WDW Marathon Weekend - January 2022

[rnoon]

Originally Posted by sky13

if I was wanting to do 2022 Dopey I would probably have to start training about now, but it's very hard to get motivated to train for something that may not happen!

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Yeah I have friends that have signed up to marathons here in the UK which have been pushed back a few months and they are having to keep the training up which is not much fun.

It's a great experience and I'd love to do it again but I wouldn't be planning a trip around it with the current uncertainty.

Cheers,
Loz

[ghints]

OK, so I have signed up for Dopey as it has always been an ambition of mine. Will be my 15th marathon and have done plenty of halves, so no problem with the runs themselves. However:

- never done the Disney races before
- never been to Disney on my own (kids will be back at school in early Jan)
- never stayed on property (got a good deal on the Dolphin through BA)
- never been to Orlando other than summer hols (still shorts weather?)

Looks like all four races start at 5am, so will have some serious time to kill during Thu/Fri/Sat, although getting off my feet after the half on Saturday will probably be a priority !

Want to make sure that I get the full runDisney experience, so all tips gratefully received (getting to the start, the expo, pasta restaurants, merch, do I bother going into the parks etc. etc.) !

[Simon & Suzann]

Originally Posted by ghints

OK, so I have signed up for Dopey as it has always been an ambition of mine. Will be my 15th marathon and have done plenty of halves, so no problem with the runs themselves. However:

- never done the Disney races before
- never been to Disney on my own (kids will be back at school in early Jan)
- never stayed on property (got a good deal on the Dolphin through BA)
- never been to Orlando other than summer hols (still shorts weather?)

Looks like all four races start at 5am, so will have some serious time to kill during Thu/Fri/Sat, although getting off my feet after the half on Saturday will probably be a priority !

Want to make sure that I get the full runDisney experience, so all tips gratefully received (getting to the start, the expo, pasta restaurants, merch, do I bother going into the parks etc. etc.) !

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Can i ask what deal you had with the Dolphin please?

[KarenG]

Originally Posted by ghints

OK, so I have signed up for Dopey as it has always been an ambition of mine. Will be my 15th marathon and have done plenty of halves, so no problem with the runs themselves. However:

- never done the Disney races before
- never been to Disney on my own (kids will be back at school in early Jan)
- never stayed on property (got a good deal on the Dolphin through BA)
- never been to Orlando other than summer hols (still shorts weather?)

Looks like all four races start at 5am, so will have some serious time to kill during Thu/Fri/Sat, although getting off my feet after the half on Saturday will probably be a priority !

Want to make sure that I get the full runDisney experience, so all tips gratefully received (getting to the start, the expo, pasta restaurants, merch, do I bother going into the parks etc. etc.) !

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Well done! I imagine some of the races will have already sold out.

We’ve done a couple of Dopeys and lots of the other Disney races. Usually but not always in fancy dress

You will have to be on a bus from your resort to take you to the race area at an unimaginable time. The buses are very frequent. There is a lot of hanging around.

After the races, Assuming the routes are the same (and you have a park ticket) it would be my choice to walk back to the Dolphin through Epcot to cool down / stretch out if Epcot is open (it won’t be for the shorter races). I find sitting on the bus especially after the marathon less than ideal but YMMV.

The atmosphere of the races, and the support and entertainment is amazing. The 5 and 10ks are over in a flash it always feels like.

The weather can be very very very cold especially in the middle of the night when you’ll be travelling to the start. We had to buy extra clothes, hand warmers and wear foil blankets while waiting to start, a couple of times. This is preferable though to it being hot.

The weather in the daytime tends to be lovely and sunny and can be warm - perfect park touring.

You may catch some of the Xmas decs if you’re lucky



We always do the parks but do the races as part of a bigger / longer holiday. As you say stay off your feet on the Saturday. We’ve gone to the cinema, swum (weather dependant, it’s not certain in January to be swimming weather) etc. Get to bed early! The jet lag will work in your favour!

The Expo is massive! You can spend plenty of time and money there!

Do you mean pasta restaurants for pre race fuelling? Will you have park tickets and / or a car to get offsite? I don’t eat pasta before a race but can suggest some places if you like?

Finally the races are epic fun, I have met some great people doing them both by joining Facebook groups and then just chatting to random people also

Just a few really quick thoughts

[ghints]

Originally Posted by Simon & Suzann

Can i ask what deal you had with the Dolphin please?

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Not a specific "deal", just what I felt was a good price for BA flight/hotel/car for 6 days. I did take a chance and book it before the WDW dates were officially released, so I suspect things may have increased since...

[walden64]

My DD has run lots of the Run Disney races and has even just flown over for race weekend in the past and flown back. She joined a Facebook group for Run Disney years ago before her first Princess Weekend race. She has made some wonderful friends through the group and she is in constant contact with them. She is running Berlin and New York with some of them and of course Dopey in 2022.

It will be interesting to see what changes they put in place especially around the corrals as in the past everyone was packed in but Wine & Dine will be a good indicator of how they will run Marathon weekend and what they will do about photos with the characters.

In 2020 it was quite cool for the 5k and 10k so I had got some of the cheap fleece blankets from Ikea snd took them with us to just put around our shoulders prior to the race starting. On the Sunday for the marathon is was record temperatures and in the end they shortened the course, so be prepared for all weathers and temperatures.