Marathon Weekend 2025

[Stitch&Co.]

Slow week? Need some diversion? I invite you back, back, over the falls… wait, no, that’s gone… back to 2017, when the half was canceled and the full was frozen (not Frozen.)

Our collective freak out as the news broke starts here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/marathon-weekend-2017.3462684/page-300

Hit page 323 for when we start panic-shopping/procuring cold weather gear, lol!

I cannot believe it’ll soon be 8 years since then. Feels so much more recent!

Returning to 2024 after reading this.

Interesting to see how they handled the cancellation of the half vs the shortened course from this year.

Speaking as a Floridian pack for every possibility. I know it’s been said before but that is just the reality.

 

[EDS19]

I wanted to get some tips/best practices from this group...
This will be my 6th Half Marathon during Marathon Weekend so I have figured out how I like my week to go so it feels smooth to me. But sleeping the night before the race is always a nightmare. Because I'm on mountain time it is already tricky to go to bed when I should. The past few years I've stayed at the parks to watch the evening spectacular the night before my race, that usually means I'm leaving the parks about 9:30, with traffic/transportation getting back at 10 p.m. and then I have to wind down, so in bed by 11 and usually up in the 2 a.m. time frame.

This year my thought is to wake up early that day and rope drop the parks, no afternoon nap, just push through but plan to be leaving the parks by 6 p.m., eating dinner at my resort at 7ish, winding down and hopefully in bed before 9. So I get at least 5 hours of sleep. Is there anything that works better for you guys? I'll bring a white-noise machine to try and cut out some of the sound I usually hear when people are getting back from the parks.

I'm fine missing a night in the parks if I can get some sleep, but if I'm just gonna be laying there awake for a few additional hours that won't be ideal. So any tips or tricks would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Disneyhanna]

I wanted to get some tips/best practices from this group...
This will be my 6th Half Marathon during Marathon Weekend so I have figured out how I like my week to go so it feels smooth to me. But sleeping the night before the race is always a nightmare. Because I'm on mountain time it is already tricky to go to bed when I should. The past few years I've stayed at the parks to watch the evening spectacular the night before my race, that usually means I'm leaving the parks about 9:30, with traffic/transportation getting back at 10 p.m. and then I have to wind down, so in bed by 11 and usually up in the 2 a.m. time frame.

This year my thought is to wake up early that day and rope drop the parks, no afternoon nap, just push through but plan to be leaving the parks by 6 p.m., eating dinner at my resort at 7ish, winding down and hopefully in bed before 9. So I get at least 5 hours of sleep. Is there anything that works better for you guys? I'll bring a white-noise machine to try and cut out some of the sound I usually hear when people are getting back from the parks.

I'm fine missing a night in the parks if I can get some sleep, but if I'm just gonna be laying there awake for a few additional hours that won't be ideal. So any tips or tricks would be appreciated. Thanks!

If you figure this out, let me know

This is my sleep from Dopey #1


and Dopey #2


Yes that is total hours

 

[Erika10021]

My husband and I have just started our sleep training portion of the race weekend preparation. We start getting up earlier and consequently going to bed earlier so we are not so jet lagged on the race days. Trust me, when you are getting up at 4:00 a.m. for a week before the races, it is much easier to go to bed at 8:00. If the boys still lived at home, it would make it trickier but we are empty-nesters now.

 

[FFigawi]

I'm fine missing a night in the parks if I can get some sleep, but if I'm just gonna be laying there awake for a few additional hours that won't be ideal. So any tips or tricks would be appreciated. Thanks!

Melatonin is your friend. Take one 30 minutes before you want to sleep two nights before the race. That’s your most important night of sleep. Getting a good night of sleep the night before a race is difficult in the base case.

 

[Lemon Head]

.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

This year my thought is to wake up early that day and rope drop the parks, no afternoon nap, just push through but plan to be leaving the parks by 6 p.m., eating dinner at my resort at 7ish, winding down and hopefully in bed before 9. So I get at least 5 hours of sleep. Is there anything that works better for you guys? I'll bring a white-noise machine to try and cut out some of the sound I usually hear when people are getting back from the parks.

As Matt Wilpers said on my Peloton ride yesterday when talking about his training for an upcoming race - "I'm boring." My schedule is backed up a couple of hours ahead of yours - dinner more like 5-6ish, showering/prep for tomorrow 7-8'ish, bed by 8 - even if I'm not sleeping, put something on the TV and chill. But in fairness, we go frequently and aren't hitting the parks and things like your plan, so not a great plan for everyone.

 

[camaker]

Maybe its because I'm English and am used to running in literally all weathers but it makes me laugh how nervous some of you get about the cold. This group are badasses and we'll have the best raceday atmosphere, don't worry about it. Pack some layers (that you've road tested!!) in case you need them on the day, something throwaway for the corral and thats all you can do. Be ready to chuck layers if you need to during the full when it heats up (is why I only run in cheap base layers).
Prepare but don't overthink it. It'll be fine, I promise!

I'm surprisingly calm about weather cancellations. I cant control it so I'm not going to waste energy worrying. Que Sera...

Been backpacking round Europe and only just seen a reply fro RunDisney about my PoT submission. Semi-politely told to go take a long walk away from them :-(

I don't think anyone sleeps the night before a marathon but you have to try. It does your body good to relax in a dark room even if you're not sleeping.

Been sunrise running in some European cities and they are stunning. Not gone longer than 15 miles since my marathon on October 20th but all my muscles now feel healed, perfect and ready to go! (Mere weeks ago I couldn't keep my quads together...)

Excitement starting to build. Am looking forward to all the events, meetings and atmosphere I've read about on here for so long rather than the races themselves!

Many of the folks on here concerned about the weather are 5-10 year veterans (some many more) of Marathon Weekend. You might want to consider the possibility that there might be some justification for those concerns.

Disney races are unusual compared to most in the amount of time spent standing around waiting pre-race. It's much harder to balance staying warm and not stiffening up when standing around in the pre-race area and corrals 2-3 hours than it is at normal local races with much shorter staging times.

In addition, there are folks here who have run both "Disney on Ice" conditions when it sleeted/snowed and spilled water froze at the aid stations, causing slip hazards on course and in heat and humidity that caused shortened courses because the medical support was overtaxed with runners going down due to the heat.

Take this in combination with the fact that the weather can flip with little to no notice and we're faced with needing to bring gear to cover all eventualities and you've got fodder for a robust discussion.

 

[PrincessV]

I wanted to get some tips/best practices from this group...
This will be my 6th Half Marathon during Marathon Weekend so I have figured out how I like my week to go so it feels smooth to me. But sleeping the night before the race is always a nightmare. Because I'm on mountain time it is already tricky to go to bed when I should. The past few years I've stayed at the parks to watch the evening spectacular the night before my race, that usually means I'm leaving the parks about 9:30, with traffic/transportation getting back at 10 p.m. and then I have to wind down, so in bed by 11 and usually up in the 2 a.m. time frame.

This year my thought is to wake up early that day and rope drop the parks, no afternoon nap, just push through but plan to be leaving the parks by 6 p.m., eating dinner at my resort at 7ish, winding down and hopefully in bed before 9. So I get at least 5 hours of sleep. Is there anything that works better for you guys? I'll bring a white-noise machine to try and cut out some of the sound I usually hear when people are getting back from the parks.

I'm fine missing a night in the parks if I can get some sleep, but if I'm just gonna be laying there awake for a few additional hours that won't be ideal. So any tips or tricks would be appreciated. Thanks!

I sleep TERRIBLY in hotels, race weekends or otherwise, and have an autoimmune disease that flares badly with lack of sleep. So honestly? I use doctor-prescribed pharmaceutical intervention. I try to be at my resort by 4pm to lay out everything for the next morning’s race. Dinner at 5 in my room. A bath & some reading to wind down. Take my meds and get into bed about 6pm and watch a slow-moving documentary until I’m drifting off and turn off the TV. Alarm at 2am. I’m usually asleep by 7-8pm, so figure I get 6-7 hours of sleep: less than my usual, but adequate.

I do always run a white noise machine, which helps a lot with cutting down unfamiliar sounds jolting me awake once I’m asleep, but isn’t enough to get me to sleep in the first place - I have to do the whole wind-down routine.

 

[PrincessV]

Many of the folks on here concerned about the weather are 5-10 year veterans (some many more) of Marathon Weekend. You might want to consider the possibility that there might be some justification for those concerns.

Disney races are unusual compared to most in the amount of time spent standing around waiting pre-race. It's much harder to balance staying warm and not stiffening up when standing around in the pre-race area and corrals 2-3 hours than it is at normal local races with much shorter staging times.

In addition, there are folks here who have run both "Disney on Ice" conditions when it sleeted/snowed and spilled water froze at the aid stations, causing slip hazards on course and in heat and humidity that caused shortened courses because the medical support was overtaxed with runners going down due to the heat.

Take this in combination with the fact that the weather can flip with little to no notice and we're faced with needing to bring gear to cover all eventualities and you've got fodder for a robust discussion.

Well said, @camaker. Going back to 2017 again, rD started issuing warnings about the severe cold weather ahead of the marathon because wind chills in the teens are truly dangerous if one is not prepared with adequate gear, no matter how accustomed they are to running in all kinds of weather. At the other end, we had 2020, when rD shortened the marathon course in the middle of the race because conditions were dangerously hot. Some of us have been around here a long time and learned a lot from those who came before us and through our own experiences, and genuinely want to help others have the best race experience they can by being prepared for the very real and weird possibilities of January in FL!

 

[Lemon Head]

Many of the folks on here concerned about the weather are 5-10 year veterans (some many more) of Marathon Weekend. You might want to consider the possibility that there might be some justification for those concerns.

Disney races are unusual compared to most in the amount of time spent standing around waiting pre-race. It's much harder to balance staying warm and not stiffening up when standing around in the pre-race area and corrals 2-3 hours than it is at normal local races with much shorter staging times.

In addition, there are folks here who have run both "Disney on Ice" conditions when it sleeted/snowed and spilled water froze at the aid stations, causing slip hazards on course and in heat and humidity that caused shortened courses because the medical support was overtaxed with runners going down due to the heat.

Take this in combination with the fact that the weather can flip with little to no notice and we're faced with needing to bring gear to cover all eventualities and you've got fodder for a robust discussion.

Again, I've ran races in pure sleet and ice. I've ran national races that also involve a lot of standing around.

I was trying to make the point that overthinking can reach a point where its just not helpful. Sorry, just trying to help. Wont bother you pros again.

 

[camaker]

Again, I've ran races in pure sleet and ice. I've ran national races that also involve a lot of standing around.

I was trying to make the point that overthinking can reach a point where its just not helpful. Sorry I wont bother trying to help again.

Constructive advice and help is always welcome here. There are a lot of very helpful people here. However, comments like "it makes me laugh how nervous some of you get about the cold" are not helpful. They're arrogant and dismissive and poison anything helpful that follow.

It's great that you have a good running resume and are confident in your abilities. Please keep in mind, though, that you're interacting with a very diverse group with experience levels varying from new runners to international marathoners to seasoned ultra runners. Please don't dismiss their concerns as invalid and consider that they just may have some useful information for you.

 

[rick1zoo2]

My husband and I have just started our sleep training portion of the race weekend preparation. We start getting up earlier and consequently going to bed earlier so we are not so jet lagged on the race days. Trust me, when you are getting up at 4:00 a.m. for a week before the races, it is much easier to go to bed at 8:00. If the boys still lived at home, it would make it trickier but we are empty-nesters now.

I am going to need a nap this afternoon....

also, please add band-aids back to the list as the NipGuards were an epic fail - came right off when I pulled my shirt down over them after putting them on, thanks

 

[GADisneyDad14]

also, please add band-aids back to the list as the NipGuards were an epic fail - came right off when I pulled my shirt down over them after putting them on, thanks

FWIW, I've had decent success with this brand.



I have also used these but they're more 'visible' depending on the shirt and are more prone to coming off if you're not careful when getting dressed.

 

[Herding_Cats]

I wanted to get some tips/best practices from this group...
This will be my 6th Half Marathon during Marathon Weekend so I have figured out how I like my week to go so it feels smooth to me. But sleeping the night before the race is always a nightmare. Because I'm on mountain time it is already tricky to go to bed when I should. The past few years I've stayed at the parks to watch the evening spectacular the night before my race, that usually means I'm leaving the parks about 9:30, with traffic/transportation getting back at 10 p.m. and then I have to wind down, so in bed by 11 and usually up in the 2 a.m. time frame.

This year my thought is to wake up early that day and rope drop the parks, no afternoon nap, just push through but plan to be leaving the parks by 6 p.m., eating dinner at my resort at 7ish, winding down and hopefully in bed before 9. So I get at least 5 hours of sleep. Is there anything that works better for you guys? I'll bring a white-noise machine to try and cut out some of the sound I usually hear when people are getting back from the parks.

I'm fine missing a night in the parks if I can get some sleep, but if I'm just gonna be laying there awake for a few additional hours that won't be ideal. So any tips or tricks would be appreciated. Thanks!

I'm not coming from mountain time, but I also struggle to not stay and watch the fireworks/show when we do park days during race weekends. I am the person who *needs* sleep.....like 6hours a night or I become a gigantic ball of emotion to the extent that DH told me "no more MW if you can't get this figured out and solved." So. I try to eat before 6. All of my dinner dining reservations are at like 545 or 530. I try to be *in* the bed by 7, or in the process of going through my nighttime routine to trigger my brain that "it's time for bed!"

And then melatonin. 1-3g works for me, which is like a children's dose. I have learned that I have a specific window for melatonin to work; for my body, I need to be actively trying to fall asleep within 30min of taking it. That means I'm not on my phone, not watching TV, the lights are off, etc because if I miss that window after taking the melatonin I'm going to just lay there awake for hours.

My husband and I have just started our sleep training portion of the race weekend preparation. We start getting up earlier and consequently going to bed earlier so we are not so jet lagged on the race days. Trust me, when you are getting up at 4:00 a.m. for a week before the races, it is much easier to go to bed at 8:00. If the boys still lived at home, it would make it trickier but we are empty-nesters now.

This is a good idea @EDS19 if you don't have complicating factors like small children or early/late work hours.

 

[hailacurve]

I've been training for a whole year for the winter marathon, it's gonna be my first one so hope that I will survive

 

[rick1zoo2]

I'm not coming from mountain time, but I also struggle to not stay and watch the fireworks/show when we do park days during race weekends. I am the person who *needs* sleep.....like 6hours a night or I become a gigantic ball of emotion to the extent that DH told me "no more MW if you can't get this figured out and solved." So. I try to eat before 6. All of my dinner dining reservations are at like 545 or 530. I try to be *in* the bed by 7, or in the process of going through my nighttime routine to trigger my brain that "it's time for bed!"

And then melatonin. 1-3g works for me, which is like a children's dose. I have learned that I have a specific window for melatonin to work; for my body, I need to be actively trying to fall asleep within 30min of taking it. That means I'm not on my phone, not watching TV, the lights are off, etc because if I miss that window after taking the melatonin I'm going to just lay there awake for hours.

This is a good idea @EDS19 if you don't have complicating factors like small children or early/late work hours.

It works great for shifting sleep and other bodily functions which otherwise might occur at inconvenient times....

 

[runwithperseverence7]

My husband and I have just started our sleep training portion of the race weekend preparation. We start getting up earlier and consequently going to bed earlier so we are not so jet lagged on the race days. Trust me, when you are getting up at 4:00 a.m. for a week before the races, it is much easier to go to bed at 8:00. If the boys still lived at home, it would make it trickier but we are empty-nesters now.

I was going to ask if anyone trains for early wake ups . I get up at 5:30 on a normal day. Last week during my dopey sim I was waking up at 4:30. Not by choice my body just woke up. I was trying to use my kids Christmas break to catch up on sleep but maybe next week I’ll get myself up around 4. I usually fall asleep on the couch around 9:30-10 anyway.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Again, I've ran races in pure sleet and ice. I've ran national races that also involve a lot of standing around.

I was trying to make the point that overthinking can reach a point where its just not helpful. Sorry, just trying to help. Wont bother you pros again.

Leading up to the race, it can seem like we are overthinking things. I know that *I* overthink things, but it's how I process and prepare for stuff. I'm the person that has Plans A-J ready mentally because I'd rather stress out about things ahead of time than in the moment.

I think one of the reasons that we are hitting this point so hard is because there are a lot of people who lurk on these boards and *never* post. A lot of first-timers who have never done a rundisney race before. And for someone like me, who is coming from the land of snow and ice this time of year, I don't want to talk about bringing PANTS and a JACKET to Florida! Florida is supposed to be sunshine and beaches and 75-80 degrees (even if the historical average temperature says otherwise) because I'm on an expensive vacation in a warm place.

And so, we take the discussions about being prepared for the cold (or extreme heat...see the discussions about sponges and ice bags that get handed out on-course from a few weeks ago) seriously. Especially when we are seeing 42 in the forecast. RunDisney isn't going to hand out hats/gloves/layers to people who showed up to run the marathon in a tank top and shorts. And for the people who are going to be out there for 6+ hours it's a reasonable concern.

 

[AaronB]

I am going to need a nap this afternoon....

also, please add band-aids back to the list as the NipGuards were an epic fail - came right off when I pulled my shirt down over them after putting them on, thanks

I'll throw out the suggestion of 3M Transpore tape. Been using it for many years; really cheap and the rolls last a lot of runs since you don't need to rip off super large pieces.