This is part four of my six-part series on the 2015 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend. Part four covers the course preview, including Virtual Run feature. Part 1 (Introduction) can be found HERE. Part 2 (History of the Race & Registration Process) can be found HERE. Part 3 (Training & Planning) can be found HERE. Part 5 (Travel, Event Expo, & Pre-Race) will be posted on Race Weekend. Part 6 (Race Day & Post-Race) will be posted after Race Weekend. The event's official website can be found HERE. The event's official Disney Event Guide can be found HERE. By now, training should be in full swing for all participants in the half-marathon and greater. Part of training, though, is knowing the course, and tailoring your training to meet the demands of the route (namely, elevation profile). Luckily, for those with limited outdoor training access (it is winter-ish, after all), this course is pancake-flat. So treadmill training should be relatively adequate. OF IMPORTANT NOTE, however...treadmills are softer, and require less effort. A weekly long-ish run outdoors is HIGHLY recommended so that your joints and bones are also trained for the blacktop-and-concrete race route. Additionally, on treadmill runs, increase the incline to about 0.5%, which should require enough extra effort to mimic the demands of race day. With that, let's take a look at the race route, with Virtual Run photos (courtesy of Google Earth Street View; most of the interior shots of the Walt Disney World parks are not on Street View, and are photos I took myself, unless otherwise noted). Course Preview The Google Maps route can be found HERE. Intro For this course preview specifically, the half-marathon distance will be covered. Maps for the full marathon course, and5k/10k course can be found using the links right here, or at the marathon weekend's official website, which is linked at the top of the page. Official half-marathon map can be found HERE, or at the marathon weekend's official website. Course Basics/Metrics Here are the basics for the 2014 half-marathon route...
Climbs Not a single damned one. Although, climbing up the freeway exits provides a notable incline each time, but they aren't quite open for analysis via Google Earth. And speaking of Google Earth, the elevation shows as completely flat, which is not quite the case -- this is why I gave both a Google Earth (above) and TrainingPeaks (below) screenshots of the maps. Virtual Run Start Line through 2.5mi: The half-marathon and full marathon routes start in the same place, along Epcot Center Drive, just Northeast of Epcot's parking lots. The first several miles are wide open: no real elevation change, and very little as far as visual stimulation goes. Simply enough, you're just running on highway. Just short of mile marker 1, you see really the only "incline" of the day: a run up a highway exit, transferring from Epcot Center Drive West-bound, to World Drive North-bound. North on World Drive looks very much the same as Epcot Center Drive, save for the occasional Disney World attraction billboard. 2.5-3.5mi: It isn't until roughly 2 1/2 miles in that things start happening. At just past mile 2.5, you come to the parking lot entrance for the Magic Kingdom. Passing by the Richard Petty Driving Experience, runners will keep to the right, eventually cutting across the Southwestern-most corner of the parking lot. Even this run-in, from the parking pass booths to the actual parking lot, is...well...long. 3.5-5.0mi: Past 3.5 miles, at the North end of the lots -- closest to the ticketing counter -- you run under the bridge that normally is reserved for the parking lot trams. Beyond this bridge, you finally come to the ticketing booths and entrance in to the monorail stations -- but you're not at the actual park yet! Passing along the right-most side of the line of ticketing booths, runners continue to keep right, running past the Eastern-most edge of the actual monorail station. This section of road takes runners past a bus station, and back on to World Drive North-bound. Along the Northern trek on World Drive, things become less uneventful as previous. First, runners are hoofing it along the Eastern edge of the Seven Seas Lagoon, a pretty backdrop in its own right. Ahead the massive Disney Contemporary Resort lay on the horizon. This stretch is the final bit before reaching park gates. Magic Kingdom, 5.0mi - The final bits of World Drive come at right near mile marker 5. From here, runners will turn left in to a employee/maintenance entrance towards the park. Then, a quick quarter-mile along a maintenance lot. At roughly 5.30 miles, finally, you come to a side entrance on to Main Street, USA of the Magic Kingdom. 5.25 miles or so is when you jump on to Main Street, USA, and the first steps on actual Disney park. Runners run straight North on Main Street, USA towards the Walt Disney statue that marks the crossroads of the park. At the Disney statue, barely a tenth of a mile later, runners take a right in to the aptly-themed Tomorrowland section of the park. From here, it's a run through the Eastern and Northeastern sections of the park, first with, of course, Tomorrowland, then Fantasyland, including a bit of the former (or is it still??) Toon Town. In Tomorrowland, participants run past the Monster's, Inc. Laugh Factory before taking a left short of the central pavilion (the one with AstroOrbiter on its rooftop). From there, head along the stretch of walkway past the Tomorrowland Speedway. This runs you in to the Eastern-most section of Fantasyland, marked by the Mad Tea Party ride straight ahead. This section, from the opening of Tomorrowland to the opening of Fantsyland makes up about only 0.15mi, from 5.30 to 5.55 miles in to the race. Within Fantasyland, take a right going around the back side of the Mad Tea Party, with the newly-built Cars-themed coaster on your right. This runs you in to Fantasyland's merry-go-round. Again, keep to your left and head straight towards Cindarella's castle. This section of Fantasyland, again is short -- not even two-tenths of a mile -- and runs you up to mile 5.75. Finally, at 5.75mi, runners get to hoof it through the famed Cinderella's Castle, the dominant centerpiece for the Magic Kingdom. The run-in will be from the North end of the castle, which is really the back side heading back towards the park entrance. Like before, head towards the Disney statue and take a right just before it, heading in to Adventureland. The stretch of walkway from the Disney statue through to the Western-most edge of Adventureland makes up the final quarter-mile of the Magic Kingdom experience for runners, from miles 5.75 through to 6.10. Mile marker 6 comes right within Liberty Square. 6.0-7.0mi: The route exits out a maintenance entrance along the Western edge of the park, right next to Splash Mountain (as a matter of fact both the runner's entrance and exit from the park are where the many Magic Kingdom parades also enter and exit). Pass by the many maintenance and storage buildings against the West side of the park on Caribbean Way, and back on to regular Floridian roads. Don't worry! This boring stretch doesn't last long. 7.0-8.0mi: This stretch of road along Floridian Way becomes a little more exciting, as the route runs just to the West of the massive Grand Floridian Resort. However, most of this road is lined by trees on both sides, so many of the beautiful views from the road are obstructed. Disney execs reeeeally don't want you to enjoy the scenery unless you are guests of the hotel. 8.00-9.00mi: Now in this bit of course, there seems to be some confusion as to what is the correct route. All of the past half-marathons recorded (by the GPS watches of participants, i.e.) give it one way, yet the "official" course maps on the runDisney website have it another way. I'll give you both. Regardless of which is correct, the conditions are the same: flat. The only real difference is that the past-reported route runs to the south of the Richard Petty Driving Experience track, and the future-planned route (reported by runDisney) runs back through the parking lot and to the North of the track (basically, past mile 8, the same way out the way you came in). Additionally, near the end of this section of road -- about mile marker 9 -- is where full-marathoners break away from the half-marthoners. 8.0-9.0mi: Excuse my freehand (blue and green). The route in red represents the most oft-reported half-marathon route by past participants. The blue represents the planned half-marathon route (at least, planned for 2014) as reported by the runDisney website. The green is also via runDisney, but represents the full marathon route. 9.0-12.0: Remember that boring highway you ran at the beginning of the race? It's time to do it again. Past the Magic Kingdom parking booths -- and mile marker 9 just beyond it -- it's the same stretch of World Way, this time Southbound back towards Epcot. Again, nothing really remarkable, until the exit back on to Epcot Center Drive, which, again, gives really the only incline seen on-route. The run-in would seem the same as run-out, but luckily, for the final miles, it isn't. A quick switch-back on Epcot Center Drive puts runners in to Epcot's main lot, headed straight on in to the park. Surprisingly, from this switchback, and along the Western edge of the main lots, is nearly a mile long and more before reaching the first stretches of park. Epcot Center, 12.0mi to Finish: Mile 12 comes just as runners are exiting the car park and in to the park's main bus drop-off area. At about 12 and a quarter miles, runners finally get in to the main guts of the park, in through the back side of The Seas (with Nemo) attraction. From there, just head for the "giant golf ball" (Spaceship Earth). Once there, take a right through the main plaza around the fountain. Given that it is winter, presumably EPCOT will still have their winter season display up on the "bridge" in to the World Showcase. You won't be running through the World Showcase itself, though! (a damn shame) Instead, turn around at the first garden island as you come off the bridge (where the "Holiday tree" would be, if their winter decorations are still up) and head back towards Spaceship Earth. The run back out of EPCOT is essentially a reversal of the run in, with the exception that runners will be heading out on the opposite site of Spaceship Earth (east side instead of west side). A brief trot through an employee lot will spit you out in to the main EPCOT parking lot (southeastern-most corner). Suddenly...THE FINISH LINE! Not even a tenth of a mile after emerging through the trees form the employee lot, the finish line appears. It's as simple as that. Next stop is the actual weekend, just over a month away! I will update when possible on the trek in to Orlando, around the Expo, and for the race itself.
Until then... ...well, you know. -tds ~~__o _-/<,_ @/ @
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