My Worst WDW Marathon EVER (So Far)

Hello and welcome to my 2026 WDW Marathon Weekend trip report! You can see all the posts in this report here. Today we’ll be recapping the Walt Disney World Marathon. Onward!

Okay, yes, the 2026 WDW Marathon was far and away the WORST of my eleven outings in this race. But I’m still deeply grateful for it, because I finished… when I almost didn’t even start.

My tale of woe begins the night before the race. Here’s what happened.

MY WDW MARATHON GOES OFF THE RAILS

ICKINESS WARNING! Skip this section if you have a particularly sensitive stomach.

I was a little tired from the half marathon that Saturday but otherwise fine. I’d had a nap, put the finishing touches (and bled on) my costume for the marathon, and wandered over to a nearby Italian restaurant for some pre-race pasta.

I won’t be naming the restaurant for now as I don’t think it what happened was their fault. Nonetheless, it all started to go wrong here. I ate some bread and salad, went to the bathroom, sat down to my main course of pasta… and suddenly felt nauseated.

Not insanely so. Not enough to make me feel like I was right on the edge of vomiting. But I couldn’t really eat, and the feeling persisted – back to the hotel, getting ready for bed, in bed. I retched in the bathroom a couple times, but it didn’t get me anywhere.

CONFRONTING THE REALITY OF A POTENTIAL DNS

Lucky for me, Kate is a GRAND CHAMPION and had an assortment of meds with her, including something to combat nausea. I took one and it did help, although I still wasn’t feeling anything like fabulous.

As I lay there in my little pulldown bed, trying not to panic, I came to the inevitable conclusion: I may have to DNS (did not start) the WDW Marathon, my favorite race of the year. I did not know I would need to do this, but I took the time to make peace with the possibility. The only thing for it was to try to go to sleep and take new stock when my alarm went off. If my instincts told me to go back to sleep and skip the race, I would.

CONFRONTING THE REALITY OF A POTENTIAL DNF

And so I did drift off (and wake and drift and wake and drift in traditional pre-race fashion). When my alarm woke, I felt a bit better. Not great, but not retch-y.

The most logical cause given this information was that at some point, for whatever reason, something I ate disagreed with me. That was no danger to anyone else, so I made my game time decision. I would get ready to run, go to the start, and begin the WDW Marathon. In doing this, I would recognize that I might need to voluntarily pull myself from the course at any time and at the first sign of trouble. Erika’s 2023 practicality and grace would be my guide.

So that’s what I did. I put on my Ballerina Daisy Duck race costume – albeit it with less adherence to the full vision than I would have otherwise – gathered up my fellow runners, and headed to the start.

(And lest anyone be concerned, yes, I wore a mask on the bus, in the corrals, and any other tight quarters even while outside, just in case my assessment was wrong! Plus I took some more anti-nausea meds with me for safety. Kate’s the MVP for real on that one.)

ANYWAY, I MADE IT TO THE WDW MARATHON START

Thus it was under such glorious auspices that I found myself at the start of the WDW Marathon as planned. Although generally highly anxious, I felt surprisingly calm about the whole thing. What would be would be. I took an Untapped syrup shot and it stayed down just fine, which was a good sign. And that little bit of blood magic helped.

Oddly enough, the corrals were sent off with classical music this year. I’m not sure that was the most popular decision, but I’m a nerd so I liked it! My wave of corral B got Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance” from Gayane, which struck me as appropriate enough. Ballerina Daisy was off!

WDW MARATHON MILES 1 – 3

I started running… and it was all right! I was slow – equal parts deliberately and organically – but I was running, and that was a great start under the circumstances. Truly and officially, I had zero goals for this race beyond successfully finishing, if I could.

I haven’t even seen Raya & The Last Dragon, but Raya as the first character stop had a shockingly small queue. I figured now was as good a time as ever to get real lax about what makes a short character line.

For the past couple of years, the WDW Marathon course has started off strong with a loop around World Showcase in Epcot. I still STRONGLY prefer when World Showcase was our last mile, not first, but at least it’s something. I stopped for Miguel in the Mexico pavilion, then pulled off to the Swirled Showcase bathrooms in case I needed to go. Turns out I didn’t, but I was taking every precaution, time be damned!

MILES 4 – 8

After leaving Epcot behind, we faced about four miles of roads. Nothing much distinguished them for me beyond the fact that I was feeling okay and okay was the new amazing!

We followed the same path now as the WDW Half the day before, circling Seven Seas Lagoon. Our first landmark of interest was the Polynesian, and as we passed both that resort and the Grand Floridian I snuck in photos with Medieval Daisy, Donald, and Goofy.

Always love seeing the Electrical Water Pageant floats along this course too! I hope that continues to be a staple.

MILES 9 – 11

Just past mile nine, we entered the vaunted Magic Kingdom with the magnificent roar of spectators as you run up Main Street toward the castle. Mickey and Minnie were mysteriously parked at a PhotoPass-less gazebo stop where Cast Members gamely took cell phone photos.

Then we took a left into Adventureland, where I stopped for the bathroom for real this time. A line was forming as I exited – I’ve never seen that before!

A bit further on Captains Barbossa and Jack Sparrow held court on the stage across from Pirates. The line was a little long, but so what – like I was in a hurry? Totally worth it for the snaps of Jack playing with my feathered headpiece.

I didn’t make it much further before making another stop at the Maleficent parade float. Between those three stops my mile nine was a staggering 24 minutes long, but whatever. I was still upright and moving, and that was the name of today’s game!

Besides, there’s always time for Cinderella Castle.

Mile ten took us through the remainder of the Magic Kingdom, under the Tron canopy, through Tomorrowland, and out toward the Contemporary and more roads.

MILES 12 – 16

I must give runDisney credit – they’re trying to spice up some of the roads. As of last year and this, mile 14 has been the Star Wars mile. I am largely Star Wars-neutral, myself, but it’s still fun to have a theme. I had to stop for the Jawas; they’re so funny!

Other than that, I have precious little to report about this portion of the course. Just roads, and I trucked along them. Under these particular circumstances, though, no news is good news, right?

I was pleased by the reinstatement of the animal stop just before the entrance to DAK. There were several donkeys and a snake cheering us on!

MILES 17 – 19

Things got infinitely more interesting when we hit mile 17 and subsequently entered Disney’s Animal Kingdom! I adore this part of the course. The parks are awake and full of spectators ready to cheer, even if they got up this morning having no idea they’d be besieged by runners.

I do wish, however, that they’d go back to offering single rider for Expedition Everest during the WDW Marathon. I frankly don’t understand why they don’t. It seemed to work fine in the past. As it was, I wasn’t taking any chances on riding a roller coaster even if I could jump on immediately. My digestive system was behaving itself; I wasn’t about to poke that metaphorical bear.

Alas, thanks to major construction in what we once called Dinoland USA, we were soon unceremoniously dumped back on the roads. All I could do was spend the next couple miles basking in that theme park afterglow.

MY WDW MARATHON GETHSEMANE

Meanwhile, the group chat was lighting up. Kate and Erika were a couple miles behind and going strong. Becky (you can ready her WDW Marathon race recap here!) was slightly ahead of me, but she was dealing with a hip issue that was starting to flare. “Come find me!” she texted. I fired up my headphones, listened to “Prince Ali” three times in a row, and bam – I got ‘er!

Upon catching up, Becky informed me that she was doing some walk-run-walk intervals, and was I okay with that? Um, was I okay with taking it easy in a race where I could’ve arguably not shown up at all? I SURE WAS.

And yes, if I – or Becky – had decided to push and run most of the remainder, we could’ve made a better time. I know I could’ve; I’m sure she could’ve too. But WHY? We weren’t in PR territory by any stretch, so no sense in gunning for that. We were well within the confines of runDisney’s pace requirements, with no danger of being swept unless we laid down on the ground and gave up. So by leaving Becky behind or urging her to pick up the pace, what would’ve I have gained, really? If we pushed too hard, we could hurt ourselves. For what?

A “better” number that might look nicer on paper but ultimately meant nothing, I would argue. Not half as much as it would mean to tackle the remainder in tandem. I resolved that Becky and I would stick together, because it would be more fun.

MILES 20-26

And so Team Jecky brought it home in triumph! We walked a bunch, still ran a little, hopped into character photos as a unit, and commiserated about the heat (it was hot and sunny enough that Disney cut the course for the back of the pack). I enjoy running alone at a good clip when it’s all going well. When it’s not, it REALLY helps to have a friend.

Together we conquered the dreaded Blizzard Beach parking lot, gave the spectators on the Boardwalk a show, and clipped Epcot harmonizing about how much we missed World Showcase. Past the gospel choir and down the stretch for home, where we took the world’s cutest finish line photos. Team Jecky Forever!!!

ANOTHER WDW MARATHON DOWN… BY SOME MIRACLE!

Disaster, amazingly, averted! Becky and I collected our medals and snack boxes etc. before meeting up with a couple friends who were spectating. I felt bizarrely all right? Tired, but my stomach wasn’t complaining. I had taken Untapped gels and even eaten a banana during the race, and found myself craving a post-race beer besides. I survived. It was tough, but worth it. The Jecky miles in particular were a friendship highlight!

We hung around the race course for a bit before Kate and Erika finished up and found us. A quick group photo with Goofy later and we were heading back to the Beach Club. Showers and naps all ’round!

MY WORST WDW MARATHON TAKEAWAYS

Okay, so, that was objectively terrible. But subjectively, I am SO GRATEFUL to have finished the WDW Marathon and no worse for wear besides. I still don’t know what went wrong with my digestive system; I now suspect a heretofore unconfirmed allergy to the pine nuts in my salad, but that’s just a theory.

At any rate, major thanks again to Kate for the meds, which gave me the power to get going and keep going. I should look into putting together my own little race weekend mini-pharmacy. You can’t count on anything in these high-stakes situations!

A part of me wishes I had a happier story to tell. But another part of me recognizes that given enough time and attempts, race horror stories are inevitable. I had my Bad Time because at some point I was destined to have a Bad Time. And not to sound superstitious, but I’d like to think that a Bad Time buys a couple of years of Good Times. Don’t you think?

Here’s to WDW Marathon 2027! I expect it’ll be a good time.

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!