Marathon Weekend 2023

[The Expert]

Curious, for those who went home with a “cold,” did you test for covid? My poor hubs tested positive Monday night after we arrived back in CA. In his line of work he has to be ultra conscientious and can’t chalk up symptoms to just being a cold. I’ve had two negative tests so far and definitely hoping it stays that way.

It was our third and likely last Dopey as this time was brutal for my husband. Likely related to unknowingly running with covid. After testing positive, he was looking at his Fenix 7 data and noticed the pulse ox readings had dropped into the 80s during the half and full. Selfishly, one of the benefits for me having stayed with him the entire weekend is that I had absolutely no soreness. Typically I take a decent amount of time off after a full/Dopey, but I ran an easy 4 mile recovery run yesterday morning and felt great. I’m thankful as my next half is in just over 3 weeks.

Marathon Weekend is such a fun time, but coming from California to do dopey is rough. Beyond thankful rD is coming back to DLR as we’ll likely cut our WDW run weekends way back and stay close to home. After years of being spoiled by the DLR rD races (rolling out of bed shortly before the start and walking to corrals), the WDW four early bus days in a row is just too much!

I had a scratchy throat on Sunday and felt pretty bad on Monday, but since then it's back to just sniffles. I've tested negative so far.

And I agree that coming from the west is rough for ANY rD weekend, but especially this one. My trick of taking the redeye the night before the expo has worked well for me so far, but starting off sleep deprived to get on schedule of 7pm bedtimes is probably not an ideal strategy either. Can't wait for the DLR races!

I have no tested positive at this point, and I've had sniffles for a few days now.

I'm pretty sure we had a discussion last year about the same sort of thing and there was talk about how marathons in general kind of sap your immune system and there's more of a tendency for your body to "get" something after a long endurance event because of how much you tax it.
There's so much crud going around where I live right now....flu, strep, upper respiratory virus crud, on top of our friend 'rona.

This. I got a cold last year after my first Dopey, but nothing compares to my first marathon in January 2020. I stupidly had a trip to NYC planned with friends the next weekend, and that quick turnaround did me in. I remember being in my hotel room with the worst flu of my life and a horrible cough. It was too early for anyone to suspect or test for Covid, and I never did test positive for antibodies, but I'm pretty convinced I had it. (If that wasn't it, then I've still never had it, but that was a killer flu for about a week.)

 

[deadvc]

This may have been discussed previously in this thread awhile ago, but now that I'm back I thought it was interesting that they seemed to listen to feedback about race coloring since the initial announcement. Could be a coincidence, but the original race themes had a mint green backdrop for Goofy and a pink backdrop for the half. Come race weekend, the half shirt was mint green and Goofy was orange. Seems like they just moved the Goofy color to the half after people were upset about the presumed pink half shirt, and went to the easy orange shirt for Goofy.

 

[Marebear_runs]

I had a scratchy throat on Sunday and felt pretty bad on Monday, but since then it's back to just sniffles. I've tested negative so far.

And I agree that coming from the west is rough for ANY rD weekend, but especially this one. My trick of taking the redeye the night before the expo has worked well for me so far, but starting off sleep deprived to get on schedule of 7pm bedtimes is probably not an ideal strategy either. Can't wait for the DLR races!




This. I got a cold last year after my first Dopey, but nothing compares to my first marathon in January 2020. I stupidly had a trip to NYC planned with friends the next weekend, and that quick turnaround did me in. I remember being in my hotel room with the worst flu of my life and a horrible cough. It was too early for anyone to suspect or test for Covid, and I never did test positive for antibodies, but I'm pretty convinced I had it. (If that wasn't it, then I've still never had it, but that was a killer flu for about a week.)

I had a very similar experience. Disney 2020 was also my first marathon and I went to NYC afterwards, and got horribly sick while there with something that, in hindsight, felt a lot like Covid (which I tested positive for Fall 2020). I tried to donate plasma after my first confirmed infection and didn’t have antibodies . I still think it’s possible that’s what it was!

 

[Ariel484]

I have no tested positive at this point, and I've had sniffles for a few days now.

I'm pretty sure we had a discussion last year about the same sort of thing and there was talk about how marathons in general kind of sap your immune system and there's more of a tendency for your body to "get" something after a long endurance event because of how much you tax it.
There's so much crud going around where I live right now....flu, strep, upper respiratory virus crud, on top of our friend 'rona.

You’re right, there’s even a term for this: “Runner’s Flu.”

Do you mind sharing the screenshot? I love Kristin’s 10 minute yoga classes for post run stretches

I'd love to see the screenshot too, if you don't mind sharing it. I'm in the group of taking 2+ weeks off to recover, and enjoying it, but want to get in the habit of strength training and yoga in my time off.

Woohoo, fellow Peloton people!

This is the screenshot I had, I’ve been stacking the 10-min ones or doing a 20-min:


And then another I found in a Facebook group:


@surfde22 if you’re on Facebook, check out the group “hardcore on the floor” for a great strength calendar, also on Instagram @hcotf2018.

I took a COVID test at home on Tuesday and one yesterday at Urgicare - both negative. Just a sinus infection here.

But seriously - there are sooooo many sicknesses going around, not just COVID. My kids have basically been sick since October. They just had what I suspect was the flu at Christmas - three days of high fevers and general crappiness.

My poor 6yo seems to catch everything - she has had more COVID tests than the rest of our family just to be sure they are just colds!

We got a message that strep is going around at daycare…every classroom has been exposed. back to reality.

 

[PrincessV]

FL is a raging inferno of flu, RSV, COVID, and pollen counts, so yeah - very likely many will go home with something. I’ve currently got congested lungs and terribly itchy eyes and would very much like the dry, polleny air to stop swirling down here. All the KN95 masks in the world don’t help me with allergies! 4 negative COVID tests and no other symptoms so far.

2020… I was sick with what sort of felt like flu, but sort of not, immediately after MW. Didn’t suspect COVID because we were being told at the time that it wasn’t in the US, or certainly not in FL, yet. We now know that it absolutely was, my symptoms were 100% in-line with OG COVID, and I experienced 2 years of textbook Long COVID symptoms. My doctor is absolutely certain that that was what I had, and I remember a large number of us here experiencing the exact same series and timing of symptoms… all immediately following MW 2020.

 

[jennysdcc]

Really interesting seeing the discussions on illness - Very sorry to everyone else who got sick and had it ruin their race weekend. After scrubbing our trip because I was literally sicker than I’ve ever been in my adult life, I ended up testing positive for the flu. Going on two weeks now with a horrible productive cough and I’m going in for X-Rays to make sure it hasn’t evolved into pneumonia.

Not getting a refund or deferral was really heartbreaking even though I knew what I signed up for. There was just no way I could run, not safely for myself and others with how sick I was. But I am absolutely terrified for registration knowing that I want to try for Dopey again. I keep thinking back to one month ago when I felt SO ready and powerful after my 40 mile simulation weekend, and now I’ve lost almost 10 pounds to this flu and don’t know when I’ll be able to start productively training again. It’s motivated me to redeem myself like no other, but the lack of guarantee that I’ll be able to try again soon, and not knowing how many years I have left to attempt this before I need to ”pause” because my husband and I would like to start a family…The pressure is on!

 

[GuinnessRunner]

It’s motivated me to redeem myself like no other, but the lack of guarantee that I’ll be able to try again soon, and not knowing how many years I have left to attempt this before I need to ”pause” because my husband and I would like to start a family…The pressure is on!

After missing more MWs and other races (NYC in particular) because of injuries late in a training cycle than I care to admit/remember, I know where you're coming from. The good news is that you've now done the training before so you know what to expect and know you can do it! Take that positive mojo and let it motivate you as you said. There will always be things we can't control that can keep us from race day, but if we kick butt on the things we can control, you win no matter what.

 

[HangWithMerida]

anyone else starting to get twitchy about their recovery days? I'm still pretty tired (and have the cold that a lot of us seem to have taken home) but I really feel like I should be headed to the basement on getting on the treadmill today. My quads to no agree, but my brain is confused as to why we aren't doing much still.

NOPE! I am loving the lack of commitments right now. I feel totally ready to run and have gone for a few walks because I wanted to. But, I’m not planning to try running again at all until next week.

Curious, for those who went home with a “cold,” did you test for covid?

I tested after I came home with sinus congestion symptoms. Negative x 2. And never had any symptoms other than sinus congestion but my job also requires testing if you have any symptoms. Luckily, mine was just a cold.

 

[fatmanatee]

For those of you interested in reliving these races (and those of us who weren’t there but want to see what it looked like anyway), starting to see vids posted to Youtube. I bookmarked RunSota’s vids from last year and this year it looks like he upgraded his iPhone, I’ve never seen such a clear and steady raw vid of the races. He recorded the 5k through the half, think he didn’t do the full bc it’s hard with the battery life required to record that long.

 

[MissLiss279]

I think I saw this posted on FB - but my Dopey Medal Ribbon has ‘Virtual’ on it!
The other medals don’t.
I wonder if all of them are like that or if there were a mix of them.

 

[deadvc]

I think I saw this posted on FB - but my Dopey Medal Ribbon has ‘Virtual’ on it!
The other medals don’t.
I wonder if all of them are like that or if there were a mix of them.
View attachment 731784

Oh man, that just made me go look.

None of mine say virtual, not even Dopey. Maybe something got mixed up? runDisney may be able to mail you a replacement ribbon.

 

[Dopey 2020]

I think I saw this posted on FB - but my Dopey Medal Ribbon has ‘Virtual’ on it!
The other medals don’t.
I wonder if all of them are like that or if there were a mix of them.
View attachment 731784

Oh man, that just made me go look.

None of mine say virtual, not even Dopey. Maybe something got mixed up? runDisney may be able to mail you a replacement ribbon.

Was just about to say the same thing, had to go check mine as soon as I saw this. No virtual here, guessing they got a box mixed in somewhere. It may take a couple months but I’m sure they will replace it.

 

[1GoldenSun]

Well I came home from the marathon with covid for the second year in a row.

I'm going to have to give up breathing at Disney marathons. I already give up sleeping; how much worse could it be.

 

[dweibel]

Curious, for those who went home with a “cold,” did you test for covid? My poor hubs tested positive Monday night after we arrived back in CA. In his line of work he has to be ultra conscientious and can’t chalk up symptoms to just being a cold. I’ve had two negative tests so far and definitely hoping it stays that way.

My wife and I ran the M. Got home Mon, wife tested Pos. Tues. I'm still testing Neg. We think she probably picked it up on the flight out. The guy next to her was coughing up a storm and no mask. Unfortunately seems to be how travel works in 202x. Hope you husband gets well soon.

 

[LilyJC]

My wife and I ran the M. Got home Mon, wife tested Pos. Tues. I'm still testing Neg. We think she probably picked it up on the flight out. The guy next to her was coughing up a storm and no mask. Unfortunately seems to be how travel works in 202x. Hope you husband gets well soon.

Ugh, hopefully your wife recovers quickly as well. It definitely is a risk we take when traveling. I actually came home with covid after doing Dopey ‘22 last year. We’ve done plenty other trips without issues, but Marathon Weekend feels cursed for us now.

 

[Ronski]

Well I came home from the marathon with covid for the second year in a row.

I'm going to have to give up breathing at Disney marathons. I already give up sleeping; how much worse could it be.

Same for me, except I returned from last year's SS with covid and again following marathon weekend we (the whole household with the exception of my very lucky daughter) have been down for this last week. I am starting to develop negative associations with RD race weekends for sure. This last week has been rough.

 

[wdwjoe13]

I avoided COVID for 3 years. Even when DW and the 5 kids had it last year, I never caught it. As we were running Saturday morning and you could see everyone's breath, I joked that it is easier to avoid catching something when you can swerve around people's breath. We wore masks when inside and even in the corrals. I started feeling a cold coming on Tuesday. Flew home Wednesday night and tested positive. Happy to catch it at the end of the trip rather than beginning, but hope that I didn't infect others when I had my mask off during meals and outside.

Chiming in on the deferral/refund, I think its a no brainer to not have an insurance offered. Heck, even my kids $40 youth soccer sign-up has an insurance option on it. I get not wanting to give refunds, but for a case of Covid, I think they should. In the case of @lookingforsunshine, what if you would have showed up to the run and told Disney that you just tested positive for Covid. Would they have let you run? I would hope not. You did the right thing not only for you, but for the good of everyone at the race that morning. Seems like the decent thing to do is offer a refund since you skipped for the great good. Thank you, by the way.

 

[Dom497]

Reading all these posts about people getting sick/COVID, I can't believe I somehow came out of Orlando without getting sick at all (especially when I spent a day at HS and tons of time at DS). All the past marathons I've done (non-Disney) I've always ended up sick afterwards.

 

[Dom497]

What if you would have showed up to the run and told Disney that you just tested positive for Covid. Would they have let you run?

This was for a local race up here in Canada but a friend got COVID and asked for a deferral via email. They said no. He then replied "ok, well in that case I guess I will be racing with COVID". Surprise surprise, they gave him his deferral.

Side note, he was never actually going to race with COVID

 

[Novatrix]

The number of people I heard coughing not just in the parks during Marathon Weekend, but on the race buses and the corrals had me worried.

Sounds like I was one of the lucky ones (knock on wood) who got home without illness from marathon weekend. And I did take a few Covid tests over the course of the week as a precaution due to having high risk individuals at home. Sorry for everyone who got sick.