This will be my final Walt Disney World Marathon recap post for this year. I wrote this article for the newsletter at work, so I thought I would post it here.
A Little Goofy?
What were you doing Saturday at 4:30 in the morning? What about Sunday? Sleeping? On both days, I had already been awake for two hours, and was standing on the side of a Central Florida highway, waiting for fireworks to send me off.
This past weekend, I completed Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge at Walt Disney World, which consists of the WDW Half Marathon on Saturday and the WDW Marathon on Sunday — a total of 39.3 miles. Over 56,000 runners competed in the weekend events, including which about 7,500 of us participating in Goofy’s Challenge. This was my fourth year conquering the challenge.
Both races have a spectacular fireworks start on a road right outside of Epcot. The half marathon takes you to the Magic Kingdom, where you run all through the park, including right through Cinderella Castle. Then you head back to Epcot, through the park and around Spaceship Earth (the big ball) and to the finish line in the parking lot. 13.1 miles of fun.
The marathon takes you past all of Walt Disney World’s icons. First, you run through Epcot’s Future World around Spaceship Earth. Then, you’re off to the Magic Kingdom where you run through Cinderella Castle. After that, you head over to Animal Kingdom where you circle the park and the Tree of Life and then to Hollywood Studios where you pass the Earful Tower and the Sorcerer’s Hat. Finally, it’s back to Epcot for a loop around World Showcase before finishing in the Epcot parking lot. Another 26.2 miles of fun.
The races also take you through many “backstage” areas of the parks, which regular guests never see. Some of the areas include the parade float storage facilities, recycling and maintenance facilities, horticultural areas, and animal care areas.
Along the courses are all types of entertainment to help the miles go by. Local high schools send cheerleaders, bands, and dance teams to entertain the runners. DJ’s, rock bands, choirs, jugglers, and other entertainers can also be found along the course. Disney puts random parade floats, hot air balloons, animals, and other props along the course. Also along the course are all of you favorite Disney characters. You run past princesses, dwarfs, Mary Poppins, several incarnations of Mickey, and many more. And with so many participants, there are also thousands of spectators and cast members to cheer you on both in and out of the parks.
There are all types of runners who participate each year. There are world-class elite runners who compete for cash prizes, walkers, and everything in between. Some people run to raise money and/or awareness for their favorite charity while others dress as their favorite Disney characters. You won’t find me wearing Mickey ears or Tinkerbell wings though. I find it hard enough to run with a camera!
All finishers receive a Donald medal for completing the half marathon and a Mickey medal for completing the marathon. Goofy Challengers also receive a Goofy medal for finishing both races. And when the volunteers put the medal around your neck, you temporarily forget how much pain you are in (and how hungry you are).
My strategy for these races, other than finish, is simply to have fun along the courses. The first few miles of each race are pretty crowded, so much so that it is nearly impossible to get much speed. And, I made lots of photo stops. There are many awesome photo opportunities that are just not available to other Disney guests. There were also lots of interesting people to talk to along the way, including celebrities. Last year, I found myself running next to TV weatherman Al Roker.
Along with these two races, there are other events during Marathon Weekend. My wife ran a 5K through Epcot Friday morning. My 8-year-old son ran the “Mickey Mile” and my 5-year-old daughter ran a 200 meter race at Disney’s Wide World of Sports.. Each of them received finisher medals as well.
Somehow, out of the 56,000 runners, I managed to be one of only 40 who were invited to a “meet, greet, and tweet” and “training run” with former Olympian Jeff Galloway. It was held early Friday morning at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, before the park was even open. We had the entire theme park to ourselves! We were joined by P90X creator Tony Horton, as well as Survivor winners Jenna Morasca and Ethan Zohn, who also later ran the half marathon. We were able to mingle and take photos with the celebrities and I even got to ride Tower of Terror with Ethan and Jenna. Of course, I bought that ride photo and they were nice enough to autograph it for me.
So how did I do? I’ve posted much better times in non-Disney races because I took them seriously, trained right and ate well. With the Disney races, I’m pretty much the poster child for how not to run. (Besides, it is even possible to “eat right” in the months leading up to January?) So while I’ve done better in other marathons and half marathons, I haven’t had nearly as much fun!
So, who’s with me next year?
