{"id":44110,"date":"2026-01-10T10:52:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T15:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=44110"},"modified":"2026-01-10T10:52:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T15:52:39","slug":"2026-walt-disney-world-half-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=44110","title":{"rendered":"2026 Walt Disney World Half Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time.\u00a0 It\u2019s a funny thing.\u00a0 It\u2019s both an artificial concept and a real world imperative.\u00a0 The sun rises and sets.\u00a0 An hour is 60 minutes.\u00a0 And a half marathon starting at 5 am means you have to be there\u2026 checking my notes\u2026 by 3:15 AM?!\u00a0 And the marathon tomorrow starts at 4:30 am so we have to be there by 2:45 AM?!\u00a0 What madness is this?\u00a0 Should I just spend the night (or at least just a few hours) camped out in the Epcot parking lot?\u00a0 It might be easier that way.<\/p>\r\n

Such were various thoughts that danced in my underslept noggin this morning.\u00a0 We wanted this.\u00a0 We paid for this.\u00a0 Hell, I\u2019ve paid for it for 13 years as a Dopey participant and longer as an avid runDisney \u201cguest.\u201d\u00a0 So maybe I should stuff a peanut butter and strawberry Honey stinger waffle into my mouth and in the screenprinted words of one of my running shirts \u201csuck it up, buttercup.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The leg?\u00a0 It bothers still but (spoiler alert)\u2026 after the run as I stood in line to grab finisher pics with a few Disney Pals, it was\u2026 fine?\u00a0 Dulled into submission?\u00a0 Or maybe legitimately just fine?\u00a0 Not great, not 100%… but certainly no worse for wear, and this despite Thursday\u2019s 5K, Friday\u2019s 10k, and today\u2019s 13.1 miles (though with ping-pongs in corrals and detours for photo ops, my Garmin said it was 13.6).\u00a0 I suppose one treatment plan would be stop running for 6 months and let the thing heal that way, stretching and trying to reteach myself a better running form\/gait.\u00a0 But psychologically and emotionally and truly even physically, I don\u2019t think I could handle a six-month Disability Listing\u2026 at least not without a really specific plan of action for cross training\/form reform and that seems like too much work.<\/p>\r\n

The other option is to keep stretching more.\u00a0 I admit it\u2026 I\u2019m terribly lax at stretching before and after running\u2026 isn\u2019t that what the initial miles are for in the marathon and the walk back to my car post-finish?\u00a0 Aren\u2019t those enough \u201cwarm-ups\u201d and \u201ccool downs?\u201d\u00a0 My body says \u201cnot anymore, if they ever were.\u201d\u00a0 And, ya know, keep running.<\/p>\r\n

I chose and continue to choose Option B.\u00a0 And so tomorrow brings the first marathon of 2026.<\/p>\r\n

In the meanwhile, the lowdown on the 2026 WDW Half Marathon: \u00a0It was a “Love Story” marathon so I was expecting a few more couples. \u00a0Jack Sparrow and his beloved bottle of rum was noticeably absent. \u00a0As were Giselle and Robert from “Enchanted.” \u00a0Dipper Pines and Wendy from “Gravity Falls.” \u00a0Han and Leia. \u00a0The Alien and Ripley. \u00a0Just to name a few….<\/p>\r\n

The first Half-Marathon of 2026 photo album is below:<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\r\n

The Bayou must be explored!<\/p>\r\n

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Not pictured: Sally and Jack Skellington — there was no time to explore HalloweenTown.<\/em><\/p>\r\n

Sandwiches must be explored!<\/p>\r\n

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China must be explored!<\/p>\r\n

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Not pictured: Woody and Bo Peep — no time to stop to check out Andy’s Room (though there would be later… duhn duhn duhnnnnnnnn… foreshadowing!)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n

Wonderland must be– wait… Off with my head? \u00a0No, no, no!<\/p>\r\n

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Mrs. I tried to high five but I missed it and left her hanging… but I was too slow to remedy it.<\/p>\r\n

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The Magic Kingdom must be explored!<\/p>\r\n

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Agrabah must be explored! \u00a0As must Corona!<\/p>\r\n

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The Magic Kingdom Parking Lot must be explored!<\/p>\r\n

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Andy’s Room revisited!<\/p>\r\n

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Other faces along the way!<\/p>\r\n

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Pic of the day? \u00a0Me and Mr. Frederickson!<\/p>\r\n

\"\" <\/a><\/p>\r\n

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Oswald and his gal pal Ortensia! \u00a0A rare sighting indeed!<\/p>\r\n

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The Finish Line must be explored — race announcer John Pelkey, Mickey Mouse, and Nick and me crossing the line.<\/p>\r\n

\"\" <\/a>\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\r\n

End of line… the finisher pics with those at the Reunion Parking Lot:<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time.\u00a0 It\u2019s a funny thing.\u00a0 It\u2019s both an artificial concept and a real world imperative.\u00a0 The sun rises and sets.\u00a0 An hour is 60 minutes.\u00a0 And a half marathon starting at 5 am means you have to be there\u2026 checking my notes\u2026 by 3:15 AM?!\u00a0 And the marathon tomorrow starts at 4:30 am so we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44110"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44194,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44110\/revisions\/44194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}