lookingforsunshine
it never hurts to keep looking for sunshine
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2021
WDW Marathon Weekend 2023 Trip Report
Wednesday, January 4
I woke up early to go to the expo. I had to take a Lyft because I am Platinum Club runDisney and our expo time was earlier than bus transportation started.
When I arrived there were two lines outside— one for platinum, one for gold. I quickly found @The Expert but we were split up because of our last names. They checked us in while standing in line and gave us a wristband denoting our status. I don’t think I had to show my CrD ID card even though they said we needed to bring it. I did have to show my official photo ID though. Eventually I headed upstairs to bib pick up where they had all of our registrations in one CrD bag that also came with a CrD luggage tag.
I checked to make sure I had all of my bibs but I should have checked my bag closer. I had two problems: the first was that my 10k corral did not reflect my CrD status. I assume this was because I registered for the 10k through a charity (and they sent me my registration link at basically the last possible minute a few weeks ago even though I met the fundraising criteria for the link in October). Later I went back to the CrD “lounge” about this but they told me I needed to go to Runner Relations in the normal bib pick up building. Thankfully security let me bypass that line to go directly to RR. I was told there that because I registered through a charity my CrD status didn’t matter, which doesn’t make sense to me since the way CrD works is your registration benefits and your race benefits are not for the same set of races. But they fixed it for me anyway. It would be good to know, though, that if a person registered for Dopey or something through a charity but also had platinum CrD for a season that they might not get the corral benefit. rD needs to make that more explicit or reconsider that policy IMO.
Anyway, the other problem was that they did not include my 10k shirt which I did not discover until later and was unable to return to the expo because of COVID. My friend went back on Saturday and told them my sob story and they gave her my shirt no problem.
Anyway, lesson learned to check everything right away— bibs, corrals, shirts.
The “lounge” area also had cookies which were not vegan but I took one anyway to give to my friend. I didn’t see drinks although I thought they were supposed to have them.
Then I went downstairs to enter the merch area. My merch experience was very good. I got everything I wanted, and it was not stressful. My only complaint is the characters wouldn’t be out until later so CrD missed out on that.
Next I went to the general expo building which was also generally a chill experience because I got there right as it opened. I got my Advent Health stickers and picked up some misc items— a small BodyGlide to keep in my shorts, unicorn compression socks, a sparkle visor. The people at the booth that sold the reusable heating pads were aggressive and unpleasant but that was my only complaint.
After I sat outside for awhile, met my friend, fixed the bib situation, etc. I was glad my expo experience was not stressful since that was one reason I got CrD. In 2022 I almost had an anxiety attack at the expo and that was avoided this year.
I boarded a bus back to POFQ and the driver didn’t know what he was doing. He completed passed POFQ and just went to POR. I had to tell him to to back and then he made me enter the POFQ address on his phone… well, I was glad I got my bus drama out of the way early in the week.
After I went and got some beignets and ate them by the pool and read. That evening I walked to POR for my dining reservation at Boatwright’s. The vegan red beans were okay but the dessert— a cobbler— was delicious.
I headed back to my room and was in bed by 9 pm I think!
Wednesday, January 4
I woke up early to go to the expo. I had to take a Lyft because I am Platinum Club runDisney and our expo time was earlier than bus transportation started.
When I arrived there were two lines outside— one for platinum, one for gold. I quickly found @The Expert but we were split up because of our last names. They checked us in while standing in line and gave us a wristband denoting our status. I don’t think I had to show my CrD ID card even though they said we needed to bring it. I did have to show my official photo ID though. Eventually I headed upstairs to bib pick up where they had all of our registrations in one CrD bag that also came with a CrD luggage tag.
I checked to make sure I had all of my bibs but I should have checked my bag closer. I had two problems: the first was that my 10k corral did not reflect my CrD status. I assume this was because I registered for the 10k through a charity (and they sent me my registration link at basically the last possible minute a few weeks ago even though I met the fundraising criteria for the link in October). Later I went back to the CrD “lounge” about this but they told me I needed to go to Runner Relations in the normal bib pick up building. Thankfully security let me bypass that line to go directly to RR. I was told there that because I registered through a charity my CrD status didn’t matter, which doesn’t make sense to me since the way CrD works is your registration benefits and your race benefits are not for the same set of races. But they fixed it for me anyway. It would be good to know, though, that if a person registered for Dopey or something through a charity but also had platinum CrD for a season that they might not get the corral benefit. rD needs to make that more explicit or reconsider that policy IMO.
Anyway, the other problem was that they did not include my 10k shirt which I did not discover until later and was unable to return to the expo because of COVID. My friend went back on Saturday and told them my sob story and they gave her my shirt no problem.
Anyway, lesson learned to check everything right away— bibs, corrals, shirts.
The “lounge” area also had cookies which were not vegan but I took one anyway to give to my friend. I didn’t see drinks although I thought they were supposed to have them.
Then I went downstairs to enter the merch area. My merch experience was very good. I got everything I wanted, and it was not stressful. My only complaint is the characters wouldn’t be out until later so CrD missed out on that.
Next I went to the general expo building which was also generally a chill experience because I got there right as it opened. I got my Advent Health stickers and picked up some misc items— a small BodyGlide to keep in my shorts, unicorn compression socks, a sparkle visor. The people at the booth that sold the reusable heating pads were aggressive and unpleasant but that was my only complaint.
After I sat outside for awhile, met my friend, fixed the bib situation, etc. I was glad my expo experience was not stressful since that was one reason I got CrD. In 2022 I almost had an anxiety attack at the expo and that was avoided this year.
I boarded a bus back to POFQ and the driver didn’t know what he was doing. He completed passed POFQ and just went to POR. I had to tell him to to back and then he made me enter the POFQ address on his phone… well, I was glad I got my bus drama out of the way early in the week.
After I went and got some beignets and ate them by the pool and read. That evening I walked to POR for my dining reservation at Boatwright’s. The vegan red beans were okay but the dessert— a cobbler— was delicious.
I headed back to my room and was in bed by 9 pm I think!
). You should do the marathon at MW 2024 for redemption. Done. If I were you it would be a must. The second is you committed to your friend to run the first DL race so that means you need to go for that weekend as well. Since you are running the Marathon and you will be at the DL race, then you need to do the half and get the special C2C medal. 
