Race Recap of the Dopey Challenge: Mickey Marathon
Okay, Okay, Okay – you are going to get picture overload today for this recap (I think 71 total) and #idontevencare
Like all the other days we got up at the same time, and were out the door by like 3:30-3:45ish. Dan and his wife weren’t going to come to the parks with us after the race. So it was just mine and Celise’s spouses that woke up with us and came with us. Dan came too, obviously since he was racing with us. 🙂
Group photo! Before we start glistening because of the humidity.
I did want to point out that I had the EASIEST time running at sea level (or close to sea level). I joked with my chiropractor earlier in the week that I felt like I was doping (though I would never EVER EVER consider cheating), because I could run and not feel like I was going to die because I couldn’t breathe. I also think being able to BREATHE helped the recovery process.
We weren’t halfway through Dopey Challenge until mile 3 of the marathon! If you can believe that!
Mickey was at the start on this morning (instead of Donald from yesterday).
Instead of waiting in line to use the port-a-potty before we walked a half mile to the corral, there were ones that were closer to our corral, so we used those. Every runner needs to know where the nearest bathroom is.
Marathon start (thanks to a fellow runner for this good clear picture)
Pre-race picture
And we’re at mile 1!
Jack Skellington and Sally – we had to stop because Shelly adores them!
Sally wanted us all to hold our heart (I think heart at least) The next stop was the Ticket and Transportation Center (TTC) where we met the guys – oh btw I had my phone this time!
It’s always nice to have support along the way even if it was at around mile 3.
We ran under the same bridge we ran the previous day – which also had a lit sign that said “runDisney” on our way to the Magic Kingdom.
Wall to wall people running down Main Street.
We were supposed to meet Shelly’s hubby, but he wasn’t able to get to the Magic Kingdom on time.
Selfie minus Dan.
Not sure what happened, and we wished after the race (I’m blaming it on lack of sleep) for not coming up with a plan for if one of us gets lost. And we lost Dan at this point during the race. All 3 of us stopped for pictures in front of the castle and turned around and Dan was gone. We realized (after like 10 minutes) he must have just run on ahead of us. There were so many people, so we just kept on running.
That’s why the following pictures don’t have Dan in them! All 3 of us felt horrible, and it didn’t help that he didn’t have a phone with him.
Made sure we stopped with Alice and the White Rabbit
We stopped with Ariel and Celise ran ahead looking for Dan. We were still worried and talked about it for miles and miles.
The one request I had was that I wanted a picture with as many Disney Princesses that I could.
Another great picture of the castle (and Anna and Elsa once again)
We saw the train the day before, and said if it was still there for the marathon we wanted to stop and take photos- thankfully I was actually feeling great and didn’t feel like I wanted to get hit by a train!
We were hoping that Peter Pan would be in the same spot again, but it wasn’t and was Maleficent as a dragon and her crow and some other minions were there.
There were great signs volunteers were holding along the way:
This one made me laugh
This one says: “If this is your idea of FUN I don’t want to know what a BAD day looks like :)”
Then we saw Goofy – we sort of did the Goofy Challenge along with Dopey, so we’ll count it!
I love our faces in this one
Hello Evil Queen – no I didn’t eat any of her rotten apples
Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbosa
Too bad the whole ship wasn’t there – I guess in years past it was the whole ship
“Run faster he farted —> she’s lying”
We made it to Animal Kingdom shortly after it opened (which was our plan with taking pictures with characters). Our plan was to ride Expedition Everest:
I didn’t have a place to put my phone so I had to hold it. Are you scared yet?!
The guys met us in Animal Kingdom and gave us some sandwiches which really hit the spot, halfway and Hungry. They couldn’t get in to Animal Kingdom as spectators until the park opened, so thankfully it worked out.
I was having a really hard time staying focused, and if Shelly wasn’t a freaking machine and pounding out the miles I probably would have walked a LOT more than I did, because Celise and I were trying to keep up with her. Throughout the race since the beginning the mantra “Just run the mile you’re in” helped a lot (thanks Eat Pray Run DC). So I focused on running that mile, rather than dreading I was only at mile 14. I was surprised that it actually helped a lot!
Grave Diggers anyone?!
Hopefully they aren’t digging our graves! 😉
Mile 16 – It was shortly after this we saw Dan. He was running out of ESPN Wide World of Sports and we were running in. It’s too bad he didn’t want to wait 30-40 minutes for us to run those few miles. HA!
Soccer Mickey
Running around the track
Ran into Football Goofy
30k woo woo!
Baseball Donald!
We got to run around the whole baseball field! I remember seeing this field on one of Run Eat Repeat when she did Disney’s Wine and Dine a few years ago.
We loved this little Tower of Terror every time we drove past it, so when we ran past it we had to get a pic! Next we were on our way to Hollywood Studios. We went the back way (where all the cast members go), and got to run behind all the cool rides. We could have stopped to ride a few rides while there, but when we came out of ESPN we noticed that there weren’t anymore runners on the other side of the road (where we saw Dan) so we knew that the Balloon Ladies were just a few miles behind us. We didn’t want to take any chances, so we kept running.
Backside of Tower of Terror
It was around this time that they were giving out chocolates. Dove Chocolates. Yum! I was all for that, because Gu makes me sick after a while.
Better picture with Tower of Terror with the actual sign
And ran into Boo!
Which made me a little happy!
Then I saw this Disney Cast Member who had BB8 – which was cooler than the cups that I had seen around Hollywood Studios.
Osborne Lights (though they aren’t doing them anymore – thank you Star Wars Land…)
Outside Hollywood Studios
Then into Epcot! Yay Almost done!
With each Character we saw we got first dibs because we were runners. I wanted a picture with every Disney Princess, that includes Belle!
A little walk break – But not for long because Shelly kept us on pace!
Thumbs up because we all felt great – even though our watches all died.
Snow White
The guys told us they were in Epcot waiting for us. It made the last little bit of the run a whole lot quicker
Beautiful Spaceship Earth
At this point we lost Shelly – I think she was just done, and ready to be reunited with her other half
This part never gets old!
Disney’s Choir
And a photo bomb! 🙂
I’m a finisher! We finished the 26.2 miles in 6:46:59 – my watch died around mile 24, but it was already putting me way ahead of what my actual pace was. So I’ll just stick with the 26.2 at 6:46:59. My longest run to date.
We finally met up with Dan after we got our Marathon Medals, then he walked with us to get the last few pictures. Unfortunately they wouldn’t let us take our own because the lines were too long. But at least they let us get a few group ones.
All 4 of us completed the challenge in 1 piece! We were so happy (and tired)!
From Right to Left the races that were run. I had the most amazing experience, and am SO glad I spent the $550 to run the Dopey Challenge. Disney races are not cheap. The organization was great, if they didn’t get something working one day, they had it fixed the next day.
The weather turned out to be perfect on the 2 hardest days, which we all were so thankful for too! I ended up being a little sore the same day of the marathon and the day after. But after a week I felt great and no pains, and no injuries.
Would I run this race again? In a heartbeat!
Why? Humidity and being able to actually breath while I was running was great! Coming from someone who lives in the desert at around 4,000 feet above sea level.
Pros: TONS of water stations (too many for me to remember). There were 2 Gu stations and they also had chocolates. They had aid stations with biofreeze (like icy hot) which helped my poor achy calves throughout the run. We got to run around Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. It was a great organized start and finish and seemed to flow better than the 5k and 10k. They handed out full water bottles and Powerade at the finish and a little box full of food (had a protein bar, chips and nacho cheese, some fruit snacks, and a mini pack of Oreo’s). They handed out these wet cooling towels at the finish and sponges running in ESPN. We got a medal for completing the marathon and then got a medal for completing the goofy challenge and dopey challenge. It was perfect weather for the marathon, and it took us a half hour for us to get to the starting line based on where we were in the corral.
Cons: WALL-TO-WALL people – not even joking! There were a lot more walkers than the 5k and 10k which meant there was a lot of bottle necking. The photo pass photographers needed to be switched at the end of the race with the water/Powerade bottles that were handed out so we didn’t have to set our stuff down to get a good group photo. It was packed and hard for our spectators to get to all the places we wanted them to get to. Since there were TONS of people that meant there weren’t enough port-a-potty’s and sometimes they were out of toilet paper – I tried to use a working flushing toilet instead of a port-a-potty.
Update: I forgot to mention that Celise, Shelly and I ran into Lee Hoedl who does a lot of marathon videos. Well he got his video done of the Mickey Marathon. It’s pretty cool, he follows the course, and you get to see a lot of the characters that we didn’t see or stop at. We are in it at around minute 11, if you want to see us. https://www.youtube.com/embed/7AYp4g4cQK4
P.S. Be sure to check out my other races that I’ve ran.
P.P.S. Be sure to check out my shop here!
