Brittany Charboneau set a marathon record on Sunday, and she did it dressed as her favorite Disney characters

Brittany Charboneau swept all four of the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend races, becoming the first person to top the 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon finishers in the event’s 29-year history. That’s a combined 48.6 miles of running on consecutive days known as the “Dopey Challenge.”

She completed the marathon in 2 hours, 45 minutes, beating runners from all over the world who competed in Disney-themed costumes. On Thursday she won the 5k clocking 17:36, Friday the 10k in 36:36, the half marathon Saturday in 1:19:18 and then the marathon on Sunday.  

The 33-year-old aspiring Olympian from Denver said she decided to tackle the Disney races after suffering an injury in training and enduring a difficult run at the Boston Marathon in October. She wanted something fun to look forward to after a tough race.

“I feel amazing,” she said Sunday. “This was such a mental-win weekend for me. My goal was never to win all of these. My goal was to go out, wear costumes and have an amazing time.”

Charboneau started running when she was 13, competing in cross country and track in high school and as a walk-on her junior and senior years at Colorado State University. It took her 15 years to win her first race. She finished first in the Chi Town Half Marathon in 2015 in Chicago.

When she won a marathon in Denver in 2017, she quit her sales and marketing job and focused full time on running. In 2020, she finished 13th in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, recording her personal best marathon time of 2 hours, 33 minutes. 

"The reason I wanted to do this is to remind people you can have big goals, but you can have fun with it,” she said.

When she’s not running, Charboneau enjoys doing improv and sketch comedy. Her nickname is “The Funny Runner.”

In the men’s marathon, Vanilson Neves of Brazil finished first, completing the race in 2 hours, 30 minutes.

posted Monday January 10th