If you're not familiar with Marathon Weekend here are a few quick bullet points to get you acquainted:
- Marathon Weekend occurs at Walt Disney World in Florida;
- It is during either the first or second weekend in January each year;
- There are kids races, along with a 5k, 10k, Half Marathon, and Marathon; and
- There are two challenges during the weekend; Goofy and Dopey
Now, some quick details on the challenges:
- Goofy - Requires completing the Half Marathon on Saturday and the Marathon on Sunday; Total Miles - 39.3
- Dopey - Requires completing the 5k on Thursday, 10k on Friday, Half Marathon on Saturday, and Marathon on Sunday; Total Miles - 48.6
As I mentioned, I've done the Dopey Challenge since it's introduction in 2014 making this my third one. Since I've done it twice before, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect from the events even though things do change from year to year. I noticed a few things right away this year (and they are all fantastic things in my opinion). First, more people doing their first Dopey Challenge were quick to ask others who had previously completed the challenge, "what is the best advice you can share?" or "what is the hardest part of the weekend?"; I must have heard these questions a hundred times during the weekend. Even though all of us are different and certain things may work for some of us and be completely useless to others it never hurts to get thoughts and ideas from other people, or, just make a new friend you have ample opportunities to run into throughout the weekend. Second, in talking with people it seemed like there were a lot more individuals this year that truly trained for the events and were very well prepared for the challenge ahead. And, third, but my most favorite out of the three, runDisney made a point to repeatedly remind people of how demanding running 48.6 miles in four days is and that the distance and challenge need to be respected; it can't be taken lightly just because it is held at Disney World. Tinkerbell is cute and all but she's not going to come fly you to the finish line if you didn't train appropriately (and cutting the course or taking a shorter route to the finish is never okay; it cheapens the accomplishment for the rest of us; not to mention why would you possibly want a medal for something you purposely didn't complete?).
For the record the best advice I can give is:
- Go to bed early, like by 8 or 8:30pm;
- Have everything you need for the next day's race laid out together in a pile with the appropriate race bib (for Dopey you use two different bibs; one for the 5k and 10k and another for the half and full);
- If you're staying at a Disney Resort, get on the bus to the race early; don't wait and catch one of the last buses before the cut off; you never know when your bus may make a wrong turn or break down or who knows what else, by taking one of the last buses you have lost all of your time cushion for getting to the race on time; and
- Get through security early (this goes hand in hand with the bus note above); with the new costume regulations and so much confusion about enforcing them plus heightened security everywhere lately the security line takes longer than it used to. Also, do yourself and your fellow runners a favor and be ready to go when you get up to the bag check; have all of the zippers on your bag unzipped; help hold it open so they can see in it easily; if you have a jacket or something in the bag take it out before handing your bag to them and hold it so they can see you're not hiding anything inside of it (they're going to have to take it out of your bag anyway to check it).
And the hardest part? That's simple; getting up so early. The buses start around 3:30am depending on which race day it is, which means you're getting up anywhere from 2am to 3am. Four. Days. In. A row.
Alright, so now the fun stuff; the actual races this year!
The 5k was first and with it being a Disney race, you know I had to dress up in a costume. For this race I was a chipmunk; kind of a sad looking chipmunk, especially when I got super sweaty and gross, but it was still fun. And since Pluto is the theme of the 5k it only seemed right to be a chipmunk; I know how much he loves Chip and Dale.
The weather was pretty good on this day; in the 50's and I want to say the humidity was somewhere in the 80-85% range. There were a good amount of character stops during the race (I think I saw four different ones).
The weather was pretty good on this day; in the 50's and I want to say the humidity was somewhere in the 80-85% range. There were a good amount of character stops during the race (I think I saw four different ones).
The 10k, ugh, when I checked the radar before leaving my room this morning I knew I was going to be soaking wet by the end so I grabbed my poncho on the way out the door. If I was going to be soaking wet, I was at least going to wait until I was actually running to get soaked. Then, I immediately began re-thinking my costume for the day. I was Darkwing Duck and when I was costume planning the weather forecast for the week said it was going to be in the 80's, so, instead of getting a full on big floppy Darkwing Duck hat, I chose to get a miniature hat and glue it to a headband. Man I wished I had gone with the big floppy hat when I was out in that rain waiting to start. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love running in the rain but I'm not too crazy about standing around in the rain for an hour or more before running in the rain. It seemed like an eternity before we finally got to start since it was raining the whole time. But, I was so excited when I came up to the Darkwing Duck and Launchpad character stop during the race. I hopped in line, then we were immediately told there was a very intense downpour showing on the radar and the characters would stay out as long as possible but would have to go in as soon as it started raining hard. Thankfully, I was able to get my picture before the downpour arrived; phew. I got so drenched during the 10k on Friday that my clothes I wore that day were still damp by the time I left Orlando on Monday.
Saturday we finally reached the longer runs; half marathon time. This was probably my best race day of the weekend. I had planned to take it really slow and just relax since the marathon was the following day but the weather was absolutely perfect, I felt great for a change and decided to just have a fun race and take advantage of feeling well. This meant I did a lot more running during the half than I had intended but I was okay with that. I figured I would just take the marathon even more slowly than I had originally planned. Sorry to disappoint, but there were no costumes for the half or full.
This was it, I'd finally reached the home stretch again. With how sick I had been starting on Thanksgiving Day all the way through Christmas, I really didn't think I was going to be able to complete the challenge this year. But, having finished the 5k, 10k, and half already and feeling fantastic I knew it was in the bag; I could walk the entire marathon and still finish in plenty of time. Which, is almost what I ended up doing. On the morning of the marathon it was 99% humidity and about 70 degrees at the start. Fortunately the forecast was calling for the humidity to drop as the race went on but the starting conditions were really tough for me. I started not feeling so great about 5 miles in and walked most of the rest of the race just to be safe. It was a terrible finishing time, but it was a finishing time; I crossed the finish line and earned the rest of my Dopey medals for the third time. And, because I was smart enough to just go slow I still felt great; I even raced my husband to the bus (and won). Then we hit the parks for the rest of the day; by the end of Sunday between the race and additional walking, I had broken 40 miles on my Garmin and was ready for a nap.
I do wish runDisney would consider having more Dopey characters at the finish line for us to take photos with. In the parks I understand why they can't have more than one of the same character in the same area for kids, but if they had extra Dopeys inside the finisher area before we exit to the family reunion there wouldn't be any small children to get confused by the extra Dopeys. Or, had him out in the park some place to get a photo with later in the day on Sunday. The line to get your picture with him with your medal was incredibly long and after being up super early four days in a row and knowing the only thing standing between me and eating every delicious Disney World snack I wanted (and had earned) was that long line (and a shower); I skipped the long line. You see, I can't use any of the Gu packs or Sport Beans anymore, they are just too harsh on my stomach, so the only nutrition I had during the race was a banana and water (I can't drink gatorade either) so the snacks were calling my name.
Saturday we finally reached the longer runs; half marathon time. This was probably my best race day of the weekend. I had planned to take it really slow and just relax since the marathon was the following day but the weather was absolutely perfect, I felt great for a change and decided to just have a fun race and take advantage of feeling well. This meant I did a lot more running during the half than I had intended but I was okay with that. I figured I would just take the marathon even more slowly than I had originally planned. Sorry to disappoint, but there were no costumes for the half or full.
This was it, I'd finally reached the home stretch again. With how sick I had been starting on Thanksgiving Day all the way through Christmas, I really didn't think I was going to be able to complete the challenge this year. But, having finished the 5k, 10k, and half already and feeling fantastic I knew it was in the bag; I could walk the entire marathon and still finish in plenty of time. Which, is almost what I ended up doing. On the morning of the marathon it was 99% humidity and about 70 degrees at the start. Fortunately the forecast was calling for the humidity to drop as the race went on but the starting conditions were really tough for me. I started not feeling so great about 5 miles in and walked most of the rest of the race just to be safe. It was a terrible finishing time, but it was a finishing time; I crossed the finish line and earned the rest of my Dopey medals for the third time. And, because I was smart enough to just go slow I still felt great; I even raced my husband to the bus (and won). Then we hit the parks for the rest of the day; by the end of Sunday between the race and additional walking, I had broken 40 miles on my Garmin and was ready for a nap.
I do wish runDisney would consider having more Dopey characters at the finish line for us to take photos with. In the parks I understand why they can't have more than one of the same character in the same area for kids, but if they had extra Dopeys inside the finisher area before we exit to the family reunion there wouldn't be any small children to get confused by the extra Dopeys. Or, had him out in the park some place to get a photo with later in the day on Sunday. The line to get your picture with him with your medal was incredibly long and after being up super early four days in a row and knowing the only thing standing between me and eating every delicious Disney World snack I wanted (and had earned) was that long line (and a shower); I skipped the long line. You see, I can't use any of the Gu packs or Sport Beans anymore, they are just too harsh on my stomach, so the only nutrition I had during the race was a banana and water (I can't drink gatorade either) so the snacks were calling my name.
Now I have until April to decide if I'm going to register for the 2017 Dopey.
All photos are the property of Amy Marcum unless otherwise noted and may not be used without the written consent of Amy Marcum.
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