Marathon Weekend 2022

[The Expert]

Garmin/Phone Notifications:
I'm planning on turning off my email alerts for the Marathon. How will RunDisney alert runners if there is a need to cut the course? If it's by email I might leave that on so I can know.
Praying they don't have to. If the weather for Sunday is like Saturday, I think we'll be ok.

In 2020 we got a text, but it was after word had spread they've other runners in the crowd. Presumably they saw it on social media.

 

[jennysdcc]

Characters in the half:
1. Mary Poppins and Bert (no photopass)
2. Penguin from Mary Poppins (to and from MK)
3. Tinkerbell and Periwinkle (to and from MK
4. Judy Hopps
5. Nick Wilde
6. Buzz
7. White Rabbit
8. Sébastien
9. Colonial Mickey (brown outfit)
- a country bear waving from balcony
10. Jafar
11. Horace
12. Clarabelle
13. Lilo
14. Stitch
15. Thumper or Bunny (not sure which)
16. Bolt
17. Wilbur from Meet the Robinsons

I may have forgotten a few.

We did a 45 min/mile in the Magic Kingdom taking in the magic. And then at mile 9-ish were told balloon ladies were just 4 minutes behind. So I panicked, found new power in my legs, and picked up the pace for the last 3 miles.

Tomorrow is going to hurt so bad. I'm trying my best to not dread it and remind myself that I'm doing this for fun and should enjoy it. The finish will be magical!

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Thank you so much! Congrats on finishing and totally understand getting swept up in the awe of it all. As an exDCP and Magic Kingdom being my home park, when I run the princess half next month it will be my first time seeing the park in several years and I expect my pace will definitely dip LOL.

 

[Barca33Runner]

Congrats to everybody running this weekend!!! I've enjoyed reading the posts and hearing about the ups ...and sympathizing with the downs.

How have the crowds been? Pre-pandemic, this would have been a pretty crowded week since it was the first week of the year and aligned with some school systems still being on break. Is that the case or has the pandemic affected the crowds?

The crowds feel very pre-pandemic level, if not totally Holiday-level, to me. We have been at HS on Thursday and MK on Friday and they were packed but relatively manageable. In all honesty, Genie+ and ILL have made things much worse than the crowds have.

We are staying off-site so we were unable to buy ILL until the parks opened and didn’t get to rope drop anything because all lines were populated before the 9:00 open by resort guests with the extra 30 minutes. This meant RoTR was completely sold out before we could even buy it and 7DMT was close. We were in both parks with the wave at 9:00 and we had given in for G+ in advance and made our first selections at 7:00 AM both days. MK was pretty awesome, there are enough G+ attractions that they don’t fill up too fast and you can plan a decent day; HS, yeah not so much. There are a few big attractions that fill up fast (and that don’t have the capacity for a ton of G+ offerings). From an availability standpoint I’d say there are almost as many TSM G+ offerings in a day as there are for ToT, RnRR, Slinky, and Smuggler’s Run combined.

Anyway, we never even entertained the idea of RoTR but we’re able to get in everything else in HS except ToT or any shows before leaving at 4:00. If we stayed the full day, we probably could have hit everything. Darn rD early wake ups and our requirements of sleep. We didn’t get to take advantage of any of the later in the day shorter lines. MK we hit pretty much everything we wanted. My niece and nephew aren’t interested in Jungle Cruise (a personal failing) so that was the only long-wait attraction we really missed. And we left at 4:00 again because of our rD wake up. G+ made the day relatively easy, even with a 2+ hour 7DMT wait mixed in.

Personal impression: I hate G+ and it’s relative necessity on days like the last two (provided you have ride-goers in your group and a casual day in the park isn’t cutting it). The two-line system returning is just demoralizing. I want to go to the parks where the line is just the line and you can make choices based on that information. The cost isn’t prohibitive but it slows everything down and lowers the moral in standby lines noticeably.

Anecdote: When we entered HS at 9:00 Thursday RoTR already had a 205 minute wait. So if we rope dropped we would’ve been estimated to get on at ~12:25 if we immediately went back there. At around 10:45 while in line at Slinky we noticed the ride was down. We continued to monitor it on our app for a couple more hours. By ~2:00 while finishing a 90-minute line for RnR, based just on Genie posting about RoTR and when the ride was operational we determined it would’ve been nowhere close to our 205-minute wait. It just feels unconscionable that Disney has such an unreliable lemon of a ride with a standby line right now. They need to go back to the virtual queue. It also isn’t perfect, but it wouldn’t lead to situations like people spending 5 hours in a line with no idea if or when they might actually get on it.

TL;DR: The crowds are big, G+ makes them feel bigger.

 

[lookingforsunshine]

finished! Official time 3:30:41. My watch said 13.4 which I guess is from weaving. I’m in S6 and balloon ladies got too close for comfort near the end. I feel okay but I was definitely struggling at the end and walked the last few miles (did 60:45 run/walk the rest of the time). I am feeling disheartened and worried for tomorrow. I also slept less than 2 hours last night. Gah.

 

[camaker]

Garmin/Phone Notifications:
I'm planning on turning off my email alerts for the Marathon. How will RunDisney alert runners if there is a need to cut the course? If it's by email I might leave that on so I can know.
Praying they don't have to. If the weather for Sunday is like Saturday, I think we'll be ok.

They’ve used the runner tracking system in the past, but it didn’t seem like it was timely. Realistically, the notification you’ll get is when they’ve modified the course and sent you the alternate direction. There’s not really anything you can do about it and I don’t think there’ll be enough notice to do anything differently.

The weather tomorrow isn’t supposed to be anything like today, either. 63-64 at the start and into the 70s before 10a.

 

[The Expert]

Had a great Half today, running with @Herding_Cats (and @SheHulk briefly too). We were all trying to get to the castle before light... mission accomplished!

After that, it was all about saving our legs for tomorrow, but we still ended up well ahead of the balloons. We've already done the runner math for tomorrow, so anyone else in S5 just looking to finish is welcome to hang with us!

 

[fatmanatee]

That scent at the orange bird statue was nasty.

There was a small crowd around it and I couldn’t see iso when i walked around and took a peek i got a whole lot of that sprayed in the face.

In other news, man I underestimated how much these 3 am wake-up’s wear on you. Last night was a bit better, so maybe i’m finally acclimating, but it’s definitely been the toughest part about this.

 

[azrivest]

finished! Official time 3:30:41. My watch said 13.4 which I guess is from weaving. I’m in S6 and balloon ladies got too close for comfort near the end. I feel okay but I was definitely struggling at the end and walked the last few miles (did 60:45 run/walk the rest of the time). I am feeling disheartened and worried for tomorrow. I also slept less than 2 hours last night. Gah.

Congratulations on finishing! You can do this!

 

[jrsharp21]

Congrats to everybody running this weekend!!! I've enjoyed reading the posts and hearing about the ups ...and sympathizing with the downs.

How have the crowds been? Pre-pandemic, this would have been a pretty crowded week since it was the first week of the year and aligned with some school systems still being on break. Is that the case or has the pandemic affected the crowds?

It is crowded. We have been sitting in a line of cars for over 20 minutes to get into the MK parking.

 

[RunWI1265]

Congrats to everyone who finished this morning! Weather was perfect. MK was so gorgeous in the dark! We even got a bonus 2 mile walk from the busses to the corrals!

Can anyone share or give advice on their plan for salt consumption tomorrow? I’ve only ever used them once and I was running with someone who had that figured out for us so I just ate whenever she said eat. I’ll be using Salt Stick Fast chews. Should I take one right at the start and then one every 30 mins? Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[pluto377]

Had a good run today but I’m feeling very anxious about tomorrow. Between the leg pain and the heat forecast I’m really concerned I won’t be able to finish. But I’m going to start and see how it goes!

anyone know how long it took the balloon ladies to cross the start today?

 

[MissLiss279]

Congrats to everyone who finished this morning! Weather was perfect. MK was so gorgeous in the dark! We even got a bonus 2 mile walk from the busses to the corrals!

Can anyone share or give advice on their plan for salt consumption tomorrow? I’ve only ever used them once and I was running with someone who had that figured out for us so I just ate whenever she said eat. I’ll be using Salt Stick Fast chews. Should I take one right at the start and then one every 30 mins? Thanks in advance for any help!

I use Salt Stick Capsules, and I take one every hour starting at the beginning of the race. I usually use what is recommended.
It looks like the FastChews recommend 2 every 15-30 minutes. I would do at least 2 every 30 minutes, but maybe occasionally or towards the end of the race add an extra one every 15 minutes (in between the normal 2)??
But if you are also drinking the Powerade, you probably wouldn’t need to add any extras.

 

[jrsharp21]

After a HM PR and near PR in the 5k and 10K, tomorrow is just about surviving. Not going to try to go all out. Originally I was going to try to keep up with the 4 hour pace. Now just going to find a nice cruising speed and stick with that. I am guessing more around the 5 hour mark.

 

[jrsharp21]

If you are going to MK, just prepared for huge waits just to get to the front gate. After finally getting in to park, security line is long. The ticket booths at TTC are packed.

 

[camaker]

If you are going to MK, just prepared for huge waits just to get to the front gate. After finally getting in to park, security line is long. The ticket booths at TTC are packed.

The half marathon messed a lot of things up this morning. Traffic and buses were both delayed getting in and out of the park. It took forever to get a MK bus at CBR this morning. I think it’s taking a long time to clear the backup it caused throughout the system.

 

[RunWI1265]

I use Salt Stick Capsules, and I take one every hour starting at the beginning of the race. I usually use what is recommended.
It looks like the FastChews recommend 2 every 15-30 minutes. I would do at least 2 every 30 minutes, but maybe occasionally or towards the end of the race add an extra one every 15 minutes (in between the normal 2)??
But if you are also drinking the Powerade, you probably wouldn’t need to add any extras.

Thanks - I saw they recommend 2 every 30. I only have 20 so I was hoping I could stretch those over 5ish hours. I don’t drink anything but water. Dang, I might have to run back to the expo or Ahh

 

[jennysdcc]

Another random HM question - How were the corrals getting out this AM? Anyone have a rough start time for back of s2/beginning of s3? Trying to figure out my dark castle cut off for next month.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Tomorrow is going to hurt so bad. I'm trying my best to not dread it and remind myself that I'm doing this for fun and should enjoy it. The finish will be magical!

SAME!! I’m limping around Disney springs right now

Had a great Half today, running with @Herding_Cats (and @SheHulk briefly too). We were all trying to get to the castle before light... mission accomplished!

After that, it was all about saving our legs for tomorrow, but we still ended up well ahead of the balloons. We've already done the runner math for tomorrow, so anyone else in S5 just looking to finish is welcome to hang with us!

thank you SO MUCH for letting me tag along with you this morning!!! It was great.

Another random HM question - How were the corrals getting out this AM? Anyone have a rough start time for back of s2/beginning of s3? Trying to figure out my dark castle cut off for next month.

They were getting ready to change out the cameras due to light changes/settings at 7:00 this morning ( we crossed the start at around 5:35/5:50 from S5. It wasn’t DARK but it wasn’t light out and the castle was still lit up.

 

[Sara W]

Can anyone share or give advice on their plan for salt consumption tomorrow? I’ve only ever used them once and I was running with someone who had that figured out for us so I just ate whenever she said eat. I’ll be using Salt Stick Fast chews. Should I take one right at the start and then one every 30 mins? Thanks in advance for any help!

I think it’s 2 every 15-30 min. I’ll alternate with Clif Blocks. But here’s my biggest rec for the salt stick chews- have some water in your mouth before you pop them in for “dust suppression.” After they are chewed, take another swig of water and swish like mouthwash, swallow it all down at once. I’ve definitely started coughing on the powder in my mouth and that helps get them down quickly.

editing to add- I have my bottle at the Swan. If you’re close I can share.

 

[fatmanatee]

Another random HM question - How were the corrals getting out this AM? Anyone have a rough start time for back of s2/beginning of s3? Trying to figure out my dark castle cut off for next month.

I’m not sure how close i was to the back of S2 but I definitely wasn’t at the front, and I started around 5:20. Was a pretty solid view.