I'll be honest, I only ran this race because it was #1 on my wife's bucket list and she did the Goofy Challenge (half marathon the day before), so I had to do AT LEAST the marathon. Yes, that's the kind of world we live in now, I have to say I ONLY did the marathon... :)

Anyway, we flew down there and stayed at Art of Animation Studios (Disney Hotel) and it was pretty cool. Won't get into the hotel in as much detail, but it was conveniently located relative to the race start. Morning of the race, the bus got us there no problem, and it was really nice to just sit and be taken to the start without having to worry about where we were going or what traffic would be like.

Once we got off the bus, the gear check and corrals were all really well marked and we began the walk to the start line. It was kind of long, but that's typical for big marathons and I didn't mind it at all. It was a tad cool in the morning (low 50s, high 40s), so I liked having the walk before standing in the corrals for too long.

I was fortunate enough to be in corral A, and once you got up to corral C, B, and A, things started to thin out and there was plenty of room to run around and warm up. It was pretty cool to see Micky, Donald, Goofy on stage to pump people up before the race and as different waves ran by, and even Dopey made an appearance. Overall, great energy and atmosphere at the beginning.

Then, the pyrotechnics. Right at the start, they send off some pretty impressive fireworks - really cool way to start the race. But then, I learned that they do that for EVERY CORRAL START. Wave after wave of corrals going by, round after round of fireworks. Very cool.

The race path is actually very representative of how Disney World is laid out (I was a total newbie, so didn't really know this). Disney parks are pretty spread out, so you have long-ish periods of open/dead space, punctuated by intermittent areas with TONS of energy and excitement.

Seeing the Magic Kingdom fully lit up against the pitch black sky was seriously breathtaking - easily one of the coolest things I've ever seen during a race. Characters on the course were super cool, and because I was up-front-ish there were never any lines for pics (though I didn't really take advantage of this). Running on the Disney Speedway (race car track) - awesome. ESPN Wide World of Sports, running through all the athletic fields, track and field area, and baseball stadium was a total and unexpected treat. Such a cool way to break things up. Running along the boardwalk and water with heroic music blasting and tons of volunteers and Disney characters cheering you on the last 3-4 miles? So cool - this definitely helped me pick the pace way up. Seriously very cool race course and finish.

Aid stations - Chicago Marathon has awesome aid stations, as does the Boston Marathon - both exemplary. Disney was as good if not better. SO frequent, so well stocked, so well organized, SO well manned. Spectating Disney races is pretty hard because they there are only a few approved places from which to watch, so volunteers really have some of the best seats to watch and they take FULL advantage of it. Two Clif Shot stations, and tons of water and Powerade. Impressive.

Expo was fine, easy in and out with a solid amount of vendors to keep shoppers active. My shirt was pretty much what I've come to expect from races, tech T that is laughably too large and baggy. But the design was nice and a black long sleeve as it was would have been cool if it'd fit.

Scenery as I mentioned above was sporadic, but when it was good, it was really good. Elevation was pretty flat - I think there were only like two hills and they were very manageable. After the race was SO easy - I walked though the finisher area, got my medal (which is awesome), and water/powerade/banana in a few seconds. Went to gear check, got my bag with no line and could have walked on the bus back to my hotel - all within 10 minutes.

I chose to delay because I heard there was a massage tent, so I went to go take advantage of that. Turns out you had to pay for a massage ($1 per minute), which is definitely a first for me. I've never seen massages offered that weren't free. But the thing about free massages is, the lines tend to be prohibitively long, so most can't really take advantage of them. By charging a minimal amount, they actually cut the waiting list WAY down. For $10, I'd be happy to pay to not have to wait an hour for my 10-12 minute massage. One dollar per minute was reasonable and something I'd be willing to pay again in the future.

My bus was right outside the massage tent, so again, transportation was SUPER easy in and out of the start/finish area. For such a huge production, management did a bang up job laying everything out and organizing all the stations.

Disney is definitely a destination race, and even a guy like me who's really not into Disney would recommend the race to serious and non-serious runners alike. It's definitely one to put on your list if it's not there already!