Yep…30 days from today, I will be waking up before the sun to go out and run my very first full marathon…oh and it will be at Walt Disney World! The gravity of 26.2 is pulling really hard on me right now. After a week of missed opportunity, this week has been much better. I had lots of excuses for missing last night’s 6 mile training run. However, the thought of 26.2 miles is what got me out the door. I know that weeks like last week just simply cannot happen again. I need to put miles into my legs because 26.2 miles is simply too far of a distance to not train. I’m excited, nervous, and still a little shocked that I’m attempting such a distance. However, time stands still for no one. Before I know it, I’ll be in Walt Disney World and on my first 26.2 mile journey.

This week runDisney has announced the corral placements and the maps for each of the courses. Earlier, they had released a link to the waivers you need to print out and sign beforehand. You can find the link to get your waivers here. Even though they will have computers on hand at the Walt Disney World Marathon Expo in January, you will save yourself a lot of time by printing them out, signing them, and bringing them with you to the Expo. Also, on the waiver is your race bib number. For the Inaugural Walt Disney World 10K, I will be bib # 62612 and my wife will be bib #62475. For the Walt Disney World Marathon, I’ll be bib #7683. The bib numbers are important if you wish to figure out what corral you will be in before the Expo. If you don’t care about such things, once you get your actual race bib at the Expo you’ll see the Corral letter on it and will know where to go on race day. While there are no corral listings for the 10K race yet, here are the corral placements for the other races, starting with the Walt Disney World Marathon…

My race bib number puts me in corral “L” for the Marathon. It’s a relief to know that there will be 4 corrals starting behind me. So, I’m reasonably happy with my placement for my first full marathon. Since I have never run this distance in a race before, I’m still a little unsure of how long it will take me to finish. Thus far, my training shows that I shouldn’t have to worry about being swept off the course for being too slow. However, you just never know how the weather will be on January 12th or if I’ll somehow misjudge how many character stops I can make and find myself in jeopardy of being swept. Having the corrals behind me means that I have a bit longer than the 7 hour max time to finish the course. Of course, I really don’t want to be out there that long. But, it’s nice to know I’ve got a bit of a buffer. Here’s what the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon course will look like…

From what I’ve been told, it is very similar to last year’s course. The runners who ran last year have mentioned a few minor differences. However, it will be mostly the same. So, it’s time for me to study up on the course. Both in training and at the Rock n Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon, knowing the course really helps me out mentally. To know where the tough stretches are and the easy ones are can make all the difference between giving up and finding a way to manage those hard parts. Of course, this is not the only race for me on Marathon Weekend. I’ll be also running in the 10K race. Here is that map…

The Inaugural Walt Disney World 10K course doesn’t look like it will be as fun as the Inaugural Disneyland 10K course was. It looks like we’re not going to even get into the theme park until mile 4. How sad! From what I’ve read on race reports of the Wine and Dine Half Marathon, it seems like it wouldn’t have been that hard to take the 10K course through both EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. That would have made for a much better course, in my opinion. Oh well, at least I will be able to say that I finished the first two runDisney 10K races. There are no corral placements for the 10K race yet. However, here are the rest of the corral placements…

I’m sure that the Walt Disney World Half Marathon is a fun race. However, I’m travelling across the country for a full marathon this time. Here is the course for the half marathon…

For those that are Goofy enough to do both the half marathon and full marathon on back to back days, here are the corral placements…

And for those to whom the Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge isn’t enough, the Inaugural Dopey Challenge. These Dopey people will be running in the 5K on Thursday, 10K Friday, half marathon Saturday, and full marathon Sunday for over 48 miles in 4 days! Yikes. I think we all should be saying some special prayers and/or sending lots of positive thoughts for these people. Here are their corral placements…

There has been quite a bit of chatter on social media from runners about their placements. The folks at runDisney have made some changes to the way they are running their races starting in 2014. One of those changes is that they will no longer be making changes in your seeding at the Expo’s. In previous years, you could bring in proof of time to the Expo (if you missed the cutoff date) and they could adjust your corral placement. However, they will no longer be doing this. I talked about why my half marathon PR at the Rock n Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon mattered so much here. Even though, runDisney has not shown the times associated with their seedings, I believe that my Rock n Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon helped me move up. Another change to the runDisney races is that they have more corrals than in previous years. The expanded corrals actually began with the Tower of Terror 10 Miler in October, continuing with the Wine and Dine Half Marathon and seems to have worked out really well. However, with the expanded number of corrals, comes smaller corrals (a good thing) and will also push those used to starting in corral A back (confusing). The moving back in letters is what seems to have caused the most confusion. Karen at Run, Knit, Travel has posted a very detailed analysis of the seedings this year vs. last year on her blog today. Check it out here.  There is also a feeling out there that the Dopey runners are being seeded lower than they should. Since runDisney didn’t include the time cutoffs for their corrals like they have in the past, it only adds to the confusion. One thing that is for sure is that those who are going to Walt Disney World in a few short weeks are talking up a storm on social media. If I were a faster, more experienced, runner, I think I’d be joining in the chorus of those that feel slighted. Hopefully, runDisney will find a way to make amends.

So, if you’re going to be apart of the races at the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon weekend, how do you feel about your seeding? Is it a fair seeding? If not, what suggestions would you make to help runDisney improve?