This is too true!!
Quick background since I'm new here: My first marathon was also my first runDisney event, which was in 2014. My sister wanted to run it and I decided to do it with her. After that I became slightly addicted to runDisney. And have since brought my other half,
@DreamRunner1, into runDisney events (for him, it helped that Disney acquired Star Wars and branded some of the events accordingly).
I did Dopey in 2015 and signed up for Dopey in 2016, but life got in the way and I ended up deferring to 2017. Besides being cold (maybe not as cold as I’ve heard 2018 was, but still freaking cold!), 2017 had the cancelled half marathon. I did my 13.1 in the Contemporary and Bay Lake Tower parking lots, so I didn’t feel that I cheated, but it wasn’t the same level of accomplishment.
On account of the semi-Dopey in 2017, I was fine doing another one. Ideally,
@DreamRunner1 would join me but anytime I uttered the word marathon I either got very ugly looks or choice words that I won’t share here! But, after he stumbled upon a trip report by
@ZellyB, he became curious, and then read a few more trip reports. I think even though he is nervous, he has decided we are going to run Dopey in 2019!
So, back to my original reason for replying to this post… After surviving three Disney marathons, I will say that I still despise the part through ESPN Wide World of Sports. I’ve even cursed it when I go to the expo for other runDisney events because of the memories of that part of the marathon course. So, I’m glad to hear that I'm not alone in these feelings.
Thanks to everyone for all of the information in this thread. I have been more of a lurker than a poster on the boards, focusing on WDW,
DCL and Aulani. I stupidly never sought out runDisney info. I look forward to learning more and hopefully meeting some of you in January!