Marathon Weekend 2018

[dragitoff]

I'm doing what I consider my official simulation run this weekend. I did the 2.5 miler Wednesday, 5 miler Thursday, 10 miler today and I'm doing my 20 miler tomorrow morning. I get up at 4am to run anyway so I'm somewhat simulating the "getting up early" part too. My race plan for the 5k is similar to a lot I've read here. I plan on walking most of it since I've never done Marathon Weekend 5k and most I've heard say that's the best race since most of it is in the park while it's dark and empty. I want to soak that one in! I'll run most of the 10k, but planned to get a few pics along the way. Run the entire Half and Full and only do a handful of pics those days, especially for the full. Once I get 15+ miles in, stopping is a death knell for me usually. My goal for the races I actually run is to average around 8:30 pace. That'll be quite slower than my half PR, but it would actually be a full marathon PR if I can accomplish that. Whatever happens, I'm not setting out to achieve any PR's. If one happens, I'm good with it.

 

[hauntedcity]

For the marathon this year they had...

Retired attraction vehicles on the road to AK after leaving MK
Big Bad Wolf was also on that same road.
Lightning and Mater were in the MK parking lot.
I believe Jack and Sally were out as well but I didn’t stop for them.
Anna and Elsa behind the castle but no meets for them.
Country bears outside that show.
Clara Cluck in her parade float by mile 6.
Train stop after mile 6.
Maleficent parade float backstage at MK.
Clara belle and Horace by the landscapig building.
Animals backstage at AK.
Chip Dale and Donald in WWoS. Goofy met on the track.
Green army men on the ramp outside DHS.
Aladdin inside Epcot.
They had space goofy inside Epcot for the 5K and Miss Bunny and Thumper just outside Epcot. There were more I just don’t remember. There are usually 4-5 for the 5K.
10K- had launchpad and Scrooge just after mile 1. Incredibles around mile 2. Stilt walkers just backstage at Epcot. This was the race I believe they have patriotic Mickey, Goofy, and Donald out in America that line was nuts.
There were more but I don’t remember.

I REALLY hope they have Adventurers' Club members, like they did for the... Wine & Dine? And if they would take some Gummi Bears costumes out of mothballs, I would freak my freak.

 

[VAfamily1998]

Transportation after the 5k will begin roughly at 6:30am.

thanks!

 

[FFigawi]

And also, why doesn't Disney post where characters will be?

Because they don't know exactly which characters will be out there until very close to race day. Choosing the costumes takes time and is CM and weather dependent. Some are almost always out, as has been mentioned, but there's no guarantee on any of them. Plus, from an rD perspective, the whining from a character not being where he/she/it was published to be is almost certainly not worth the hassle.

 

[ZellyB]

I have emailed Track Shack and called them. All they told me was "Proof of time is a general recommendation, but does not guarantee you a specific corral.". So essentially they told me proof of time is pointless. Which doesn't make sense. I think my best bet will be to talk with runner relations at the Expo and see if they will accomodate. If not, at least I tried.

I really think when they say it's not a guarantee it's basic corporate speak so they don't have to get into debates with people about where they should or shouldn't be placed based on Proof of time. I mean when you read the fine print on the race agreement stuff, they basically say in so many words, they have the latitude to change anything they want anytime they want - up to and including canceling the races (just like the half marathon last year). The reality is, they do try to use a combination of estimated finish and PoT to place people and on the whole they do quite well with that, but sometimes PoTs don't get entered, or Disney screws up. That's just going to be inevitable. There's a decent amount of anecdotal evidence that if it really was a screw up on their part they will try to make it right, but if it was an error on the runner's part in not submitting properly, they won't typically help. I suspect that is just because opening that up would create huge work on their part during race weekend when dealing with 27000 (or whatever number it is) runners. Ultimately as the company running the race, it's at their discretion to place runners where they choose and that can sometimes suck when it doesn't meet our expectations. I hope you are fortunate and they help you.

 

[huskies90]

Because they don't know exactly which characters will be out there until very close to race day. Choosing the costumes takes time and is CM and weather dependent. Some are almost always out, as has been mentioned, but there's no guarantee on any of them. Plus, from an rD perspective, the whining from a character not being where he/she/it was published to be is almost certainly not worth the hassle.

When I say "post" I mean post day of or day before the race, not weeks in advance. They post where characters will be in the parks during operating hours, why would this be different?

 

[kski907]

All this talk of remembering characters on the course has reminded me of that Wii Fit game where you run around the island and then there are the questions at the end to see if you remember what you ran by. I always fail miserably. I am glad there won't be a test at the end of the marathon, cause by mile 26 I'm sure it will all be a blur. I'm glad there will be folks on here to remind me of what I might have saw.

 

[rteetz]

When I say "post" I mean post day of or day before the race, not weeks in advance. They post where characters will be in the parks during operating hours, why would this be different?

They never have. Characters will change too. When one runner goes by it might be goofy but 20 minutes later it might be Donald. Weather plays a big role too. I’m

 

[Anisum]

Speaking of fine print. They actually put a disclaimer of sorts on the corral list:

Corral placement shown is for the Half Marathon and Marathon only. Your 5K and 10K corral placement is basedon your Full Marathon proof of time submission and will be identified at the time of Race Bib Pick-Up.
Corral placement is not guaranteed and the following factors are taken into account:
• Capacities & Operational Impacts
• Estimated finish time provided by participant in active.com
• If estimated finish time provided is less than 5:30, a valid proof of time must have been provided for placement; otherwise we have placed you at our discretion.

 

[Barca33Runner]

I see a lot of gnashing of teeth over the corral placements and, while I understand the frustration, I thought I'd just leave a quick post for everyone regardless of how their corral situation turned out or turns out:

I have been running Marathon Weekend since 2012. I realize this makes me far from the most experienced runner on these boards, but over those years I have experienced all of the races from almost every perspective from the last corral to front-ish corrals (E for Half/Full, B for 5K/10K). In all of these experiences I have had a tremendous amount of fun and I think there is a great race to be had coming from any situation. When I have seen people have a bad time at a Disney race it has been, without exception, people carrying in preconceived notions of why their race/weekend was not going to be fun. As long as you are open to this being a great experience and focusing on the myriad wonderful things about the races rather than the few annoyances I don't think corral issues will ruin anything.

Take it for whatever it's worth; I'll get off my soapbox now, it has just have a tough time seeing some of the animosity the last couple days. I hope everyone has a fantastic time during Marathon Weekend 2018!

 

[Nole95]

Question about transportation after the 5k:

It won't begin (bringing runners back to their resort) until 7 am, right? So if I am in the 1st or 2nd corral (my Dopey bib is corral B) and figure it will take me about 30 minutes to run the 5k, I will be hanging around for a long time, right? Can I have someone pick me up? Is it pretty easy? We are trying to decide if it's "worth it" to rent a car for the duration of our trip...I'm thinking that being able to avoid hanging around for an hour (especially if it's cold) might be worth it.
If we don't rent the car, should it be easy to get an uber to come get me?

Begins about 6:30, which is an hour after the race starts. Last year when the 5K started at 6, the buses started rolling at 7. The reason is the 5K course is also used by the buses. Once the last runners clear the bus area, they start loading the buses. They all pretty much pull up at once and start loading. It was a pretty quick process once the buses pulled up.

 

[VAfamily1998]

I really think when they say it's not a guarantee it's basic corporate speak so they don't have to get into debates with people about where they should or shouldn't be placed based on Proof of time. I mean when you read the fine print on the race agreement stuff, they basically say in so many words, they have the latitude to change anything they want anytime they want - up to and including canceling the races (just like the half marathon last year). The reality is, they do try to use a combination of estimated finish and PoT to place people and on the whole they do quite well with that, but sometimes PoTs don't get entered, or Disney screws up. That's just going to be inevitable. There's a decent amount of anecdotal evidence that if it really was a screw up on their part they will try to make it right, but if it was an error on the runner's part in not submitting properly, they won't typically help. I suspect that is just because opening that up would create huge work on their part during race weekend when dealing with 27000 (or whatever number it is) runners. Ultimately as the company running the race, it's at their discretion to place runners where they choose and that can sometimes suck when it doesn't meet our expectations. I hope you are fortunate and they help you.

I agree.
A few years ago for the Wine and Dine half, I submitted a 1:47:48 half marathon time for my proof of time. When waivers and corrals came out, I saw I was placed in Corral B--but when I looked at the listing for what time was necessary to get into corral A, it said 1:48 and faster! I was kind of upset--I had submitted proof of time that was faster than 1:48! I emailed RunDisney, emailed trackshack...but they wouldn't budge. I had to start in corral B. So proof of time definitely doesn't guarantee anything.

 

[trackgam]

I know they never do BUT does anyone know or project how the 10k will be divided by corrals? I am doing just the 10k and the full and clearly I know my full corral but was wondering if anyone had insight or projection on this since you all seem to have way more knowledge and heads up

 

[AlexRunsDisney]

I agree.
A few years ago for the Wine and Dine half, I submitted a 1:47:48 half marathon time for my proof of time. When waivers and corrals came out, I saw I was placed in Corral B--but when I looked at the listing for what time was necessary to get into corral A, it said 1:48 and faster! I was kind of upset--I had submitted proof of time that was faster than 1:48! I emailed RunDisney, emailed trackshack...but they wouldn't budge. I had to start in corral B. So proof of time definitely doesn't guarantee anything.

Well I think that is a different scenario than many of us on this board. Yours was the difference between the first or second corral, and a matter of 12 seconds. So I can understand them putting you in Corral B. For others of us, there is a HUGE difference from being put in Corral D and Corral H (the last corral). Putting sub 4 hour marathoners in a group of 7 hour marathoners seems a bit more drastic and confusing.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

I received an email today from runDisney about the expo and waivers, at the bottom they had a logo display of "friends of runDisney" and New Balance was still listed. I'm assuming they haven't updated it yet, not that they are going to surprise us with NB shoes?

Also I asked this a few days ago but I'm pretty sure it's buried in all the posts of our corral excitement (or disappointment). We have Race Retreat. How do we get into the Expo at 10am on opening day? Do we print out the form from Active and they scan the QR code?

 

[cavepig]

https://www.rundisney.com/blog/arti...-five-years-of-the-walt-disney-world-marathon

Anyone else see the latest blog post on rundisney, kind of neat to look back at the original course map & that Mickey sure is cute in that sweatshirt.

 

[Anisum]

I know they never do BUT does anyone know or project how the 10k will be divided by corrals? I am doing just the 10k and the full and clearly I know my full corral but was wondering if anyone had insight or projection on this since you all seem to have way more knowledge and heads up

@DopeyBadger posted an estimate a day or two ago. You can take the pace you submitted and use that to estimate where they may put you. No way of knowing if it's accurate for sure but I've found him to be spot on in many cases.

Take it for whatever it's worth; I'll get off my soapbox now, it has just have a tough time seeing some of the animosity the last couple days. I hope everyone has a fantastic time during Marathon Weekend 2018!

I think this summarizes things perfectly! We can all discuss why/how/what/when runDisney did with corrals but at the end of the day we all chose this race weekend for a reason and I highly doubt it had anything to do with runDisney's ability to get us up early and squish us into corrals.

Hope everyone has a good time out there!

 

[trackgam]

@DopeyBadger posted an estimate a day or two ago. You can take the pace you submitted and use that to estimate where they may put you. No way of knowing if it's accurate for sure but I've found him to be spot on in many cases.
I think this summarizes things perfectly! We can all discuss why/how/what/when runDisney did with corrals but at the end of the day we all chose this race weekend for a reason and I highly doubt it had anything to do with runDisney's ability to get us up early and squish us into corrals.

Hope everyone has a good time out there!

ohhhh thats right!!! I looked at the full but didnt think then to look at the 10k!!! Thank you for reminding me

 

[Anisum]

https://www.rundisney.com/blog/arti...-five-years-of-the-walt-disney-world-marathon

Anyone else see the latest blog post on rundisney, kind of neat to look back at the original course map & that Mickey sure is cute in that sweatshirt.

Mickey in his 1994 marathon sweatshirt would be a great on character appearance.

 

[KSkywalker17]

Kinda bummed with the noon opening time for the expo on Wednesday. Would have loved to get in and out before lunch.

I think the advice disers have been giving on other issues pertains to this as well. Just roll with it, stay upbeat and do your best to enjoy the weekend. It’s the culmination of a lot of work and should be looked at as a reward. Save the stress and worry for more serious stuff.