Staff writer Lani Teshima’s Marathon Guide (link) is a great resource for runners training for and planning travel to the Walt Disney World marathon, as well as the inaugural Disneyland half-marathon. In this week’s mailbag, Lani answers readers’ marathon questions, including those in response to her most recent installment, which discussed the pros and cons of different Walt Disney World accommodations for marathon weekend.
Jeff writes:
My sister informed me a few weeks ago that she has registered for her first marathon, also the WDW marathon. Unfortunately we had a tragedy last week when my sister decided to take her own life.
My sister and I were running partners (as much as two people 10 inches different in height can be), and we were both training for marathons. I ran my first in April, she was looking to January.
I e-mailed WDW about the possibility of my taking her place in the race; run in her honor. I know number swapping is not allowed, and I don’t want a refund, but… I figured in such extenuating circumstances they might make an exception. I haven’t heard anything back.
My question is whether you have a contact I can call. The e-mail process seems to take forever (ok, 5 days, but still), so I was hoping to try to reach a real person.’
I just got off the phone with Natalie at Event Marketing and Management International, the company that organizes the Disney marathon events. After relaying your email to her, she asked that I forward your email to Steve, who is one of the coordinators there.
Natalie assures me that he will read the email I forwarded.
Natalie was not able to give me any firm commitment, but she did acknowledge that this was a very special circumstance.
In the meantime, regardless of whether you will be able to use her registration to run in the marathon, may I make a couple of suggestions?
If you cannot run wearing her number, I suggest you go ahead and register yourself, anyway. Then, make special arrangements so that you can pick up your sister’s running number at the Fitness Expo come January. These last couple of years, Disney has started printing the registrant’s first name on the bibs, so her number will have her name printed on it below her number.
Obviously when you run, you must place your own bib on the front. However, you might consider customizing a shirt so that on the back, you write something like, “In honor of…” and then pin her bib below it. Otherwise, you might consider holding her number in your hand, and holding it up when you cross the finish line.
In addition, there are a couple of organizations in the U.S. that focus on suicide prevention. One is the SPAN USA, the Suicide Prevention Action Network (link). Both of these organizations are nonprofits, and while AFSP has its own “endurance” event, both actively encourage charity and fundraising, and I suspect you might be able to raise funds for them by gathering pledges from your friends for the WDW Marathon. I do not believe they have dedicated training teams specifically for marathons (or the WDW Marathon) in the way that groups like the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society do, but that wouldn’t make your cause any less profound for you.
Shannon Swilley writes:
Where do you go to sign up for the half-marathon? Can it be done online? If so, what’s the site? Thanks.
I am not sure which half-marathon you are interested in registering for. I can assume it’s a Disney one, but there are two now: One in Walt Disney World in Florida, and a new one in Disneyland, in California.
To register for the WDW half-marathon, you can visit their site (link) and click on the Register link for the 2007 event. Based on last year, this race will probably be open until later this summer before it fills up and they close registration.
The Disneyland Half-Marathon is scheduled for September of this year. Unfortunately, registration for that filled up earlier this year, and you cannot enroll in it anymore on your own. However, if you are interested in fundraising for a charity, you can go to the event Web site (link) and get more information. These groups, such as the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training, help you train for the event while you raise funds. Some people like running for a good cause, and get help from coaches at the same time.
If you just want the experience of the Disneyland half without running it, the family fun run 5k still has spaces, and they are currently taking volunteers to help with the event as well.
Mary writes:
Do you have a (long run) training schedule for the Disney Marathon 2007? Most marathons have some kind of a tentative plan.
I have run 14 marathons and will be pacing my daughter at HER FIRST marathon at WDW January 2007. Wow! I am jazzed about it.
Disney does not provide its own training plan. My suggestion is that you find one that best fits your style, and then adjust their training plan schedule so that you coordinate it to finish on the weekend of the Disney marathon.
There are a couple of online training plans that I’ve used, including the one by Hal Higdon. You can access his many types of training plans at his Web site (link).
Mary replies with another question:
Thanks for that useful information. I went to Hal Higdon’s page and got what I needed for my daughter. Another question:
I’ve signed up for the Marathon on Sunday Jan 7 but would like to do the Goofy Challenge on January 6. Is there a way I can add without a lot of trouble?
I’m glad you were able to find a training plan.
The Disney Goofy Challenge requires its own registration, which covers the cost of both the half and full marathons. The cost for the Goofy is $190, and space is filling up fast.
If you have already registered for one of the marathon events, you need to contact the race organizers to see whether you can change your registration.
The information, according to the Web site for the marathon, is as follows:
Contact: Walt Disney World Marathon
Phone: 407-896-1160
Email: disneysports@emmi.com
Website: www.disneyworldmarathon.com
Hannah Johnson writes:
Are there any participants that live in the Tampa Bay area that are training? This is my first marathon and I am doing it alone. I would love to have a group that trains to help me set a schedule.
You are in luck; it is fairly easy to find clubs and groups for support, both in local communities as well as online.
If you are interested in finding people to train with, take a look at the listing (link) for one near you that might be a good fit for your needs.
There are also several online communities you might want to look into. They include:
Team MousePlanet: Our very own discussion board has a forum (link) dedicated to health and fitness, and you can post in our forum for questions and support.
The DISBoards: There is a large group of walkers and joggers at the DIS Boards (link) who train for the Disney marathons.
Team Penguin – Disney was founded by John “The Penguin” Bingham and is a mailing list of people who do the Disney events every year. You can go to its site (link) for subscription information. Happy training!
Lisa writes:
I so want to do this half marathon. Disney is my favorite place in the world to be. My issues are this: I’m not much of an exerciser, and I am clinically obese. Having said that I still think I can do the half. What are your thoughts on this and what should I start doing? Thank you so much for your help, I loved your article.
Anyone who wants to consider doing a half-marathon who is overweight and doesn’t exercise much, should really have a check-up with their physician before deciding if this is something that you can do. My heart says, “Yes, by all means yes!” but my head says, “You need to make sure you are in good health and that you identify any potential health problems before launching into a big goal.”
One of the things I did when I started exercising was to have an overall health check-up with my doctor. She checked things like my height, weight, blood pressure, and I also had a blood test for things like cholesterol. Because I have a family history of heart problems, I also even went as far as getting a stress test (where you stress your heart on a treadmill, then they take pictures of your heart to see how healthy it is).
Using something like the Walt Disney World Half-Marathon is a terrific way to get healthy; talk about a motivator! But if you need to learn how to get started, it’s difficult to make a connection from those thoughts in your head, to actually physically crossing the finish line.
Fortunately, there are a lot of ways you can get started. There are many books out there that will teach you how to train, but the one book that I recommend for beginners is John Bingham’s “Courage to Start” (link). The book shares John’s life from being overweight and out of shape, to becoming and adult onset athlete.
Thirteen and a half miles is a lot for most people, and it’s not for everyone. Disney also has a pacing requirement, which means we can’t just don a pair of running shoes then keep huffing one step after another with plans to just keep walking until we finish (since if we haven’t trained properly for their pacing requirements, we probably would not make their cut-off time). But it’s definitely something we can work towards, and it all starts by deciding to get up off of our couch.
I’ll be talking about a number of topics in my upcoming articles, including “starting from scratch” as well as finding a community in which to get support.
The next Disney World half is in seven months, and that may be too short a time for you. But it’s an annual event, and you can always sign up for the following year (giving you plenty of time to get in tip top shape!).
David Andersen asks:
Is the Disney World Marathon a Boston qualifier?
Yes, according to the Boston Athletic Association (link), the Walt Disney World Marathon is not only a qualifier, but a popular one for qualifying for the Boston!
Paul Branson writes:
I enjoyed your article about room selection. One point needs clarification. The DVC resort rooms are available to non-DVC members, but tend to be rather expensive. Thanks for the good work.
Robert Drummer writes:
I enjoyed your article on choosing a room at Disney World.
The rooms/villas at the Disney Vacation Club resorts can be rented by anyone, not just owners. You can book directly with Disney or any travel provider (Expedia, Travelocity) and you can even “rent” points from owners.
Thanks again for a helpful article.
Pam May writes:
Thanks for your Marathon Planning articles. We’ve been running the marathon for 4 years and your articles have been a good resource for things we hadn’t thought about or known about.
I just had one comment to add to your hotel recommendations. I ran the Goofy challenge this past marathon and my husband and mother came out to watch me. They had planned to make it to Main Street but due to some ‘issues’ didn’t make it there in time. They ended up out in front of the Polynesian. Your article mentions that it’s not a good spot for the courses but I’d suggest it’s not as bad of a viewing spot as the map might represent. My husband mentioned that they could see runners as they exited the monorail and that they just walked out of the front of the hotel to catch me run by.
Also, when/if you do an article on volunteering you might mention that Disney doesn’t provide transportation to all of the volunteer locations. I sent your volunteering article to my mom before this year’s race and she volunteered for water stop 22. There was no reference in any of Disney’s materials that the volunteer needed to provide their own transportation (to Disney Sports). Mom ended up with quite an expensive cab ride. She also mentioned how many no-shows they had for the water stop and I’d think the transportation might have had something to do with it since most out of state guests don’t rent a car and Disney didn’t tell you until it was too late to do anything about it.
Thanks again for your informative articles!
Thanks for the good tip on spectator viewing by the Poly. I didn’t know about the requirement that volunteers provide their own transportation, so that’s definitely something we’ll need to let our readers know about.
Happy running.
