ORLANDO, Fla. — One of the largest sporting events of the year in Central Florida took place Sunday morning.
- 26th annual Disney Marathon weekend
- Full marathon took place Sunday
- 15,000 runners made their way through the parks
Fifteen thousand runners made their way through the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom Sunday morning for the Walt Disney World Marathon.
This is the 26th annual Disney Marathon weekend, and the 4-day event culminates Sunday with the full marathon.
The events started Thursday with a 5K run, then Friday with a 10K run, followed by the half-marathon on Saturday, before ending with the long haul on Sunday — 26.2 miles.
Thousands of people from across the country venture to Central Florida to test their running skills at Disney World. And if you're brave enough, you can sign up for the Goofy Challenge or the Dopey Challenge — running either the half and full marathon on Saturday and Sunday, or running all four races each day.
With every race, you get a medal to show for your hard work. If you run the Goofy or Dopey Challenge, you get all four individual race medals plus the extra challenge medals.
And of course every Disney race comes with the fun of dressing up!
One runner said he's dressed up 29 times. And this time, he decided to go as Daisy.
"This is my 29th creative costume. I love entertaining people. Daisy was one of the last characters left, so I gotta rep," Michael Gabriel said.
While you're running along the course, you even get to stop and take pictures with Disney characters. Just one way Disney makes running more fun! And there's never a shortage of music or cheerleaders along the way, helping you push through those last miles.
The fastest runners usually reach the finish line in about 2 hours and 15 minutes. The average finish time for a man is about 4 hours and 30 minutes, and for women it's about 4 hours and 45 minutes.
In a surprise victory, Fredison Costa from Brazil beat out last year's winner in the last few miles of the race. Costa is a 7-time winner and crossed the finish line about two hours and 17 minutes into the race.
Costa was in second place for most of the race, but within the last two miles, he passed last year's winner Nic Hilton.
For the women, Giovanna Martins from Brazil took the win.
If you feel like lacing up your running shoes and challenging yourself 'to go the distance' next year, click here for more info on runDisney.