How Going to Disney is Like Running a Marathon

We are freshly back from our two-day Disney excursion where I realized that going to Disney World with the family is a lot like running 26.2 miles through the Disney parks itself.

We had a big group of us, my best friend and her family, some of their friends, one day with my husband and one day without and in the end 7 LITTLE BOYS, roughly the same age. We were completely outnumbered.

If you've run a marathon and gone through the trials and tribulations of such, then you will completely identify (I think) and if you haven't, then there is only one thing to do: run a marathon! (Obviously!) Just kidding.

Anyway, besides the fact that the scenery is mostly the same (except that the run does not go through Space Mountain like I got to!) here are the similarities to a day at the park and a day running through the park.

Like in the marathon, you have a good breakfast first.

Then you start out slow and get the feel of it because you're not quite sure yet what to make of it.

You have a great time along the way, you see lots of characters, take pictures and everyone is having a blast.
You're starting to feel comfortable now.


There is both running and walking.

You do all sorts of things you have never done before (like BE A PIRATE!)

You battle your demons.

And you find out what you're made of.

Sometimes you feel like you're flying.

And sometimes you feel (and look) like a super hero.

You find safety in numbers because you're all in it together.

Then there is some pain involved because you're doing this for a long time and therefore, you find aches and pains in odd places. Sometimes for days afterward (Like today. Because I was mama sherpa carrying everything and everyone.)

You hit the bathrooms a lot. You are sweating. Profusely. For most of the day.

You're becoming a hot mess.

Eventually you and everyone around you get pretty tired. You're not sure you can keep going.

But you dig deep and rally. Because hello! It's Disney! It's the happiest place on earth! Of course you have more left!

So you have some more fun. Which in the end always outweighs the work you put in to get there.

And when all is said and done, the day was pretty long, you're all sorts of exhausted and definitely a bunch of sweet hot messes and inevitably there is crying at the finish.

And usually it's the ugly kind.

But going to Disney (like the marathon and also even like labor if we're being honest) becomes only this fantastic memory in your mind and you forget all the pain there might have been involved along the way because of the wonderfulness of the end product, which is awesome, in and of itself.

Even if at some point something came over you and you did try to poke Mickey's eye out, stunning the crowd and workers around you.


Luckily, Mickey forgave you. He knows you're not yourself once you finish a long day like this.


But yes, in the end, you absolutely most definitely no question about it without a doubt, would do it all over again.