My goal for the marathon is to run as fast as I can between picture stops and try to time it so that I reach AK when the park opens in order to maximize my chances at riding Everest. Nonetheless, my focus (and the reason that I posed the question in the first place) is not having a repeat of my Goofy Challenge experience in 2023. I had a wonderful half marathon with my daughter using run-walk at her pace, so it wasn't very fast. Nonetheless, I woke up the next morning with a sore ankle and I hoped that it wouldn't bother me too much during the marathon. By Mile 15/16, I couldn't run more than a few feet without feeling terrible pain on the bottom of my foot. It was so bad that I was afraid that I might have a fracture, yet I could still walk with minimal discomfort. Hence, I walked the remainder of the race (except for a few feet whenever I saw a Photopass photographer).
After a lot of soul and sole searching, I believe that the foot pain was caused by not being properly trained for the Challenge. I might have been fine for the HM or even the full marathon, but not the combined two day event. For my last HM, I used the Hanson's method and I believe that the cumulative fatigue prepared my feet and legs to withstand the miles. This was the impetus for my question in the first place. How fast can I go in the HM without risking a repeat of my Goofy Challenge experience.
At this point, my plan is to run the 5K and the 10K at my easy pace and the HM at my Long Run pace. I looked over my training logs and I did a 12 mile Long Run while we were at Universal Orlando in December and then walked an additional ten miles at the parks that day. I distinctly remember not having any discomfort at all that day or the following day. I believe that it's all about the proper pacing and having your body prepared for the miles.
I appreciate your thoughts regarding this plan of attack. Do you think that I could race the 5K and/or 10K without risking putting too much stress on my feet? I am frankly feeling a tremendous amount of anxiety (nine months out!) about a repeat of my Goofy Challenge debacle. So, I have the angel on one shoulder telling me to focus on the marathon experience and play it safe while the devil is saying to go for it and minimize my wait times for pictures by running faster than easy pace.
If you train well for the marathon, then the other three races have an effect, but fairly minimal in the big picture. From my own experience/data from my five Dopey attempts, and some data from Jack Daniels, I've gathered the following:
*All of this is said in the absence of an injury. An injury can occur running super slow relatively, and can occur when trying to PR all four. Sometimes it's just bad luck, and sometimes it's something within your control. So being well trained and super conservative does not mean the chance of injury is zero, but that it can be lower than a more aggressive approach. It's about risk management.
*All of this is also said assuming you are well trained for a marathon.
-An all-out 5k has minimal influence on 10k performance. You can recover pretty quick from the 5k. After a day's theme park experience of walking around, you'll pretty much be good to go 24hrs later. In some cases you may even perform better in the 10k after having done the 5k at PR level the day prior. This has to do with your bodies muscle fiber composition and whether your fibers perform better when they're loose or tight. You can learn this about yourself in training by seeing the quality of back to back days, or doing strides the day before a hard workout.
-An all-out 5k and 10k has about a 1-4% effect on HM performance. The 10k at PR effort will begin to influence your capabilities for the HM the next day.
-An all-out 5k, 10k, and HM has about a 7-10% effect on M performance. Even a relatively slow HM the day prior to the M will have a non-zero effect.
I think a combination of 5k PR, 10k PR, HM easy, and M attempt is only slightly harder than 5k easy, 10k easy, HM easy, and M attempt. The first is like having two hard workouts, an easy recovery run (albeit a longer one than normal), and than a long training run. The second is like a normal training week but potentially lower volume (other than the M). I don't see either of them too far outside the norm of a tough training week in the midst of marathon training.
One thing you can do in training to simulate character stops is broken Tempo runs. Try running at pace, and taking short 30-60 sec (or whatever the normal length of time for your character stops is) in your training runs. See how that compares to a steady state tempo run. Some may find it easier, and others may find it more difficult. At that point, you're in a way doing run/walk, or just a standard interval training run.
Hopefully this will be enough!
I didn't actually think I'd be able to swing it anyway with the additional time away / cost / etc.
But if I do end up being in Orlando for MW, I may try to snag a bib later!
. My mom plans to run the half and I'd like to cheer for her. I don't need more shirts, medals, merch, or things in general. Plus the half course isn't my fav. Yes, it has Main Street and that's amazing but so does the marathon. 
