Erica Monroy's Staging Area

Beautiful city, great course; until you get back into the city near the finish. The longer you take the more the crowds don’t care and begin standing in the street, walking across the course, blocking the view of volunteers that are trying to keep the runners in the right direction. Once you get closer to the finish they cover the cobblestone with blue carpet, don’t get me wrong it’s great aesthetic and exciting until you land in a hole or a moving stone under foot. The weather was cold, wet, freaky windy (at one point it was so windy it knocked over a guard rails and snapped a banner), and rain that was sideways at times (I wished a few times I had carried some arm sleeps or a light wind breaker). Do a little hill training as there are a few over passes and under passes that you’ll go through.

2:55am wake up to get to parking by 3:30am (I prefer to drive in as it’s cheaper to stay off Disney property), Medals (3 of them) are sweet , shirts long sleeves, nice snack boxes, Powerade, a sweat towel at end, long lines for character pics.
This year the weather was almost perfect, I didn’t like that the 10k only had water, the lights they use to light the way in some areas Can be blinding when it’s still dark.
I totally enjoyed the half marathon no complaints at all regarding the race. But the walkers at any Disney race seem to not have manners and take up the course left to right with no regard that there are others there who actually want to run, I ended up in the grass a few times to get around them.
The 10k and half you are transported from parking lot to the startline area.

Last year, I participated in the half marathon, this year I went for the full marathon. I think that right there should say a lot about the Flying pig Marathon. From sign up to the course this is one of the best races I’ve ever participated in. The expo has lots of vendors, free samples, and plenty of products to test out. The packet pickup was smooth only thing I don’t like is that you get your packet from the front and go through the whole expo to get to the shirts, freebies (last year was a blanket, this year a large cooler) and poster/magnets. Can be a hustle to carry all and go shopping so bring help lol!
The course, has hydration every mile, medics and food/fuel (bacon, ice pops, cookies, chips, crackers, candies) galore every couple miles too. The crowd support is insane and keeps your spirits high especially when and if a wall is hit. There are crowds of all ages from toddler to the elderly out there either volunteering or cheering. The course does have quite a few hills biggest is between 6-8 miles, so be sure to train for those, after that it’s just small rolling hills but they still work your legs a good bit!

Great race, spectators smoking who knows what, and the streets were sticky and slippery in places. But the race was memorable for sure! Enough that I went and ran the 10k the next year!