runDisney – 2019 Marathon Weekend

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Although it has been several months since the 2019 runDisney Marathon weekend this was my first attempt at trying to run a 10K and Half Marathon events, so I wanted to share some insights. If you are new to runDisney events, you should definitely take a look at my first timer experience articles …

Marathon Weekend

For those that might not know this, runDisney only does one full marathon a year in January. This is the only time when you can run the full 26.1 miles around the parks. Although I was in no shape (physically or mentally) to tackle the full marathon distance, I was ready to push my running game to the next level.

Originally I had planned to run my first half marathon at the 2019 Star Wars Rival Run Weekend in April. As I ran through the summer and into the fall, I realized I was running much better than I initially planned, so I figured “What the heck!” let’s register to a half marathon earlier and push myself to reach the goal.

I first looked at the 2019 Princess Half Marathon weekend in February, but everything was full except the challenge and I wasn’t sure I was ready to run a 5K, since I was already registered with my family for this event), a 10K and then a Half Marathon. So I then turned to the Marathon Weekend and amazingly enough the 10K and Half Marathon still had openings, but this race was in January.

Doubts, Doubts and Doubts

Immediately following the registration process all of the doubts hit me. Could I really make it 13.1 miles, especially after running 6.2 miles the day before. I had been running 10Ks on a regular bases so my goal was to set my personal best for the 10K and just “survive” the Half Marathon.

Race Weekend

The 10K race conditions were great, a little cool, but that helps when you are trying to run faster by keeping you from overheating. When I train I normally don’t drink or eat anything for a 10K distance. My personal best was about 1 hour and 15 minutes and at that distance I didn’t get very thirsty of felt like I needed to stop for water or food.

This decision worked great. If you can do this, it definitely helps with your personal best time. Rather than slowing down for water or food, I was able to keep pressing forward and completed the course in just over 1 hour, setting a personal best.

Since I hadn’t really run many Half Marathons I was thinking that anytime was going to be my personal best. We had similar nice conditions for the Half Marathon and sure enough, I set a personal best at 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Did you participate in the runDisney 2019 Marathon Weekend? How was your experience? Share in the comments below.

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