Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend

lukacseven

lukacseven

Well-Known Member
Ariel484 said:
:hilarious:

In all seriousness I keep holding out hope that they'll go back to the old course - add in the early-morning Epcot portion and drop the WWoS portion. Oh well, I can dream.
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Agreed. I really liked Epcot in the morning all lit up, plus that made the AK main entrance around mile 18. The new way it's just the half-way point. It was also a different experience for Goofy runners going through MK in the dark on Saturday and then having it be lighter on Sunday. I do like the addition of the race track to the new course, but can definitely do without WWoS. I also liked when they rotated the 5K course between parks - now it appears it's staying at Epcot. I understand the logistics, but the course change every year was something new/different to look forward to. The second half of the 10K course looks fun - this will be my first time running the Boardwalk.
 
Ariel484

Ariel484

Well-Known Member
lukacseven said:
Agreed. I really liked Epcot in the morning all lit up, plus that made the AK main entrance around mile 18. The new way it's just the half-way point. It was also a different experience for Goofy runners going through MK in the dark on Saturday and then having it be lighter on Sunday. I do like the addition of the race track to the new course, but can definitely do without WWoS. I also liked when they rotated the 5K course between parks - now it appears it's staying at Epcot. I understand the logistics, but the course change every year was something new/different to look forward to. The second half of the 10K course looks fun - this will be my first time running the Boardwalk.
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I think you stated it perfectly. Ah well. :(
 
FerretAfros

FerretAfros

Well-Known Member
Interesting that the maps don't reflect any changes to the course, considering they have been posted to the USATF website. I also find it odd that they're still using last year's graphics (including 2014 in the logo); they did the same for the W&D map, and it just looks sloppy

In unrelated news, I don't think I've gotten any of the email blasts from runDisney in 3+ years, despite having run in multiple events and on both coasts each year. I recently signed up for their email renewal thing, but it seems I've been lost in the shuffle

ETA: The early morning Epcot loop was easily my favorite part of the Marathon, and I'm also really disappointed that it's been removed in recent years. I don't mind the speedway, but WWOS is the last place I want to be at mile 20
 
dreamfinder

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
Ariel484 said:
:hilarious:

In all seriousness I keep holding out hope that they'll go back to the old course - add in the early-morning Epcot portion and drop the WWoS portion. Oh well, I can dream.
Click to expand...

As much as I liked the extra time in Epcot, that merger at like mile 3 was killer. I can't imagine them doing that again unless they can somehow reroute it for everyone to go that way, just doing the extra mileage in Epcot instead of WWoS. People complain enough now about congestion in later corrals, imagine if pretty much everyone had to merge again. Yikes.
 
Ariel484

Ariel484

Well-Known Member
dreamfinder said:
As much as I liked the extra time in Epcot, that merger at like mile 3 was killer. I can't imagine them doing that again unless they can somehow reroute it for everyone to go that way, just doing the extra mileage in Epcot instead of WWoS. People complain enough now about congestion in later corrals, imagine if pretty much everyone had to merge again. Yikes.
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I ran the marathon in 2012 and 2013 so I think the separate start/merge was gone by then. I could see how that would be a total cluster (assuming you and I are talking about the same thing?).
 
Ariel484

Ariel484

Well-Known Member
Medals! Very similar to last year overall:
FullSizeRender.jpg
 
AUPr8Hd

AUPr8Hd

Active Member
Big difference in the medals is the 10k, half and marathon has a "cut out" on the medal. If you look closely, you can see it. I don't remember if Dopey had the cut out last year or not.
 
Texas84

Texas84

Well-Known Member
Signed up for the Jeff Galloway inaugural half in Atlanta. Noticed it just happened to line up with a 13-miler on the Higdon Dopey plan so I went for it.
 
LindsayLoves

LindsayLoves

Well-Known Member
AUPr8Hd said:
Big difference in the medals is the 10k, half and marathon has a "cut out" on the medal. If you look closely, you can see it. I don't remember if Dopey had the cut out last year or not.
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Good catch! I believe Dopey had a purple background where the cut out is last year. I enjoy these cut out styles a bit more, gives the characters more definition. That goofy medal looks HUGE, might knock some teeth out if it swings the wrong way on Space Mountain.
 
dreamfinder

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
Ariel484 said:
I ran the marathon in 2012 and 2013 so I think the separate start/merge was gone by then. I could see how that would be a total cluster (assuming you and I are talking about the same thing?).
Click to expand...

Yeah. Basically one bunch of corrals went on the "blue" course, and the other started on the "red" course. Dug up an old map from 09 here -> http://adisneyworldsports.disney.go.com/media/dwws_v0222/en_US/pdf/09MARATHONMAP.pdf It's not terribly detailed, but you can see how the two different courses went different ways for the first 3 1/2ish miles and then merged. Which in theory is ok, give the runners a chance to spread out, but you can see you double back over the same area. So instead of the staggered starts they use now, both courses started at once, and slammed into each other. I seem to recall one course being the first half of the runners (faster) and the other course being the second half (slower) instead of staggering A, C, E, G on one and B, D, F, H on the other.
 
lukacseven

lukacseven

Well-Known Member
I ran the course 3 times with the dual start...the elite runners & faster runners were in the blue start, which entered the park much sooner, similar to the half course near the end, but looped around the World Showcase backstage (never ran this part). The other start, which was the same time - no staggered start, went well past the park & looped back through the parking plaza. It was fun running down the center of the Epcot parking lot - they had music and some of the floats from Spectromagic out. You ran under the monorail platform - always a lot of spectators, & through the main park entrance & under Spaceship Earth. The courses merged at Avenue of the Stars & Pekoe Loop. Red course exited World showcase at the gate between Norway & China. I never had an issue at the merge point. You'd think this is a potential disaster area, but no problems here. It actually seemed less congested than the current course does when you're merging onto World Drive.
 
dreamfinder

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
lukacseven said:
I ran the course 3 times with the dual start...the elite runners & faster runners were in the blue start, which entered the park much sooner, similar to the half course near the end, but looped around the World Showcase backstage (never ran this part). The other start, which was the same time - no staggered start, went well past the park & looped back through the parking plaza. It was fun running down the center of the Epcot parking lot - they had music and some of the floats from Spectromagic out. You ran under the monorail platform - always a lot of spectators, & through the main park entrance & under Spaceship Earth. The courses merged at Avenue of the Stars & Pekoe Loop. Red course exited World showcase at the gate between Norway & China. I never had an issue at the merge point. You'd think this is a potential disaster area, but no problems here. It actually seemed less congested than the current course does when you're merging onto World Drive.
Click to expand...

Eh, maybe it was just where I ended up in the pack, but it seemed to cluster up pretty good to me. Differing of opinions I guess.
 

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