Marathon Weekend 2020 Part 4: Enjoying Some Disney Magic

One of the best parts of a runDisney weekend is getting to enjoy some Disney magic. Post-marathon we always try to plan a chill day with lots of photo taking and not too much running around. We always plan a few fast passes but rest and recovery is priority #1. We ended up at the Magic Kingdom Sunday after the marathon so we had to get some castle shots with our metals. So fabulous! Bonus points if your outfit coordinates with the colors of your medals.

We love character met and greets for a post-race Disney fun. We always try to visit the theme character for each race if they are around in the parks. Mickey was our first stop. The marathon medal was a big spinner so there wasn't space on the back for a signature so Will had him sign his marathon Mickey ears! (Other runners had Mickey sign the medal ribbon).

The characters get so excited when they see your medals. I don't normally love character meet and greets but the more runDisney weekends I do, the more I enjoy them!

Goofy also does meet and greets in Magic Kingdom so we visited him. Goofy is a hilarious character to interact with! I think the characters who can be quirky are the most fun to meet. (The evil stepsisters are another favorite of mine.)

And I needed to meet Donald for my half marathon medal. My mom loved Donald as a kid and she had a huge collection of Donald stuffed animals when I was little so Donald always has a special place in my heart. And now that the WDW Half Marathon in 2019 was my first half, I love Donald things!

I adore that his signature always includes #1. Move over Mickey! I'm a bird kind of a girl!

On Monday, we headed over to Epcot. Epcot is my favorite park to just walk around and chill at. There's always so much cool stuff in the World Showcase plus the festivals are all amazing. Marathon Weekend usually falls between festivals but there's still loads to see. We joined up with some fellow Joyful Milers to hang out and enjoy the day.

We did a lot of hanging out and chatting. Our group decided to ride Frozen and we had a blast discussing our favorite Disney movies in line. Jackey had a whole list of favorites type questions and I thought that was a great idea! I never felt like I needed to be on my phone and I could just focus on hanging out with my friends. We did one character stop since Snow White happened to be out with a short line. Plus she's the perfect character for all of the Doopey challengers.

*******

Marathon Weekend 2020
Part 1: The Expo and YouTube Meet Up
Part 2: The Half Marathon
Part 3: Cheering for the Marathon
Part 4: Enjoying some Disney Magic-You are here!

Marathon Weekend 2020 Part 3: Cheering for the Marathon

If you've never cheered for a race, it really is a magical experience-even more so if it's a marathon in the most magical place on earth! So I was 100% on board for cheering for the marathon again this year. The race started half an hour earlier than last year so I adjusted my am wake up call to 3 am. I don't like to get on the first bus when spectating so that the seats can go to runners but I don't want to be on the last bus either so I planned on getting on the bus at around 4 am. The marathon course had quite a few changes this year and magic kingdom was just past mile 10 rather than just past mile 6 like last year so I had plenty of time to get to the Magic Kingdom before the runners arrived.

This all ended up being a good idea because there was major traffic trying to get to Epcot for the race start! Craziness! I'm not sure exactly what went wrong this year but there were so many buses of runners stuck in traffic. It was so bad that some of the runners were getting out of their cars and walking to the parking lot rather than waiting in traffic. My bus driver was a bit more of a proactive driver and bypassed a lot of the traffic and cut back over to the right hand lane closer to where we needed to turn. Even with that, it took us over 40 mins to get from the resort to the Epcot parking lot. Once we got into the parking lot, the cast members where doing a great job of getting all of the buses unloaded quickly but a lot of the runners were feeling really stressed out as we got off the bus at 4:50 am with 10 minutes until race start.

I headed over to the front of Epcot to catch the monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center. I heard some of the cast members reassuring runners that the race had been delayed which was a good call since many runners probably wouldn't have made it to the start on time. The race ended up starting about 20 mins late but I was already on the monorail. Two quick monorail trips and I was in the Magic Kingdom.

The Magic Kingdom opens at 5:30 am for spectators and not ticket is needed to spectate for the race before the park opens. I made it there a bit after 5:30 am so spectators were already lined up to cheer. I took a few minutes to enjoy Main Street at night. It's so beautiful with all of the Christmas lights and decor still up! It's a great opportunity to get some photos with the castle with a very light crowd.

The crowds on Main Street seemed a bit less crowded than last year. There were several stretches along the course where there was space right up by the rope. I suspect that this is due to more cheering opportunities available in Epcot at the beginning of the race and due to people getting stuck in traffic and not making it to Magic Kingdom. I had plenty of time to add bib numbers into runner tracking for all of my friends. Alas, I learned that you can only track up to 8 bibs! Runner tracking will send you start, 5 mile, 10 mile, half marathon, 20 mile and finish alerts. You can also do live tracking on your phone but that just guesses at your runner's progress based on the previous average pace and doesn't take into account if they stop or change speed between alerts.

First up are the hand cycle athletes. Some of them really move! And quite a few light up their chairs with lights so they look so cool cycling down Main Street. Pretty soon the elite men and women started to trickle in. If you have never seen elite athletes running, it's an amazing sight. They really do make it look effortless! Since the spectating area was further into the marathon course this year, the runners were even more spread out which is great for spectating. I got to see so many of my friends run down towards the castle. I wasn't sure how much delay there would be in the runner tracking texts but I was able to get the 10 mile update and then get ready to start looking for my runners with plenty of time.

As I was waiting for my slower runners, I noticed that the crowds were starting to thin out. Lots of people who are only cheering for one runner plan on catching their runner at several stops on the course but I decided to cheer for everyone at on spot rather than bouncing around and missing people. I was still feeling really good once my last runner passed so I decided to stay and continue cheering. The back of the pack runners need encouragement too! In the end, I stayed and cheered on the ballon ladies as they passed.

My next stop was the Polynesian resort for breakfast. They have two sit down restaurants but I opted for the quick service Captain Cook's just like last year. It was pretty crowded so I shared a table with two other ladies who were cheering on runners that morning. I always meet the nicest people on race weekends. The runDisney community is absolutely wonderful! After breakfast, I took my tea to go and hung out around the resort for a bit. After a very crowded half marathon course, it was great to get some introvert time.

To get back to Epcot, I reversed my monorail journey and headed over to the finish line area in the Epcot parking lot. The finish line was very crowded and because I cheered for longer in Magic Kingdom that morning, I didn't have as much time to stake out a finish line viewing spot. There are many viewing areas before and after the finish line so it's always a good idea to walk around to find the least crowded section. I ended up near the volunteers handing out medals and got to see Will get his medal.

It was a wonderful experience cheering for the marathon but it was really warm for running and Will wasn't feeling that great after the race so we headed straight back to the hotel for showers and naps. Post marathon naps are the best!

*******

Marathon Weekend 2020
Part 1: The Expo and YouTube Meet Up
Part 2: The Half Marathon
Part 3: Cheering for the Marathon-You are here.
Part 4: Enjoying some Disney Magic

Marathon Weekend 2020 Part 2: The Half Marathon

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.

*******

Marathon Weekend 2020
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

Marathon Weekend 2020 Part 1: The Expo and YouTube Meet Up

Friday finally arrived which meant it was race weekend time! We drove into Orlando early so we could get to the expo before it opened. For this weekend, they moved bib pick up back to the HP Field House so we got in the runDisney merchandise line first. I knew from friends who had arrived earlier in the week that the expo had been crazy so far so I was expecting limited stock on many of the more popular race specific items.

And it was a good thing that I was expecting that because tons of stuff were sold out! I didn't see any race specific pins. Lots of the magnets were sold out and many of the shirts and jackets had limited sizes available. There wasn't much that caught my eye so I only ended up purchasing one thing, an Armpocket phone armband in a runDisney print. I got new iPhone around Christmas time and it didn't fit in any of my running belts or armbands so I needed a new one! The Armpocket one looked really well made so I was happy to get one. Will ended up with a Marathon Weekend Passholder mug and a 39.3 magnet.

Then we picked up bibs which was painless as usual. Since it was the 15th anniversary of the Goofy Challenge, Will got a luggage tag in the shape of the Goofy medal like we got for Wine and Dine last year. Then it was over to the Visa Athletic Center for race shirts and the vendor area. My half marathon shirt was a nice dark blue and I really liked the design. I've been pretty happy with the new runDisney brand shirts and mine fit really similarly to the ones I got Wine and Dine weekend. We didn't pick up much at the vendor area either. If you are newer to running or have never been to a big race with an expo, it's pretty cool but we mostly just wander around and stock up on free apple sauce packets for the weekend. Will got a few extra running gels just in case and I picked up a Sparkle Athletic skirt for my Princess Weekend costume. (So happy to have Princess costumes done so I can work on Star Wars costumes!)

  Later that afternoon, we headed out to the Boardwalk for the YouTuber meet up. It was so big this weekend! Marathon weekend is amazing because lots of people make this their one runDisney weekend of the year (or every couple of years). I've met so many amazing people through this meet up and I met even more this weekend! It was really nice to catch up with people and to get to meet people in person who I've gotten to know online. So great!

*******

Marathon Weekend 2020
Part 1: The Expo and YouTube Meet Up-You are here.
Part 2: The Half Marathon
Part 3: Cheering for the Marathon
Part 4: Enjoying some Disney Magic

December Running Recap

Just like November, December started right off with a race weekend! On December 1st I ran the Space Coast Half Marathon. It's a local race along the intercoastal waterway with a great view and some amazing space themed medals!

All summer and fall, I had planned on this race being my big half marathon PR attempt but I ended up smashing my PR at Wine and Dine. Part of me still felt like I ought to PR so I decided to go for a 2:30 again. No such luck but it did still end up being my second fastest half (and I got a really pretty medal!)

The next weekend was supposed to be my second Spartan Sprint but I had to DNS due to some car trouble. I put in a very angsty 4 miles instead. Oh, well. I'll just have to do more obstacle course races in 2020!

Then it was full steam ahead for WDW Half Marathon training with a 12 miler. The weather was really beautiful and I had a great pace for this run. It made me feel really strong for my next half.

The week of Christmas, I did a 4 miler with a costume test. It's always important to check your costume before race weekend so you don't have to run with an uncomfortable or falling apart costume! The costume did great and I had a nice run.

The weekend after Christmas, I was scheduled for a 14 miler but it was 74F at 5 am so I decided to run for time instead. I wanted to run for 2:30-2:45 and I ended up doing 11.7 miles. It was hot but I felt good about my effort and was ready to start taper!

December was not my greatest running month but life happens. You just have to pick up and keep moving forward. I'm really excited for all of the things I have planned for 2020!

2019 Medal Tag!

Happy 2020 runners! I thought this would be a great time to chat about my favorite 2019 medals as sort of a look back at this year and to get excited for WDW Marathon Weekend which is just around the corner. I had an amazing running year with so many great memories and special moments, not to mention a whole lot of bling! I've picked some questions from various running medal tags that have been going around Youtube to share with you all so let's go.

1. What is your favorite runDisney 5k medal?

I did the runDisney Summer Virtual shorts this year and my favorite 5k medal had to be the Captain Marvel one! Not only is Captain Marvel my favorite Marvel superhero, the medal is stunning! I love the bold but simple design. It looks great!

2. What is your favorite runDisney 10k medal?

When the designs were released for the 2019 Princess Weekend, my favorite was the Mulan 10k medal. I'm so happy I was able to register for this race at the last minute. It was such a fun race and I love the medal. And Mulan is probably the most active Disney princess so it really fits.

3. What is your favorite runDisney half marathon medal?

I did all of the Disney World half marathons in 2019 so it was really hard to pick but I have to go with the Donald medal from Marathon Weekend. It was my first half and my first runDisney medal and I was so proud of myself for earning it. The design is also so pretty with bold yellow and blue.

4. What is your favorite runDisney challenge medal?

I also ran a lot of runDisney challenges this year but the Kessel Run Challenge medal has to be my favorite. The Millennium Falcon is such a cool design and I like the aged look of the medal. I'm really happy that I got this medal this year because they redesigned the medal for 2020 and I'm not a huge fan of the new one.

5. Which is your hardest earned runDisney medal?

This is a hard one because I had a lot of difficult races at runDisney this year. The WDW Marathon Weekend half was my first half marathon and it was really rough on my body. The Star Wars Rival Run half was really warm but I pushed myself and got a 10 min PR. The Wine and Dine half was the race I pushed myself on the hardest getting another (almost) 10 min PR.

6. What is your favorite runDisney spinner medal?

I just love the Rival Run Challenge spinner medal. The black space theme of the background of the medal is really sharp and I love the divided spinner with Luke and Darth Vader. So cool!

7. What is the runDisney medal from your favorite costume?

I had a lot of great running costumes this year but my favorite was Orson Krennic from Rogue One. I ran as him for the Rival Run half marathon and it was so much fun! When in doubt, run with a cape. I'm not sure a ton of people knew who I was but it was so fun to run in plus super comfortable.

8. What is the biggest runDisney medal you earned?

The Wine and Dine Challenge medal is so huge and heavy! It's a giant pyramid with three spinners and three dangling charms! It's so big that I did not wear it around in the parks. I was worried the charms might fall off and that my neck would get tired! But it does look amazing on my medal rack.

9. What is your favorite non-Disney medal based solely on design?

This one has to go to the Space Coast Half Marathon. It wasn't my favorite race experience (mostly due to the weather and bad information about the course) but the medal is so beautiful! It's another big, hefty medal with a nice solid base so you could display it like a trophy if you didn't want to hang it.

10. What is the medal from your favorite non-Disney race based on experience?

I have to go with the Kissimmee Spartan Sprint for this one. I had a blast challenging myself with the training for this race by doing more strength training and getting outside of my comfort zone. I also ran this race with a team which was really fun.

11. What is your favorite runDisney medal based solely on design?

I'm going to mention a favorite that I haven't gotten to talk about yet and that's the Star Wars Virtual Half Marathon R2-D2 medal. It's so pretty! The silver with red accents is really striking and they did a great job of bringing our favorite droid to life.

12. What is the medal from your favorite runDisney race based on experience?

Another really hard question but I'm going to go with the Princess Challenge medal. I did a last minute girls trip for this race weekend with my friend Melissa. We ran the challenge and it was so much fun getting to have that weekend with her even though it was really crazy! So much fun!

13. What is your favorite race shirt?

I love the bright green Mulan shirt from the Princess 10k. I think the design looks really sharp and I love brightly colored shirts to wear when I run so I'm easy for driver to see. I know it's not everyone's favorite color but it's 100% my most worn runDisney race shirt.