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!

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

Shannon!! I LOVE your runDisney trip reports! Every time I read them I want to sign up for another runDisney race! You make me forget that I hate running. I absolutely love your trip report title! So clever. And are you absolutely crazy?! A 5k, half marathon and marathon?!?! You really are Dopey! Hahaha Mad props to you for signing up to do all of these races. I can't wait to see how you were feeling after all of them. I know that I would literally die.

I love all of the merchandise you picked up at the expo. Those shirts are super cute. And I love that Dooney & Burke! So sorry that you had such a bad experience with that cast member. I hate that when a bad cast member experience can ruin your day. I always have to try to tell myself to just let it go and don't let it ruin my trip.

Isn't the GF just gorgeous? I am so glad that I got to stay there in 2009 with my parents. It is such a beautiful resort and is just so classy. That's awesome that you got it for a such a good rate! Nothing I love more than getting good rates at Deluxe resorts!

I can't wait to read more!

 

[Ariel484]

Shannon!! I LOVE your runDisney trip reports! Every time I read them I want to sign up for another runDisney race! You make me forget that I hate running. I absolutely love your trip report title! So clever. And are you absolutely crazy?! A 5k, half marathon and marathon?!?! You really are Dopey! Hahaha Mad props to you for signing up to do all of these races. I can't wait to see how you were feeling after all of them. I know that I would literally die.

Thanks Ashley! Nah, not crazy (at least I don't think so)...just wanted all that bling!

I love all of the merchandise you picked up at the expo. Those shirts are super cute. And I love that Dooney & Burke! So sorry that you had such a bad experience with that cast member. I hate that when a bad cast member experience can ruin your day. I always have to try to tell myself to just let it go and don't let it ruin my trip.

I really liked the official merchandise this year...all of the t-shirts had kind of a retro vibe that I thought was pretty cool. I love the Dooney too! It looked much better once I saw it in person compared to the promotional photos they had online. The thing with the CM definitely came at a bad time...I'd like to think it wouldn't have bothered me so much if I hadn't had such a crazy morning already but I'm a big softy when it comes to stuff like that.

Isn't the GF just gorgeous? I am so glad that I got to stay there in 2009 with my parents. It is such a beautiful resort and is just so classy. That's awesome that you got it for a such a good rate! Nothing I love more than getting good rates at Deluxe resorts!

I can't wait to read more!

Yes, we LOOOOOOVED it. I was afraid we'd come away saying that we don't ever want to stay anywhere else. I wouldn't say that has happened because we love the other Deluxes we've stayed at and have a few others we want to try, but we will definitely stay at the GF again in the future.

 

[Ariel484]

So now we were back on (I think) Epcot Center Drive. The flags from this morning were still out.

Greetings, Mile Marker 11!

This next portion of the course was all highway with sort of rolling hills. Epcot was just beyond our reach.

All of the guys ahead of us…

Phineas and Ferb were out meeting just before Epcot and Mile Marker 12…their line was non-existent but we passed them up.

By now Craig was slowing down a bit more, and as guilty as I felt to do it I sheepishly said, “Umm…see you at the finish?” He said “yep” and I took off for the last 1.1 miles by myself.

Hello, Epcot!

I think these flags are new for the races? Maybe? Or maybe they've been there in the past and I just never noticed...

 

[Ariel484]

Lots of awesome CMs out clapping for us here. Stitch was out in Future World with zero wait…so why not?

And just like that…bye-bye Epcot!

Almost to the end…the gospel choir…

…and Mile Marker 13…

…and the finish line!

But anyone who has read my race reports knows that I didn’t sprint to the finish. There’s pretty much always a character out at this point for high fives and photos…so I had to stop.

MICKEY IN HIS TRACK SUIT! Yes! After last year’s marathon I really wanted a picture of Mickey and Minnie in their track suits, so now I was halfway there!

After the picture I think I just turned around and stepped across the finish line. Race #2, complete!

Final finish time: 2:57:56, a 13:34 minute/mile pace…just about 5 minutes better than my time for the 2011 Princess Half Marathon. Booyah!

Time for the bling! Thank you, kind sir!

Close-up shots of the medal I took later…

I headed to to my and my brother’s designated meeting area (a lettered tent) in the Family Reunion area. I was surprised to find that he was almost right behind me and had been chasing me down over the last mile. And here’s where karma comes back to bite me…you’ll notice that he was representing the home teams (Browns, Indians) with his race outfit. Throughout the race we’d gotten a few “HERE WE GO BROWNIES!” cheers, which was really neat. As he crossed the finish line my brother got one final “GO BROWNS!” cheer. He looked to his right and the cheer had come from..."The Price is Right" host and fellow native Clevelander Drew Carey! (He was supposed to run the marathon but had to pull out with a knee injury.) My brother blinked a few times and exclaimed "DREW?!" GUH. If I had been there with my camera we totally would have gotten a picture. This is what I get for ditching Princess C at mile 12. Bad sister!

Anyway, the first thing out of bro’s mouth after the Drew story confirmed what I'd known for weeks but didn't really want to admit: "I can’t run tomorrow." He'd completed the half marathon on - literally - a handful of training runs, but finishing the marathon (and Goofy) just wasn't possible or smart, especially since he was wiped from completing the half. Sadness, both for him - since he'd paid the Goofy entry fee which is over twice as much as the half fee! - and for me. My second marathon would be a solo endeavor.

 

[Ariel484]

2013 Walt Disney World Half Marathon Final Thoughts

NOTE: This is long...oops!

1. First of all...you'll notice that I didn't mention running into any spectators during this race. From the beginning I made it clear to our fellow travelers that I didn't expect people to try to spectate during the half for a few reasons:
- The biggest reason...running is not a great spectator sport in my opinion. You see your runner for a few seconds and they're gone, just like that. Yawn.
- There aren't many great spectator areas along the half course, so they could have seen us twice, maybe, if they were really diligent.
- From running the Princess Half in 2011 I knew we'd finish right around 9AM...after Will's long day of working and traveling I absolutely did not expect him to get up at the crack of down to wave at me for a minute as I ran past.
- My mom and aunt don't know their way around property very well, so asking them to navigate Disney transportation on race morning just seemed like more of a hassle than it was worth.

2. You'll also notice that I don't have any official race pictures or videos in this report. Last year I bought the marathon package because there were lots of great pictures, including a decent number of me crossing the finish line. This year: lots of finish line pictures from the 5K, no finish line pictures at all from the half or full. NONE. Well, that's not true – you can see half of me crossing the half marathon in a couple. There were just a lot less photos overall...I'm not impressed. Just didn't seem worth the money 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.

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.

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.

6. Now, despite my above complaints, I did think that this was a GREAT race overall. Except for the hiccup with the starting corrals and some places where the course could have been lit a little better (Contemporary water bridge, I'm looking at you), I liked it. It was (for the most part) well-organized, there were lots of full-stocked water stops (which also had Powerade), lots of porta-potties, and, as always, AMAZING volunteers. Crowd support was great – so fun to run into the Magic Kingdom and toward the finish line while tons of people cheer! And most importantly, we got some great character pictures, the highlight for me being Jack and Sally.

7. Just a random thought...this was my first time running the WDW Half, but second time running on the course as it's the same course as the Princess Half. I was surprised at how much of the course I remembered (course narrows and spreads out over the first 2 miles, overpass after mile 10, look out for sloped roads, etc.) and how much having run it before helped.

I hate to say this because I know this is a goal race for a lot of people...but of the 5 Disney races I've run I think this is the most frustrating race experience I've had, and that is completely because of how crowded it was and the lack of runner etiquette on the course. It really makes me wonder how much bigger this race can get, and makes me hope that the Princess Half (which I know grows each year) won't get as crowded as this race was. I would still, of course, whole-heartedly recommend this race to anyone that wants to participate - we still had a great time despite the above issues - just be aware that it's CROWDED!

 

[PirateTink53]

I am loving your trip reports!!!!! I'm running the princess 1/2 next month and I was super nervous, but reading about your running experiences just make me really excited!!!! Can't wait to read more!!!!!!!!!

 

[Ariel484]

I am loving your trip reports!!!!! I'm running the princess 1/2 next month and I was super nervous, but reading about your running experiences just make me really excited!!!! Can't wait to read more!!!!!!!!!

Thanks! Will this be your first half marathon? The Princess Half is a great race, I am sure you will have an awesome time! Good luck and HAVE FUN!

 

[PirateTink53]

Thanks! Will this be your first half marathon? The Princess Half is a great race, I am sure you will have an awesome time! Good luck and HAVE FUN!

Thanks!!!!! And yes it is my first half, yikes!

 

[Sumrdog]

Thanks!!!!! And yes it is my first half, yikes!

I am going to be there too! @Ariel484 has gotten me so excited with her awesome trip reports!

 

[TakeMeThere81]

Epic finish!!! Track Suit Mickey and a PR!! Woop! Beautiful medal too. Sad Craigy couldn't race on Great job to both of you in the half though!!'

 

[imagination30]

thanks for the course tips shannon.. ( how bad does it narrow at mile 2 or whatever?) , just for future reference..

 

[Kristia]

Two down, one to go! Loved the Mickey picture at the end! Totally agree with all your frustrations with the race. I went into it knowing that it wouldn't be a PR race but it is exhausting trying to get a comfortable regular pace going when you have to weave around people and avoid people that just STOP out of nowhere! So cool that your bro got a shout out from Drew Carey! We were hoping to see him! Guess we have to wear Cleveland apparel next time! Kudos to your brother for being smart and not trying to muscle out the marathon. That does stink, but safer that he didn't try it.

 

[Brian Davis]

Great reading this - a really well done trip report. I did my 1st full marathon down there this year (having never done a half before... I figured in the course of training for a full, I had to run more than one half anyway ). I was certainly a walker (5:35 for the marathon isn't exactly a runner's pace), but tried to stay off to the side. Yes, there was crowding - water stops were trickiest in my opinion. I didn't take a still camera but a GoPro mounted on my head, and got some fun video. It's great reading it from somebody else's viewpoint however. I was frankly amazed at how much shear fun I had... I must have high-fived a couple hundred people, laughed at signs, stolen seats from spectators and in one case cast members, sang songs, cracked jokes... it amazed me how much fun I could have while slogging through my first 26.2!

And yeah... teared up and crying a little bit as I entered EPCOT. Can't wait for the story of Sunday... and maybe in a future year, I'll step up to the Goofy.

 

[Ariel484]

Thanks!!!!! And yes it is my first half, yikes!

You'll do great! Just make sure to stick to your training, and don't forget your camera!

I am going to be there too! @Ariel484 has gotten me so excited with her awesome trip reports!

You should be excited, it's a really fun race.

Epic finish!!! Track Suit Mickey and a PR!! Woop! Beautiful medal too. Sad Craigy couldn't race on Great job to both of you in the half though!!'

Thanks Melanee! Yep, that's a Disney PR...because there are regular PRs and there are Disney PRs. I really love the medal...I didn't like last year's so much so I am glad they changed it. I'm sorry Craig didn't race on too, he was pretty bummed about it. Definitely the right choice though.

thanks for the course tips shannon.. ( how bad does it narrow at mile 2 or whatever?) , just for future reference..

No prob! Hope I didn't freak you out. I think it was maybe 2 lanes...leaving the Magic Kingdom it was only 1 lane. @Kristia does that sounds right? Just know that it can get crowded, still lots of fun though.

Two down, one to go! Loved the Mickey picture at the end! Totally agree with all your frustrations with the race. I went into it knowing that it wouldn't be a PR race but it is exhausting trying to get a comfortable regular pace going when you have to weave around people and avoid people that just STOP out of nowhere! So cool that your bro got a shout out from Drew Carey! We were hoping to see him! Guess we have to wear Cleveland apparel next time! Kudos to your brother for being smart and not trying to muscle out the marathon. That does stink, but safer that he didn't try it.

Yeah, I knew it would be crowded, but not like that. If people had been a little better about the etiquette stuff I think that would have made a big difference. I was hoping to see Drew too! Since my brother was right behind me I bet I ran right past Drew and didn't even notice. Bro was definitely sad to miss the marathon, but I am hoping that it inspires him to want to try (and actually train for) Goofy in 2015.

 

[Ariel484]

Great reading this - a really well done trip report. I did my 1st full marathon down there this year (having never done a half before... I figured in the course of training for a full, I had to run more than one half anyway ). I was certainly a walker (5:35 for the marathon isn't exactly a runner's pace), but tried to stay off to the side. Yes, there was crowding - water stops were trickiest in my opinion. I didn't take a still camera but a GoPro mounted on my head, and got some fun video. It's great reading it from somebody else's viewpoint however. I was frankly amazed at how much shear fun I had... I must have high-fived a couple hundred people, laughed at signs, stolen seats from spectators and in one case cast members, sang songs, cracked jokes... it amazed me how much fun I could have while slogging through my first 26.2!

And yeah... teared up and crying a little bit as I entered EPCOT. Can't wait for the story of Sunday... and maybe in a future year, I'll step up to the Goofy.

HA. Wait until you see my marathon time.

You're right that the water stops were tough...at least I somewhat expected it though! Oh well.

Your video sounds awesome! Do you have it posted anywhere?

Congrats on finishing your first marathon! I'm glad you had such a great time...Disney is definitely a great first marathon. I'm signed up for my first non-Disney marathon in the spring...super nervous that it won't live up to the two I have done at Disney.

If you can do the marathon I think you are more than capable of going Goofy. The best advice I got for Goofy training was from @MKCP 1985 (Doug) - train for it just like you would train for a marathon, no more, no less. It worked for me. My biggest issue was conquering neves...but I think being well-trained and going into it knowing I had completed a marathon were key. Just food for thought.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Kristia]

Great reading this - a really well done trip report. I did my 1st full marathon down there this year (having never done a half before... I figured in the course of training for a full, I had to run more than one half anyway ). I was certainly a walker (5:35 for the marathon isn't exactly a runner's pace), but tried to stay off to the side. Yes, there was crowding - water stops were trickiest in my opinion. I didn't take a still camera but a GoPro mounted on my head, and got some fun video. It's great reading it from somebody else's viewpoint however. I was frankly amazed at how much shear fun I had... I must have high-fived a couple hundred people, laughed at signs, stolen seats from spectators and in one case cast members, sang songs, cracked jokes... it amazed me how much fun I could have while slogging through my first 26.2!

And yeah... teared up and crying a little bit as I entered EPCOT. Can't wait for the story of Sunday... and maybe in a future year, I'll step up to the Goofy.

Congrats on your first marathon! Totallly agree if you can do a marathon, you can do the Goofy! My husband used our GoPro also with a wrist strap mount for the half marathon. Just curious about how long your battery lasted. We didn't charge it before we ran, but the battery meter said it was full. I think we only got about 10 min or so of footage before it died. Wish we had fully charged it.

 

[Kristia]

No prob! Hope I didn't freak you out. I think it was maybe 2 lanes...leaving the Magic Kingdom it was only 1 lane. @Kristia does that sounds right? Just know that it can get crowded, still lots of fun though.

Yeah, I think that sounds right. It was really crowded as soon as we started...it was two lanes I think leaving the Epcot area. Once the field kind of spread out, it wasn't too bad until we condensed down going right into the MK. MK and leaving MK were horrible with the one lane road. That was where the worst congestion was for me.

 

[MKCP 1985]

Congrats on finishing your first marathon! I'm glad you had such a great time...Disney is definitely a great first marathon. I'm signed up for my first non-Disney marathon in the spring...super nervous that it won't live up to the two I have done at Disney.

If you can do the marathon I think you are more than capable of going Goofy. The best advice I got for Goofy training was from @MKCP 1985 (Doug) - train for it just like you would train for a marathon, no more, no less. It worked for me. My biggest issue was conquering neves...but I think being well-trained and going into it knowing I had completed a marathon were key.

Aww, thank you Shannon. I am enjoying your report! Bring on marathon Sunday.

 

[Brian Davis]

Wait until you see my marathon time.

Doesn't matter to me, in that this was my first, so my only goal was "cross the finish line upright". Actually, I was flexible on that... "cross the finish line crawling on bloody knees" would have been a reasonable option!

Your video sounds awesome! Do you have it posted anywhere?

I don't yet - I need to find time to sit down and edit it some. Video taken from your head while running is... slightly bouncy, so I'm finding good bits and running them through a video stabilization. I have taken frame captures (actually just screenshots) of a bunch of the signs, and composited them together into one image:

(and since I'm not sure that that will display correctly, here's the URL to the picture on FB:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4810634217476 )

super nervous that it won't live up to the two I have done at Disney.

Yeah, I can understand the concern.

If you can do the marathon I think you are more than capable of going Goofy.

I think the intimidation factor might have gotten to me had I tried for it this year. But... well, my first marathon was the 20th at WDW. It would be really nice to have the Goofy anniversary as well.

My husband used our GoPro also with a wrist strap mount for the half marathon.

Wonderful! I cheered on my wife and son through the half, and saw a good number of GoPros, although I only saw one or two in the full. Do you have an video up?

Just curious about how long your battery lasted.

A fully charged battery lasts about 2-3 hours (I've done sand castle building timelapses this way). For the race, I took a spare battery along and changed it out at Mile 17, but hadn't drained it completely even then. I've not added up all the footage, but it looks like I got around 2 hours or more of video in 70-odd separate files... everything through MK (took about 14 minutes), almost everything in EPCOT (20 minutes), and a lot of AK & HS as well as bunches of tidbits on the runs. However,the GoPro was set to "one button record"... leaving it on and "waiting" to record eats up batteries just as fast as recording, so that's an issue.

 

[Kristia]

Wonderful! I cheered on my wife and son through the half, and saw a good number of GoPros, although I only saw one or two in the full. Do you have an video up?

A fully charged battery lasts about 2-3 hours (I've done sand castle building timelapses this way). For the race, I took a spare battery along and changed it out at Mile 17, but hadn't drained it completely even then. I've not added up all the footage, but it looks like I got around 2 hours or more of video in 70-odd separate files... everything through MK (took about 14 minutes), almost everything in EPCOT (20 minutes), and a lot of AK & HS as well as bunches of tidbits on the runs. However,the GoPro was set to "one button record"... leaving it on and "waiting" to record eats up batteries just as fast as recording, so that's an issue.

My videos are up on my trip report : http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...race-and-a-half-challenge-trip-report.858567/
I think they are on the 3rd page. I have them linked through photobucket, so they show up looking like pictures but you can click the pic to see the video.

I thought he turned it off each time he was done taking a video but I'm not positive. I guess we will have to look into getting a spare battery too. Maybe we just didn't charge it long enough. I saw some people carrying GoPros on handheld long rods. I don't think I could do that throughout a marathon!