Marathon Weekend 2018

[PrincessV]

FWIW I started in the back of F for both DS and W&D and it was fine. No pushing and shoving, no issues running my own pace! I felt like DS, which had more mini-waves, spread out better, while W&D, with fewer mini-waves for my corral, stayed pretty congested the whole time, but both were fine and rarely was I unable to go my preferred speed. Of course, I'm one of those dreaded Slower Runners, so YMMV.

 

[DisMatt0483]

Also looks like possibly entering Epcot through IG, rahter than backstage into UK for the marathon to avoid gondola construction

 

[JeffW]

Interesting. The Transportation Instructions now say to board a bus or monorail by 3:30am for half and marathon day, instead of 4am. That is a change, right? I saved my alarms on my phone from last year's races, and I was waking up at 3:05am. I know I wasn't out the door in 25 minutes.

 

[croach]

Also looks like possibly entering Epcot through IG, rahter than backstage into UK for the marathon to avoid gondola construction

We still went back stage for Wine & Dine. They just get you by the construction. Don't think there's anyway they can get people through IG. Too small.

 

[croach]

The half and full enter the MK under the train station this year. And run through the bus area.

Wait so we are going to run through the entrance to MK and up Main Street. I just posted that IG is small. Isn't that going to similar in terms of getting people through there?

 

[AlexRunsDisney]

But how are they supposed to know that you can run a sub-4 marathon if you don't submit PoT?

Yes but why would someone lie and put a time of 3:30:00 when they are actually a 6 hour marathoner? Why would they want to put themselves in a faster corral with the risk of getting run over? I don't see a point in that.

 

[Mickey Momma]

Trying to catch up! I am seeing posts abou where everybody is staying. Port Orleans French Quarter for me!

 

[cburnett11]

Wait so we are going to run through the entrance to MK and up Main Street. I just posted that IG is small. Isn't that going to similar in terms of getting people through there?

Is the MK entrance much worse than going through the Castle?

 

[rteetz]

Is the MK entrance much worse than going through the Castle?

I don't think it will be any worse than that.

 

[AbbyJaws2003]

Yes but why would someone lie and put a time of 3:30:00 when they are actually a 6 hour marathoner? Why would they want to put themselves in a faster corral with the risk of getting run over? I don't see a point in that.

It gives you a buffer from the balloon ladies / sweepers, a padded time to be able to stop for pictures or just the extra time needed to be able to finish the course when you might not have been able to if you were to start in the last corral.

 

[jeanigor]

Yes but why would someone lie and put a time of 3:30:00 when they are actually a 6 hour marathoner? Why would they want to put themselves in a faster corral with the risk of getting run over? I don't see a point in that.

More time on course? Earlier arrival at certain locations? If you have a slower than 16 min pace, then the earlier you start the less likely you are to get swept.

Is the MK entrance much worse than going through the Castle?

I think the entrance offers much more space. And as compared to IG, there won't be day guests to contend with.

 

[camaker]

Yes but why would someone lie and put a time of 3:30:00 when they are actually a 6 hour marathoner? Why would they want to put themselves in a faster corral with the risk of getting run over? I don't see a point in that.

Lying about projected finishing times and proof of times is a cottage industry at Disney. People see it as a way of getting around the 16 min/mile pacing requirement so that they can still do the race and stop for as many characters as possible while still being able to complete the race. Corral jumping at the start is a problem for the same reason, as well. It's not unusual to see a significant number of walkers in the early corrals. Note: There are other reasons for walkers in those corrals than just PoT cheats, so I'm not painting all with the same brush. Also, I think the safety aspect of mixing different run paces is way overstated. It's an irritation and bottle necking issue that inhibits the optimal flow of runners more than anything.

 

[AlexRunsDisney]

It gives you a buffer from the balloon ladies / sweepers, a padded time to be able to stop for pictures or just the extra time needed to be able to finish the course when you might not have been able to if you were to start in the last corral.

Ahhh, all very good points. I could see why people might lie then.

 

[ell13]

Yes but why would someone lie and put a time of 3:30:00 when they are actually a 6 hour marathoner? Why would they want to put themselves in a faster corral with the risk of getting run over? I don't see a point in that.

The same reason people are freaking out about being in the last corral if they're slow. If given the option to start sooner, many people will do it just to be sure that they finish. And that's just one example. Another would be couples or friends who want to start together and they want to start with the fastest person. It happens at every race where people are allowed to "corral" themselves and many others that don't require POT.

 

[AlexRunsDisney]

Looks like all of the corral questions in here seem to not matter much. It doesn't really matter what corral you are in. All that matters is where you are in your corral. The best thing to do would be to aim at getting there super early to be at the front of your corral.

 

[Ariel484]

Yes but why would someone lie and put a time of 3:30:00 when they are actually a 6 hour marathoner? Why would they want to put themselves in a faster corral with the risk of getting run over? I don't see a point in that.

You've already gotten answers to this above, but I will say that I know someone that did this a couple of years ago - lied about her half marathon time to get into a high corral for the Princess Half Marathon (she was registered for the challenge) when she should have been in one of the last corrals (she ran a half where she didn't actually finish the race but the chip registered her 10K split - she put that in as a half marathon time when entering PoT. And I'm not guessing on this, she admitted to doing it).

Why did she lie? Because she knew full well that if she were honest about her PoT, she would be swept and not get a Glass Slipper Challenge medal. The month before, I ran during Marathon Weekend and she commented on my Instagram posts from the races asking lots of questions about sweeping and getting challenge medals. Essentially she had signed up for GSC and then just didn't train for it. And this is someone who had done races before, wasn't injured or anything like that...the training just didn't happen. Come race weekend, she was one of the last finishers in both races - she was passed by literally thousands of other runners and almost ended up finishing dead last (not exaggerating...it was unbelievable). But she did finish, and the only reason why is because she had a HUGE cushion due to lying about her time. I haven't thought about her the same way since then.

TL;DR - people don't have integrity sometimes.

Looks like all of the corral questions in here seem to not matter much. It doesn't really matter what corral you are in. All that matters is where you are in your corral. The best thing to do would be to aim at getting there super early to be at the front of your corral.

Getting there early is definitely a good thing to aim for! Especially with the wave starts...the closer to the front you can be, the better.

 

[AlexRunsDisney]

Yikes! Gonna be like a bunch of sardines.

Didn't the Wine & Dine this year only go thru H? I remember them splitting corrals into 2 or 3 different waves and it actually worked out really well.

 

[Keels]

Didn't the Wine & Dine this year only go thru H? I remember them splitting corrals into 2 or 3 different waves and it actually worked out really well.

Wine & Dine has about 10,000 fewer runners than WDW Half and Full.

ETA: W&D Half had ~16,000 runners; WDW Half had ~27,000 and WDW Full had ~24,000 this year.

 

[AlexRunsDisney]

Only to H, yikes?

I'm now wondering if the POT mattered much. Guess it'll be an early walk to the corrals and sitting on the pavement wrapped up like a Chipotle burrito in the heat shield.

Yeah, looks like PoT won't matter much in this setup. BUT you will need to get there extra early. I am assuming the last 2 corrals will have about 5000 runners each, just like the Wine & Dine half did last month.

 

[Keels]

SAVE THE DATE:

I will be driving on Dec. 14 AND Dec. 18, so I expect one of those days will be waiver day ... my streak is pretty much 100-percent for this, including most recently W&D Weekend waivers.