Is it possible?

[Emmabean2000]

Need some advice. A bit of background. I have run 3 Disney Marathons, and last ran the Dopey in 2014. Oddly enough, this resulted in my best marathon time ever, 3:33. After a few years of injury, I am in training for one more marathon, and just started training for Disney. I have yet to officially register, and was a few seconds away from the final clicks, but...I am fast approaching my 50th birthday. My goal for this race would be to have a qualify time for the Boston Marathon. I know that the Disney marathon is not the best for a qualifying time, but I love the course, the weather, everything about Disney. However, I have not run a race that will get me into a higher corral and my training calendar does not have me running such a race by the time the corral placement date ends. So, here is my dilemma. I have NO problem being in the last corral. I have started a few races back there with friends and had a blast. But this race, there are no friends or family. Just me. I know there will be bottlenecks and I may have to dodge runners and weave in and out for the first 3-4 miles before it opens up a bit.

Do you think is is possible to run a sub 3:30 marathon starting in the last corral? No character stops are planned, just running (well, I may stop and curse at the Army guy on the onramp hill)...

Any thoughts/advice would be greatly welcomed. No airfares, hotels, car rentals or registration has been made yet...

 

[Keels]

I would make sure you put your estimated time of finish in that timeframe and hope it pans out.

Luckily, if you can make it through the early bottlenecks getting to and through MK, you should definitely make up some time.

 

[opusone]

Do you think is is possible to run a sub 3:30 marathon starting in the last corral? No character stops are planned, just running (well, I may stop and curse at the Army guy on the onramp hill)...

Any thoughts/advice would be greatly welcomed. No airfares, hotels, car rentals or registration has been made yet...

I would highly recommend trying a 10-mile or half marathon race between now and Oct 4th (POT deadline). Even if you don't go all out and just use it as a faster training run, it would benefit you greatly with the corral placement. Personally, I would think it very difficult to have a good performance from the last corral. Just my thoughts.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Need some advice. A bit of background. I have run 3 Disney Marathons, and last ran the Dopey in 2014. Oddly enough, this resulted in my best marathon time ever, 3:33. After a few years of injury, I am in training for one more marathon, and just started training for Disney. I have yet to officially register, and was a few seconds away from the final clicks, but...I am fast approaching my 50th birthday. My goal for this race would be to have a qualify time for the Boston Marathon. I know that the Disney marathon is not the best for a qualifying time, but I love the course, the weather, everything about Disney. However, I have not run a race that will get me into a higher corral and my training calendar does not have me running such a race by the time the corral placement date ends. So, here is my dilemma. I have NO problem being in the last corral. I have started a few races back there with friends and had a blast. But this race, there are no friends or family. Just me. I know there will be bottlenecks and I may have to dodge runners and weave in and out for the first 3-4 miles before it opens up a bit.

Do you think is is possible to run a sub 3:30 marathon starting in the last corral? No character stops are planned, just running (well, I may stop and curse at the Army guy on the onramp hill)...

Any thoughts/advice would be greatly welcomed. No airfares, hotels, car rentals or registration has been made yet...

It is possible. I quickly reviewed the WDW 2016 marathon results and found several runners who were around a 3:30 finish time that appeared to start in the middle/last corral based on the difference between their clock time and net time (last two time columns).

28 Furman
33 Wippel
35 Trinchere



41 Urresta
54 Santos



These five are all examples of what you're asking whether it's possible. However, I would agree with @opusone and try to at least sneak in a 10 miler or HM between now and then to at least move up a few corrals. Based on your current goal marathon time, it wouldn't take much above a training effort to move up into the top 1/4 of the corrals. Hope this helps!

 

[Barca33Runner]

Need some advice. A bit of background. I have run 3 Disney Marathons, and last ran the Dopey in 2014. Oddly enough, this resulted in my best marathon time ever, 3:33. After a few years of injury, I am in training for one more marathon, and just started training for Disney. I have yet to officially register, and was a few seconds away from the final clicks, but...I am fast approaching my 50th birthday. My goal for this race would be to have a qualify time for the Boston Marathon. I know that the Disney marathon is not the best for a qualifying time, but I love the course, the weather, everything about Disney. However, I have not run a race that will get me into a higher corral and my training calendar does not have me running such a race by the time the corral placement date ends. So, here is my dilemma. I have NO problem being in the last corral. I have started a few races back there with friends and had a blast. But this race, there are no friends or family. Just me. I know there will be bottlenecks and I may have to dodge runners and weave in and out for the first 3-4 miles before it opens up a bit.

Do you think is is possible to run a sub 3:30 marathon starting in the last corral? No character stops are planned, just running (well, I may stop and curse at the Army guy on the onramp hill)...

Any thoughts/advice would be greatly welcomed. No airfares, hotels, car rentals or registration has been made yet...

I certainly think it is possible to run sub-3:30 from the last corral. However, I don't think anyone would be able to run his/her best possible time from the last corral. As you've said, you've run the race before and know the obstacles that would be in front of you. I imagine if you were able to get to the very front of your corral that you might have a little time to plan your best path for negotiating the corrals in front of you, but I still think there would be a good amount of weaving required.

If a Boston Qualifier is really the primary goal of this run I think I would try to plan a proof of time race between now and the cutoff (as has previously been suggested) to improve your corral or consider finding another, more PR-conducive, race. If you really want to run the WDW Marathon and getting a Boston Qualifier is more of a secondary, "it would be nice" type of goal; I'd say running from the back of the pack and giving it your best shot could be a fun idea.

 

[FFigawi]

However, I have not run a race that will get me into a higher corral and my training calendar does not have me running such a race by the time the corral placement date ends.

You say this like training plans are set in stone and can't be altered. If a BQ is really what you're after, change your training plan. Find a way to run a race (10 miles or longer) to give you a proof of time for one of the first few corrals. Sure, it's possible to run a fast marathon from the last corral, but why would you want to? The stress of trying for a BQ is high in the base case. Weaving around slower runners, walkers, and the general crowds on the course until you're well clear of Magic Kingdom (the bottlenecks will last much longer than 3-4 miles when starting at the tail end of the race) will only frustrate you, use up precious time and energy, raise your stress level higher, and detract from the mental focus you need to maintain your BQ pace for 26 miles. Personally, if I wanted to BQ, Disney wouldn't be high on the list of races in which to attempt it. In your case, if you must try for a BQ and you must do it at Disney, you need to get yourself into a higher corral.