2016 Dopey Challenge/Runner's World Challenge - what a blast!!!

[Kidoctr]

I had just finished my first full marathon at the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon in April 2015. It had gone so well that I was looking for another marathon to sign up for. My dream had always been to do my first full marathon at Disney but the timing just didn't work out in terms of training. Now that I had my first full marathon under my belt, it made perfect sense to turn to Disney for my next one so I got a little excited reading about the Dopey Challenge. Hey, if you're going to commit, why not commit big? What really surprised me is that my DH, Seth, wanted to do the Dopey Challenge with me - it would be his first full marathon. We've both done other runDisney events - 6 of them, actually, including the Expedition Everest Challenge we did with the kids, the Race for the Taste 10K, the Tower of Terror 13K, the Princess Half, Wine and Dine Half Marathon, Disneyland Half, and the Coast-to-Coast Challenge. We haven't done some of the newer races like Star Wars or Avengers - maybe that'll be a topic for another time.

At any rate, since we consider ourselves luxury Disney travelers , the Runners World Dopey Challenge seemed right up our alley with some really nice race amenities like private packet pick up, a race retreat to hang out in, a private VIP walkout on race morning, private porta potties and gear check, etc. We snatched up this package and the commitment was made (the RW Challenge package sold out very quickly). I booked at SSRS with DVC points and purchased our park passes with my Disney Visa Rewards Card.

So training commenced at the end of June - I followed the Jeff Galloway Dopey Challenge training program. My only goal? To finish upright. Time wasn't going to matter because whatever it was, it would be a PR and what better way to justify a trip back to Disney than to try and beat a PR, right?

I pretty much followed my training plan exactly with just a few tweaks along the way doing a half marathon in Wichita as a training run in October and then a full marathon in Tulsa in November as another training run and a couple of weekend switches to accommodate my work schedule. The hardest part of the training plan was staying on track during the holidays.

So now as I "take it easy" during my first post-race week, I had a chance to get my thoughts down about the challenge on my blog and figured I should share it here too.

 

[Kidoctr]

Disney World Dopey Challenge - Day 0, Wednesday, January 6, 2016

It was finally Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend - the biggest Disney running event of the year. We started day 1 of 6 in a row where we would be up between 2:30 and 3:30 am. I think maybe if we were 20 years younger, the early mornings would have killed us but being old folks, it wasn't that big a deal, IMO, to be up so early as long as we went to bed at a decent time the night before. We had decided to drive down and spend the night in OKC (2 hour drive) on Tuesday evening for our 6:45 am flight. We were up at 3 am and out the door at 3:30 to check in for our flight. The flight went smoothly stopping off in Atlanta but we didn't have to switch planes. We did realize, though, that we forgot to put our magical express tags on our suitcases but it all worked out in the end because when we arrived, we had already received a text message that our villa was ready at Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa (SSRS).

We collected our suitcases and crossed back through the airport to the other terminal to catch the Magical Express motor coach. We checked in with our Magic Bands easily but the line was actually pretty long for our motor coach. After a bit of a wait, we boarded and were whisked away to SSRS via Port Orleans resort. We picked up our bags and headed off for the bus stop but after looking at the resort map and waiting for a bit, we decided to just walk over to the Grand Stand which, as it turns out, is the closest villa to the Carriage House (main house). The pathway to the Grand Stand wasn't very obvious so we stopped to ask a Cast Member and eventually found our villa. Our Magic Bands worked to open the door to our 1 bedroom villa. This was the first time we've ever bypassed check-in and gone straight to our villa. Very cool.

We quickly dropped our luggage off and grabbed our waivers and headed off to the Health and Fitness EXPO. I had read online that Dopey race gear would be available but had sold out within a few hours at last year's EXPO. We walked back to the Carriage House and caught the next bus to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex which wasn't very far away. In retrospect, I'm really glad we got a villa in the Grand Stand rather than some of the villas that were very far away from the race bus stop. I'm sure some people had to take the SSRS bus to get back to the Carriage House to catch the race bus. We just lucked out as I hadn't thought to request this.

The bus dropped us off at what was possibly the furthest parking lot away from the EXPO. We walked and walked and passed the parking lot we remembered being dropped off for previous packet pick ups, and then walked and walked some more. We finally arrived at the HP Field House and went straight downstairs to the Runners World Challenge booth where there was no waiting. One thing I thought was strange is that it's really unclear on the RunDisney website just how many waivers you need. There was a race waiver, a pasta party waiver, a ChEAR squad waiver, and even a breakfast waiver. I went ahead and printed out the custom waiver we received via email as well as one of the generic waivers from the website just in case. We each received a packet with 2 bibs, a black Runners World Challenge wristband, and a clear plastic bag with 6 shirts each. Unfortunately, our commemorative race pin sets were missing so we had to go outside, back inside, and upstairs to check on our pins - but after we each had our pictures taken with our Dopey Challenge bibs. This was the way that they would confirm that we had finished the Dopey Challenge and earned our medals (hopefully!).







We had a great deal of difficulty retrieving our pins. I was able to pull up Seth's confirmation that showed we had purchased the pin set but when I went to pull up my confirmation, hotmail had a melt down and, even though I tried on my phone, Seth's phone, someone else's phone, and finally the booth guy's phone - nobody was able to get into hotmail. After a good 30 minutes of trying, walking outside, coming back inside, using strangers' phones, I finally got through and pulled up my confirmation letter showing I had paid for those pins. There was no way I was going to just let it go - the commemorative pin set was over $80!

Finally with packet pick up complete, we did a little shopping right there next to pin pick up. There were still a good number of Dopey items left....except for the Dopey Challenge jacket and all of the "I Did It!" shirts which were gone. Seth did manage to find one more Dopey jacket in 2XL - the last one at the EXPO. This was seriously silly why they wouldn't order enough Dopey swag. I did find a Dopey Challenge car magnet and a Dopey Challenge cap to wear. We paid for our items and made our way to the EXPO.

I needed more KT tape and Seth needed more body glide which we found easily. New Balance had also just released their RunDisney collection of shoes which we had heard were snatched up quickly. We saw people walking out of the EXPO with half a dozen New Balance shoe boxes. It was just crazy.


New Balance collection

We took the bus back to SSRS, unpacked our suitcases, and then took a short nap before heading out to Disney Springs. The other advantage to staying in the Grand Stand at SSRS is that it's very close to the boat dock with the boat that takes you directly to the middle of Disney Springs. Each time we went to Disney Springs, we took the boat and it seemed faster than waiting for a bus which makes a pick up at the Grand Stand and then winds its way to all of the other bus stops in SSRS before actually departing for Disney Springs (which is actually really close).


On the boat to Disney Springs

We had some time before our 6:30 pm dinner reservation so we walked around a bit and marveled at how much "Downtown Disney" had changed. It looked like Planet Hollywood was closed. They were building another huge parking structure. There were a whole bunch of new shops (Sanuk, Art of Shaving, etc) and restaurants since we had visited last. We crossed the bridge and made our way over to the AMC theater. We didn't have time to catch a movie today but had decided that we could take in a movie on Saturday after the half marathon. We bought ourselves tickets for the 2:15 pm show and then make our way to Fulton's Crab House for dinner.

We arrived just a little early but were seated right away. We had the calamari for an appetizer but it wasn't the same calamari I remember from previous visits. The pieces were all the same shape and size, small, and the breading kept falling off. The sauce that came with the calamari was good but I was overall disappointed with the calamari - we won't be having those again. I decided that instead of ordering the crab legs, I would just have the seafood sampler appetizer for 2 as an entree which was actually quite a bit less expensive that an order of the crab legs entree. The sampler was HUGE too.



Every bit of it was great but I did wish that there was something to dip the lobster and crab in. Some drawn butter or something.

After dinner, we returned to SSRS via the boat again, set an alarm for 3:30 am, laid out our race gear, made more ice in the freezer for later in the weekned, and went to sleep early at around 9 pm.

 

[Kidoctr]

Disney World Dopey Challenge - Day 1, Thursday, January 7, 2016 - 5K

I went to bed early enough that I woke up before the alarm went off at 3:30 am. It was just a 5K at 6 am so we weren't too worried about it. We decided to head out at just past 4 am and walked right onto a race bus and were taken to EPCOT for the start. As in typical Disney fashion, the buses were all well-orchestrated, lining up in several rows letting racers off. We walked for a bit and then were divided up into racers with bags and racers without bags. For the first 3 races, we didn't bother with gear check so we walked right in. They were even requiring racers with belts on (hydration belts, gear belts, etc) to go through bag check/security.

We walked a bit more, past a first set of porta potties with a good sized line, and into a large open area where the announcers/music were. I had to use the bathroom again (for the 3rd time already), so we found another much larger set of porta potties with no wait on the other end of the waiting area. We listened to the DJ and announcers for a bit and actually ran into another fellow Enid Running Club member doing the Dopey Challenge.







At 5:00 am, we were invited to head out to the corrals. Everyone was supposed to be in their corrals by 5:30 am.





We were in corral E - the 2nd to last corral - we hadn't submitted any times for the corral placement as we were fine with just finishing upright and not much interested in our times. We had already decided that we would just walk the 5K. There was yet another large set of porta potties right next to the corrals which was great because I ended up using it one last time right before the start of the race. The start line was really cool - a screen went across the entire top of the start structure and they played an animated video before each corral started complete with sound effects and a small display of fireworks.



What was odd, I thought, was that the corrals were placed parallel to the start line and Corral A was actually the furthest from the start. Even though we were closer to the start than Corral A, there was still about an 8 minute interval between corrals after the race got started so we didn't start until well after 6:30 am. Since we had decided to be conservative and just walk the 5K, I was shocked at how rude some people were in the way that they were treating walkers - making loud comments about how walkers are "supposed to walk on the right", and people loudly declaring their path between walkers and that walkers should make way (yelling things like "Coming through"). Unfortunately, this was the case each of the 4 days of races. Even still, it was Disney, and we enjoyed the scenery and entertainment. (I'm in the process of purchasing our Dopey Challenge photos but there was a problem with some of our photos only showing up under Seth's bib instead of both of ours so while that's being sorted out....)



We stopped to take a picture behind Spaceship Earth - the giant EPCOT "golf ball" which we could stop and do during every race as each one would pass behind it on the way to the finish line. We finished the 5K in 53 minutes and collected our first medal - the only one that wasn't actually metal.





When we finished the race and collected our medal, we picked up some water and Powerade, bypassed the picture takers, and skipped the food (bananas and a RunDisney box with snacks including oreos, tortilla chips, cheese spread, a protein bar, grape flavored craisins, etc) making our way to the Race Retreat where they were serving breakfast. Our Runners World Challenge wristbands got us in. The Race Retreat was very close to the finish line, but you had to go clear around it, through the large waiting area, and around to the tent.

There was a special section reserved just for Runners World Challenge participants which was kind of nice. We got some breakfast and coffee and relaxed in our special area.









Another perk of the Race Retreat were the characters available for pictures. We had decided that we wouldn't take any time from the race to stop for pictures so it was nice to have some character pictures from the race after all.



We took the bus back to SSRS via Port Orleans and made a beeline for the bathroom at the Carriage House when we arrived. I should have used the porta potties near the bus stop after having a bottle of water and some coffee and after waiting on the bus for a while. The bus driver was waiting for "stragglers".

We returned to our villa and threw our race gear into the washer - a nice advantage to staying in a 1 bedroom villa - we did a load of laundry after every race. I had spilled some coffee on my shirt, vest, and hat so threw everything in the washer including some clothes from the day before. By the time we got done showering and getting ready, our clothes were dry and ready for our next race.

We took a bus to EPCOT and slowly made our way to the Canada pavilion after stopping for a few pictures in front of the Ball. A mistake I had made a little while ago was purchasing the Memory Maker package from Disney thinking that our race photos would be taken by Disney Photopass Cast Members. I found out later that the photos were being taken by Marathonfoto and would not be available on Memory Maker. Boooo..... So we made it a point to take as many pictures as we could during our 2 days in the parks.








Our reservation for Le Cellier Steakhouse was at 12:40 pm so we made our way over to the Canada Pavilion and arrived just a little bit early. Even though we were a little early, the place was pretty empty and we were seated right away.

I chose the beet and goat cheese salad and we shared a poutine - it was just the right amount for a light lunch.





We decided to go to the France Pavilion to find some dessert but we were disappointed to see that the little French bakery there had been changed to an ice cream store. We walked to the back of the France pavilion into the food court but the wait was too long just to buy a little sweet snack so we left. On our walk towards Mouse Gear, we stopped to have a nice French photopass cast member take some pictures for us - he was very friendly and even took time to pose us. These were some of my favorite photos from our trip.





We checked out Mouse Gear but didn't really find anything we wanted so we made our way for our fastpass+ ride - Test Track. We decided to go "green" on our test car which sucked at most of the tests except for efficiency but we did place in the top 5 all day in efficiency so far.





After Test Track, we headed out of the park and back to SSRS to rest up a bit before the pasta party. Even though it was just a 5K this morning, we were up so early that I was feeling sleepy and took kind of a longish nap - longer than I would normally take - a couple of hours. We woke up at around 5:30 and got ready to head back to EPCOT for the Pasta in the Park party. We had already decided ahead of time that we would just have dinner and skip the Illuminations show at 9 pm.

As we walked up to the world showplace pavilion just before 7 pm, the doors had just opened and the line was pretty far down - we walked almost to the UK Pavilion to find the end of the line but it moved very quickly. We were checked for our Runners World Challenge wristband which got us into the party. We were very familiar with the World Showplace Pavilion having attended the Party for the Senses a few times during the annual food and wine festival.

There were plenty of tables and seats arranged around a stage and dance floor. We immediately found the special tables that were reserved just for Runners World Challenge participants. There were 2 areas to get pasta on both sides of the pavilion. There were also 3 character meeting areas and the theme for the evening was Toy Story so one area had Buzz and Woody, another area had Jessie and BullsEye, and a third area had Lotso the bear. There was a drink station that had lemonade and water. There was a cash bar and also an area for "selfies" complete with little signs and props to hold up although there was a Cast Member there to take pictures for us.








We staked out our table first and then headed over to the selfie station because nobody was there. We got some cute shots.



We headed next to the pasta and I opted to stay away from the creamy pasta and got some green beans, salad with a vinaigrette, and the pasta with sausage. The food was just ok - kind of what we expected. I think I really would have just preferred straight spaghetti with some meat sauce.





After we ate, we watched the entertainment for a bit - there was a DJ and also a host and they were keeping everyone pretty entertained - especially when they held a "dance contest" - the DJ was hilarious between the music he selected and the dance moves that he had. The music in the dance contest spanned several generations which was fun. During the dance contest, we decided to hit the character greeting spots and get some pictures while the line was short.





Besides the character greets and the funny entertainment, my other favorite part of this party was the dessert. We saw the ice cream cart when we first arrived and by the time we made it over there, the mickey bars were gone and we were just left with ice cream sandwiches - which was fine. But then as we were leaving, we spied a 2nd ice cream cart which did have mickey bars so Seth had to get another one. I opted out because it's the pits having a bout with lactose intolerance during a race.







We headed back to SSRS and although the alarm was set for 3 am, I had a little trouble falling asleep because of my earlier nap.

 

[Kidoctr]

Disney World Dopey Challenge - Day 2, Friday, January 8, 2016 - 10K

After all my checking, watching, and fretting about the weather for the past few weeks, this morning was what I had been most worried about - it was raining and cold. We had the good sense to grab some RunDisney mylar blankets after the 5K yesterday which really came in handy to at least try to stay a bit drier in the rain and warmer.

I woke up about 10 minutes before my alarm went off and got up to go through what was becoming a familiar routine. Putting on running clothes (I'm glad I had brought along a pair of calf length running tights), putting KT tape on my right foot which had been having a couple of issues with both plantar fasciitis and tarsal tunnel syndrome, having something to eat (a banana and protein bar), putting my hair up under a cap, and taking a zyrtec and about 800 mg of ibuprofen. One last potty stop and we were headed out the door around 4 am.

Since we knew there was going to be a bit of a wait with 8 minute corral starts and we were in the same corral again, we had arrived a little later and didn't have as long a wait before heading out to the corrals. When we reached our corral, we found 2 spots on the ground to sit and wait for the start and try to stay dry and warm. The rain wasn't a downpour - thank goodness. It seemed to come and go in waves.








Seth under his mylar blanket and cap trying to take a nap

When we got around to the start line - it was still raining and they warned everyone to remember to not cover their race bibs with the mylar blankets because the readers wouldn't pick them up. We power walked most of this race and finished the 5K faster than the day before and, in the end, did a little interval running which actually felt really good. I didn't really train much with power walking so it wasn't super comfortable for me to walk that way for so many miles - my back hurt the most. It was a relief to do a little running.

We snapped our 2nd selfie near Spaceship Earth and ran the rest of the way to the finish in 1:36.



What was nice about the 10K was that the text alerts that I had signed up for from RunDisney finally started showing up which gave us some nice information:






This time, we stopped to pick up a banana and RunDisney food pack before heading over the race retreat tent for breakfast.



We had a leisurely breakfast and took a few photos - the characters today were Briar Rabbit, Briar Fox, and one of the bears from the Briar Patch.





This time, we used the porta potties at the Race Retreat before getting on the bus to SSRS. It was still raining and we had each gotten a new RunDisney mylar blanket to use. We hung them up in our villa to dry so we could use them again in the morning.



We did another load of laundry - it felt great to get out of our wet stuff. I had read online sometime ago a recommendation to bring an extra pair of race shoes - that recommendation paid off as we had a fresh pair of dry shoes to wear for the next 2 days.

We headed to the Magic Kingdom after showering and getting cleaned up. We had fastpass+ for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad so we headed there first. I was a little worried it would be down in the rain, but the rain had slowed down quite a bit now and we got on without much wait at all. I had also read an article online about hidden gems (food) to eat at the Magic Kingdom. My favorite pre-race meal is a baked potato so we headed over to the Liberty Square market where we each had a baked potato - not too big - with cheese, butter, and sour cream. It hit the spot. Afterwards, I wanted to find the cart near Aladdin's Magic Carpets that sold Cheeseburger Spring Rolls. It didn't take long for us to find the cart and we were pleasantly surprised at how much the spring rolls tasted just like a cheeseburger - beef, cheese, even the taste of onion and mustard.- they were delicious and rounded out a nice, lighter lunch. I really didn't want to have a large lunch since we had dinner reservations at the new Morimoto restaurant at Disney Springs fairly early....5:15 pm. This was, by far, the cheapest lunch we had at Disney.






We had some time to kill before our Buzz Lightyear fastpass+ time slot so we made our way across the bridge to Tomorrowland and stopped in at the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, and then rode the People Mover. It felt good to put our feet up. My legs felt great but my right foot was bothering me a bit as expected.

We always enjoy the Buzz Lightyear Ranger Spin. Seth didn't want to ride Space Mountain so we headed back across the bridge and stopped for a photo op with the Photopass cast member.










We went ahead and headed back to SSRS for a short siesta and then walked over to the boat dock to take the boat to Disney Springs. On our way to the dock, we were surprised to run into a couple of friends who were also staying at SSRS and were planning on doing the half marathon in the morning - Laura and Katelyn Mehlhaus. We had met the Mehlhaus's a few years ago on an Adventure by Disney and had a few things in common with them including kids close in age and Laura's husband who is also a family medicine physician. We rode the boat with them to Disney Springs where they were having dinner at the House of Blues. We stopped for a selfie before parting ways.





We headed over to Morimoto Asia for our 5:15 pm reservation. This new restaurant is pretty cool looking and we were seated in an enclosed area that felt a little more private with only one other couple in our area. At first when I saw the menu, I was a little disappointed. It seemed pretty ho-hum for an Asian restaurant. My favorite pre-race dinner is either pasta or Asian noodles so I ordered the ramen noodle soup with BBQ pork. Seth wanted to share their spicy tuna rolls and to try the Morimoto ribs. I was a little hesitant to try the ribs because the sauce had cilantro as an ingredient (I hate hate hate cilantro) but I tried some and it was absolutely delicious - perfectly cooked. We also had the steamed pork belly bun which was actually just a strip of pork belly wrapped in a steamed bun - this too was excellent. My ramen soup was fantastic - it was obvious that the noodles were handmade. So, all in all, I loved this new addition to "Downtown Disney" and we will definitely be back in the future. We read through the dessert menu but were too stuffed to try any of it.





We got back to SSRS for another early night. Since we had to be at the Race Retreat in time for our "private VIP walkout" to the corrals by 4:15 am, the alarm was set at 2:30 am.

 

[Kidoctr]

Disney World Dopey Challenge - Day 3, Saturday, January 9, 2016 - Half Marathon

For the 4th day in a row, we were up in the wee hours of the morning. I set my alarm for 2:30 am planning to be out the door at around 3:15 am. I had a lot to do this morning since things were getting serious at this point - our half marathon was today which required more preparation. I have a list of half/full marathon things to do saved in my iPhone. Besides the usual stuff like KT tape, sunscreen, ibuprofen, and chapstick, I had to add in getting a protein drink, oatmeal, and some Powerade down before we left. The rings come off at this point because my hands get swollen at the end of these longer races, and I switched over to wearing my compression shorts and compression calf sleeves. I just couldn't get all my oatmeal eaten and left the half eaten package in the kitchen, used the bathroom once more, and then we were out the door headed to the bus.

I figured that this would be one of the busiest days of the race weekend because of the popularity of the half marathon distance. As we made our way to the bus stop, we saw buses lined up down the street and knew that it was going to be crowded. It turns out that there were only about 11,000 participants in the 10K (more than half of those were Dopey Challenge participants) and for the half marathon, there were over 21,000. As our bus pulled away from SSRS, I counted 6 more buses waiting. I think one more bonus of staying at SSRS is that we never had to wait long for a bus to take us to the races. I had read that some of the other resorts had long lines to even get on a bus.

We skipped bag check again and walked right in and made our way over to the Race Retreat. This was the first day that we would be able to hang out inside, use the private bathrooms, and have a bite to eat before the race. It was noticeably more busy in the Race Retreat than we had seen the last 2 days.







We sat down and relaxed in the Runners World Challenge area and around 4:15, they gave us instructions about our "VIP walk out" to the start corrals. We would all be taken through the crowd hanging on to a rope (a la "school style") and would be led over to where we would take a shortcut to the start line. We each hung on to the rope as we left the Race Retreat but it was so slow going. There were about 50 Runners World Challenge participants.







Once we got past the crowd, we let go of the rope and they actually led us across the grass and through the trees to the street where the start line was. It was significantly closer to go this way than it would have been to go clear all the way around the other side (we were told the normal walk out was over 0.5 mile). Unfortunately, the corrals were arranged differently this time with the A-L corrals one right after the other behind the start line. The M-P corrals were parallel to the A-L corrals and to the left but the entrance to corral M (our corral) was blocked off from the direction we were walking (from the front to the back). The M-P corrals were set up for people walking from the back towards the front so this meant that we had to walk in between the 2 sets of corrals all the way back past the P corral and then do a U-turn to get to the other side and walk all the way back to the M corral. It probably ended up being just as far to walk as if we had taken the regular walk out route. That was a little frustrating.



I was really hoping that the corral waves would move faster today - which it did..about 3-4 minutes between corrals instead of 8 minutes but because we were all the way back in the M corral, our start time was about what it had been the last 2 days - about 45 minutes later. At least it wasn't over an hour like I thought it would be.

It was definitely warmer and more humid this morning. I didn't take long for me to shed my long- sleeved half marathon tech shirt and wrap it around my waist. I had to mess with it the whole race to make sure I didn't lose it ending up rolling it up and double knotting it around my waist. The race started with even more fireworks than the previous 2 days. After one more quick run to the porta potty after the race started, we got on our way having decided that we would be conservative and do a run/walk interval of 2:4.


It was SO crowded that a lot of our run intervals were spent weaving in and out between people. I figured out that my right foot was a lot happier if I ran on the grass on the side of the road even though it was more uneven so I spent as much time as I could on the grass. We didn't get very far and because I was worried about the availability of a potty, I went ahead and used the first porta potties we got to (they were actually there for the other side of the road for people who had made the turn and were heading back from the Magic Kingdom). I figured potties would be scarce for the next 5 miles or so until we got to MK.

It was elbow to elbow with other runners pretty much the whole way. I had even made a mistake when I saw a cast member in their car driving towards us on their way to work and waving that I put my hand up to wave back and a woman actually SMACKED into my lifted hand with her face. She was that close. She gave me the dirtiest look I've ever seen in a race and all I could wonder was why she was so close to me to begin with.

The run through the Magic Kingdom was pretty awesome - running down Main Street towards the castle all decked out in shimmering lights and as we went looping through Tomorrowland and into the back end of Cinderella's castle, there was a snow machine (soap bubbles) and Cinderella, Prince Charming, and Aurora were waving from up above as you passed under the castle. The cast members from the Royal Table were lining the passageway cheering and clapping. There were a ton of photographers snapping pictures as you went through and out of the castle (and, I realized later, some rabbit ears hovering behind me thanks to Seth).







We were a little behind in pace to begin with (too many potty stops) but eventually caught up a bit with some more speed walking.







The run back to EPCOT was pretty boring and was especially brutal when we had to take a wide, banked on-ramp to take an overpass. It seemed to go on forever. We finally made it to Spaceship Earth for the third time and stopped to take a picture although Seth was having trouble seeing because his glasses were so fogged up.



We finished off the half marathon running the last 0.2 miles and came in right under goal pace. We had actually made up a lot of time because of the 3 bathroom stops along the way. This time, instead of mylar blankets, Disney gave everyone a cooling towel after they finished.


It was right back to the Race Retreat for us and we relaxed for a bit and had something to eat. I finally felt like we were really earning some bling now.



I was relieved that my legs really felt pretty good after the race. My right foot was complaining but not much more than it usually did after a training run. We decided to pick up some food from the Artist's Palette at SSRS and take it back to the villa with us. When we got back to our villa, we took turns taking an ice bath. We had filled up pretty much all of the glass and metal containers in the kitchen with water and had frozen them over the last couple of days in the freezer. It worked pretty well and we filled them up again to get ready for the final race.

We ate our lunch and took a brief nap then made our way back to Disney Springs to catch the 2:15 pm showing of Star Wars - The Force Awakens. It was a good way to relax without just hanging out in our villa.

We had dinner reservations off-property at an Italian restaurant but Seth really didn't want to go out for dinner so I cancelled it on Opentable and booked us a last minute reservation at the Turf Club right at SSRS. We had eaten there once before and it was pretty good. We got there just before our reservation at 5:30 pm and were seated outside on the covered patio which was nice and just starting to cool off a bit as clouds moved in and it eventually starting pouring rain.

We decided to share the crispy shrimp appetizer as well as the Turf Club pasta which was just the right amount of food without getting too stuffed. The pasta was just ok. We made our way back to our villa in the pouring rain and got ready for our final race setting the alarm at 2:30 am again.

I spent a little time googling and reading a bit about the Balloon Ladies and about being swept during the marathon. I was a little worried about the possibility of being swept and had that little nagging doubt that always seems to creep in when you're about to undergo a big race even though you know you're prepared for it. The Balloon Ladies are volunteers that walk the Dopey Challenge (with Mickey balloons from Disney) from the very back of the last corral at exactly a 16 minute per mile pace. Each of our 3 races so far were well under the 16 minute per mile pace cut off and we were 3 corrals ahead of the Balloon Ladies so I felt more confident and quickly drifted off to sleep.

 

[Kidoctr]

Disney World Dopey Challenge - Day 4, Sunday, January 10, 2016 - Full Marathon

The final day was here - full marathon day - and I slept like a rock until just before my alarm went off at 2:30 am. I repeated pretty much the exact same ritual as I had yesterday and we left at around the same time again - just past 3 am. The only difference today was that we decided to bring a bag with us so we could each have a pair of shoes to change into after the race. From my previous full marathons, I think the worst thing immediately after the race was the fact that my feet hurt terribly and I could not wait to get my shoes and socks off.

There weren't quite as many buses lined up this morning. We made our way over to security and we got through bag check pretty quickly and made our way over to the Race Retreat tent. We used the private porta potties and left our bag in the Runners World Challenge area as our group walked together (hanging on to a rope again but this time it went much faster) for the VIP walk out to the start corrals. As we got to corral M, I stopped on a whim just to ask the cast members if it was ok for us to "hop" the fence into corral M because of the way we were walked over (rather than having to walk all the way down to corral P and then back up to corral M again). The female cast member was very nice and understood what I explaining to her and unlatched the barrier for us to walk past. This saved us a bunch of walking so the take-home message is that it never hurts to ask (politely)!

When we had left the Race Retreat, we had each grabbed a RunDisney sign that were on the tables so that we would have something to sit on in the corral (the ground was still damp from the rain the night before). We found ourselves a place to sit and just relaxed until close to the start of the race. At about 5:20 am, we made one more porta potty run and then returned to our corral for the start. They saved the biggest fireworks for the marathon start, of course. This morning, instead of bringing a long-sleeved race shirt, I had brought along a really old and stained Tulsa Runner long sleeved tech shirt that I stripped off and left in the corral before we got started.








The first part of the race was exactly the same as the half marathon except that we didn't have to make as many potty stops (although I did pull my phone out at 6:45 am to make an online check-in for our flight the next day - something that will always be funny to mention doing while running a marathon). The course in MK was slightly different but we still passed under the castle to the cheering of cast members like the day before.







From Magic Kingdom, we headed back towards EPCOT but instead of that banking on-ramp to the overpass, we headed off a different road towards Animal Kingdom. Seth commented on how quiet it was for a good part of the way to AK. I had brought my Garmin watch to keep track of pace and had my iphone on low battery mode with all the apps closed just to get our text messages and use my Nike app later if my Garmin watch died.





By the time we had settled into our 2:4 run/walk interval, we were pretty much right on pace. We reached AK and the half way mark - I was feeling pretty good and confident. We had passed at least one sweep area where there was a bus parked and the course had some yellow cones that, I assume, would be removed and the sweepers would direct those participants onto the bus at the unfortunate time. We entered AK from the back.





One of my favorite parts of all the races was when we passed through AK. At one point, they had some animals from AK - all wearing race bibs. I'm not sure why I thought it was just so funny - I almost stopped for pictures but we didn't take hardly any pictures on any of the 4 days. These are some pictures I found from other people:







We had already discussed the option of riding Expedition Everest before the race started. Seth really didn't want to ride it so we went ahead and ran right past it. We saw more than a few runners detour off to the single rider line to ride it. Maybe someday I'll come back and do it all. This was the first park we hit that was fully open so there were people all over the place watching and cheering us on - it was really fun.

After we left AK, we headed off to the ESPN Wide World of Sports. I guess I had no idea how huge the ESPN center was. It seemed like we kept going and going and going through it - it never seemed to end. We made another potty stop and got to run through one of the baseball fields, on a track, and finally made our way out of the complex on our way to Hollywood Studios.

We got to run up the Streets of America, Hollywood Boulevard, and right out the front of the park all to the cheering of the crowds. It didn't take us long to get from Hollywood Studios to the Boardwalk - we took the path that we had walked many times before and it felt like we were speeding up from the excitement of getting done. We hit mile 20 just as we left Hollywood Studios.



My Garmin watch pretty much died at this point so I switched over to using my Nike+ app on my iPhone. It was a little strange listening to my Nike+ app start the count down over again....."One mile completed.....Two miles completed...." and the cheering when someone "likes" my run on Facebook. We didn't quite go all the way around the boardwalk this time and re-entered EPCOT but this time going to the right to run from the International Gateway all the way around from the UK to Mexico. I was glad to see that the area they blocked off for runners in the world showcase was well over 2/3 of the space instead of cramming us in to a smaller space. We're sooooo close at this point - I think this was one of the few marathon pictures with Seth actually smiling.



We had just a few more intervals to go and made one last stop in front of Spaceship Earth for our 4th and final picture.


It was all adrenaline from here forward. Because there were so many tempting places to stop for pictures and we ran right by them because of a fear of being swept, I knew we were well passed the sweepers and so we did stop for one picture on the course as nobody was in line in front of the LAST mile marker. A Cast Member was there to take our picture for us.



The finish was an amazing feeling - even more sweet given not only the first full marathon for Seth but for the previous 3 days' work we had done. My personal goal was just to finish upright and make it in under the 7 hour cut off and avoid being swept. We had run all 4 days very conservatively and it was great to see that we came in under goal pace.


We collected our marathon medal and then headed over to the Dopey tent where they checked our bib number against our picture from packet pick up and we were bestowed our Goofy and Dopey challenge medals too.




I had to use the bathroom really bad - having tried to minimize the number of bathroom stops during the full so I headed right off, medals clanking together, to use the first porta potty I got to. Big. Mistake. Now I'll always fondly remember how people who complete a full marathon are tired people. Tired people apparently don't aim well in the porta potties. That was possibly the most disgusting porta potty I've ever been in.

So I shook off my porta potty experience with my bladder nicely relieved and we slowly made our way over to the Race Retreat tent for the last time. It was just past 1 pm. We picked up some food - a sandwich this time. They had the same egg and potatoes from yesterday but the food looked a little sad. We sat down and started peeling off our shoes and socks. It felt so good to get those shoes off. Coach Budd came by to congratulate us and took a picture for us.



As we were eating our food, a Runners World Challenge coordinator came by and reminded us that resort bus service only ran until 2 pm and it was already past 1:30 pm. We finished up our food, packed up our bag, and caught the last bus to SSRS. It was funny watching people limping around - I pointed them out to Seth and commented on how everyone looked like the Walking Dead. As we walked out to catch the bus, we walked right past the balloon ladies. It took people a little longer than usual to get on and off the bus - people were getting off at the first stop and hobbling off to their villas but my legs felt really good and I didn't have any trouble getting on and off the bus except for that bothersome R heel/ankle.

We took turns taking an ice bath again, cleaned up and did one final load of laundry. We took a short nap and then headed out for Disney Springs to attend the After Party. We really needed to keep moving and even after just a couple of hours off my feet, my right foot was already feeling better - no longer throbbing. The boat had just started leaving when we arrived at the dock but the cast member was so sweet that he actually brought the boat BACK to the dock and let us on. Maybe it was the medals. I checked online for available reservations at any of the Disney Springs restaurants. We decided to try Gloria Estefan's Bongos Cuban Cafe and got a reservation immediately.

The restaurant hostess led us up the stairs (we were wearing our Dopey medals and I was thinking, really? Upstairs? LOL) to be seated. We sat overlooking the band - they were pretty loud and energetic - singing and dancing and starting a conga line. The atmosphere in the restaurant was definitely lively. We ordered mojitos, an appetizer sampler (the Estefan Cuban Combo - breaded stuffed potatoes with an olive in the center, crispy port bites, bacon wrapped maduros, ham croquettes, and black bean hummus with plantain chips) and I ordered the BBQ Guava ribs. The food was REALLY good. I especially enjoyed the fried plantains with the black bean hummus and my ribs were tender and delicious. There was a huge amount of food so I had enough to take back with us and eat the next day for breakfast.


mojito


Estefan Cuban Combo appetizer


fried plantains


BBQ Guava ribs

I think we made it down the stairs without making it look too ugly and took the boat back to SSRS. We packed up our things and set the alarm early again (3 am) for our 4 am departure on Disney's Magical Express. Of course, we both packed our medals on our carry-on bags....those suckers were just about as valuable as anything else that we had with us now! What a great and completely different Disney trip for us. Can't wait for the next one!

***Edited to add that someone actually compiled the whole Dopey Challenge to figure out rankings. LOL. http://www.shapenoise.com/dopey/Dopey-2016-Ranked-Results.pdf

 

[velvetsqueeze]

Thank you so much for posting this! It is my dream to do this run. I doubt my asthma will ever let me, but I enjoyed living vicariously through you with the photos. One day I'll make it up to 10k and try to make it down for that one. Thanks again for sharing!

 

[TCB in FLA]

Excellent recap of the Dopey! Congrats!

 

[angelbrd]

So much great information and tips. Are the mylar blankets provided by Disney or do you have to prepurchase? My biggest fear is being wet and cold.
Congrats on your run success.

 

[Kidoctr]

So much great information and tips. Are the mylar blankets provided by Disney or do you have to prepurchase? My biggest fear is being wet and cold.
Congrats on your run success.

The mylar blankets were available after the 5K and 10K - they were handing them out at the finish line. After the half and full, they were handing out wet towels because it was warmer. I imagine it totally depends on the weather what you get at the end of the race so depending on Disney to give out mylar blankets after a race probably isn't a sure thing. Now at other races, I've just gone to Dollar General and bought one of their "emergency" mylar blankets for a couple dollars - I always try to keep one in my running gear drawer for those cold morning waits before a race starts.

 

[Ombo]

Thanks for a great report!!

 

[BestAunt]

I love the trip report. I'm trying to decide if I want to sign-up for the RW challenge or wait until tuesdays regular sign-up. Your report gave some great insight.
Congratulations!!

 

[DVC Katie]

Thanks for sharing your trip report! The pictures were great and it looks like you both had fun

 

[jaws19798]

Thanks for taking the time to post your races. I was there for the half and I remember how packed it was. Doing a walk/run at the beginning was tough. Heading back down for my first challenge in Feb for Glass Slipper, maybe one day i'll be brave enough to try Dopey.