Average Disney Marathon Finish Time Was....5:48:43

This is why the Brooks CEO was right. The fact of the matter is their market is not selling shoes to 2:30 marathon runners. I don't think people should have been as offended as they were at those comments.

Zev wrote:

I "ran" my first marathon undertrained & injured. I even had to walk a few miles.

Yeah, my first was about 5 months into running, with terrible training. I ended up with a 3:43, but the first half was sub-1:30, which illustrates what a disaster the final 10km was! However, even though I'm not a great runner, as most of us here, I am probably a little better than average (did get down to 2:45) and understand not everyone is cut out for running.

Look, I've taught learn-to-run clinics. I enjoy helping people try to enjoy/get better at the sport and I understand that many people try and never see a sub-30 5k. I can see 4+ hours for newcomers, and even approaching 5 hours for people who are untalented, overweight and old. There's still nothing wrong with that.

What I find hard to understand is when the average is approaching 6 hours, that means a hell of a lot of people were doing 6-7 hour marathons. a 6:30 is almost 15 minute miles. I don't think I'm being elitist by saying that you should be able to do a little better than that unless you are a very special case (very, very old, are disabled, etc.). When hundreds of people at a race are finishing in a time like that, it's ridiculous.

It's not so hard to understand with over 20 character stops en route and the walk/run method that most of these runners use

I just read the race report of a lady who ran 5:09 there. She stopped during mile 26 to order a Margarita . eh?

I think when it first started in the '90s the elites did come and winning times were 2:12-2:15-ish; not A-standard but at least B-standard.

Although the '19 race had the winner coming in at 2:19 for men and 2:45 for women.

It's a super fun "event" if you like running and Disney. I've done the Dopey Challenge a few times...the biggest challenge was getting up at 3am 4 days in a row and still enjoying the parks during the day with family. I can run sub 3, but for this type of thing I just have fun. In fact if you run sub 3:30 you pretty much have a ton of room around you the entire race, can run up to any character stop for a pic with little/no wait, run through all the parks, and just enjoy it. If you want to race it, it's super flat and pretty much in the dark for over first 2 hours. I don't think I'd personally enjoy the experience back further just due to crowds...but obviously plenty of people have a great time. Yes, you can ride some rides, get pics, grab a beer, and yes a ton of people literally walk the whole time....so what? Finishing a marathon for some people is just a bucket list, or reason to post IG. Would I be more impressed if they could run a decent 5K? Maybe, but I'd rather just be happy for people that want to enjoy it as they see fit. It also doesn't cost anymore than any other big city/major... I can vouch for that too...

stryker drilling wrote:

Would you have rather people been at home on their couch, watching sports, or maybe at a bar drinking beer?

Agreed. Doing a 6hr marathon is still better than doing nothing at all. Not to mention.. six hours on your feet is still hard.

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

daffydonalduck wrote:

Average as a mean or a median? Might not make a difference here, but would be good to know.

No idea. Marathonguide doesn't say which one it is. (and I don't feel like trying to see if they have an explanation)

You guys are making fun of people being being fat/slow, but several comments on the thread exhibiting total ignorance that

AVERAGE == MEAN

Or maybe the average time was slower than usual because it was in no way a formal marathon? I bet a good 70% of people running it didn’t train at all and just wanted to have a fun yet challenging day out with their families, they were probably laughing and joking the entire time meanwhile all the sub 3 runners fuelled by OCD were probably already sat back in their parents basement with the lights off by the time the last person had finished.

I would consider it very sad and actually borderline delusional if you are looking down on these people for just ticking something off their bucket list, they don’t care - they are happy and have families unlike most people here. They completed a marathon when they don’t even give a stuff about running, I personally think covering 26+ miles on foot with no training and possibly added weight is an impressive feat for the average person to achieve. I challenge anybody here to attempt something they have never trained at and see how you fare? Go on, enter a skating competition or something and watch how the lifelong skater will prpbably laugh at your psychical capability on a board.

Positive caloric intake. $300 to consume more calories than you burn while walking. Why not just pay the $100 gate fee and walk the park with a deep fried elephant ear hanging out your mouth

I've always contemplated doing the Disney Marathon. I have an annual pass and go 5+ times a month. So stopping to see things wouldn't matter to me. Though a mile 26 margarita sounds fantastic. I would be able to win the marathon while sipping a margarita across the finish line. That's an EPIC picture.

I Like Roller Coasters wrote:

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

...or riding roller coasters during the race.

You can ride roller coasters during the race? If that's the case, then I need to run Disney.

My wife went on the Everest roller coaster, got beers, took pics with characters, etc...

I think she finished in 7 hours. She would have been kicked out but she started in one of the early waves.

I had a miserable race and died to a 2:50 and then hung out and went on rides with the kids waiting for her to finish. It was hilarious. She had a blast.

What's the average weight of the female finishers, about 160 lbs?

Disney questions:

Is Dopey worth the injury risk? 5k, 10k, 13.1, 26.2 in 96 hours? That's brutal. I would want to taper for 26.2--why beat yourself up with 22.4 miles that soon before a 26.2 marathon? That's how to kill a good taper.

The course doesn't seem too hard. I may run it someday.