This year, I opted to take it very easy (for me) on Disney Marathon weekend. Years ago, I said I was going to run the marathon on my 35th birthday. Then I ran two marathons, realized I didn’t really enjoy them, and changed my plans. While I typically run at least the half, this year, I opted to save a bit of money and only signed up for the 10k. It helped that this was the same plan a few friends were following. We would run the 10k and then cheer at the half and the full.
This year was a bit different due to the new costume rules put out by runDisney. People were no longer allowed to wear huge elaborate costumes, which was something very common during the 5k and 10k. And we’re talking huge costumes. Such as the woman who dressed as a Disney Dooney & Burke purse. It was impressive.
I’m not a big costume person. I think they’re annoying to run in. So this didn’t affect me significantly, but I felt bad for the people who did put together costumes. That said, I think I enjoy the Disney Bounding styles of costume even more – the people who take normal running gear and add small pieces to make themselves into Disney characters. There are always so many clever ideas.
The race was… well, it was a race. I ran with Katie and Caitlin, per our usual plan, and we ran Katie’s Galloway intervals of 30:30. I prefer 1:1, but for a 10k, this definitely worked. It also helped us a bit in the crowds. I made the mistake of using an actual estimate of my finishing time instead of fudging the numbers, which it seemed like a lot of people did. So we were stuck behind a lot of walkers and ended up doing a bit more walking than we would have liked. It’s one of the perils of a Disney race – unless you’re in a front corral, you’re going to run into crowds. This is actually part of the reason I opted to only do the 10k. It’s frustrating to really train and then find myself unable to keep pace due to the crowds. I don’t mean this as a complaint towards runDisney races, it’s just that I need to reframe my expectations. I had fun during this race because I wasn’t thinking about time. I wasn’t letting myself be frustrated by the crowds. I just enjoyed the run.
The race was just the beginning of the weekend for me, so stay tuned for more!
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Congrats on the finish!