Marathon Weekend 2021

[roxymama]

Realizing I still have so much I have not experienced even with going to the parks multiple times over the last few years. Mostly because I traveled with line/waiting adverse people (for health reasons or just my daughter being young.)
FOP, Slinky Dog, Alien swirling saucers, ROTR, MFSM, Runaway Railroad and I've only been on mine train twice!

But I hope I can do some of these in Jan

 

[camaker]

SAFD: I’d start by going down and having a nice, relaxing trip during what would have been W&D weekend, starting with MK: riding Haunted Mansion, eating a lobster roll and clam chowder at Columbia Harbour House, and getting a monster Rice Krispie treat at the bakery to eat in the room throughout the trip.

While enjoying the W&D trip, I’d rest easy knowing that being able to take that trip meant a worry free Marathon Weekend on the horizon!

 

[SarahDisney]

SAFD:
Hmm. It's a toss up between Disneyland because I haven't been there in a while and I miss it more than I miss WDW (where I just was in February) and straight to the line for Runaway Railway because it was in CM previews when I was there and I desperately wanted it to open to guests for a soft open.

 

[GuinnessRunner]

SAFD:

DATW of course! I guess we could run before that too

+1 on this!

I think a cruise or attending Not So Scary would be my other ideas too.

We actually went down not long after WDW opened the parks again in July and plan to go back again in a few weeks (live outside Atlanta so it's just a drive for us). We felt comfortable the whole time, but do miss the atmosphere that comes with more people (but didn't miss the lines!). It felt particularly strange in World Showcase not to be able to walk around with a beverage. We are bummed that Not So Scary got cancelled for our September trip, but are still looking forward to escaping into the (modified) Disney bubble and trying to forget about as much as we can for a few days.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

SAFD: Right now I'll just settle for Disneyland being open. Naturally, I will head straight to Galaxy's Edge and experience Rise of the Resistance as many times as I possibly can.

 

[Dopey 2020]

Got boarding group 3 today! Love that whole experience
It’s strange to be in Disney with such small crowds but it is amazing to not have someone kicking you in the queue the whole time

 

[PrincessV]

SAFD a few days late: Well, I just spent the best 3 days at WDW I've experienced in a couple decades, thanks to the COVID restrictions in place, so I'd like to keep the low crowds, more personal space, no FP, and pristine parks, and add fireworks. A glass of champagne, watching EP fireworks from the back of France would suit me fine!

 

[MightyDuck001]

September is almost here and I am seriously not ready to emotionally invest in marathon training for a marathon if it doesn’t happen. Ive had to cancel a lot this year that I had been invested in for awhile and I don’t know if I can handle doing that with the marathon weekend festivities (this will be my 9th marathon and I’m perfect Dopey). Every race I had scheduled has been cancelled and I’ve been running just for fun casually.
Is anyone else feeling this way?

 

[jamesg]

September is almost here and I am seriously not ready to emotionally invest in marathon training for a marathon if it doesn’t happen. Ive had to cancel a lot this year that I had been invested in for awhile and I don’t know if I can handle doing that with the marathon weekend festivities (this will be my 9th marathon and I’m perfect Dopey). Every race I had scheduled has been cancelled and I’ve been running just for fun casually.
Is anyone else feeling this way?

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that runDisney decides to cancel the Marathon Weekend soon. I've been doing the planning and training so far in case it does happen, but it would be such a relief to me to no longer be facing the decision of whether to go or not. In my opinion with flying, the expo, four days of races, and any additional park time, the chances of contracting COVID-19 is so high as to be practically guaranteed. I'm currently a Perfect Dopey as well and as high as my desire to continue the streak is I would much rather play it safe and return once the risk is lower.

 

[rteetz]

And here I am trying to stay optimistic and hopefully that numbers decline and things improve that we can have marathon weekend.

 

[jamesg]

And here I am trying to stay optimistic and hopefully that numbers decline and things improve that we can have marathon weekend.

I'm all for staying optimistic these days, but as more time passes my own optimism about Marathon Weekend is fading. At this point even if runDisney decides to proceed with the event I'm not sure I would consider it safe enough to justify the risk.

 

[rteetz]

I'm all for staying optimistic these days, but as more time passes my own optimism about Marathon Weekend is fading. At this point even if runDisney decides to proceed with the event I'm not sure I would consider it safe enough to justify the risk.

I’m sure that is certainly something each person has to weigh. I’m still scheduled to go to WDW in November. We shall see I guess.

 

[camaker]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that runDisney decides to cancel the Marathon Weekend soon. I've been doing the planning and training so far in case it does happen, but it would be such a relief to me to no longer be facing the decision of whether to go or not. In my opinion with flying, the expo, four days of races, and any additional park time, the chances of contracting COVID-19 is so high as to be practically guaranteed. I'm currently a Perfect Dopey as well and as high as my desire to continue the streak is I would much rather play it safe and return once the risk is lower.

If you’re not comfortable going, by all means don‘t go, but hoping that it gets cancelled so nobody can run it is a bit much. I think you’re a little off base with your “guarantee” of transmission, as well. I haven’t seen any link between air travel and COVID clusters or clusters among Disney park guests being identified. Given the criticism they faced just for reopening the parks, any hint of an outbreak related to that would be widely reported. I also don’t expect the races or expo to look like they have in the past, either, as additional distancing controls will be put in place. Maybe it’ll happen, maybe not. I remain hopeful.

 

[opusone]

September is almost here and I am seriously not ready to emotionally invest in marathon training for a marathon if it doesn’t happen. Ive had to cancel a lot this year that I had been invested in for awhile and I don’t know if I can handle doing that with the marathon weekend festivities (this will be my 9th marathon and I’m perfect Dopey). Every race I had scheduled has been cancelled and I’ve been running just for fun casually.
Is anyone else feeling this way?

I'm not sure this article is all that helpful for motivation when the race status is unknown, but just in case folks haven't seen it, here is a Runner's World article from March:
How to Deal When Your Race Gets Postponed or Canceled

Interestingly enough, I have the opposite issue as I do not plan on registering for any races in the near future, so I am currently following a half marathon training plan with no actual race at the end of the plan. I haven't had a problem getting myself out and running, but I do have a little motivation problem with hitting the prescribed pacing since I know there won't be a test at the end of the plan.

 

[camaker]

September is almost here and I am seriously not ready to emotionally invest in marathon training for a marathon if it doesn’t happen. Ive had to cancel a lot this year that I had been invested in for awhile and I don’t know if I can handle doing that with the marathon weekend festivities (this will be my 9th marathon and I’m perfect Dopey). Every race I had scheduled has been cancelled and I’ve been running just for fun casually.
Is anyone else feeling this way?

I was a bit discouraged when my Labor Day 50k was cancelled, but I didn’t want to let that disappointment derail me. To combat it, even though I’m not a big fan of virtual races, I signed up for the NYC Virtual Marathon to help me keep things rolling. The other way I find helpful to look at it is even if the race is ultimately cancelled, you’ve still got the fitness and health gains that come with consistent training, so it wasn’t all for nothing.

 

[MightyDuck001]

I'm not sure this article is all that helpful for motivation when the race status is unknown, but just in case folks haven't seen it, here is a Runner's World article from March:
How to Deal When Your Race Gets Postponed or Canceled

Interestingly enough, I have the opposite issue as I do not plan on registering for any races in the near future, so I am currently following a half marathon training plan with no actual race at the end of the plan. I haven't had a problem getting myself out and running, but I do have a little motivation problem with hitting the prescribed pacing since I know there won't be a test at the end of the plan.

It’s funny because I actually had scheduled in already a hiatus for my normally busy rowing schedule for this year and had planned to get back to being more aggressive about the 5k distance so I’ve been following plans for that.

I’ve been good about getting out and just running what I feel like running (20-25 on weekdays and in 5-10 on weekends) but it’s starting to get to that time where I need more structure and mileage if Dopey is happening. I can’t bring myself to make my usual disney theme training for the fridge and get out the training playlist to hype myself up.

I was also supposed to be on Kauai next week for a half marathon followed by 2 weeks at Aulani that just got officially cancelled by DVC so I’m feeling particularly bitter and angsty even though I’m doing better than a lot of people and I still have a lot to be grateful for. [long over dramatic sigh]

 

[Krandor]

And here I am trying to stay optimistic and hopefully that numbers decline and things improve that we can have marathon weekend.

I want to be optimistic too but I'm not so sure. I'm still where I was few weeks ago. There are few is any people doing races with thousands of people right now. Largest ones I'm aware of is a trail run in China of 6,000 and spartan did a race also in China with about 10,000 (but Spartan always staggers waves through the day so everybody doesn't start at once). I'm just not sure Disney wants to be on the bleeding age.

The other issue for disney is even if they can do them, they can't do them as normal. Character M&G like we are used to on races really can't happen (and arn't in parks). If disney comes out and says all character stops will be characters waving at you from a distance are you going to have people wanting refunds and the like due to the "magic" not being there?

There are a lot of issues some common to races in general and some specific to how rundisney does things and the fewer races that happen before the less chance I think it happens.


I'm not sure a single marathon has happened in person with over 1k participants since March in the US.

Honestly at this point I think the best chance of the weekend happening at all is to cut the full (and maybe the half) and try to get the shorter distances in. I think this year the full is just going to be too problematic.

In the end, if the races happen there will be changes and I think they need to communicate those changes as soon as possible (or cancel) and offer opportunities to cancel if people don't like them.

 

[rteetz]

In the end, if the races happen there will be changes and I think they need to communicate those changes as soon as possible (or cancel) and offer opportunities to cancel if people don't like them.

The hard part about this is things change daily/hourly. I think that’s why they don’t want to make any sort of major public decision just yet.

 

[1lilspark]

September is almost here and I am seriously not ready to emotionally invest in marathon training for a marathon if it doesn’t happen. Ive had to cancel a lot this year that I had been invested in for awhile and I don’t know if I can handle doing that with the marathon weekend festivities (this will be my 9th marathon and I’m perfect Dopey). Every race I had scheduled has been cancelled and I’ve been running just for fun casually.
Is anyone else feeling this way?

I've just been feeling so meh about everything.... I'm at the point as to why pay $$$ just to get sent a medal for running what you run for free during training (at least my virtual I did in April and my Feb race when/if it becomes Virtual require time submission so I felt like I was putting in an effort)

Right now I have one live race still on the books for 2020 and I almost want to be canceled (it was moved to my Birthday weekend and we had made Magic Kingdom Park Passes for that day once the clubs September race moved to virtual)

The other issue for disney is even if they can do them, they can't do them as normal. Character M&G like we are used to on races really can't happen (and arn't in parks). If disney comes out and says all character stops will be characters waving at you from a distance are you going to have people wanting refunds and the like due to the "magic" not being there?

I could see Disney doing magic shots (since personal phones/camras won't be used anyway) or cute backdrops in loo of characters with Socially Distant Characters still waving at a distance for Selfies

Honestly at this point I think the best chance of the weekend happening at all is to cut the full (and maybe the half) and try to get the shorter distances in. I think this year the full is just going to be too problematic.

I get EBlasts and I saw that one Half that is scheduled for November and still plans to be run live was dropped to a 10K so I could definitely see it being something like 5K, 10K, Half becomes 15K/10 Miler, Full becomes Half

 

[Krandor]

The hard part about this is things change daily/hourly. I think that’s why they don’t want to make any sort of major public decision just yet.

I totally get it. Making decisions right now is absolutely not easy and hasn't been all year. At some point though information will be needed because let's face it if they say no M&G on the course (which is likely) there is a segment of people especially for the 5k and 10k that are not going to want to come anymore. Like most things this year nothing they do is going to make everybody happy.