Disney World marathon 2026 recap

My Disney World marathon 2026 recap:

Well, I never thought I would say that I completed my third full marathon, but I did! I had really thought I would never run a marathon again, and just stick with the half marathons. My first marathon was in 2017, mostly to prove to myself that I could do it and that I had the resiliency. I ran another marathon in 2020 as part of the Dopey Challenge, to complete that accomplishment.

The year leading up to Dopey and the year or two after it I was in the best running shape of my life. Then that changed (I still don’t really know why, I just got slower and things got harder). I kept hoping I could turn things around, but despite the work and the training I couldn’t get back to the runner that I was. So why run a third marathon now?

This could be its own long essay, but I’ll try to keep it short! It basically came down to the theme, and friends. The theme this year was “What’s your Story?” and as a librarian and book lover, it really appealed to me. I have amazing and supportive RunDisney friends who encouraged me. And I guess I felt like maybe it’s a step forward mentally to say, “I’ll do this again even though I won’t beat my previous time. That doesn’t make me a failure.”

So that’s about where I was at going into it. My training had been a bit of a roller coaster. I felt really great on some of my long runs, and then I got sick with a nasty cold and resulting sinus infection that took me out of training for almost three weeks. I recovered and felt pretty great on my 18-mile training run, then two weeks later my hip flexors really started complaining during my last 20-mile training run. So I wasn’t really sure what to expect going into the marathon.

Marathon morning

All of my favorite running friends were back for this weekend – Jenn, Erika, and Kate were all running the marathon too! In fact, all three of them had also run the half marathon the day before. That’s called the Goofy Challenge (or, if you don’t manage to sign up for the challenge but you sign up for the half and marathon individually, we’ve nicknamed it the fake-Goofy, or “Foofy Challenge”).

I also had two spectators down in Florida, with Jason and Eric sharing their own room, separate from ours at Beach Club. The marathon this year started at 4:30am, which meant buses started running at 2am. Jenn, Erika, and I left the room around 2:30am for a bus (Kate was in a later corral and tried to grab a little more sleep!).

We had coordinated our costumes for this race, too! I’ll do a full post on how I put my costume together, but I had the idea early on that I wanted to be poet Minnie from Topolino’s Terrace. I have the three best friends who were willing to be the other 3 characters there!

We had no problems getting to Epcot and getting to the start area with plenty of time. Jenn had originally been planning to drop back a corral and start with me in C, but she hadn’t been feeling the well the night before. So she decided to go into B to start to give herself as much time as possible.

Side note: I was really panicked because I had not submitted proof of time. I had it, and had done it for Princess weekend, but I guess my brain just got its wires crossed and thought I did it for both. They had no problem updating it at the expo when I went to runner relations though. Your mileage may vary, but that was my experience. It seems like if you submitted nothing and had a legitimate proof of time it was an easy change, but if you submitted incorrectly that’s when you hit issues.

The weather was fairly warm – even at 3am it was in the low 60s, and I knew it was only going to get worse. Plus the humidity was high. But at least waiting around in the corrals was comfortable!

The weather felt decent at the beginning, but I knew it was going to get warmer. I probably started slightly faster than I should have for the first few miles, but I’m pretty proud of myself for pacing myself overall. I kept reminding myself that it was, in fact, a marathon!

There were plenty of character stops early on with the marathon route. If it’s a rare character I haven’t met yet, or someone I’m excited about, I’ll stop early. But otherwise I try to keep going since the lines are longer at the beginning. The first character I saw was Raya from Raya and the Last Dragon. I found out later Jenn stopped here, so this may have been when I passed her.

I went by Bert & Mary Poppins, plus Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum – then we were entering Epcot’s World Showcase. This is always such a pretty section to run through. It was nice to have it at the end of the race, but I also actually like it in the beginning. It’s so pretty when it’s dark out and everything is all lit up.

There were a few characters here too, and when we entered at Mexico I saw Miguel. His line was very short so I decided it was time for my first photo stop! This was right before mile 2, but it only took me about 30 seconds.

Then through the rest of World Showcase and out the front of Epcot, where we hit the roads for a few miles on the way to Magic Kingdom. I stopped at another character stop here, when I saw Barley and Ian from Onward! Another pretty short line, and I’d never seen them before.

Around mile 5 or 6 they had a large screen set up with clips of the Muppets. But not just any clips, they were specifically for the race! It cracked me up. A few of my favorites included:

Uncle Deadly: “I’m told you’re supposed to… keep on going.”
Animal: “RACE! RACE! RACE!”
Fozzie: “What did the runners cross the road? To get to the finish line!” (Kermit: “Umm, Fozzie, that’s not really a joke you know. That’s just a fact.”)

I was more glad than ever to reach Magic Kingdom. No more construction, bright lights… and spectators! Including my spectators! We entered Main Street right around mile 9. It was about 6:25am or so when I got there.

I knew Jason and Eric were right past the Christmas tree, but Main Street was packed with people. They were a good 3-4 rows back, but thanks to their excitement and jumping up and down I saw them and was able to wave! I usually stop to hug and kiss my spectators but alas, the crowd made it impossible. Some excited waving definitely helped to pump me up though!

After running up Main Street, we turned left through Adventureland. I stopped for a quick picture with the dragon from the Festival of Fantasy parade.

Then I continued through Frontierland, Liberty Square, and Fantasyland. That’s when you get to run through the castle, which is always a fun moment.

Once I grabbed my castle pic, it was back through the other half of Fantasyland, where we passed Mirabel. The wait was short once again (I think possibly because Bruno wasn’t with her, though he was when other runners went by). But I love Encanto so it was time for another picture!

I hit mile 10 with a time of 1:58:35, which was beautifully on pace (or even below my goal pace). I was happy with it and hoped I could keep it up. (Spoiler alert: I could not).

Then we went through Storybook Circus, past TRON, and through Tomorrowland before exiting. I stopped for another photo with some of the “Stitch experiments” because there was basically no wait. I have to admit I didn’t know exactly who they were though and had to look it up after! (Angel and Sparky, in case you also weren’t sure).

It was right around mile 11 when we left Magic Kingdom, and from there you go towards the TTC and through some of the parking lot. I grabbed another photo spot here, with Powerline Max from A Goofy Movie!

The long stretches of road can get pretty boring, but mile 15 is the Star Wars mile! I really like that they spread out a number of character stops and create a general Star Wars atmosphere for almost a full mile.

I imagine it looked even cooler when it was darker out, but at this point it was around 7:30am. There were lightsabers on the sides of the road lit up, smoke machines, and sound effects.

I stopped for 3 character photos here. First with the stormtroopers, then Darth Vader, and finally the Jawas. The Jawa stop was probably my longest wait of the whole marathon – I probably waited maybe 3 minutes or so for that photo, but it was a fun one!

The “Star Wars mile” ended up being my longest one of the entire race. It took me 18 minutes to do that mile with all the photos I got!

It was about another mile until we reached Animal Kingdom, and I couldn’t wait. It’s my favorite park, I was hoping I might be able to ride Everest, and I was starting to feel some pain. My hip flexors were getting cranky, which made me nervous. They had been totally fine until my 20 mile training run in December, when I had a ton of hip flexor pain. I knew I still had 10 miles left to get through.

Right outside of Animal Kingdom was a fun little photo op with some of the donkeys from Rafiki’s Planet Watch! Of course I needed an animal pic before heading into the park.

I hit Everest around 8:20am, and the wait time was listed as 25 minutes. Given my pace I certainly had the time if I wanted to wait for it, but I decided in that moment that if it wasn’t a quick on and off, I wouldn’t do it. I didn’t want to stand around for 20 minutes.

But something else that was open? The Thirsty River Bar right next to Everest! I’d been hoping for a little stop or break anyway, so I made a game time decision to grab a beer instead of riding a roller coaster.

I certainly don’t recommend everyone do this. I felt confident that I could handle it – let’s just say it was not my first time stopping for a beer in the middle of a run. (Honestly, it wasn’t even the first time in the middle of a race – the Peachtree 10k and Kauai half marathon were both a fun time!). My running group in my hometown is the Beer Runners. I’ve trained for this!

So I bought a Funky Buddha Floridian. It’s a wheat beer and honestly tasted great right at that moment with the heat really rising. I stood around for about 5 minutes stretching a few things and cheering on the other runners. Then I walked another 5 minutes or so with my beer before tossing the rest of it and running out of Animal Kingdom.

Part of me did worry that with another 8 miles to go, maybe a beer wouldn’t sit well in my stomach and I would regret it. Honestly? It turned out to be possibly my best decision during the marathon. It was a fun little stop… and perhaps distracted me slightly from my hip flexor pain, making running a little more manageable.

Around mile 20 or so I knew my hips were telling me I wasn’t going to run much of the rest of this race. When I hit the mile 20 timing mat I was at 4:28:28. Oof. Since my half marathon split, I had gained almost a full minute per mile on my overall pace.

It was shortly after that when Jenn was texting me, asking about where I was. It turned out she wasn’t too far behind me. I mentioned I was doing a lot of walking and could also stop for a few characters if she wanted to try and catch me!

It wasn’t long after she found me that we saw Anna from Frozen, so we grabbed a picture together before heading on to tackle the last 4-5 miles.

And boy did it help to have a friend for those last few miles. Conversation was a nice distraction, but even when you aren’t talking there is just something special about knowing you have someone by your side. They might have been the slowest miles (well, except the Star Wars mile), but they were some of the most meaningful.

We got through the dreaded Blizzard Beach parking lot together. Later on in the morning they cut the course at Blizzard Beach due to heat, but that was probably over an hour after we’d passed through. This happened the first time I ran the marathon as well, but I was a little surprised to hear they did it again. In 2020 the marathon was pretty brutally hot. This one was definitely warm, but not nearly as bad as that year.

We also got an Oogie Boogie photo not long after Anna. There was a pretty long stretch without any characters or much entertainment. I’m sure it also feels longer too, but it was maybe 1.5-2 miles that were feeling a bit rough. I think it was shortly before we reached Hollywood Studios that we did another character photo. Joy and Sadness!

Then we finally made our way to Hollywood Studios. This is one of the more disappointing parts of the marathon now, because you’re barely in Hollywood Studios at all. They didn’t even have a photopass photographer while you were running thrugh the park itself (only one posted shot with Tower of Terror in the background).

But now we were at mile 24, which meant it wasn’t too much further to the finish! Jason and Eric (who had gone back to the room and taken a nap since I saw them in Magic Kingdom) were making their way to the finish line. I was happy to see my favorite movie, Soul, represented at mile 24.

Along the path from Hollywood Studios to the Boardwalk we walked most of it. I was very thankful for a woman there who was giving out ice. That was a nice relief.

Once we turned the corner onto the Boardwalk I suggested to Jenn we do a bit more running, and she was up for it. There were many spectators here which got me in slightly better spirits, and running didn’t feel quite as awful as it did earlier in the race.

I started this recap talking about why I chose to run a marathon again, when I thought I never would. One reason was the theme, “What’s your story?” My story is that I can still run a marathon again, even if I might not be as fast or as “good” as I used to be.

But one of the biggest reasons why I chose to run it was because of the encouragement and support of my friends. So it felt incredibly fitting and truly magical to cross the finish line that way with Jenn. It didn’t matter that I walked a majority of the last 5 miles. It mattered that I was there doing it, with so many of the people who are most important to me.

Jason and Eric were there to greet us shortly after, and we hung out at the finish line party for a bit. Jenn and I enjoyed a post-race beer and some of the snacks from our snack boxes. It wasn’t too much longer before Kate and Erika finished their race. They had also run together and crossed the finish line together. At last, our foursome was complete!

Though we were tired, and needed showers and sleep, we did want to grab some photos together. The line for Goofy was quite short, so that’s what we did. Plus, our costumes were Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Daisy. It felt like Goofy could fit right in!

Overall my time for the marathon was 6:09:47. It’s better than the first one I ran, but not nearly as good as the second one. One of my goals was to not be hard on myself about my time, so I’m trying to do that. I’m very thankful to have had this experience with my friends and my loved ones supporting me. I don’t know that I need to do a full marathon again. I’ll never say never, but half marathons sound great for awhile!

Characters at the Disney World marathon

I’ve done my best to put together a list of all of the characters on the course. This includes who I remember seeing (to the best of my ability!), and what I’ve heard from others. Some characters switch out with others, and sometimes you might see one instead of both listed at a location.

Raya
Bert & Mary Poppins
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Miguel
Genie
Duffy
Ian & Barley
Judy & Nick
Winnie the Pooh characters (they were on break when I ran by, so not sure exactly who)
Louis from Princess and the Frog
Donald & Daisy (in knight/princess costumes)
Goofy
Jack Sparrow & Barbosa
Peter Pan & Wendy
Mirabel (& Bruno)
Stitch friends
Powerline Max
Stitch
Chip & Dale
Stormtroopers
Darth Vader
Jawas
Chewbacca, Rey, and Vi
Kylo Ren
Baloo
Mr. & Mrs. Incredible
Anna & Elsa
Oogie Boogie
Russell & Dug
Pluto
Joy & Sadness
Edna & Frozone
Jiminy Cricket

Have you ever experienced the Disney World marathon? Would you try a RunDisney event?