Puneet Varma (Editor)

Walt Disney World Marathon

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Location
  
Walt Disney World

Official site
  
Official website

Primary sponsor
  
Cigna

Event type
  
road race

Distance
  
Marathon

Established
  
1994

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The Walt Disney World Marathon is an annual marathon and weekend race series held every January in Orlando, Florida held by runDisney, a race series and division of Disney Sports Enterprises.

Contents

The marathon weekend currently (as of 2006) includes a 5K, a 10K, a Half Marathon, a Marathon, and the Goofy and Dopey Challenges (the Goofy Challenge is to run the half and full marathons, and the Dopey Challenge is running all four races). There is also a Disney Cruise Line add on 5K race, the Castaway Cay Challenge.

Walt disney world marathon 2016 gopro


History

The first marathon, run on January 1994, featured 5,588 runners. This marathon was the first race that launched the Disney Endurance Series, which is now runDisney.

Disney's Blizzard Beach Water Park was added to the marathon route in 1995. That same year, the men's current course record was set by Leonid Shvestov, of Russia, at 2:11:50. While in 1996, electronic timing was first used to produce race results.

With the 1998 fifth anniversary of the WDW Marathon having a them of “Herculean Entertainment”, the inaugural Donald Half Marathon is held on the same day until 2005. A corporate relay option was also added to the marathon. The course was again redesigned in 1999 to included the newly opened Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park.

The first local resident, Bea Marie Alitieri of Clermont, won the 10th anniversary (2003) of the WDW Marathon women's division at a pace of 2:53:10. Brazilian Adriano Bastos began his eight year streak of consecutive marathon wins in 2003. In 2006, the first Goofy Race and Half Challenge is first given with the full and half marathons were first ran on separate days, Saturday and Sunday.

The 2010 races set two records with the largest participant field (55,000) and the coldest starting temperatures (low 30s). Also in 2010, the first Pre-race Pasta Party and a Post Race Celebration were held at Epcot.

In 2011 the racers were allowed to vote for the medal design and it was the year of “Marathon Monday”. Bastos' winning streak was broken by Fredison Costa of Brazil. The 2012 year was the 15th anniversary of the Donald Half Marathon which saw the only running of the Walt Disney World Chip and Dale Marathon Relay.

The course was changed again in 2013, the 20th Anniversary of the Walt Disney World Marathon, adding a lap around the Walt Disney World Speedway plus some distance in the ESPN Wide World of Sports. 95 marathon runners who ran all 20 marathons were recognized. 2013 was the first year where men were outnumbered by the women (57%).

The 2014 World Marathon Weekend added the Walt Disney World 10K plus the Dopey Challenge for completing all four weekend races. RunDisney reduced the number of registration allowed for the races and add more race corrals and gender-specific sizing for participant shirts.

A new medal was introduced for the Goofy Challenge for its 10th anniversary in 2015. The Castaway Cay Challenge race was inaugurated in 2015, with those that ran a Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend 5K plus distance race and booked the next cruise on Disney Dream. 700 racers participated in this 5K race on the Disney Cruise Line's private island, Castaway Cay.

List of winners

Brazilian Adriano Bastos holds the record of most WDW Marathon wins at eight.

Marathon

Key:   Course record

References

Walt Disney World Marathon Wikipedia