Marathon Weekend 2023

[Blue Caterpillar]

I finished! I was worried about my ankle but it was mostly ok.

I have a celebratory dinner booked at B.O.G, as a single they let you add someone to table if you want. Anyone want to join? It's at 8:10. Also way too much cheese per pretzels.

 

[jpeterson]

Holy crap I did it! Finished my first marathon and my first dopey!

Even decided to ride Everest because the CMs were beckoning to runners to join the single rider line.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I started with the Galloway 4:30 pacer in Corral C... Either I'm not smart on pacers or this guy was way off, but we were on a 4:30 clock pace NOT our pace. Since we started 10 minutes after the clock started he had us running way faster and hence would have actually finished in 4:20 or probably faster. The majority of the group fell apart at mile 15, or so, and I kept up till mile 19 running 9:30 miles instead of 10:18...I was pissed.

That group passed me (was in B) not all that long into the race. I was like damn, they are flying!

 

[Disney316]

Yeah... I don't what was going on. But I just checked my times and I crossed the halfway point in 2:07 and I started with the 4:30 pacer... He was definitely on pace for a 4:15 overall.

I'm pretty sure my pacer was looking at his mile marker card because he had it on his stick right in his face and was trying to match the time with the clock times at the digital mile markers.. He didn't consider we started 10 minutes later so was pushing it all the way. I would not be surprised if he passed the 4:15 pacer somewhere and then realized he messed it up. I could have tried to keep up another 2 or 3 miles but I was starting to slow down at 19 when we turned on the long road to Blizzard so I just gave up.

I got passed by the 4:30 pacer outside GF and Poly and it really confused me. According to my watch I was on pace for 4:15 at that point and knew the 4:30 group started a corral behind me so thought my watch was way off!! But I checked with a few folks around me for their pace and kept doing math based on my total time and knew I was right, so just kept running my race.

I looked up the pacer on the tracking site and he finished in 4:21. Clearly off.

 

[opusone]

I started with the Galloway 4:30 pacer in Corral C... Either I'm not smart on pacers or this guy was way off, but we were on a 4:30 clock pace NOT our pace. Since we started 10 minutes after the clock started he had us running way faster and hence would have actually finished in 4:20 or probably faster. The majority of the group fell apart at mile 15, or so, and I kept up till mile 19 running 9:30 miles instead of 10:18...I was pissed.

Yeah... I don't what was going on. But I just checked my times and I crossed the halfway point in 2:07 and I started with the 4:30 pacer... He was definitely on pace for a 4:15 overall.

I'm pretty sure my pacer was looking at his mile marker card because he had it on his stick right in his face and was trying to match the time with the clock times at the digital mile markers.. He didn't consider we started 10 minutes later so was pushing it all the way. I would not be surprised if he passed the 4:15 pacer somewhere and then realized he messed it up. I could have tried to keep up another 2 or 3 miles but I was starting to slow down at 19 when we turned on the long road to Blizzard so I just gave up.

I just checked, and your pacer slowed down an average of almost 1 min per mile for the last 6 miles, and he still finished in 4:21:33, so he was definitely on a 4:15 pace through mile 20.

My pacer also went out too fast, so I dropped him at about mile 5. Just checked his splits, and he was an average of 22 seconds per mile too fast for the the first 10 miles. I’m glad I dropped him somewhat early, although my legs still paid for it on the back half.

 

[HangWithMerida]

So many marathon PRs out there today! Good work everyone!!

I'll add to the list of Dopey finishers, and my first marathon. I used the Hanson's beginner plan and it prepared me well. With the longest run at 16 miles, I had a lot of new territory to cover today. But, I never once felt like I wasn't going to finish and didn't hit the dreaded wall or struggle mentally. My fastest mile was mile 25 and I was running strong headed to the finish line. I felt surprisingly good at the finish. It is still unlikely I will do another marathon. But not because of the race distance itself. If training were more manageable I would absolutely consider it again. The experience was amazing, and I'm so glad I did it as a part of Dopey to really immerse in the experience of this weekend!

 

[garneska]

I need a good recap but that might need to wait. Goal number 1 was to not be destroyed even if I did nit finish (suffering through injuries from last year. Goal number 2 was a time goal. At the half I knew my time goal was unreachable but was still on track with goal number 1. That lasted to mile 17.5, then my knee gave me the finger and my mind was telling me make good choices. At mile 20 I considered calling it to keep my goal possible, but instead slowed down took an extended walk and tried to see if I could finish without crashing out on goal 1.

At mile 22 @camaker caught me. He was doing a different interval then me (mine were just about trash) so I did his with him. We talked about vacations and dogs. We did his intervals and he brought me home to finish that marathon. Thank you so much @camaker. I will let you all know tomorrow how that goal is going. I definitely feel better than last year but not sure if I hit my goal yet. Still holding out hope.

 

[Novatrix]

Congrats to all my fellow marathoners today! And fellow Dopeys, we finally get to sleep in tomorrow!!!

I had a ton of fun today, the temperatures for most of the race were my definition of perfect, I got to stop for quite a few characters and rode Expedition Everest twice (photo didn't show up the 1st time) and Tower of Terror once. Most importantly, I felt strong the whole way through the race. Fastest Mile 25 followed by Mile 4 then Mile 19, with a decent average moving pace despite all the stops killing my overall time.

 

[surfde22]

Does 15 seconds faster on the back half count as a negative split? Asking for a friend. That friend being me. I don’t think I’ve ever run a more consistent or steady pace through an entire race before.

 

[cburnett11]

Not only did his plan help me get there, but I absolutely crushed the time with an unofficial time of 3:50:45 on the tracking site, and destroyed my old PR of 4:28!!

Amazing improvement!!

 

[fatmanatee]

Wasn’t there a pacer switch posted earlier this week specifically for 4:15 and 4:30 pacers? Not that it completely explains things but I thought it was odd when I first saw it.

 

[camaker]

Does 15 seconds faster on the back half count as a negative split? Asking for a friend. That friend being me. I don’t think I’ve ever run a more consistent or steady pace through an entire race before.

Negative is negative! You’re not just a sub-4 marathoner, you’re a negative splitter! Congratulations on two great achievements in one race!

 

[Disney316]

Wasn’t there a pacer switch posted earlier this week specifically for 4:15 and 4:30 pacers? Not that it completely explains things but I thought it was odd when I first saw it.

No, the switch was of the 4:00 and 4:15 groups

 

[opusone]

Wasn’t there a pacer switch posted earlier this week specifically for 4:15 and 4:30 pacers? Not that it completely explains things but I thought it was odd when I first saw it.

The switch was between 4:00 & 4:15.

 

[cburnett11]

My main goal was to stop at all places that had a photo pass photographer. My secondary goal was to do this and try to stay under 4:00. I went out a little hot because I wanted to make sure I had the least amount of line possible for the first couple and then figured I’d be ahead of the lines. I probably went faster than I wanted to a bit longer than I should. I did slow some so I didn’t bonk later, but ended up 3:47:55. I was really pleased with that, but there were at least 3 stops with a missing character… meeko, Morocco, and whatever was with the graveyard (oogie boogie, skellington, whomever). I don’t think I saw power line either, so maybe that was empty. It was really fun stopping for characters… I had never done this before.

 

[jrsharp21]

Did it, but barely. My goal was to break the 4 hour mark and came in at 3:58. Super excited about that. Could have been lower but the ol’ quads were screaming to stop, so had to take several walk breaks.

Was it just me but did it really get much colder after starting? At one point I was blowing on my hands because it was so cold.

Random thought I had while running and trying to occupy my mind, I wonder how much sports beans are left over? When I went through BB, there was a group of about 15 people and only person took them. I actually tried them during the half and bailed on them instantly.

 

[bryana]

Finished my first Dopey! I got a Disney Marathon PR too - probably because I opted to skip Everest and stuff this time around because finishing the challenge was my primary goal.

Around Mile 4 or 5, I had fallen back near the 6:15 pace group and decided just to stick with them for a while. I ended up staying with them up until BB when I started to have some stomach issues so opted to walk most of the parking lot.

I’m really happy with my race weekend, especially considering I’ve been resting a tendinitis ankle issue for the last 4 weeks. Ankle held up well though. I’m really tight right now, especially the calves, but I feel like heat was more of an issue for me than anything else. It was pretty brutal for back of the pack. It wasn’t even necessarily that hot but man, that sun just beats on you. I was in line after I finished for the 30th anniversary picture back drop to get a medal picture and it was moving SO slow. I ended up having to get out of line to go sit in the shade because I felt like I was either going to get sick or pass out.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

First marathon and first Dopey in the books. Felt pretty darn good all weekend although felt like today sort of caught up with me and was slower the second half than I thought I was capable of, but my only real goal was to finish feeling reasonably good and not have any hip issues after an injury earlier in the year, so mission accomplished.

That stretch post AK was my definite low point, but things picked up once in DHS and beyond. Loved all the spectators getting into it after DHS.

I feel like I’ve consumed my weight in Huma gels and I never want another banana ever again, but I’m thankful I had a coach that made me think better about a nutrition plan, that kept me going and seemed to make all the difference compared to my past runD race weekends.

What a great experience. Crazy, but awesome.

Shoutout to my wife for meeting me in front of CR, Poly, and the finish line. CR turned out to be a pretty good home base for getting around spectating. She’s done 2 Dopeys and was really up selling what she said was basically MNSSHP candy they handed out in DHS during her races (which were a few years ago), but it was just Dove dark chocolate - yuck. A Snickers would have really hit the spot right there, lol.

Congrats everyone!

 

[Disneyhanna]

I had a fantastic first Dopey. I did my first marathon in early October and fully trained using Higdon Novice 2. I ran the 5k-HM other than photo stops, all I walked was a few uphill overpasses in the HM after mile 10. Aka I did not really take it easy. I was somewhat undertrained and relying on my marathon experience. I got Covid in mid December and missed all my long runs for a few weeks. I only ran 56 miles in all of December and only 100 in November.

Today I wanted to focus on maximizing fun. So I did 18 character stops, two rides (Everest and Tower), and even got my Guardians boarding group at 7. I finished around 6:15 and a good hour of that was photos and the two rides, as well as like ten bathroom stops. I jogged maybe an 11:30 pace between stops the first 18 miles then with the beating sun walked and ran when I could. I did more running than walking until maybe like 24 where I mostly walked as I knew I did it and just wanted to take it in.

From the Pochohantas stop at mile 4, the only longish stop was Pooh which took 4 minutes and it doubled behind me. Everything after that was maybe 0-2 minutes. Everest took 8 minutes on to off and the CMs waved us into single rider at 8:43, I walked on. Tower of Terror they didn’t advertise putting on runners (Everest was encouraging it) but they happily sent us through the LL. Tower was 18 minutes on to off at 10:17.

So much CM support and water stops were superb when I went through them. I did my October marathon with a vest and did this with just my handheld and it worked perfectly. The first 4 hours were perfect (and I’m from MN and hate heat) but it did warm up by Blizzard Beach. It wasn’t terrible even by my standards but I imagine it was brutal for those behind me. I started around 5:05 in B corral.

I got 16 hours of sleep these last four nights and honestly feel great. Didn’t do too much park time but still got in quite a few steps on race days. This morning I had a banana and applesauce pouch and 5 honey stinger chews. I had 6 chews every 4 miles and only had 3 at mile 23, so I think 33 in total during the race. I had half a banana at the first banana stop. I brought Nuun endurance (the powder) for my handheld and had 3 packets. I drank a water cup at every stop. I feel GREAT, this was the perfect level of fuel and hydration for me. I did not hit a wall at all, I just got tired of running honestly. Since I’m doing stops and rides I knew my time didn’t matter which is why I just walked a lot the last 3 miles. The parks were so fun to run through and this was an all around fantastic experience for me.

I didn’t mind MK to AK, it was still cool/shady for me so it went fairly fast. The miles around BB were the most boring, the parking lot wasn’t a huge deal since it was just once around and not loops or down and backs.

 

[RuntheMouse]

Finished my first Dopey! Goal ended up being just to finish and have fun and I accomplished that! Finished at 6:25 but we ended up running 27.01 miles per my garmin. DH who I wrangled into doing this with me, got to ride Everest! We took pics and had a Schofferhoffer in Germany. It was AWESOME! I almost collapsed while waiting for pics afterwards but recovered quickly. Crowd and CM support was amazing.

This was a one and done for me but SO glad I got to experience it!