[Race Report] D1rt and Dino Do the Dopey Challenge

Race information

• What? Walt Disney Marathon Weekend, Dopey Challenge
• When? January 4-7, 2018
• How far? 5k Thursday, 10k Friday, half marathon Saturday, full marathon Sunday
• Where? Disney World! Florida
• Website: RunDisney

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	Don’t die	Yes
B	Have an absolute blast with D1rt and Rumphy	Yes

This isn’t exactly a traditional race, so this report isn’t exactly traditional, either. I did the best I could!

###Background I don’t entirely remember what spurred this conversation, but maybe a year or so ago, u/d1rtrunn3r, u/herumph, and I decided to do the Dopey Challenge. We registered last June or July when it opened (sells out fast!), so it’s been looming on our schedules ever since. This year was the 25th anniversary of the race weekend and the 5th anniversary of the Dopey challenge. Unfortunately, Rumphy couldn’t run it, but he still came along to spectate!

Training

I didn’t train for this race, specifically, though I think my general training over the past year was helpful in preparing me for it. Most of my training has been focused on fulls and ultras over the past two or so years, and I’m coming off a November goal marathon (Richmond, race report here where I wasn’t thrilled with my performance, and a December timed ultra (a 6 hour race, race report here where I was extremely happy with my performance. You can see a bit more about my training in those race reports, but in brief, I’ve been working with a coach for about a year and we focus on quality over quantity. I got burnt out from Richmond and took December off of structured coaching, but still did some workouts and logged miles.

Pre-race

Flew down on Wednesday, met up with u/herumph and went to the expo where we waited in lots of long, snaking lines. We met Jeff Galloway, who was very nice. Then we went to say hi to u/d1rtrunn3r at work! Met back up with her and one of the minions for dinner, coordinated outfits and travel logistics for the next day’s run, and then went our separate ways. To note, all races had a 5:30am start time, and we had to get there a while early to get into the corrals, plus factor in drive time. So for the first 3 races, wake-up was at 3:15am and we got to the races around 4:45am… marathon was shifted about 15-20min earlier.

###5k HOLY COW IT WAS COLD!!!!!! It was maybe 30F or something, and we were frigid! For this race, I wore my t-rex tights and D1rt wore her robot dinosaur and unicorn tights, and we both had zip ups and ear warmer headband thingies. The corrals were a little tough to navigate, but we got squeezed in the crowd and finally got started. We decided that our approach to character photos would be to wait in line for the ones we really wanted photos with, take selfies off to the side with the character (and the random people who were posing with them for a real picture) in the background for characters we liked but didn’t necessarily want to spend the 2-3min waiting in line for, and then bypass ones we were relatively indifferent about. The race was pretty short so there weren’t a ton of characters out there - we stood in line for Genie during this race, and bypassed the others. We also took a selfie with Epcot in the background, too. Did moose antlers across the line and proceeded through the finish shoot to pick up: medal, mylar blanket, bottle of water (could also choose Powerade, I think they had yellow, red, and blue options), and snack box of applesauce, banana, dried fruit, tortilla chips, queso, 2-pack of oreos, and square of Ghirardelli milk chocolate with caramel.

5k race stats: ended up with 3.26mi on the watch, 39:xx total time, 34:03 moving time (10:26/mi)

5k race thoughts: nothing notable. Pace felt comfortable.

###10k We wanted to do BOAs and ARTC singlets this day, but it was another cold one. Luckily, they gave out mylar blankets after each race, so we used that as an extra layer of protection from the cold. We wore the ARTC singlets over a base layer and BOAs (galaxy for me, firework for D1rt) over tights… NEVER AGAIN with the shorts over tights, u/forwardbound. Corrals were tight again, and I think u/herumph was able to spot us This race had more characters than the 10k, which was nice. We took some selfies with Pinocchio and the Snow White witch with her cauldron. We missed a picture with Pocahontas and the raccoon, who were situated right outside a hairpin turn… we had a good laugh as we exclaimed that the placing was probably strategic because of the song “just around the riverbend”. Moosed across the line again and met back up with Rumphy. We had seen the previous day that they had a bunch of the main characters you could wait in line to take pictures with, but we had been cold and the lines were so long. On Day 2, however, the lines were a little shorter and it was a little warmer, and since we were in our matching ARTC singlets, we decided we’d wait in line. Dopey and Minnie both had super long lines, but Mickey, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald Duck had shorter lines. We stopped at Dopey first since, ya know, Dopey Challenge and all. Rumphy, D1rt, and I got a normal photo and then decided to do a moose ears photo. DOPEY JOINED IN WITH THE MOOSE ANTLERS!!!! Then we got pictures with all the others except for Minnie, because we were shivering. The air was still at the start of the race, but by the time we finished, the wind had picked up and it was cutting through us. We were OUTTA there.

10k race stats: 6.35mi on the watch, 1:01 total time, 1:00:58 moving time (9:36/mi)

10k race thoughts: This was a bit of a hot pace for me, but it still felt good. I was definitely concerned for the half and full, though, because I knew we were only on Day 2 and I didn’t want to run the shorter races too hard and then blow up in the longer ones. Even running at a comfy pace, 26 miles is a loooong way to go, so I didn’t want to trash my legs before Sunday. I mentioned to D1rt that I’d probably need to go slower for the half and full, and she said that I could set the pace.

Half Marathon

Another race, another early wake-up. It was going to be a little warmer but it was still super chilly at the start, so for this race, I wore black tights and my Lisa Frank puppy shirt and arm warmers, and D1rt wore her zebra tights and a long-sleeved top. The corrals and set-up for the half seemed to flow better than the 5k and 10k, though it was a much further walk. They had big fireworks at the start. Early on, we got a selfie with Mike and Sully from Monster’s Inc. For this race, Rumphy took the monorail and was able to see us at a couple of spots. As we ran past him around Mile 4, he yelled at us that Galloway was right in front of us and we needed to pass him… we caught him a bit later :) There was a huge Mickey Mouse hot air balloon that we ran by during the race. We ran by Cinderella’s castle in the dark, and it was all lit up with icicle lights – SO NEAT. We stopped a bit later for a photo with Cinderella and the prince. We made quite a few stops for selfies during this race. Seemed like the lines got much shorter around Mile 8 or so, so we stopped and waited for a few photos later. Tinkerbell and the other fairies really liked my shirt, which was another race highlight – in character, she exclaimed “Lisa Frank?!? You know her?” Did moose antlers across the line again and moseyed through the chute, found Herumph.

Half race stats: 13.24mi, 2:20:xx total time, 2:09:58 moving time (9:49/mi)

Half race thoughts: welp, definitely ran this faster than I had wanted. I knew that my legs wouldn’t be sore the next day, but I was definitely worried that they would be tired because this was still a pretty hard effort for me. We took a lot of photos and we walked through the water stops to avoid choking on the freezing cold water, and I think that those brief pauses let me lower my HR and then run at a faster pace before pausing again. My coach has me do walking recovery for workouts, so I’m familiar with alternating between running at 5k effort and then walking, so I think that experience made it so that I wasn’t mentally freaking out about the pace being too fast as we approached those later miles – I know I’ve made it through workouts that followed a similar format in the past and were run at a harder effort, so this was manageable.

Full Marathon

After running the half pretty fast (for me) the day before and feeling pretty sleep-deprived, I wasn’t too optimistic about how the pacing would be for the full. I didn’t want to be a slowpoke and drag down D1rt, and let’s be real… when has anyone actually run at a comfortable pace during a race if that was what they intended??? Too much excitement! It was a little warmer, and projected to actually get hot. We donned the ARTC singlets again, and I did boring black capris and she wore her taco BOAs over tights. The full had even bigger fireworks at the start. Another major race highlight: we were running past the White Rabbit (from Alice in Wonderland), and were debating whether or not to stop and get a picture. The line was short, so after a second of hesitation, we decided to do it… and as we took our place in line, TWEEDLE DEE AND TWEEDLE DUM CAME OUT!!!! Considering that D1rt and I decided long ago that we’re twinnies since we like all the same things, we were SO SO SO STOKED. Of course the cell picture is sub-par and I wasn’t fully in position yet, but whatever. Ran through the Magic Kingdom and saw the castle all lit up again. Like the half, it seemed like there were much shorter photo lines after mile 7 or 8 of this race, so we got plenty of pictures with characters. Went through Animal Kingdom and got some great pics with King Louie, Rafiki and Timon, and a large fluffy rabbit. Ran through the ESPN Sports complex, which included a lap around the track and the baseball field, and then back into Disney, where the parks were open and there were lots of spectators. We got pictures with princesses Jasmine, Snow White, and Mulan in the last mile or two. We spotted Rumphy (and he spotted us) a few times early in the race – we were able to coordinate via text when pausing for pictures, which was helpful. We also threw some sweaty layers at him at one point, so… sorry and thanks, herumph?! At the half, Herumph found an emapanada truck, and we decided that for the full, since D1rt was wearing her taco shorts, he would try to buy some empanadas and hand them to us before the finish. IT WORKED!!! He bought us empanadas and handed them over the rail to us about 200m from the finish line, and we paused for a picture. Then we ran across the finish line, raising our empanadas in one hand while doing moose antlers with the other, and kept scarfing down our empanadas. We also got fun mouse ear hats along with the medals.

Full race stats: 26.75mi, 4:39 total time, 4:32:18 moving time (10:11/mi)

Full race thoughts: There were a few times during this race where all I could think was “when is the blow-up gonna happen?” I was struggling later in the race and made D1rt walk a little extra after some water stations – my legs felt trashed, the balls of my feet were killing me from all the pounding on the pavement, and I was sweating a TON because it was getting hotter at this point. But, we finished without issue. I was NOT expecting to throw down a pace even remotely close to this, especially considering our pacing for the 10k and the half. Extremely (pleasantly) surprised by this!

Overall thoughts

I had sooooo much fun!! Running these races with u/d1rtrunn3r was a blast– she is super cool, and she sings along to Disney songs while running. u/Herumph deserves an award for being a super dope spectator – he braved the cold, navigated his way to multiple spots along the course(s) to cheer for us, and put up with Disney’s weird spectating rules. He also got us some delicious empanadas, so he pretty much wins MVP of the weekend.

Even though I originally planned on running these races at a comfy pace, I ended up running them at a harder effort than was comfortable and was really surprised by the moving paces for this 4-day bonanza. This gives me some confidence in my endurance and my ability to run on fatigued legs, which is great considering that I have a 100 miler coming up in 12 weeks and I’d like to go sub-24.

Would I recommend this?

I think that the Dopey Challenge is one of those things where I did this once, and now I’m good. I know some people are super into Disney races and challenges, so I think if that’s something you’re interested in doing (and in combining), then it’s a great all-around experience. I’m not a huge Disney person, so I think just doing it once was enough. To be clear, I am VERY happy I did it and certainly don’t regret it!!!! I’m just not driven to do another Disney race now that I’ve already had this awesome experience with it – it’s hella expensive and it’s an absurdly early wake-up, especially if you’re doing it repeatedly for one of the multi-race challenges. If it’s the multi-race challenge you’re looking for, there are other events out there that do it for cheaper and without that early start time… I’ve done the Runner’s World festival challenge twice in the past (5k and 10k on Saturday morning about 60-90min apart, half on Sunday morning) and I know there are other challenges out there, or you could find some individual races to string together on your own.

###Tips for if you do a Disney Race…

• DEFINITELY make sure you submit proof of time so that you’re in an earlier corral. I heard that for the half, people were still starting as the winners finished
• Don’t run it for time, and know that you’ll be doing a lot of weaving and the course will be congested at points
• Take all the pictures you want – if you don’t feel like waiting in line for a character but you still kinda want a pic, grab a selfie off to the side. The workers don’t seem to particularly care, and you might be able to time the photo to get it without a rando in it
• Keep your cell phone on you for the race - they had someone to take an official photo with a professional camera, but there was also someone you could hand your cell phone to and they’d take a phone pic
• Text your spectators updates of where you are on the course. You don’t know where the splits/mats will be, and they seemed to vary by race, but every mile of every race has a mile marker and a clock, so you can keep your spectators posted about your location
• Think about staying off-property if you have a car. We were about an hour drive away from the parks, and because the resort shuttles make you board so early, we probably still woke up and departed around the same time those folks did
• Be aware that they do NOT include park admission with your race registration

This post was generated using the new race reportr, a tool built by /u/BBQLays for making organized, easy-to-read, and beautiful race reports.