Two weeks ago I became a marathoner! My time was no where near what I hoped but I was not swept and I crossed the finish line. After all is said and done I have to say that the Walt Disney World Marathon was a good choice for my first marathon. After having done a couple princess half marathons I knew somewhat, what to expect. My only unknown was if I would be able to finish 26.2 miles. So why not jump on the bus to full crazy?
Alike my Princess Half Marathon weekends I started my WDW Marathon weekend by driving down to Florida on Friday. The drive wasn’t that bad at all until I hit rush hour Orlando traffic. That is one thing that hasn’t changed since I lived there in 2003. So I did my best to make my way to Disney’s Wide World of Sports going the back way through Orlando. I’m not sure it was faster but I made it with about an hour until it closed. Packet Pick up was just like at the Princess Half Marathon. You pick up your bib and event guide at the HP Field House building and then go across to the Jostens Center to the expo to pick up your gear check bag and race shirt. 
While I was there I walked around the Expo. It was pretty similar to previous Disney expos I had been to. I planned to go back the next morning. I was tired and I was ready to get to my resort, eat some dinner and get to bed. It had been a long day.
This time around I stayed at Disney’s AllStars Sports Resort. My choice there was because it was the first pick up on the bus route. All of the AllStar Resorts are the same bus line. What I didn’t expect was to be on the back side of the building and closer to Allstars Music than the front of AllStars Sports.
I also later learned the bus issue was never really that bad as some on different Disney groups had said.
As for the dining at the resort I learned there had been some changes since my last visit. Typically I would go through the line asking what was gluten free but now you can no longer do that. I was offered a special menu and spoke to a chef every single time.
Yes, sometimes it took a little bit longer but it was worth it for that little bit of piece of mind.
I even had Mickey waffles, cuz ya know I needed to carb load.
My room at Allstars really was not that bad for being a value resort.
It was definitely larger than my room at Pop Century and since it was on the back side it was super quiet.
That right there was awesome when it came time to go to bed early for that 2:30am Marathon morning wake up. As for the rest of the room since it was just me, the bed was more than adequate and the bathroom was clean and Mickey’s orange scented soaps that my daughter loves. For my time there I really couldn’t complain.
The next morning I got plater than expected and headed back over to the expo after I had some breakfast. I usually do not buy anything but this time I did, a patriotic sweaty band, some Gu’s in different flavors and a Sparkle Athletic skirt. Yes, I bought one of those sparkle skirts that I tried on at Princess the previous year. I blame peer pressure, as a friend I hung out for a bit talked me into it….yeah that’s why.
While at the expo I also went to a small meet up for one of the Facebook groups I had joined. There were tons of meet ups going on and I had decided to play it buy ear. I met up with the Firsties from First Time Marathoners at WDW.
I spent way more time at the expo than planned and rode the bus over to the Grand Floridian with my friend thinking that at the Magic Kingdom I could catch a bus to Disney Springs.
Surprise, you can’t so I got on the bus back to my resort. By this time it was raining so I decided to ditch my plan to go to Disney Springs and just grab some dinner and get ready for marathon day. I had a big day ahead of myself.
Check out Part 2 of my Walt Disney World Marathon Recap!