Marathon Weekend 2020



Ran the Ninja Half Marathon this morning. It was a smaller race put on by US road Racing (27 half finishers) . It was on a 1.1 mile greenway loop in a Wilmington, but it looks like they put on similar races all over the country. I ran with a buddy who was encouraging me. The race had a 9 am start and after a week of milder temps we had a little bit of a jump back up today. The race was not bad but we ran counter-clockwise. Had the RD switched it to run Counter Clockwise we would have been on the inside not the outside of the loop so it would have been a little easier to run tangents and it would have put the sections with little tree cover in places where we weren't staring into the sun.

I walked the course pre-race and it looked spot on. My watched measured over 1.04 miles and we missed a decent portion of the course. If anything it was a little long as they had to route us off the certified course around a gentle yoga class. Unfortunately when it came time to run the tree cover and seemed to play havoc with my watch and it wound up reading about .25 miles short.

Pro's: Cheap ($40 race)
Nifty throwing star spinner medal
Looping course made it easy to predict level of effort needed and track pace based on prior laps
Small race made logistics easy ( I ran within 10 feet of my car on every loop)

Not quite pros
It was a little warm
Race course was not closed.
Manual timing not chip timed (even though the race website said it was chipped timed)

Going into the race my goal was to improve my POT for corral placement. My current half time probably puts me in C. I wound up going out too fast and by lap 4 I realized I wasn't going to be able to hold the time needed for A. I decided to slow down before blowing up, and shoot for a time that would put me in B. We wound up running 1:51:18s which I was happy with. Now that I don't have to worry about blowing up I am going to try again at Crawling Crab in 2 weeks.
 
DH here. It will be my first marathon, and I'll run whatever they put in front of me, and cherish the experience, but after stalking the MW threads for a few years, I did kind want to run the most recent course iteration. For my own reasons, I was looking forward to ESPN, and the memories I know it would trigger.
I never minded WWOS. Although lots of turns and you see runners that are like 5 miles ahead of you as you are entering, it was something different, not the open highway, and there were usually lots of characters.
 


I was looking forward to ESPN
it was something different, not the open highway, and there were usually lots of characters.
I am also hoping for a bit of WWOS and lots of characters.

I am writing this as I am finishing my breakfast for my first ever Marathon... Funny enough that the course discussion is arriving the week prior to it: They also changed the one I am running today and made the start earlier. I know the person (and the project) who influenced to make it so. I pre-registered for next year and, apparently, that course will be nice!

Now... as @PaDisneyCouple said, time to go running whatever they put in front of me!
 
Good morning, runDisney all-stars! We are 107 days away from Marathon Weekend, which feels especially crazy to me this morning. It's going to be here before we know it.

runDisney dropped a bomb last week when they announced there would be changes to the marathon course and indicated more announcements were on the way. Whether that announcement is a good one or a bad one is up to you, but there's no doubt Marathon Weekend will look a little different this year. On top of that, Walt Disney World itself is going through a transition period as well, with a new land arriving, a classic nighttime show leaving and big changes in store for Epcot.

With that in mind, knowing that even veteran Dis'ers are going to see something different over Marathon Weekend, for this week's Sundays are for Disney I want to know what is something "new" (to you) that you're looking forward to for Marathon Weekend? It could be anything - a new land like Galaxy's Edge or maybe just a resort, ride or restaurant you've never experienced before.

My Marathon Weekend trip should feature a lot of new experiences. First solo trip. First time staying at All-Star Movies. I'm really excited to try some new places to eat, particularly The Polite Pig. I'll explore Galaxy's Edge a bit and hopefully ride Slinky Dog for the first time.

For right now, I'm most excited to see what changes are coming to the race experience. I know this is really divisive right now, we haven't seen a course map and this could all be terrible, but I like change. I think it's good to mix things up a bit. I've never been to Blizzard Beach and would almost certainly never go to a water park on a Disney vacation, so this will be my first chance to see it. So, I'm just looking forward to seeing what the marathon and other races look like this year.

Have a great week, everyone!
 
SAFD: Im early so I'm going to steal a bunch of people's things I'll bet!
1) Yes I'm excited to see a new race course too
2) Moderately excited to try the gondolas, we are staying at Pop
3) I'd like to try that Space 220 restaurant, but last I checked reservations were not open
4) I'm a little excited to see Galaxy's Edge, I've seen enough YouTube coverage to feel like I've been there :)
 
SAFD: Something old, something new.....wait, this isn't a wedding.....

So I have told myself that the main goal for the "marathon for which I have not yet registered" is to run it "Disney-style", which means run it for enjoyment and not race it, i.e. stop for things, ride a ride, have a beer. The only problem at this point is that if I do this solo, I know I will probably question why I am doing this and end up racing some of it and end up in that nowhere land of "not fast enough/not fun enough". So yeah.......
 
SAFD:

I am looking forward to the Marathon course changes, although I think I’m in the minority believing they are going to be more negative than positive. I know the colloquialism I want to use, but I’m not sure it’s Dis safe, so I’ll just say something about the announcement felt like they were giving us broccoli and telling us it’s candy. My belief is that their primary goal is to get everyone through both MK and AK before park opening (bye bye Everest) and I’m not optimistic about HS. I also can’t really imagine WWoS will disappear, that’s 4-5 miles that they likely consider park running. If there is going to be “less time on the roads outside the parks” I can’t imagine how they get rid of it.

That said, all of the conjecture is much more educated than my opinions. I’ve never driven at Disney and have no idea which roads are which and where they lead. It’s all the matrix as far as I’m concerned.

As for new things, been there done that on Galaxy’s Edge:cool1:. I’ll, of course, be looking forward to Rise Of The Resistance. We are doing Storybook Dining after Dopey (real original thinker here) and that will be new. I am all in on the Skyliner and am really looking forward to it. Other than that the new stuff will just happen. We don’t have our trip planned to the millisecond so there’s a lot of room for variation and new experiences.
 
My Marathon Weekend trip should feature a lot of new experiences. First solo trip. First time staying at All-Star Movies.

Not my first solo trip, but I'll also be solo at AS Movies.

I'm looking forward to not planning anything. I'll only be there a couple of days and I'll be back a month later for a family trip, so I'm just going to see what the weather and my mood is and go with it. The only thing I definitely want to do is hit MK on Friday after the 10K and before I leave to get a medal pic at the castle.
 
this week's Sundays are for Disney I want to know what is something "new" (to you) that you're looking forward to for Marathon Weekend? It could be anything - a new land like Galaxy's Edge or maybe just a resort, ride or restaurant you've never experienced before.
Eating at Topolino the new restaurant atop Riviera is something I’m looking forward too. The new course will be something as well. I just hope I can still ride Everest and get a margarita.

Outside of that as of right now I don’t have anything new in the cards.
 
SAFD:

1) Running the 5K and 10K with my two older daughters for the first time and, if we finally get our acts together, in costume.
2) Seeing the course changes - I'm in the camp that no matter what the change, it will be interesting. Will have to wait for the weekend to see if that's a good or bad thing, but the addition of Blizzard Beach is enough to have me excited and I like how just the announcement has re-energized the community a bit.
3) Seeing the temporary Illuminations replacement. I love Illuminations and we are going next week, so will have one last chance to see it, but definitely looking forward to something new there, even if it is just a placeholder for the bigger show coming down the road.
 
With that in mind, knowing that even veteran Dis'ers are going to see something different over Marathon Weekend, for this week's Sundays are for Disney I want to know what is something "new" (to you) that you're looking forward to for Marathon Weekend?
Since I am running Wine & Dine, much of the NEW will no longer be new to me for Marathon Weekend (Galaxy’s Edge, Gondolas, etc.)

But, this will be my first time running my second marathon! It sounds silly, but knowing what to expect from training and the race feels completely different this time around. I am hesitantly optimistic about the course changes and this will be my first time running through Blizzard Beach. It has a really fun theme for a water park, so I think this could be fun too! Hopefully this will also be my first time finishing a race with a margarita in my hand (depending on course changes and that I survive the previous 25.5-ish miles!)!
 
SAFD: Something old, something new.....wait, this isn't a wedding.....

So I have told myself that the main goal for the "marathon for which I have not yet registered" is to run it "Disney-style", which means run it for enjoyment and not race it, i.e. stop for things, ride a ride, have a beer. The only problem at this point is that if I do this solo, I know I will probably question why I am doing this and end up racing some of it and end up in that nowhere land of "not fast enough/not fun enough". So yeah.......
3) Seeing the temporary Illuminations replacement. I love Illuminations and we are going next week, so will have one last chance to see it, but definitely looking forward to something new there, even if it is just a placeholder for the bigger show coming down the road.

Yes to both of these. I’m really looking forward to getting the “full” marathon experience and seeing the new Epcot show. Whatever they do, I love shooting fireworks.
 
The new things I am looking forward to:
1. Galaxy's Edge - I have booked all the experiences, but I don't know if I'll be able to spend that much cash. I'll probably build a droid but not a lightsaber.
2. Staying at the Poly - our first at a monorail resort! (I booked it after I got a raise and as a surprise to my mom - she still has no idea where we are staying).
3. New tours - we are doing the Rhino tour at AK, as well as Keys to the Kingdom at MK. I want to see the Utilidor!
 

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