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Mark ran his first RunDisney Marathon in 2022, and it was a fantastic experience full of Disney magic with lots of lessons learned! I want to share Mark’s first full marathon and our first-ever Disney Marathon weekend – he did incredible, and it has spiraled into another Disney obsession!
When Mark originally booked our resort stay for his Marathon Weekend (Jan 7-9), he only booked Friday, January 7, to Monday, January 10. Being the Disney fanatic that I am, I knew that wouldn’t be enough time to enjoy the parks because we knew there was a chance he would be utterly dead after his race. Sadly, we tried to extend our reservation an extra night to include that Thursday before the race, but All-Star Movie Resort and all the other value resorts were already booked. Not to worry, though – I grabbed one night at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Orlando at Flamingo Crossings Town Center, which was amazing! We almost wish we had stayed there the entire weekend. Here is our full post about the Marriott Fairfield Inn & Suites.
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Day one consisted of driving from Tampa to Orlando and going straight to ESPN Wide World of Sports for the race packet pick up and Fitness Expo – we love to check out the official Run Disney Merch. Still, this year, we weren’t in love with the options, and the items we liked most were already sold out. So, we got Mark’s official race bib and Marathon shirt, then headed to the parks!
Since it wasn’t time to check in for the hotel – we drove to our first park reservation of the weekend at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Mark was about to run 26.2 miles for the first time – so the game plan all weekend was FOOD and HYDRATION.
Even though we couldn’t get an online reservation for Sci-fi Diner, we were lucky enough to get on the walk-up list and only waited about 15 minutes before being seated in one of our favorite places – a 50’s style drive-in theatre. We enjoyed crispy onion rings, flying saucer impossible burgers, and a Long Island lunar iced tea while watching sci-fi movie clips and retro drive-in commercials.
After that, we naturally got Blue Milk from Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge and chatted with our man, Chewbacca, who loved Mark’s shirt – We wandered the park for some photo ops and then headed to our hotel to settle.
Fairfield by Marriott Inn & Suites Orlando at Flamingo Crossings Town Center is just 3.2 miles from Walt Disney World and offers complimentary breakfast. We have stayed at several hotels in the Flamingo Crossing area when we can’t get availability or can’t afford to stay on Disney property. We have always been pleased. It’s one of our favorite Disney hacks!
Our room was HUGE, gorgeous, high-tech, quiet, beautiful, and comfortable. Sadly, we didn’t have much time to enjoy the hotel, but from what we saw of the pool, dining areas, bar, and breakfast, we plan to return. The only downside to staying off-site is that you have to drive yourself to the parks or arrange transportation that isn’t complimentary. As Annual Passholders, we park for free at all parks, so it doesn’t bother us much.
After we got settled in the room, it was after 2 PM, and we had already gone to our park reservation of the day (Hollywood Studios); it was time for a quick Park Hop to Epcot for the night and, of course, find more food! Unfortunately, this time of year is not our favorite time at Epcot. We LOVE Epcot festivals like International Art Festival, International Flower & Garden Festival, Food and Wine Festival, but The Holiday Festival is our least favorite. Still, none of those were happening during this time.
All outside smaller stands for food and drink were closed, all restaurants were booked, and quick service stands were overwhelmed. We got on the list for Spice Road Table and were never called…. Thank goodness for Yorkshire County Fish Shop in the UK – we did a mobile order and got fish and chips before turning in for the night.
After the complimentary breakfast at the Marriott – we checked out and headed over to check in at our value resort – All Star Movie Resort – they luckily allowed us to check in super early to settle in for race weekend.
We grabbed a drink from the Silver Screen Spirits pool bar and explored the grounds. All-Star Movie Resort shut down during the Pandemic and went under a complete renovation for all the guest rooms. We stayed here long ago in the Mighty Ducks rooms and thought it was “okay” but outdated.
All-Star Movies Resort has Toy Story, 101 Dalmatians, The Love Bug, Fantasia, and The Mighty Ducks-themed areas. We think several of these themes could be updated, but generally, the grounds are lovely and bring on tons of nostalgia. We requested Fantasia, which is very close to the pool and main building with dining, gift shop, and bus transportation but has less parking near the rooms.
Our day two park reservation was for Disney’s Animal Kingdom, so we hopped on a Disney bus.
Pro Tip: Let me touch on Disney bus transportation from All-Star Movie Resort – it’s not ideal. All-Star Movies shares buses with All-Star Music and All-Star Sports, which means that the buses stop at and often fill up at Music before ever getting to Movies, AND when you are coming back from parks, you also have to sit through the off-loading and on loading at Music before you are returned to your resort – it does make bus times longer since its shared with other resorts so just be aware of that so you aren’t frustrated when wait times are longer.
Once at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, we took our time walking the park – had an incredible Bloody Mary from Dawa Bar and cocktails at The Thirsty River Bar before getting on the walk-up list at Yak & Yeti – one of our absolute favorites. I always order the Pink Himalayan cocktail, and this time, we ordered the App of the day, plus the Roasted Vegetable Bowl and Lo Mein Shrimp – omg, take me back right now – such a good pre-race meal.
With a full belly, we continued wandering for photo ops, then headed back to the hotel to get cleaned – then to our Disney Springs dinner reservation. I told you this trip was about food, right?
The eve of the race is always full of anxiety and nerves and a full belly of pasta. I made a reservation at Terralina Crafted Italian, and IT WAS DELICIOUS! We returned to the hotel and hit the hay for our 3 AM wake-up call!
Race day – honestly, it’s still a bit of a blur. I accompanied Mark to the parking lot of Epcot at 4 AM, and even though I couldn’t get near the start line, there was a giant screen showing what was going on over there. Mark had to walk miles to the start line, and even though he was early to arrive, he still almost didn’t make it to his corral in time – the star-spangled banner played as he walked, and then, luckily, shortly after arriving at his corral, the gun went off for the 5:30 AM start time.
Pro Tip: I made the mistake of wearing PJs to see him off because I thought I could immediately get on a bus back to our room. Instead, it took until after 7:30 AM for the buses to start running to take me back to the hotel to get changed and bring the bag Mark needed for after the race – I was a panicked mess because I was tracking Mark’s every move. He was getting faster and faster… he humbly told me he would probably take closer to 6 hours, and for some reason, I believed him… I ran my own sprint marathon that morning – once I got on a bus to the hotel, I ran from bus to room, around the room, back to the bus, back to the finish line – just in time to see him blow away the time he guesstimated!
Mark’s stats are incredible (if I don’t say so myself): He finished in 4:37:58 and placed 1897 out of 11,334 runners for the entire race. WOAH!
After the race, we got a pineapple cider in our new Run Disney cups, took photos, and recapped our excitement while sprawling out on the ground in the parking lot. Next, we got Mark changed to head into Epcot, which would be a colossal mistake.
Major Lesson Learned: The race continues until they hit their over 16 min/mile pace, which means runners still run through the park even after it has opened to the public. Therefore, many paths are blocked off, blocking you from going around the World Showcase – meaning you can’t get to food or drink. Once we got stuck multiple times, we headed out and back to the hotel instead and ordered food from the quick service restaurant at All Star Movies – the food there was good, but the experience leading to it was awful – so if you are a runner – don’t bother trying to enter Epcot unless you want to starve – leave and come back later when the race is officially done!
We ate, showered, napped, popped some champagne, and headed to Magic Kingdom for dinner. We enjoyed lobster rolls from Harbour House (quick service), checked out Memento Mori, searched for all of the 50th golden statues, bought Alice a Haunted Mansion cat dish, took detailed photos of Cinderella’s castle, bought popcorn and cupcakes – of course! And then called it a night!
We checked out Monday and returned to reality – this was our most prolonged consecutive stay in Disney, having never stayed more than two nights in a row, and it felt like a true indulgence. We had never attended Marathon Weekend before or stayed four nights in a row before, it was a memory to hold dear forever.
This particular weekend stirred something inside my soul. Maybe it was the excitement of the first marathon weekend after the pandemic when all hope seemed lost. Perhaps it was the fact that this was the 10th time I had watched Mark cross the finish line while I just stood around waiting for hours… but I started wondering if I could ever achieve such an incredible goal as a Half Marathon or Marathon someday. Something happened inside me, and suddenly, I was compelled to sign up and train for a race the following year, which turned into five races by the end of 2023. You can read about Princess and Wine and Dine below!
p.s. All of the custom Minnie Ears and Disney shirts you see in our photos were either purchased on Amazon, Etsy, Hot Topic, Target, or at the official Disney stores! Find ALL of our affiliate links on our SHOP!
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