Marathon Weekend has historically has some varied and unpredictable weather. Coming into the weekend, it was looking like a very warm and humid race. Since I had planned my costume with layering in mind, it was easy to strip down to the most minimal version which included shorts, a tank top, a running skirt and a visor. (Last year, it was much chillier so I wore pants and had a throw away jacket to wear in the corrals.) I also had plenty of time to mentally prepare myself for warm weather. Living in Florida, I have an advantage over those traveling from colder climates so always keep your summer running needs in mind when preparing for a runDisney race.
The wake up call was at 2 am. I was much more prepared for the early mornings than I was last year so I stuck with my routine. Nothing new on race day! I had tea and a banana and then got myself looking cute for the race. I did pack five magic bands but forgot to pack the one that matched my running costume! Dope! Oh, well. We headed out to get a seat on the first bus which left at 3:00 am. I always like to catch the first bus so I can not feel stressed if there's traffic and so I can get character photos.
The prerace characters were Dopey, Goofy, Mickey and Donald. I opted for photos with just Mickey and Donald. I feel weird getting photos with Dopey and Goofy if I'm not running those races. Since we only go the two photos, that left us plenty of time to hang with friends by the dj. It's great to get excited with everyone and to check out everyone's costumes! A bunch of our friends did Donald and another group did the Mighty Ducks.
I found out that two of my friends, Leslie and Kimberly were in my corral (E) and I decided to run with them. Since the race was going to be a warm race, I wanted to go a bit slower and just enjoy the experience rather than suffering through trying to get a time goal. They were both doing Goofy and wanted to take it easy before the marathon on Sunday so it was a good fit.Due to the massive amount of construction going on at Disney currently, they did have to make some tweaks to the course. But the corral set up was very similar to last year including the really long walk! So we headed over to the corrals pretty early to give ourselves enough time to get over there and situated. We also ran into a few more friends in the corral so we had some nice chats while we waited for the race start. The corrals are probably my least favorite part of race weekend. It's a lot of standing and waiting with people all right up next to you. It's really nice to have a friend to chat with (even if you don't plan on running together) to make the time go by faster. I didn't bother watching much of the preshow as I'm short and the screen was far away.
Then we were off! We opted to run the first two miles or so and then start intervals which is something I've never done before but can be a good strategy to deal with the crowding during the beginning of the course. In the theme of things I've never done before, we also stopped for selfies with each mile marker. Some of the ones we took before sun up aren't the greatest but it was fun! I totally get why so many people do that. It helped break up the highway stretches which can be really boring. There were also a couple of characters (Esmerelda, Captain Jack and Lilo) during the highway to Magic Kingdom but we opted not to stop for any of them.I also had a new electrolyte strategy for this race. I carried a water bottle full of pickle juice to drink at water stops instead of Powerade. I had tried it on a few training runs so I knew it wouldn't bother my stomach but this was my first race with it. At each water station, I would drink a cup of water, take a swig of pickle juice and then have a second glass of water to wash away the pickle taste. It ended up working really well! I was worried that the pickle juice might start to taste really gross but it was fine. I do love pickles though!
Our next stop was the Magic Kingdom parking lot sign which was lit up really nicely and had It's a Small World music playing. It was so pretty! And it meant the castle was coming! There were two wintery characters in the parking lot-Rudolph with some toy soldiers and Duffy the bear in a santa suit. They also had the faux snow made of bubbles blowing at each stop which was really cool! Only snow of the season for me!
The course ran through the Transportation and Ticket Center and then up past the Contemporary. There were quite a few spectators at the T&T Center and a few at the Contemporary. It's always nice to have people cheering you on! There was a slight change to the course going into Magic Kingdom as we didn't really run through the bus drop off section but we did still run straight through the front of the park.Main Street is definitely the best part of the course! It was still fairly dark outside when we made it into the park and it looked so beautiful all light up! I love the castle in it's Christmas lights! Mile 5 was right before we headed into Tomorrowland. I also adore running through Tomorrowland! Disney is still working on the Tomorrowland rethemeing but it always looks great lit up in the dark. The it was into Fantasyland and through the castle! I did feel like there were fewer characters in this section of the park than last year but we did run through slightly less of Fantasyland this year so maybe that's why.
We definitely didn't make it through the front of the castle in the dark but it was pretty overcast so you could still tell the castle was lit up in the photos. I ended up with a great action shot by the castle again this year but it's always a good idea to stop for a posed photo just in case the action shot doesn't come out. Then it was onward to Liberty Square and Frontierland!
There are several in park bathrooms available to runners and I had a pit stop at the one between Frontierland and Adventureland. It's a bit off the course so lots of people miss it and there was no line! Woohoo! We also ran into the Mighty Ducks crew who were waiting for a character photo near by. I'm always amazed at how many people I run into on course! After Frontierland, we exited through where the parade floats come out into a backstage area. Some of the backstage areas are really cool and they had a few parade floats out with Pinocchio which was really cool. It's also where the backsides of Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain are. The train was not available for photos this year and won't be until they open the train back up when the Tron construction is done.The next section of the course past the Grand Floridian is really narrow and we ended up walking a lot. There's usually a character stop or two during this section and we stopped for Daisy. She was in a really cute yellow dress that I've never seen before. I do appreciate that they try to have rare characters or more unique character outfits for us at some of the character stops. Thankfully, the course opens back up again after mile 7 when we it the main highway stretch back towards Epcot.
I know a lot of people hate the highways. They can be so brutal if it's hot and the sun is baking down on you. The clouds managed to stay out for most of it and we even had a nice breeze for part of it. I always appreciate the space the highways provide as some parts of the course are so crowded! We caught up with several more of the Donald crew at the Goofy photo stop and we ended up walking with them for a good bit. I had some really nice conversations during this race.
Once we hit the cloverleaf onramp around mile 10, the sun had come out again and we were all really drooping. This is the "hilly" section of the course so we did a lot of walking and drank a lot of water but it also means that we were almost back to Epcot! The Epcot section of the course also had some tweaks (so much construction going on here right now!) and part of that was more of the backstage area. Personally, I think this backstage area is less interesting than the Magic Kingdom section but there was a water stop and several character stops which was nice.There was only a very small section in Epcot proper and the course was very crowded at this point. We had slowed down a lot and had fallen back in with some of the later, larger corrals. I was ok with that because at this point I was ready to be done with the race. It was hot and I was tired. We did not get to run out the front past Spaceship Earth due to the construction and the last section of the course was a weird hybrid between the course used for Wine and Dine 2019 and one from Marathon Weekend 2019. The finish line was incredibly crowded and even though I did my best to have a space so I could get a finish line shot, it didn't happen. People kept cutting right in front of me and there wasn't anywhere else to go.
In the end, I was just happy to be done. It was medal and snack box time! In the end, I spent almost four hours on course which is 45 mins longer than my previous personal worst. I actually had a lot of fun for most of that time but it was a long time to be on my feet running and walking and I wasn't really prepared for that. I would definitely do some things differently next time I do a race this hot. Four hours is just a bit much for me until I decide to commit to a marathon. That's one of the things I love about running. I'm always learning new things and tweaking what I do.
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Part 1: The Expo and YouTube Meet Up
Part 2: The Half Marathon-You are here!
Part 3: Cheering for the Marathon
Part 4: Enjoying some Disney Magic
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