Author: Maria Runs

In case you missed it, in January 2026 I was in Walt Disney World for their marathon weekend, doing the Dopey Challenge- 5k on Thursday, 10k on Friday, half marathon on Saturday and marathon on Sunday.

The marathon started half an hour earlier than the other races (4:30am rather than 5am), so our alarm was set for 2:50am. This sounds worse than the reality- because we’d been going to bed at around 8pm and getting up at 3:20 previously, we’d still had some sleep (and the worst night of sleep I got was before the 5k- I think knowing the race village helped me a lot in that way). I often run before breakfast, and with the 5 and 10k I had done so, but with the half I’d had a clif bar and that was fine, so I did the same on the Sunday, and of course filled my shorts pockets with the fruit bars and Kendal mint cake bars.

There were more road closures than the previous days, but we were able to get into Epcot with no issues and again arrived with plenty of time for the mile walk through the car park, through security and into the race village. It was exciting that the final day was here, but my legs were feeling tired and a little stiff despite the stretching and bath and gentle movement of Saturday afternoon.

I was again in corral C whereas Andy was in B, so after him going to the bag drop (as he’d finish first) we said our goodbyes and headed into the starting area.

The course took in all 4 WDW parks, so I was really looking forward to that aspect of it, especially as Magic Kingdom had been so well supported the day before.

(The following is using my Strava which means the miles will be off as my watch showed nearly 28 miles, but it gives you an idea of the locations and how long was spent on roads between parks vs being inside them)

Miles 1-2 were around the back of the parking lot and into Epcot, you then ran around World Showcase, out to the front of the park and through the car park (mile 4 was basically through the car park) and onto the roads towards Magic Kingdom. Miles 5,6,7 and 8 were towards MK and the MK hotels, and then Mile 9 was around the lake (the one that has Grand Floridian on it). Miles 10 and 11 were in MK, then you exited the park and did a bit more of the hotel parking lots, mile 13 was towards the TTC, mile 14 through that car park, then miles 15, 16 and 17 were along the roads towards Animal Kingdom, miles 18, 19 and 20 were in Animal Kingdom, then out of the park for miles 21 and 22 towards Blizzard Beach. Mile 23 was around the Blizzard Beach parking lot, then 24 and 25 towards and then into Hollywood Studios (we were in HS for the briefest time because of all the construction there), mile 26 was along the waterside path between HS and the boardwalk area, mile 27 was into Epcot and around a bit of World Showcase, past Spaceship Earth and then the final part out of the park and to the race village. Phew.

Course map

The sunrise over the lake by the hotels (before MK) was just amazing- the whole sky was deep red but it just would not come out in the photos as there were lights along the path/ my mile 6 photo was too blurry to use! Plus check out the random Mickey golf cart that was by the course!

As with the half marathon, my aim was to run and walk intervals, but not set times. I would stop at each mile marker for a walk, I would walk through every water station and have a drink, and if there were steep slopes (the on ramps for the motorways for example) I would walk those too. My only aim was to finish and I did not care how long it took me. There is not a time cut off (eg when I did Stockholm there was a 6 hour cut off time), but there are “balloon ladies” who start at the back of the final corral (G) and do a 16 min mile pace. If they pass you, you are removed from the course. I was several corrals ahead, and was sure I’d be going faster than 16 min miles but you never know.

The first few miles to me were about getting into a rhythm of these intervals, enjoying the atmosphere and not dwelling on how my legs felt! As with the races before, there were very frequent water stations (around every 1.5 miles), some food stations (bananas, chocolate biscuits and energy chew things), and loads to see- character stops, signs, entertainment such as live music.

I’d decided to run with my sunglasses as I knew I would need them once the sun came up. At times the paths were lit up very well so I was OK in them, but in some places it was poorly lit so I had to take them off and hold them – I tried tucking them into the neck of my t-shirt but they bounced about and I worried they’d fall off.

Into Magic Kingdom with the Christmas decorations up and Mickey and Minnie cheering us on!

After the quietness of the lake (and gorgeous sunrise), Magic Kingdom was an amazing contrast. As we exited the lake path we were met with loads of cast members all cheering and announcing “welcome to Magic Kingdom”- and of course I knew what to expect from Main Street after the previous day. I managed to not cry this time, and tried to just take it all in. There were so many people cheering, so many signs to read, and I was so happy that the Christmas decorations were still up (as previous years photos showed them up but this year the Christmas season in WDW ended earlier so I was worried they’d take them down).

My castle photo plus a few character stops in the dark- Duffy <3

After not stopping in the half for an official castle photo, I had decided I would for this race. It was a brilliant and speedy operation, with the whole area in front of the castle coned off and about 6 photopass people there- you were directed to join a queue, and mine had only one person ahead of me. When it was your turn, you stood on the spot and posed, and then you were directed to rejoin the race. They used your bib number to match up with your photopass account, and they all appeared so quickly in the app.

The sky was getting lighter in MK/ the dragon float was by the course/ running through Epcot and then MK

Before I got into MK (which was mile 10) I had had some of my Kendal mint energy bar- they have electrolytes in them as well as energy so they were definitely a good choice as it was already quite humid even before the sun came up. Weirdly as the sun came up it almost cooled for a second, and then of course started heating up quickly.

The carousel lit up in the early morning light/ a gorgeous Spaceship Earth reflection and pink skies/ the monorail!/ loads of crowds at the TTC

I was so happy to hear the monorails honking at us again after the previous day! The TTC (transportation and ticket centre- this is where you park for MK and then have to get the monorail or boat over to the park) was full of people cheering- I saw so many excellent signs and especially Disney specific ones (you are still faster than the bus/ that’s a funny way to park hop) and even saw a “boop the snoot” sign which made me think of the With Me Now patrons group. I loved seeing every single sign and I really appreciated the crowds- I don’t think I would have handled crowds the whole way around, but these bursts in between the quieter road sections were great for lifting the energy levels as well as distracting your brain from the task in hand.

Character stops and the Star Wars themed road, and the sun properly rising

The section from MK to AK was a long one, but to make it more fun, Disney had made this into a Star Wars themed section. There were loads of characters to see and meet (Darth Vadar, Storm Troopers, those little guys with glowing eyes and hoods), there were light sabres planted in the verge, sounds of x-wing fighters and Chewbacca being played in the woods and smoke being sprayed across the road. I can imagine that for the fastest runners who would get here in the dark it would be amazing, but it was fun to look at everything going on. There was a little shade still at this point so it wasn’t too hot.

Plenty more characters to see

Some of the characters had very short waits so I just ducked off the course for a quick photo, but others had long lines so I had to make a conscious effort to keep my legs moving, lift up my knees and stretch while I was waiting as I knew I’d get stiff otherwise.

As I headed into Animal Kingdom, it was a two way section so runners further ahead were on the other side of the road. It must have been about mile 17 that I saw Andy on the other side of the road-he would have been around mile 20 or 21 – he was smiling and looking strong which in turn gave me a boost too. He didn’t have his phone with him, so I had been sending him a few messages in my walk breaks or while I was queueing for characters, but I wouldn’t hear how he got on until I finished, so it was really good to see him doing so well.

A brief section of Animal Kingdom- entertainment with a band playing instruments made from recycled objects, and a fruit themed cheering station

One thing that is unique about this race is that some of the rides are open and so lots of people go on Everest (a rollercoaster in AK) mid marathon- Andy had actually done this! Of course I don’t like rollercoasters so there was no way I was doing this, but I saw lots of people heading off the course to do it (as with the photos there were clear directions if you were doing this). AK was filled with people cheering- it was weird to think it was now normal park opening times and we were still running around with two parks to go!

With the parks being open, I’d taken advantage of the nice toilets and had used them in Epcot, MK and AK. It was really getting warm and so I was making sure to drink all the water at each station rather than just a few sips. There was little shade on the course by this point too.

The next few miles were the toughest for me. While some of the sections were longer (eg the Star Wars section was at least 3 miles), this next section had little entertainment on the route, no crowds, no characters, and it was in the sun. If you ran right to the right hand side of the road your feet were in the shade but the rest of you wasn’t. My walk breaks were getting longer and I was having to speak out loud to myself to start running again. I didn’t ever feel like stopping, but I think I could have just walked from there as I was heating up so much while I was running too.

There is a section where you run around the Blizzard Beach car park (the photo below with the giant Baymax was that part)- it was about a mile to loop through the car park and it is the bit that most people seem to moan about. However, I didn’t find that as bad as the roads before that. I had to tell myself that I’ve run the Great North Run before, and that’s basically 10 miles of dual carriageway, so I can run a few miles of Disney roads.

As well as frequent water stops, there were medical stations all along the course too. Plenty of people had been stopping for vaseline/ paracetamol/ help with minor ailments, and at some point around here the medical station was giving out bags of ice to everyone who passed them. (They also handed out sponges dipped in water- I think near Blizzard Beach but I can’t remember- I had read they sometimes hand out cooling towels- we got one at the finish of the half). I took a bag and this was such a good idea- I held it on the back of my neck mainly, I also put it on my forehead for a bit as well as my wrists to try and cool myself down. I’d texted Andy to give him updates to read once he finished, and about 15 mins after exiting BB car park I had a message saying he was done- hooray! I had 3 miles to go at this point so it was within reach.

We ran into Hollywood Studios (with my bag of ice) and again there were super crowds but it was a very small section of the park. I stopped to meet Joy and Sadness (hiding my bag of ice) but then pretty much straight away we left HS, passed the Skyliner Station and started on the path towards the Boardwalk area and Epcot.

Nearly there!

At some point here Andy had texted to say that my airtag wasn’t updating (I had it in my pocket so he could see where I was) but as I was juggling my bag of ice I had not read any messages at this point, so he didn’t see me finish. I did read his final message of encouragement which was that the water by the boardwalk had shade and water stations- this definitely helped to power me towards the finish.

The final few miles – somewhere at the end of the Boardwalk path I found a bin for my bag of ice!

Again as I got into Epcot there were huge crowds and this just lifts you so much. We ran past the Canada pavilion and all the cast members were there with a big Canada flag, and once you got close to Spaceship Earth there were more photopass people so I went for a photo- I was impressed that I could still list my legs up after all those miles.

There was one final live entertainment section (a gospel choir singing Queen) and then the finish line was there!

Finish line photo!

After finishing you get handed water, a banana (I declined the snack box and powerade this time), a cooling towel (so good) the marathon medal, and then because we had completed two challenges, two more medals!

Goofy challenge= half marathon + full marathon

Dopey challenge= all 4 races

I exited the finish line into the race village and found Andy pretty much straight away (we were well rehearsed with our meeting spot now). I’d packed a t-shirt to change into and let me tell you that taking off my sweaty marathon top and replacing it with a clean and dry one was just the best feeling. Even though it was only going to be worn for the walk back to the car and the drive back, it was worth it.

Still can’t quite believe that we did it!

After taking some photos we slowly walked back to the car (another mile!- by this point my watch had tracked nearly 30 miles for me and it was only about 11am!)

We drove back, had showers, made porridge and ate snacks, drank loads of tea and chilled out by watching some You Tube.

We had booked dinner At Sebastian’s, which is a Caribbean themed restaurant at the Caribbean Beach resort- a very short drive away. It’s a “family style/ all you care to eat” place, which means they bring food to your table and you can request more if you want. We’d been there once before and loved the food but there had been so much- so we knew it was the place to go when we’d be hungry.

(All of this is plant based and I was impressed that when you order they mentioned that they do a plant based option so that all guests are aware)

They bring you bread and guava butter and onion jam, a jewelled salad with crunchy seeds and a zingy dressing, then a platter of jerk tofu, koftas, impossible sausage, crab cakes (that didn’t taste fishy thankfully), pineapple chutney and mango relish, plus a plate with coriander rice, roasted veggies and plantains, and then the star of the show is pineapple and coconut bread pudding with caramel sauce and ice cream. It was so good. Just what we fancied. Although we still could not finish everything we made a pretty good go of it!

As we were walking around Epcot my ankle suddenly started hurting. I wondered if my laces were too tight, but loosening them didn’t help, so I hobbled about a bit. The next morning I was struggling a bit, so I sat and elevated my ankle while we had breakfast, but once we got moving and into the parks I was OK.

Medals in Magic Kingdom on the Monday

I was actually quite impressed with how well I could walk the following day- “motion is lotion” as I had been told, and this seemed to be the case. If I had to sit down (eg on a ride) my legs were a bit stiff, but not too bad, and although I felt a bit tired, I didn’t feel more tired than I would at a typical Disney holiday anyway!

Once I finished I had an email about the course being shortened for later participants- “for the safety of our guests and cast members, today’s course will be modified due to inclement weather, including warmer than usual temperatures, after 10:45am”. They had stopped people going into the Blizzard Beach car park, allowed everyone to exit and then the balloon ladies had joined the back. I do not think it was a decision that Disney would take lightly- I saw a few ambulances going along the road when I was running, and it was really hot. I can understand disappointment of not running the full distance (although if you add in the walk to and from the car you would be over anyway) but you can only run the course that’s in front of you, so even if you ran a shortened course, you still ran the course that was there for you.

How would you feel if a course was shortened? I would not have minded, but for me it wasn’t about the time (or distance really as I have run two marathons previously) it was about the challenge of 4 races in 4 days.

After the fun and relative ease of the 5k and 10k, it was time for things to start ramping up with the half marathon race. It was time for me to wear my comfy trainers as I’d worn an older (still comfy but less springy) pair for the 5 and 10k. Ideally you would alternate but I wanted these ones for the longer two distances.

This race still started at 5am, so we had to be parked at around 4am. Again the road closures were not happening until we were in the car park, but we could see some support stations being set up as we drove past. We noticed the large wave and knew it would be a character meet but could not figure out what it would be (spoiler- Jack and Sally- I knew we recognised the wave!).

Mid run photos including a character meet and the finish line picture

The route began near Epcot but took us out the Magic Kingdom, and then through Epcot on the way back, so knowing that there would not be park toilets for use until at least mile 6, I queued by the bathrooms by the entrance (near the monorail station) rather than use the port-a-loos in the village or on the first few miles of the course. There was a big queue of people waiting so in the end I told Andy not to wait for me as he had to get to the bag drop before his corral closed (he needed to use the bag drop as he would finish first, and as he was in the next corral up, his one closed a few minutes before mine). In the end that turned out to be the right decision as when I got to my corral, they turned the light off on the B corral balloon, so had Andy waited he would have missed his start time. Again I didn’t have long to wait around before the waves were starting to be sent off.

The stage in the starting area keeping us entertained while we waited to begin/ the balloons in our corrals about to be turned off/ Jack Skellington meet on the half marathon course, and the water pageant lit up for us!

For my training I had used an interval timer app on my phone, but I don’t like wearing headphones in races (I like to take in everything around me but also they get uncomfortable on my ears after a while) so I could not decide what to do. There were Jeff Galloway pacers, but they were doing more walk breaks (eg 1 min run, 1 min walk) and as I am a slow walker I’d been doing 4 min run, 1 min walk. However, I wanted to approach this with a slightly different strategy to see if that would work for the marathon. The mile markers always have great themes, and there are water stations around every 1.5 miles. There were also some motorway on/off ramps that we had to run up, and a few points where the course narrowed (we were warned of this with an automated voice saying “caution athletes, course narrows ahead” over and over- I just liked being called an athlete!). So I decided I would run gently, and walk at every mile marker (to take a photo) and walk though every water station and ensure I would have a drink. If there were characters that I wanted a photo with, I’d stop there, and if there was a ramp then I’d walk up part of all of it. Far less regimented than my usual interval runs, but hopefully something that would work in the race.

As they have so many walkers, the course etiquette was to run on the left and walk on the right. If you were about to walk, raise your hand and look behind to check you had space to move over and slow down. They also asked people to not run or walk more than two side by side, and I only saw this not happening once (and someone did ask the people walking in the running part of the path to move over).

I also had a think about glasses for the marathon, as up until this point it had been dark for the races so my normal glasses were fine. However I knew that with the sun coming up at 7:30 (and of course it gets light before then) more than half of the full marathon would be in the sun and I really feel hotter if I don’t have sunglasses on. I had considered whether I could put them in a pocket of my shorts in a soft case, I’d experimented whether I could safety pin them to my visor, and my dad had even given me some loops of velcro to see if I would attach them in any way, but nothing worked. For the half I wore my normal glasses and a visor, but even as the sun was up for the last little bit I was wishing I had sunglasses on, so that was the decision made. Again, very useful to have the shorter distances as a rehearsal for all these things.

The route below- from Epcot you looped around outside the park, onto some roads and up to the MK hotel area, into the back of the Polynesian hotel, around the lake past the Grand Floridian hotel, into Magic Kingdom, along Main Street, through some of the other lands and then through the castle from the back, out towards Tron and then out towards the TTC, through the car park, onto the roads again and then into Epcot for the final section.

So, onto the run itself.

Some of the mile markers

As it was a sort of love story themed race, the songs were love songs or couples songs (including Helpless from Hamilton- something I didn’t think I’d ever hear at Disney!), and the characters tended to be in pairs (eg Flynn and Rapunzel, Jack and Sally), although there were some on their own like Lilo (of course I had to stop and see her). The first part of the route didn’t look that inspiring on the map as it was pretty much onto the big roads towards Magic Kingdom, but of course it being Disney there was lots of entertainment- from various bands, high school cheerleaders performing, and even big screens (we had the Muppets cheering us on at points), and with the mile markers and water stations it felt like there was always something around the corner or just up ahead.

There is a lot of construction happening at the moment by the Polynesian car park, but some of the construction workers were doing little stand up comedy sets as we ran past- asking people to climb into their wheelbarrows and telling jokes. There were also sections of the course with signs showing apt Disney quotes (about digging deep, going the distance etc) so again there was just lots to see (and of course more excellent costumes).

As we ran around the lake towards Magic Kingdom (if you know it, it is the lake that Grand Floridian and Polynesian hotels are on) the Electrical Water Pageant was out (this is loads of floats that are lit up and flash- it’s usually there in the evenings)- someone commented that it was missing the music and then the music started playing from the speakers that were lining the course. This was so unexpected and just brilliant.

Earlier in the week Andy and I had been talking about the monorail, as the ones in Disneyland (California) always honk their horns (and it’s amusing as those monorails are tiny and the horns are so loud)- we were wondering whether the ones in Florida even have horns. Well, we found out on the race that they do, as at one point we were running under a monorail bridge and the monorail honked at all the runners! Everyone whooped and waved- so great! (Clearly this was a long way from the hotels as no guests wanted to be woken up at 5:30am by the horns!) I tried filming it but didn’t catch it, but when I saw Andy when he’d finished he had seen it happen too. Phew.

Now I had seen that spectators could come into the parks and cheer, and by the hotels there were small groups of people who were out and cheering, but I was not expecting the massive crows as we got into Magic Kindgom. I got totally overwhelmed here, by the crowds but also by the occasion. Even though Epcot is my fave WDW park, there is something so special about MK, and when you picture running around Disney World, you picture running towards the castle, so it was just one of those moments that I’d pictured and thought about. There were loads of photo pass people but you can tell I am crying in them all because it was just so much. I didn’t queue for the official picture but then I saw other people taking pictures with their phones so parkrun pop up style I asked if someone would take a photo for me.

I know there are other people in it but it was a busy race so of course there will be. At least I’d recovered from my tears at this point.

I was also so pleased to see the Christmas tree up. Officially their Christmas celebration ended on the 31st December (although we did manage to go on Jingle Cruise- a Christmas themed version of Jungle Cruise- on the 1st January), and in previous years the Christmas period has lasted into January. I’d seen photos of the marathon with the tree up, but I didn’t know if that was going to still be there this year because of the shorter official Christmas period. Something about the Christmas lights and Main Street all lit up is just so pretty and magical, so again it was something else to be grateful for.

After the castle we ran around the park a little, so I popped into some toilets as I knew once we left the park we would be back on the big roads again, and I wanted to make sure to keep drinking at the water stops.

The water stations were really good, with both water and powerade (each to their own)- the cups only had a small amount of water in them as I think they didn’t want to encourage hyponatremia (drinking too much water and diluting salts)- but you could ask for more and they had people filling up your water bottles/ hydration vests if you preferred. For fuel we had ended up with a mixture of fruit bars from decathlon, and Kendal mint cake bars- these bars contained electrolytes so definitely good when sweating, and the minty flavour was a nice fresh change to the usual fruity flavours (and I do not do gels and yes I have tried them).

At around 7 miles you exited Magic Kingdom and began the run back towards Epcot. The sun had started to come up and it was definitely warming up.

A few more mile markers and Main Street all lit up as viewed from inside the castle.

Lilo was in the car park on the way out, so I decided to stop for a photo as Lilo and Stitch is one of my favourite films. I tried to make sure I moved my legs around while in the queue so I would not be too stiff as I started running again. There was the most incredible sunrise and as the air is so humid there were huge patches of mist hanging over the verges which made for even prettier views.

Meeting Lilo and enjoying the sunrise

At times you looped up a ramp and then ran over the road with runners below, so I took a few photos to show how many people were running. At one point there was a meet with Joy by the road, with the gorgeous sunrise behind her- it felt very joyful in that moment. There was a Pizza Planet themed truck with a DJ to help power you up one of the ramps, and more bands and entertainment.

The Pizza Planet DJ truck and all the runners below me on the bridge

At around mile 10 Epcot came into view, and the sun was just getting higher and hotter. I was still enjoying the colours of the sky so I took many many photos.

Seeing Joy, and the sign says “I’ll distract them while you run” (an Olaf quote), more mile markers and the sun coming up behind Spaceship Earth.

Running through Epcot at the finish was brilliant as there were people out cheering, people with signs, and after the relative peace of the roads between the parks, it felt such high energy again. As well as running past some of the attractions, you also did a bit of the “backstage” area, but again these had entertainment in them as well as cast members cheering us on. There were even singers pretty much on the finish line. I really could not fault the entertainment level.

Why yes I did get excited when the mile marker for 13 was a Duffy one! The people in purple were a gospel choir singing Queen songs as I ran past- this was just before the mile 13 marker so right before the finish/ A heart for the photopass person

Just before the finish line there is a mat you cross over which must tell the person announcing that you are coming, so I got a shout out which made me laugh- it went something along the lines of “Maria from Well-win Garden City in the UK, what is it with these funny place names in the UK? So long and hard to pronounce – well done Maria!” so I was laughing as I crossed the finish line.

Andy had finished ahead of me and collected the bag, so I met up with him in our usual spot by the benches, and had some photos before the mile walk back to the car.

My time was around 2:42, so I was pleased that I had run it gently but hadn’t been on my feet for way too long. The strategy of walking at the mile markers and water stations had worked well, I had enough space in my shorts pockets for the fuel I’d taken, and had some spare (and some spare space if I wanted to bring more the next day)- all in all a successful day. Race 3 done!

Race 3 complete! And the medal on a later day.

This was a non-park day, specifically chosen as we did not want to do loads of steps ahead of the marathon. We took our time making breakfast (porridge), having showers and washing our kit (we had a washing machine in our apartment). I had a bath with some epsom salts, and we made sure to drink lots of water and coconut water and tea (etc). We did pop out to the expo as I wanted to look for a t-shirt (this was the final day of the expo)- there was not much left but I found a Goofy Challenge t-shirt that I liked (way nicer fabric than the race shirts that came with the entry) so I got that and we got a takeaway pizza for an early dinner.

The expo had a sign about conditions, and all week it had been alert level Low, but it had changed to Moderate, with “less than ideal conditions, recommended actions- slow down if necessary” so we did get a bit worried about overheating or losing too much salt.

At the expo/ the corral closing times- mine closed at 4:25am and my start time would be between 4:41 and 4:45 (depending on which wave I ended up in within the corral). But more on that in the next post.

I absolutely loved this race though – a proper challenge but so much fun to be had out on the route, and running down Main Street with the Christmas decorations still out was just magical.

Here we go for round 2! As with the 5k, the aim of the 10k was to run gently (not walk too much to be mindful of time on feet) and of course enjoy it. The alarm was again set for 3:20am, and we arrived at the Epcot parking area at about 4am again. After knowing how long it would take from the previous day, we sat in the car a little longer before walking the mile to the start (through the car park, through security and through the race village). I really liked that this was the same each day as it helped with nerves a lot. We had decided to run seperately, so Andy was going to head into his corral so he knew what it would be like for the two longer races. We also used the bag drop for the first time- this was super easy as at the expo they give you your race shirts in a large clear plastic drawstring bag (I still have an old one which I use sometimes as they are strong and thick), so the idea is you use that and then they write your bib number on it, and give you a little sticker with a number on that you can stick on the back of your bib. They used (I think) large shipping containers, so you chose one and then they hung your bag on a numbered hook- it was very organised (of course, it’s Disney, so of course it’s organised). They were right by the finish line so you had to walk past them to get back to the race village, so no going out of your way or doing extra steps when you’re tired. As it had been a little chilly the previous morning, I put the race shirt in there to put on when I finished, plus a snack as I didn’t like any of the food in the food box we were given at the finish line.

Start gantry themed to the 10k, boardwalk and world showcase lit up mid-race and one of the best costumes- people dressed as the monorail running together in a line.

We timed it pretty well and so didn’t have to hang about in the corrals for long. This time I could see the ribbon being used in the corral to keep the various waves apart, and again the race was off like clockwork, with the fireworks going off for each wave within each corral. Again I was in C (it went up to G) so as I ran I could hear the fireworks still going off and people cheering for each wave. The temperature was good for running, nice and cool, but it was weirdly humid so you got weirdly sweaty quite quickly which did make me wonder more about how I’d cope with the two longer runs as I knew I’d finish in the daylight (sunrise was around 7:20am so as these began at 5 I was done before the sun came up for the first two races).

The route started on the same road as the 5k, looping out of the car park and around the back before going into Epcot. Again you got to run around World Showcase (my favourite) and then out to the boardwalk area (this is an area next to Epcot that has various Disney hotels set around a lake (on the left of the above screenshot). As it was so early I was surprised to see a few hotel guests out cheering, but there were signs saying “silent cheer spot” as obviously they would not want to upset all their guests by being woken up at 5am with all these noisy runners going past!

When you were in the parks there were loads of cast members out cheering, and I must say that running past the bakery in the Norway pavilion was like torture as we could smell the baking (they do a kringla in there which is like a soft spiced pretzel type thing with raisins and drizzled in dark chocolate and I was thinking about that a lot!). By the Japan pavilion there were cast members with the Japanese flag (as they employ people from those countries for the pavilions) but also the rides had different cast members out cheering us all on.

Running by Spaceship Earth and by the Japan pavilion

There were lots of photo-pass photographers too- you could generally tell that they were coming up as the area would be very well lit and the photographers were in bright green tents (they wear bright green jackets in the parks) – the photos were included which was a nice touch and also they actually took nice flattering photos compared to regular races! They would usually be in pairs (one on each side of the path) so you would be captured by one or the other.

There were also points where you could queue for a photo- I had missed the Spaceship Earth photo in the 5K as I didn’t realise what it was until I’d run past, so on this race I made sure to queue up for that. It was well organised with spots on the ground and cast members moving the queues along so you were not waiting for long at all (and they used your race number to match up the photos rather than in the parks when you tap your magic band, so again this sped up the process).

Some of the mile markers, character stops and bands

There was so much entertainment and things to look at on the route, as well as seeing the Disney park sights. There were bands playing, local high school cheerleaders, marching bands, rock bands, you name it (apart from steel pan bands!) it was there. Each mile marker was themed and they were sometimes playing music. There were frequent character stops (again with photo pass photographers, but also lots of them had cast members who would take a photo on your phone for you)- I had seen a “leaked” list of characters for the 10k and Duffy was one of them. I was looking at each queue to see- they usually had a cast member with a lollypop sign saying “end of line” on one side and then the character or group (eg “friends from Toy Story”) on the other side, and I was pretty disappointed when I finished and I hadn’t seen Duffy on the route…

I also loved looking at all of the costumes that people were wearing. I have no idea how people cope with them, some of them were proper costumes and not just character coloured shorts and a hat. I wore my Minnie ears for the 5k but that was enough for me and didn’t even bother with them for the 10k. Total respect to those that do, but I could definitely not do that. (see the monorail photo above for an example!)

As you run through the parks, the toilets in the parks are open for use (and there were also loads of port-a-loos out on the route too) so I popped into one in Epcot which thankfully didn’t have much of a queue. This was definitely preferable to using a port-a-loo in the race village or along the race route- a definite bonus of the Run Disney events. There were also so many drink stations with water and also powerade, so I stopped on a couple of the water stations to have a drink as I was mindful that even though it was cold it was also quite sweaty.

The run was themed around Chip and Dale solving a mystery (each race was linked to a genre of book as the overall theme was “what’s your story?” so again all the music and characters linked to the theme. My favourite was as I was running around World Showcase they were playing The Interrogation Song from Muppets Most Wanted- just such a fun song and such a great atmosphere.

As I finished I was looking for Andy at our pre-agreed meeting place, and couldn’t see him, but I saw that one of the character meets was Duffy! So of course I had to queue up! Apparently I have never looked happier than in that photo! Dopey was also there so when I saw Andy we queued to meet Dopey too as he was the namesake for this mad challenge.

I was glad I’d put the long sleeved top in the bag drop bag as I was sweaty so started getting a bit chilly quickly. We took a few more photos and made our way back to the car, with many many cast members saying to us “see you again tomorrow!”- so many people do the Dopey challenge and it felt great that so many people were doing this crazy challenge.

The sun coming up as we headed out of the race village and back to the car

A repeat of the Thursday, it was walk back to the car as the sun was coming up, drive back to the hotel, shower, make porridge and then head to a park for some walking about (but not too much!). We’d booked a sit down meal for 4:30 so we would again eat nice and early and head back to the hotel with plenty of time to get things ready for the half. It was beautiful weather though and I took my medal with me for some castle photos- me and half of Magic Kingdom I think!

Some medal/castle pics

So there we have it- race 2 of 4 finished. Again, a nice gentle pace in about 1hr 20. Onwards to the weekend…