I Saved My 2026 WDW Marathon Weekend With Blood Magic

Let’s kick this trip report off with the straight truth, because I’m not gonna lie to you guys: my 2026 WDW Marathon Weekend was kinda rough.

And why would I lie to you guys? From what I’ve gleaned, I wasn’t the only one. The full marathon in particular was a hot, sunny affair, to the point where the back of the pack ran a shortened course a la 2020.

But the heat isn’t what got me. My weekend, and the marathon in particular, was tough before I even began. For a second I considered staying in bed and accepting a Did Not Start. And then I thought, well, I’ll go and try, but I might voluntary pull myself from the course if needed.

We’ll get into all that in later posts. But before we do, I want to tell you another story – one that happened before everything started unraveling.

LAST MINUTE COSTUME ASSEMBLY IS DANGEROUS WORK

Okay, so it’s the afternoon after the Walt Disney World Half Marathon, the day before the full. I am, as planned, adding some finishing touches to my Ballerina Daisy race costume. I needed to apply the teal stripe to my pink skirt, but before I got to that I wanted to pin my feather boa to the bottom of the white skirt that went under it. Here, maybe a visual will help:

See? Daisy Duck needs her feathers!

I spread my skirt out on the ground and began safety pinning the boa around the hem. Suddenly I noticed a deep pink spot on the white skirt. Then another. And another. Was it from my pink hair dye? That didn’t make any sense; my hair wasn’t wet – wait a minute. I was bleeding! I was getting blood all over my race costume!

WHY WAS I BLEEDING? BEATS ME

You assume I stabbed myself with a safety pin, don’t you? I did too. We were both wrong.

I still have NO idea how this happened, but upon investigation I found I had somehow managed to scrape a small patch of skin off the back of my knuckle. Nor do I remember doing anything or even feeling anything; I just went from Not Bleeding to Bleeding out of nowhere. Luckily blood washes out pretty easily, especially when fresh, and I was able to gently blot it out of the fabric with some water.

Being the chronically online person I clearly am and suspecting it would be an amusing anecdote besides, I posted about my panic crafting mishap in my Instagram Stories. Then I largely forgot about it.

HOW BLOOD MAGIC SAVED MY WDW MARATHON

Flash forward to the next morning. I am sitting on the ground in my race corral, deeply uncertain about the future. Again, we’ll get into it in future posts, but my operating theory is that I suffered an allergic reaction that caused my digestive system to lock up and I wasn’t sure how that was going to play out over 26.2 miles. My outlook was iffy.

I had some time to kill before race start and I was eager for distraction, so I popped open Instagram – where I discovered that an angel had responded to my Instagram Story about my bloody costume. “As a costume designer,” the angel said, “this is supposed to be good luck!”

Boy, did I need luck in the moment. So I decided to believe it. Because I had bled all over my race costume, it was going to be okay.

MY WDW MARATHON WEEKEND STORY CONTINUES!

And reader, it WAS okay. I finished the WDW Marathon. Was it pretty? God no. But I did it! Presumably thanks to blood magic. Generally you’re supposed to stay away from blood magic if I understand my time playing Dragon Age: Origins correctly, but just once can’t hurt, right?

I will have much more to say on the subject of my race weekend in upcoming posts, in which I swear I’ll explain everything: my race recaps and near-implosion, of course, but also some restaurant reviews and a hard look at the value of the Magic Kingdom After Hours hard ticket event. I promise this is the only instance of blood in any of it, so don’t be afraid to come back next week for more!

Don’t forget, you can follow FRoA on Threads @fairestrunofall and on Instagram @fairestrunofall. If you have any questions or thoughts, leave a comment or email fairestrunofall@gmail.com. See ya real soon!