Dopey Challenge Part 1 (5K, 10K, and half marathon)

Last year Jennifer wanted to try and get healthier and begin getting more physically in shape. She gets more motivation when she has a goal in mind. Well, at some point she started running in virtual races with the Hogwarts Run Club! She mentioned to me that she wanted to run a half marathon and she heard that Disney races were some of the most fun that she had read about online. Since we had the Disney season passes it seemed like a great idea to me. However, when we got online to book the race she wanted to run we found out that it was sold out. The only thing that we could find available was a full marathon. Since we were looking far enough in advance we could still get in a workout plan for a full before the actual race. After mulling it over for a few days we made the decision that we were going to do it! The only problem that I had was that while researching Disney races I discovered something called the Dopey Challenge. This consisted of 4 races over 4 days where you run a 5K, 10K, half marathon, and a full marathon. I just didn't want to complete the marathon and then see all these other people walking around the parks afterwards with all their medals and I be full of regret that I should have done it. So, as you can imagine with me not wanting to be outdone, I signed up for the Dopey because I may never have the opportunity to do something like this again. Things looked grim about our trip even happening when my father unexpectedly got sick a little bit before Christmas. I called and asked if we could postpone until next year or if I could get a refund. They were only going to give me 25% of my cost of the race, but we put it on the back burner and knew we had to make a decision at least within 5 days of the race.

With my father being sick and I was spending most of my time back home in Western Kentucky I didn't run for about 3 weeks prior to the races. Thankfully my father started to progress in the right direction and I felt comfortable going to Florida for our races. We did decide to cut our trip a little short and not stay the extra days we had planned for afterwards. Another dilemma that we had was that my parents were who we had been planning on to watch our kids. Thankfully, I had a cousin who was gracious enough to watch our kids for a few days so that Jennifer and I could make the trip. So, maybe a little under prepared and with my heart and mind still thinking about my father, we headed out on our kid free trip to Disney!

Heading out on our trip. We had just dropped the kids off at my cousins and stopped by the hospital one last time to say goodbye to my parents. In our typical approach we decided to drive through the night so that we wouldn't get stuck in any traffic.

We made it to Disney and after checking into the hotel we made our first stop at the runners expo to pick up our gear and racing bibs. This was the first time we got a taste of just how many people were going to be present for the races and at the parks, too! 

After the expo we decided to head over and ride a few rides. Jennifer kept telling me that she just wanted to go back to the hotel and just relax, but I don't know the meaning of relaxing while at Disney! As you can see I even got Jennifer to ride the Tower of Terror for the first time and according to her it was the last time. Later that night we even went to see a movie that Jennifer had been wanting to see, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Then it was time to get to bed so that I could get up for my early start time for race number 1!

This was the latest start time of all the races, which was still at 6 am. That meant that I had to be up and at least on a bus over to Epcot by 4:30. For a night shifter, this was the worst part of the experience and it was only day 1! For this race I just re-purposed my Halloween costume from last year and ran as Fix it Felix from the movie Wreck it Ralph. For the first mile and a half I was running just like I had been training and trying to keep a good pace. I was darting in and out of people who were walking or stopping for pictures with characters or mile markers. It took me until half way through the race that I wasn't experiencing the best part of Disney races, which is to have fun and enjoy yourself. Up until this point I was super concerned about my time and not about all the things to see around the course. So, I stopped to get a picture with Goofy before finishing out the race. Afterwards I waited about 30 minutes to meet Dopey and get a picture. Now, I had gotten a feel for how Disney races work so that I could take advantage of everything and enjoy the experience. 

After the race and getting cleaned up, I talked Jennifer into heading out to Epcot to ride a few rides. Here we were enjoying a ride on the new Frozen attraction that usually has about a 2 hour wait, but thanks to fast passes we didn't have to wait at all. We also tried a little treat called a cronut, which is a combination of doughnut and croissant. We called it an early night and headed out to get something to eat and since I was the one running I got to choose. I picked my all time favorite food, Girodano's Chicago deep dish pizza!

Race number 2 started even earlier at 5:30 am, which then meant I had to be on a bus by 4 am. Today I was dressed as Sully from Monsters, Inc and I decided early on that I was going to embrace the Disney magic and just go out and have fun. There were tons of photographers along the course taking action pictures of you running and I smiled at half of them and roared at the other half! The center picture is of me crossing the finish line with a big roar! Again I had a hard time with worrying about my time especially when I was waiting for 20 minutes in order to get my picture made with colonial Mickey, Goofy, and Donald. Right after meeting them was the line to meet Genie, which was about another 10 minute wait.

More pictures from my 10K race around Epcot. The top 2 pictures were taken before the start. The technique that I learned watching other people while I was standing in line to meet characters was to take a selfie and just get the character in the background. This allowed me to get a picture with all the characters without having to wait in line. Then for the characters that I really wanted a picture with I could wait in line for an actual picture.

This race costume was actually inspired by the kids Halloween costume that both Brinley and Landon had worn over the past 3 years when playing dress up. The hat I am wearing is actually the top of the kid's costume glued to a hat. The kids didn't know that Jennifer cut up their costume, but they also haven't missed it at all! In fact my talented wife made all of my race outfits and they were part of my Christmas gift from her and the kids! I am so glad she did it because I would have probably just worn a regular shirt and shorts. I got so many positive reactions from all of my outfits and I owe them all to her, I was just her model.

After the 10K we cleaned up and headed out to the Magic Kingdom for a few treats and rides. Jennifer enjoyed a Mickey pretzel and I had my all-time favorite treat, a Dole Whip float, which is a pineapple ice cream float with pineapple juice. 

We must have both been exhausted because we fell asleep on the bus ride back to the hotel. This picture was taken right after we woke up and realized that we were headed back to the theme park. Yep, we slept right thru our stop!

During the day we had been watching the weather forecast for the next day and it was saying that there was high chance of rain, thunder, and lightning. I called the runDisney offices and asked them about what would happen in the event of cancellation. The representative informed me that they might delay it until the weather passed, but Disney had never cancelled a race before. Well, while I was relaxing out in the pool Jennifer came over and informed me that they had in fact cancelled the race for the next day. This picture summed up my initial thoughts about the race being cancelled, but then I decided that I wasn't going to let this break my spirit. I came here to run 48.6 miles and I was going to do it in the correct order so that I could wear my Dopey Challenge medal with pride and knowing that I actually earned it. I knew the weather was going to be bad and I didn't want to wait until things cleared in the afternoon in order to run because I knew that I had the full marathon the next day. So, I called around to some local gyms to see if anybody had an indoor track and I couldn't find one, so I settled for a treadmill half marathon.

At first I couldn't decide if I should wear my costume or not. Then I decided that I would never see any of these people again, so I proudly walked into Gold's Gym Orlando with my Olaf costume on. I completed 13.1 miles on a treadmill which was awful, but I again tried to make the best of it. Jennifer had snapped some pictures of Disney characters from the internet on her phone and I took it with me and took selfies with a different character about every mile. This broke up the boring aspect of treadmill running and gave me something to look forward to. I did receive quite a few funny looks, but there were a few other dopey challengers there with costumes on so I didn't feel too weird. I chose this location because it was the earliest to open so I actually started around the same time I would have been running the real race. I am glad that they did cancel the race because on my drive to the gym the sky was lit up with lightning and I would have been standing out in my corral if they hadn't called it off.

It just so happened that at the race expo where we picked up our bibs and shirts that they also gave me this luggage tag which was a replica of the half marathon medal. I took it with me and asked someone to take my picture right after I crossed the "finish" line.

After cleaning up and replenishing all my burnt calories with a big Cracker Barrel breakfast we headed out to the Animal Kingdom for a little safari ride. I had wanted to ride the roller coaster together, but it unfortunately was broken down for the day. So, again Jennifer really wanted to go back to the hotel in order to rest up for the race the next day. I didn't have any real reason to stay out any later and I didn't want to wear her out before her big race the next day. I also didn't complain because I wanted to get back so that I could watch the Kentucky Wildcats game. I ended up staying up until about midnight watching the game while Jennifer slept. Getting up around 3:45 was not the ideal wake up call, but it was the last step of my journey! At this point in my Dopey Challenge I had still not even completed half of the 48.6 miles and that my friends was a devastating way to think about it. I have a separate post that I am going to write just about that experience. Thanks for reading and God bless!