about 15 minutes before the official start of the race. Lots of other people were sprinting to their corrals to start on time. It was weird.

Yeah. I liked how they made "last call for runners", so we went through the bag check, but then couldn't go anywhere. They weren't letting runners go down the road, but yet the DJ kept saying "runners are on their way to the start line".

4. I have read before that this race is one of the biggest that Disney puts on (they kept saying 27,000 runners and the results list a little over 21,000 finishers...I wonder how many actually started?), yet I could NOT believe how crowded it was, especially during the couple of miles where we were entering/leaving the Magic Kingdom. It even seemed like the character lines were longer this year than in the past. I don't see them lowering the cap (the number of people that can participate in the race) because it's a proven money-maker and I sure hope they don't increase it. It was almost too much to handle at times and may have even bordered on being unsafe for runners.

I'm thinking that some of the issues can definitely be resolved if they actually start policing the submitted race times. Getting the slower people more towards the back would be a huge help. Also maybe either increase the number of corrals, or the spacing between corrals. I admit, it would make it a much longer wait for many runners, but it should help make it a safer event.

5. Along with the crowds (Disney's fault), my other big issue with the race was runner etiquette...or lack thereof. This isn't Disney’s fault, of course. They post guidelines in the final race instructions, which is probably all they can do. Like I said earlier, I am NOT complaining about people walking on the race course, but I had problems with people walking in the middle of the course (walk to the side! ), starting to walk in the middle of the course unexpectedly (put up a hand or something! Otherwise I will probably run into you ), and walking 4-5 people abreast and totally blocking the way (Disney suggests no more than 2 abreast ). It was incredibly frustrating.

Ayup. Way to many people didn't seem to read the stuff in the handouts about walking on the right hand side, not going in groups of more than 2 wide, etc.

 

[Ariel484]

Shannon! Is it weird that I absolutely hate running and yet love trip reports about running? I can not believe you did all three!!
I would have been upset by the CM encounter too, I'm sorry.
I love love that Dooney!
Awesome Mickey picture.
And what awesome pictures you got in the half!! How could anyone resist?
I don't run, of course, but I would have been very frustrated having to walk in the middle!!
You guys had a meet before the marathon?!! I am in awe of you.
Oh, and best report title -ever.

Tammy!! I think you just secretly love running but won't allow yourself to admit it. You should totally do the Castaway Cay 5K in September...
I was very pleased with the character pictures from the weekend, especially the longer races. I wish I would have gotten more during the 5K but the lines were just so long...
Yep, fun WDWMagic meet before the marathon! I loved it!!
And thanks, I am quite proud of the report title. *pats self on the back* hahaha

krista - roaring fork has awesome breakfast!!!! , and whispering cayon , isnt crowded for lunch ... , but wilderness is awesome!... and so convinet!

AMEN on Roaring Forks for breakfast...can't wait to go back!

I have stayed at Wilderness before and loved it. I don't think they had the waffles when I was there though. We are looking forward to trying Whispering Canyon with my niece. I think she will love it!

I think the waffles are new-ish...I remember seeing Holly post about them sometime last year and that was the first I'd heard of them.

They definitely had alot longer lines at all 3 races this year. Not sure why, it's not like they had that many random and rare characters. The only thing I can think of is that many of the characters only had 1 handler this year. In past years they have had 2, who would trade off guests to greatly speed up the line. I was in corral A for the 1/2 and full, and the lines were getting pretty long at that point as well, so I don't think it was just overall numbers. That's not to say that it didn't feel way more crowded this year.

I was most surprised at the 5K lines...not sure why though as that's the one race without a sweep clock, so people are probably less concerned about stopping. It's weird because I do agree with you that there weren't tons of super-rare characters and I actually passed up quite a few just because they were characters you can meet in the park on a normal day or characters that were on the race courses in 2011 and 2012...

Yeah. I liked how they made "last call for runners", so we went through the bag check, but then couldn't go anywhere. They weren't letting runners go down the road, but yet the DJ kept saying "runners are on their way to the start line".

I really didn't know what was going on there. Some kind of mis-communication obviously, because I feel like our timing in getting to the start area was the same in the past and we weren't held up like that before. Everything just a bit disorganized the morning of the half.

I'm thinking that some of the issues can definitely be resolved if they actually start policing the submitted race times. Getting the slower people more towards the back would be a huge help. Also maybe either increase the number of corrals, or the spacing between corrals. I admit, it would make it a much longer wait for many runners, but it should help make it a safer event.

I do agree with corral placement being an issue. I know I said it in another thread, but it really bothered me that people got higher corral placement due to participating in the Runner's World training program (Corral B I think?). I know that didn't cause all of the problems but it's just one example of how despite us having to submit times it's all very loosely done. I thought they were super generous when I had them change my brother's corral at the expo...his time was 1 minute slower than the one I had at the same distance but they put him in B while I was in C.

Ayup. Way to many people didn't seem to read the stuff in the handouts about walking on the right hand side, not going in groups of more than 2 wide, etc.

Yep. Didn't seem like as big of a problem during the marathon (at least not where I was). I'm sure it has to do with a lot more new runners running the half vs. the full, but reading the final instructions would have helped...

 

[Ariel484]

I don't remember much about those first few miles. I'd seen it all the previous day and for the most part I think my mind just went blank. But what I do remember was feeling surprisingly lonely. Normally I am super independent but I missed running with my brother...wahhhh!

There were lots of spectators at the TTC again...and just like the previous day the *real* bathroom lines were too long. Boo!

Mile Marker 4 was in the TTC...time for half a bag of Gu Chomps.

And back under the Contemporary water bridge. Poorly lit and narrow here, just like during the half.

Almost to the MK!

The splits are a little different for the marathon compared to the half...here my first split was sent out: 5 miles in 59:27, average pace of 11:53/mile. Estimated finish time of 5:11:41 (11:02AM). Gee, that would be a somewhat decent finish time, wouldn't it?

Wheeeee!

(This is the one official photo I purchased from the weekend...not impressed with the photos overall but this one makes me laugh!)

We made the same turn into the MK as we had the day before and Main Street was much more manageable. Still crowded but at least today I wasn't afraid of getting an elbow to the...uh...chest area.

 

[Ariel484]

Don't look into my devil-eyes in this picture...I might steal your soul!

Pretty castle!

And back into Tomorrowland we go!

Buzz was out in front of the Lunching Pad again, the Mickey's Star Traders bathroom lines were huge again, and people were darting off the course to the Space Mountain bathrooms...again. Déjà vu, anyone?! Alice was out in Fantasyland again too...but this time she was with the Mad Hatter.

Note to self: the "hold out the skirt" pose doesn't really work with a running skirt.

I ran back through Fantasyland, past the circus...

...and stopped at the new castle walls.

This was sort of a long line (4 minutes per my Garmin data...it felt longer at the time!) but I couldn't pass up the chance to do my best princess pose with my WDWMagic namesake.

Probably best to leave it to the professionals.

 

[Kristia]

GREAT picture!! Definitely a good purchase! I think we are going to chose one or two but definitely not all of them. And they finally put some up of us at the marathon finish. They aren't the greatest though and none of me high-fiving Mickey.

You were making awesome time! Unlike me! At least I can kind of laugh about it now!

 

[Ariel484]

Belle was also out in her yellow dress, but I passed her up and got into the GIANT line at the castle. Donald was out at the castle the previous morning so I was pretty sure Mickey would be out today. A CM confirmed it for me and let me know that Minnie was there too (!!), so I just made myself comfortable. I got out my phone to shoot Will a quick text (I NEVER thought I'd text so much on a race course) and briefly considered calling him to make sure he was awake. He was hoping to stroll out to the Grand Floridian parking lot to watch me run by, and I was about 1.5 miles away by then. Eventually I decided I probably didn't need to call and took some videos to pass the time in line (7-8 minutes...again, it felt longer).

The trumpeters were working hard that morning. My favorite was when they would occasionally play the Rocky theme, but I never got a decent video of it.


This next video sort of gives an idea of the atmosphere in the Magic Kingdom (at least that's why I took the video...maybe it conveys nothing ) and just how big this line was.


It was really funny, because people would run by the line, figure out who the line was for, stop in their tracks and backtrack so that they could wait for a photo too. I saw this happen 5-6 times. I also heard lots of people justifying the photo stop out loud and quickly re-adjusting their goals: "Well I did have a goal time but you should really just do this race for run, it's okay!" Ahh, I"m among my people. But once again I'd be lying if I said I didn't sort of have a goal time in mind. The ultimate goal was to, of course, come out of this thing (the Goofy Challenge) alive...but in addition to wanting to beat my time from last year (6:20) I also wanted to go under 6 hours. Partially just to see some improvement but also because it was going to be HOT that day and I didn't want to be out in the sun for longer than necessary, and a 6-hour finish time would have me completing the race right around noon. So it was interesting and a little alarming to stand in the Fantasyland lines (at the Mad Tea Party, for Ariel and the one I was currently in) and watch the average pace on my Garmin shoot up from 12 minutes to almost 16 minutes per mile.

But I have no regrets...woohoo!

The run through the castle was a lot easier this morning for whatever reason. Tiana and Naveen were out in Liberty Square, and BULLSEYE was waiting for me in Frontierland!!!

This was a picture I'd really been hoping to get...you can probably tell by my ridiculous grin, which in turn made me do some weird neck straining thing. Oops. It looks a LOT worse in the official photo…almost alarming, actually.

And here we are at Mile Marker 6...

Two things about this picture. 1. Starting here and for the remainder of the race I was running near a big family (10 people maybe) from Japan and it was really hard to get pictures without that family in them. So I had to stand and wait for a minute or so to take the above picture, because I like to get those mile marker pictures people-free (I'm still annoyed that there’s a person in my Mile Marker 4 picture from the half). And 2. Please note that today's jaunt through the Magic Kingdom took 32 MINUTES. HAHAHAHAHA...but seriously, with the goal of not being outside for too long in the heat (which hadn't really kicked in yet, at least I didn't think so) I spent the rest of the race really trying to recover from that long sixth mile.

 

[Ariel484]

GREAT picture!! Definitely a good purchase! I think we are going to chose one or two but definitely not all of them. And they finally put some up of us at the marathon finish. They aren't the greatest though and none of me high-fiving Mickey.

You were making awesome time! Unlike me! At least I can kind of laugh about it now!

HAHA, thanks. After I read the tip from @LindsayLoves about putting stuff in the cart to get discounts I tried to finagle my way into getting all of the images on the cheap, but it just didn't work out. Oh well, I have most of the character pictures anyway and I look weird in my official finisher picture. Oddly enough I normally hate photos of myself running but the ones from this weekend actually looked kind of decent. And I had ZERO pictures of myself crossing the marathon finish line, so you guys have me beat there.

Awesome time huh? Please scroll up and look at my 32-minute 6th mile. Seriously though, if I were sick like you I don't even know if I would have been able to get myself to the starting line...and you finished the race!!

 

[openendedsky]

This is awesome to read. Congratulations, and I look forward to reading the rest of your journey!

 

[Kristia]

Ahhhhh!!! Bullseye! I am jealous! By the time we passed, he must have been gone and Jessie was out just like on half marathon day. I tried trying to get discounts too but didn't give me anything. I also couldn't figure out how to pick individual pictures from the half and the marathon day. It would only let me pick from one day or the other unless I was doing something wrong. I really don't like that website. I also got the email for the finisher's certificate. The photo for my half marathon is not even me. The number on the girl is clearly not my number but one off. I wonder how they even pick which picture to put on up. Dan marathon pic is him running through the castle but there is a guy in front of him who is clearly the object of the picture. SMH!

 

[Ariel484]

This is awesome to read. Congratulations, and I look forward to reading the rest of your journey!

Thank you so much, and thanks for reading!

Ahhhhh!!! Bullseye! I am jealous! By the time we passed, he must have been gone and Jessie was out just like on half marathon day. I tried trying to get discounts too but didn't give me anything. I also couldn't figure out how to pick individual pictures from the half and the marathon day. It would only let me pick from one day or the other unless I was doing something wrong. I really don't like that website. I also got the email for the finisher's certificate. The photo for my half marathon is not even me. The number on the girl is clearly not my number but one off. I wonder how they even pick which picture to put on up. Dan marathon pic is him running through the castle but there is a guy in front of him who is clearly the object of the picture. SMH!

I know you really wanted that one...I'm sorry. In 4 "attempts" this is the first time I have seen him out. In the past it's always been Woody or Jessie whenever I went by. Is it just me or is the Jessie costume kind of freaky?

Anyway...I agree with you, the new website is no good. Last year I found it much easier to navigate and I found that customer service was really good (responsive and fast) when I asked to combine some of my pictures with my brother's pictures when we were both visible but a bib was blocked out. I have heard that people are having trouble getting stuff moved around.

My finisher pages came out weirdly good, I thought...here's my half one (yes, I have mad MS Paint Skillz ) :

I've heard of what you're saying about not even getting YOU in your photo...I read about a guy whose finisher certificate photo clearly frames a lady with long, gray hair... That would be REALLY crappy if there wasn't a way to change it.

ETA: And I don't like how the clock time is displayed so prominently on the actual certificates...why do I care about my clock time??

 

[openendedsky]

Is it just me or is the Jessie costume kind of freaky?

She is quite weird. I don't remember if it was on here or somewhere else but I saw a photo comparison of a fan costume and hers, and the fan one was much better, hah.

 

[Ariel484]

She is quite weird. I don't remember if it was on here or somewhere else but I saw a photo comparison of a fan costume and hers, and the fan one was much better, hah.

Oh good, it's not just me then!

 

[Kristia]

Oh good, it's not just me then!

She has no neck! Her head just sits on her shoulders! She is definitely creepy!

 

[Kristia]

That is a good finisher's certificate! Have to see if I can get mine changed. I even removed that photo from my pictures but I guess I did it too late.

 

[LindsayLoves]

The only character line I skipped out on that I am kind of kicking myself for is that Royal Mickey and Minnie line. It was 15-20 people long and I said no way. Definitely bummed about that now.

Also I am super jealous of the people who got Bullseye AND Jessie, I saw some unclaimed photos with both of them (lots of unclaimed Bullseye photos because of his hooves blocking the bibs). I guess when they would do character switch outs some lucky people would get both sets of characters - I just missed out on Peter Pan, Wendy, Captain Hook, and Smee by like 2 people.

I love the photo of my brother and I running down Main St like the one you bought, definitely one of the few I liked that they took.

@Kristia - I can not believe you are just getting finish line photos now! Better late than never right? I have been sifting through some unclaimed ones and there are some very decent finish line shots out there, just none belonging to anyone here.

 

[Kristia]

The only character line I skipped out on that I am kind of kicking myself for is that Royal Mickey and Minnie line. It was 15-20 people long and I said no way. Definitely bummed about that now.

Also I am super jealous of the people who got Bullseye AND Jessie, I saw some unclaimed photos with both of them (lots of unclaimed Bullseye photos because of his hooves blocking the bibs). I guess when they would do character switch outs some lucky people would get both sets of characters - I just missed out on Peter Pan, Wendy, Captain Hook, and Smee by like 2 people.

I love the photo of my brother and I running down Main St like the one you bought, definitely one of the few I liked that they took.

@Kristia - I can not believe you are just getting finish line photos now! Better late than never right? I have been sifting through some unclaimed ones and there are some very decent finish line shots out there, just none belonging to anyone here.

I looked about a week ago and there weren't any. Not sure when they finally showed up. I don't know why it took so long!

 

[Ariel484]

She has no neck! Her head just sits on her shoulders! She is definitely creepy!

It's something about the way her face is too... Just not good all around.

That is a good finisher's certificate! Have to see if I can get mine changed. I even removed that photo from my pictures but I guess I did it too late.

That's so dumb, why would they use a photo that you dumped? They should just let us pick them. I hope you can get yours changed.

The only character line I skipped out on that I am kind of kicking myself for is that Royal Mickey and Minnie line. It was 15-20 people long and I said no way. Definitely bummed about that now.

Totally understandable to skip out on a long line like that...at least you can come back and try again. During the 2011 Princess Half one of the bigger lines I saw was for Gaston and Belle in her yellow dress, and I didn't wait for that one and am still a little sad about it. At least Gaston is out in Fantasyland now, and I did finally get a picture with him during the marathon!

Also I am super jealous of the people who got Bullseye AND Jessie, I saw some unclaimed photos with both of them (lots of unclaimed Bullseye photos because of his hooves blocking the bibs). I guess when they would do character switch outs some lucky people would get both sets of characters - I just missed out on Peter Pan, Wendy, Captain Hook, and Smee by like 2 people.

I also missed Hook and Smee...they were walking away as I got in line. I know what you mean about people getting "bonus"-type pictures: one of the better ones I saw was @TakeMeThere81 during the Princess Half getting a picture with Cinderella, Prince Charming AND Royal Mickey and Royal Minnie. So jealous of that one!

I love the photo of my brother and I running down Main St like the one you bought, definitely one of the few I liked that they took.

May I see?

@Kristia - I can not believe you are just getting finish line photos now! Better late than never right? I have been sifting through some unclaimed ones and there are some very decent finish line shots out there, just none belonging to anyone here.

I looked about a week ago and there weren't any. Not sure when they finally showed up. I don't know why it took so long!

I give up on the photos. I went through the unclaimed ones 2-3 times and it's getting old...plus what if I ordered all of my digital images and then some new ones showed up a few days later? Boo MarathonFoto, Boo.