Half Marathon Recap – Disney Dopey Challenge Day 3

Race 3 of 4 of the Dopey Challenge.  This time it was time for the Donald Duck themed half marathon.  The evening before the race, we prepared by chilling a bit at Downtown Disney.

My sis and I carbo-loading.

Our sunny set view.

Then came the morning and another 2am wake up call.  By now I was used to it.  I had used up all my pre-race sleep jitters before the first race (5k).  And while I still hadn’t had a full night sleep, at least I got a few hours.  And of course we took our customary pre race photo.

Sis, Me, Mom.

Still wanting to take it easy, so I wore one last costume (as you can tell).  This time it was my PR 214 tech tank with an Alice in Wonderland apron.  My friend (who looks like an elf) lent it to me the day before I left for Florida.

Knee out. Hands on hips.

She told me she got it at Disney World when she was a little girl…so it’s probably like 50-60 years old (JK – if she read this).  She also lent me the matching dress, but I could no way in Hades get it on.  I tried, but couldn’t get the waist over my broad manly shoulders.  Nearly split it in four.  I guess costumes meant for a 6 year old girl don’t work on me.

I do like how the rabbit is chasing time – just like us runners!

The apron got quite the few comments and gawks.  One example during the race: a couple bros asked me if I lost a bet – I told them that it was either a result of too much medication, or not quite enough.

I’d be much faster if I ran like a normal person.

I also ran with the GoPro camera.  But I had forgotted to charge it the night before, so I only got a few moments of video recorded during the race.    You can see the fleeting moments here:

As you can see in the video, there was a bit of a let down at the start of our corral.  Now I won’t get into the corral complaints here, as I’m sure the runDisney folks have gotten quite the mouse earful already.  But what I wanted to bring up was that our corral got extra jacked up.  You see, Disney shoots off a pretty nice little fireworks show for each corral start – except for ours.  Something happened when the dude pushed the boom button and we got zilch sky explosions.  Bummer, bro.

But no matter, we were underway!

Follow the yellow brick road…or painted line, as it were.

I ran the whole way with my sis.  We chatted the whole way too, further ensuring that we’d take it easy (in addy to the costumes).

I have to correct my running form. So does she.

We didn’t stop for any characters, but we couldn’t pass up the Cinderella’s Castle photo op (no lines!).

As much as my arms are in the air, I hope I didn’t have B.O.

I was looking forward to this leg of the Dopey.  I had run the Disney Marathon 3 times, but never one of their 13.1 races.  I wanted to know what it was like.

I think I thought I was in 2nd place here.

But after running it, I can now say that I’m glad I run the fulls.  They didn’t have all the bells and whistles out for the half.  The course only hit up two parks (Magic Kingdom and Epcot).

Half of the most magical place on Earth.

The lights of the castle weren’t even on.  The people who run the half really do miss out on all the action of the full – but I guess that’s part of the reward for the people who are more than half crazy???

Catchin flies.

Anyways, it was pretty warm and humid.  So the apron and everything else got nice and sweaty (if Elf reads this – we did wash it after).  I’m really glad we didn’t have this weather for the full!  It was swampy!

Put the guns away already!

Once again, the race started and ended in the Epcot parking lot.  The crowds of supporters were bigger than the day before (10k), which was bigger than the day before (5k).

No mid race selfie for you! Battery is dead bro!

But once again, I was trying to go for a personal worst (PW).  This was the 3rd of 4 legs of the Dopey Challenge and the 1st of 2 legs of the Goofy.  And once again I succeeded!

I must’ve run the entire way with my hands in the air. Sheesh.

We finished at 2 hrs 17 mins.  A near 30 minutes slower than my previous half (1:48).  Just a nice easy medium-long run.

And at the finish, I did a little high step dance, but I couldn’t get the video for y’all, but you can kind of tell from the pics.

Sideways high steppin.

Anyways, we enjoyed the journey and Disney does make a fine race medal!

Thumbs up, finally arms down.

So now we’re 3 races down, with just one to go – the full 26.2 mile marathon!

Family reunion time.

The only scary thing was that people started to point out that even though we’d finished 3/4 races, we hadn’t yet reached halfway of the total mileage!!!!!  We wouldn’t reach that until a few miles into the full.  I wish nobody had pointed that out.

You can lick the medals if you want. One of the benefits.

So there you go.  We are now 1/2 Goofy and 3/4 Dopey.  One (big) race to go to complete the challenges!!!

***Side note – I saw a really funny race shirt that day – it read on the back, “Is this the line for Space Mountain?”  Bwhaha!****

If you missed the previous recaps, here’s the ones for the Expo, 5k, and 10k.

How bout y’all?  Ever cross dress in an ill-fitting outfit for a race?  Can you suggest a new mid-race pose other and arms up?  Should we had made fireworks sound effects when their real ones malfunctioned?

Dopey Challenge Trianing Plan

Who put a cartoon character in charge of a major race?

OK, so I’ve been preparing myself the past couple months for the Dopey training.  Yes, I’ve been training for my training.  Good thing too, cause I just settled on which plan to follow and Hal Higdon is the winner!  As you can see, week 1 requires you to be able to already run 13 miles at once.  So you better have done some pre-training to be ready to do that.

Not too bad, right?

Honestly, it doesn’t seem too bad.  Sure the back to back long runs will be tough, but they’re not as long as I thought they’d be.  I may add a little extra mileage, but maybe I should be smart and stick to the schedule as made.  After all, he’s the expert.  I settled on this plan because I’ve heard a lot of good things from several runners about following his plans before for marathons.  It’s worth a try.  Though I’m sure no plan is perfect since this is the inaugural edition of the Dopey, so if nobody’s done it, then maybe nobody knows the best way to prepare for it.  And maybe there is no best way to train.  I’m sure there are several plans that good for different people.  It’s not an exact science, after all.

True words. It takes a lot of work.

My only addition to his plan is I’ll continue on with my cross training during the week.  I know he has some cross training days in there, but I currently do more than that and want to continue.  I believe it is VITAL to cross train when doing distance running.  Need to keep your body strong in order to run strong.  So I’ll keep up with yoga, weight lifting, etc.  Not sure if I’m going to play soccer this fall though – I’d hate to invest in running this Dopey only to get an injury playing soccer – may have to skip a season.

Anyway, the official kickoff for this program is September 9th, 2013.  Just gotta make sure I’m ready to run 13 miles by the end of that week in addition to the other runs.  Shouldn’t be a problem.  I’m almost to that distance on my current long run and I’m basically running 5 days a week anyway.  Here’s to hoping for a successful training season and a successful Dopey completion!!!