Running a marathon is a marvelous accomplishment, and there are many, many tips and best practices that can be shared with marathoners to help them have a strong and positive experience as they run 26.2 miles. While there are general best practices for successfully training for and racing at this distance, there are always specific things that runners should consider for their chosen goal race that will help make their experience at that specific race go well. These are the best tips for runners seeking to have a magical experience running the 26.2 miles of the Walt Disney World Marathon!
(If you’re seeking some guidance on your training journey to the Walt Disney World Marathon, be sure to check out our Disney Marathon Training Plans!)
Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend historically takes place on the weekend following the first full week of January. This means that your Peak Phase of training for the marathon will always fall during the holiday season (specifically during the week before and of Christmas). This is a challenging time of year for people to complete workouts and training. However, if you want to be successful and have your strongest race possible at the Disney Marathon, you must be willing to run during this time period, regardless of what other commitments and fun things you want to be doing during that time. Saying yes to something (such as signing up for and running the Disney Marathon) always means that you will correspondingly be saying no to several other things. Understand, accept, embrace, and expect this and plan accordingly for that time period.
Most people who run the Disney Marathon do not just travel to Florida to do the marathon and leave. Most folks who sign up for this race also include a vacation to Walt Disney World (or to any of the other theme parks or things to do in Central Florida) and thus, race weekend at the Walt Disney Marathon looks quite a bit different than other marathon weekends do. Most people will end up being on their feet far more throughout the weekend than they would if they were running a different marathon. If you will be enjoying a vacation and theme park visits in Orlando while you’re there, be sure to prepare for this demand by walking around on your long run days in training and also walking quite a bit on days adjacent to your long run days in training. It’s not uncommon to accumulate 20,000-30,000 steps in a day going to theme parks in Orlando. I’d recommend building up to including at least 5,000-8,000 steps in addition to any exercise you’re doing on the day before, the day of, and the day after your long runs in training.
runDisney is very strict about the minimum required pace for the Walt Disney World Marathon, which is 16 minutes per mile. (They even have (in)famous “Balloon Ladies” running a 16 minute per mile pace, and if they catch you, they will force you to withdraw from the race and board the buses that are driving behind them.) If you are close to this cutoff pace, be sure to train well so you have appropriate time buffers in place for things to go awry on race day. (I’d recommend building to be able to maintain at least a 15 minute per mile pace on your long runs.) The Walt Disney World Marathon is a very large race, with anywhere from 13,000-20,000+ runners. Things such as congestion on the course, character stops, and hot Florida weather may slow you down on race day.
Stay on-property at Walt Disney World Resort during marathon weekend. The Walt Disney World Resort offers hotels for many different budgets, and while the price of staying on-property may seem high at first, the convenience of being on-property for the marathon weekend honestly makes it worth it. All hotel properties at Walt Disney World Resort offer official transportation to and from the race site, and this is included in the price you pay to stay on-property. These buses are given priority in terms of access to travel pathways to the race site and for drop-off and pick-up locations. If you stay off-property, you’ll need to deal with the hassle of traffic and extra fees for parking and getting over to the race site. The potential lower price of off-property hotels is honestly not worth it when you include all of these other fees and logistics.
If you’re staying on-property, none of the dining locations at Walt Disney World Resort are open prior to the race. Be sure to plan for this and get all the things you may want to eat on race morning ready in advance. The dining locations at the resort hotels usually offer a “runner’s pack” of food items (such as a banana, a bagel, some peanut butter, and a bottle of water) that can be purchased and picked up on Saturday before the race in case you’d like to do that.
runDisney is very strict about Corral open and close times. Depending on your starting corral, your race start time will be between 4:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. runDisney requires that you be within your corral by a certain time (between 4:15 a.m. and 4:50 a.m. depending on your starting corral), which means that you need to be planning ahead so you can be on time for the race start.
Character stops are one of the most magical parts of running the Walt Disney World Marathon!
Due to an early race start time and somewhat complicated transportation timelines and logistics to get to the race start, you have to wake up VERY early to run the Disney Marathon. Buses from the Walt Disney World Resorts start running at 3:00 a.m. This means that you’ll be waking up at around 2:00 a.m. While this type of early wake up may not be practical to do for all of your long runs in training, it’s actually really important to practice this timeline at least once in training if you can so you can understand how your body and brain will function at those hours. (For instance, your restroom needs may vary if you’re very off-schedule from your normal routine.)
There is a fairly wide temperature range that is possible at the Disney Marathon (from 50-80+ºF / 10-27+ºC from the start to end of the race). One of the many reasons that the race starts so early is to beat the Florida heat. That being said, just because it’s Florida doesn’t mean that it won’t be cooler in January. Some years you can wear shorts and a t-shirt all day and other years it’s in the low 50s Fahrenheit on race morning. Since you’ll be outside and waiting for a long time before the race starts, it’s a good idea to purchase inexpensive layers such as sweatpants and a sweatshirt at a thrift store or somewhere like Wal-Mart to wear over your race outfit before the race starts. There will be bins to collect any clothing you no longer want in the corrals at the race start; these items are donated to charity after the race.
Most people who choose to run the Walt Disney World Marathon do it for the experience of running through all four theme parks at Walt Disney World. While this is absolutely a huge selling point, this appealing aspect of the race also generates some unappealing things. One of them is that the course is honestly very boring for a large part of it. In order to get from theme park to theme park, you need to run on very boring, highway-like roads. There is entertainment on the course (such as DJs, bands, and Disney characters), but there are long stretches where there isn’t much to look at or experience. The nature of the race and the course (congested, lots of winding turns in the parks, varied surfaces, etc.) also means that it’s not a great course to aim for a personal best time on.
Character stops (where you can stop mid-race to take a photo with iconic Disney characters) are one of the most beloved and magical aspects of the Walt Disney World Marathon. They are also extremely popular, which means that the lines for the character stops can be very long depending on what corral you start in and how fast you’re covering the marathon course. Runners who start in earlier corrals (Corrals A-E) generally won’t experience long wait times for character tops. But if you start in Corral F or later, consider skipping the first character stop or two (as the lines for these tend to be the longest) and getting “ahead” enough to stop at other character stops later in the race.
Once the theme parks are open (at 9:30 a.m.), you are allowed to go on the rides in the parks that are open while you’re running through the parks. For instance, Expedition Everest (a roller coaster located in Disney’s Animal Kingdom on the race course around Mile 17) is open during the race and runners can ride the roller coaster mid-race if they so choose when they are passing through Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This is a rare opportunity to have a roller coaster adventure in the middle of a marathon! If you aren’t aiming for a specific goal time, consider embracing the fun of this opportunity!
Laura Henry is a Syracuse, NY-based coach who is a USA Triathlon Level II Long Course and Level II Paratriathlon Certified Coach, USA Cycling Level 2 Certified Coach, VFS Certified Bike Fitter, SICI Certified Bike Fitter, and has successfully completed NASM's Certified Personal Trainer course. Coach Laura is passionate about helping athletes of all ability levels reach their goals and has coached hundreds of athletes to success over the course of her career.
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