Disney Marathon ran Jan. 11, '04 at Disney World in Sunny (well, freezing cold) Florida ... They
announced 16,000 marathon and 9,000 half marathon, but at the end listed 10,000 marathon finishers,
not sure why the discrepency, I can't believe 6,000 dnfs, but maybe some didn't show up.
Anyway. The start is ridiculously early, even for Florida. 6 a.m. start so we won't interfere too
much with the money-making park operations, and they require runners to get on the bus to the
starting area (from on-site hotels) by 4 a.m. Traffic did look pretty bad getting to the starting
line, so glad I opted for the bus, one less thing to worry about. By 4:30, they were herding runners
on a 1/2 mile walk to starting corrals, and had us in our pens by 5:15, then a 45 minute wait, 36
degrees and windy, until the start.
Not terrible congestion at the start for the first corrals, don't know what it was like further
back, got to the starting line in about 90 seconds, not bad. The early going quickly got up to
speed, although a lot of "A" corral runners probably didn't belong up there, even at an
8:30 pace they were dropping back rapidly.
One thing about the Disney Marathon, only about 9 miles of it are actually in the four theme parks.
Much of the running is on remote, private roads or highway, without a lot to look at. And inside the
parks, the course narrows quickly, and a lot of turns and twists clog things up. It's difficult to
maintain an even pace, you're bobbing up and down throughout.
The aid is plentiful and frequent. They have Powerade instead of Gatorade, and Powerbars and
Powerbar goo instead of Hammergel or Gu or something a little less thick to choke down. Bananas
handed out, as well as sponges, although it never got warm enough to need them.
I did get a beer at mile 19, thanks to the Orlando Hash House Harriers, always nice to start the day
with an eye opener! (probably a mistake, but what the hey)And there were nice entertainment areas,
such as dancing Disney characters, a gospel group, rock music, djs and other stuff. Running through
MGM theme park after four miles of dull highway was a blast, they run you through a giant building
at one point, that was interesting.
Finishing miles follow a boardwalk shopping complex, lots of cheering, and if you're still in
the mood, you can high-five lots of kids, then back through EPCOT to the finish area, which
ran smoothly.
They got cheap with the medals this year, instead of imprinting the year on the medals, they hang
the year on a metal tag below, so they can use the same medals year after year and just change the
metal tag. Did they think we wouldn't notice. The long-sleeve T-shirt is screen printed on cotton,
rather than embroidered on Cool-max or something, as I've gotten at other runs, and for $90 entry,
you expect a tad more. Expo was cramped and smaller than expected for such a large marathon field.
In all, worth doing if it's part of a vacation or you live in Florida, but I wouldn't make it a
destination or focus of my running career ... seems like NYC, Chicago, Big Sur, San Diego, Nashville
or many others like that might make a better choice.
One thing that might be of interest to out of state visitors, January and the first two weeks in
February are pretty dicey weather-wise in Central Florida. You could get 80degrees, or, like this
past weekend, lows in the 30s and highs in the 50s ... it's hit or miss, depends on which way the
jet and fronts are blowing. Keep that in mind if you dream of sunshine .. Miami marathon could be a
better bet for sun worshippers.
I still managed a 3:45 and felt good afterward. Ran out of gas for the last three. Maybe it was
that beer.