Dopey Post-Mortem

      Last weekend I completed my second ever Dopey Challenge. This included my second ever marathon. For the blissfully ignorant, the Dopey Challenge is an event at Walt Disney World’s Marathon Weekend. The Challenge is to complete all four races during the weekend, the 5k on Thursday, the 10k on Friday, the Half-Marathon on Saturday, and the Marathon on Sunday. You end up running 48.6 Miles (nearly an ultra-marathon) over the course of a weekend.

      Yes, it is stupid, but a lot of people do it, somewhere in the range of 6,000-7,000 people. I was one of those stupid people. It’s dumb on paper, but the reality is different. The 5k is technically untimed for people doing the 5k. The races go through the parks, the course is flat, and people dress up and have a grand old time. The marathon cut-off pace is 16 min/mi from the last starter, so the marathon is not an aggressive race by any definition.

      Dumber, however is the fact that after doing this once, I decided to do it again. And sadly, it is easier the second time around. The first time around you are nervous and scared. Not just of the times and distances, but of the obscenely early wake up calls. To make the bus to the starting area you need be up by 2:30am most morning and 1:30am on Marathon morning. These wake-up calls can be as stressful and nerve-wracking as any of the races. There is a lot to manage, and that is just the races and getting to them. This does not factor in the bib pickup, travel, being at WDW, and any other traveling companions.

      These aren’t just simple races. It’s Disney, everything is extra, (and not just cost-extra). There are tons of people running and “running”. So they are crowded and the starting corrals are their own entire post. I am going to skip corral drama because I, fortunately, experienced little to none of it this year. The races are packed with stimuli above and beyond the parks. Each starting wave gets a little fireworks show. The race announcers have their own little, well deserved, cult following. To the point where the runners forced Disney to hire back a guy fired over legit creative differences. Again, that’s a whole separate story for another day. They have marching bands playing for the runners, a full on choir, and at least one traditional 4 piece-style “rock band” playing as well. And there are character photo-ops as well. These races are extra, but in a way that helps the runners psychologically.

      Oh the character stops! These are a tough choice for a slow runner like myself. Do I stop and get a cool picture and risk getting swept or do I run past may favorite character that either might not be out again or out in that outfit in the next 5 years? I stopped, judiciously, but I did stop. Part of the point of the Disney races are the shenanigans, and using the park bathrooms instead of port-a-potties. While I did not ride any of the small assortment of rides open while running through the parks and I did not stop and buy park snacks, I did stop at some of the unofficial photo stops. My pictures with the mechanical, an infamous, Maleficent Dragon came out awful, clear, but
I posed badly, I am still glad I stopped. I also took a Castle selfie with my SIL, who I ran most of the Marathon with.

      Is that enough race background? I am sure I have repeated myself a bit with previous posts. My background is that I am old, fat, and slow. Relatively speaking in all three. I was not involved in organized sports in HS, due to a complete and utter lack of athletic ability. I was a late bloomer. The upside to this is that I do not have HS sports injuries. So the only the mileage on my knees is what I put on them since I started running in 2017, well past my 40th birthday. This is my second Dopey, because punishing myself once was not enough.

      The first Dopey was hard but I did it. My wife was amazing support, as she ran it then too. It was the perfect blend of getting prepared together but running our own races. She was faster than me so it was easy to do my own thing. Her running meant she could give me solid race advice. When we saw the weather report, the day before, that the marathon was going to be hot she told me that I had to go hard in the first half, basically matching my half-marathon time 24 hours later with 13 miles left to go. She was right, and I pulled it off.

      I stopped for some, but not many, pictures because I was so worried about time and even finishing. Without digging up the 2022 race, I think I stopped for the same number of pics. about 3-4. Picking lines that were short and must stop opportunities. The first one I ran with Team-in-Training and made sure I had several friends on course. This time I was just running for myself and skipped leaning on friends or the (wonderful) charity support. Sorry friends.

      I was not scared about finishing this year. Sure, I was nervous, nerves are good, marathons must be respected, but that fear that I might not finish was not there. I was shockingly confident, unlike the first race. And I am glad I was scared. The fear and the aggressive race plan were the edge I needed to finish my first Marathon. I did not need such an edge last week. I felt confident in my race experience and my training, I played around with my fueling and knew the whats and whens to refuel. This confidence really did not hit me until after the fact. I’m historically not the most confident person, and drift into the over-confidence side of things more than I’d like. But this felt good. I knew the race I wanted to run and nearly ran it. I was slower than I wanted to be, not enough to be concerned. I am still kind of surprised by this and it still brings me joy thinking about it.

      There was no mile 19, “Holy crap, I might actually finish” moment. There was no hitting the boardwalk at mile 24 and crying because I knew I had done it. I just hit every single twist and turn in stride. Every mission glitch, race related or prior to racing was a moment of note but it did not throw me off. And we had our share of mission glitches. The flight down being 3 hours late. The post 5k bus trying to ditch us at the wrong resort. The weirdest blister I have ever got. That S.O.B. is still being bandaged a week later.

      Speaking of mission glitches, both marathons had their mile 2 moment. The first one was when my wife, in a later coral, caught up to me, said hi for 30 seconds and ditched me. This time my phone decided to update. I was listening to music and Apple just did not care. There was about ten minutes of panic. Side note: What has been happening with the absolute garbage ios updates lately? Are they vibe coding? Everything is breaking or is much worse than it was before. Side side note: My SIL tried to tell me about the update, but 1am brain missed the joke, it was ios v 26.2. She thought it was funny, I forgot to turn off updates because my phone has never updated at 6am before. And never while I was using it.

      The biggest mission glitch happened later in the race when the Balloon Ladies, a third entirely separate blog post, were diverted at ~21mi. The Balloon Ladies are very nice runners that start last at Disney Races and keep the sweep pace for that race, typically 16 min/mi. They have balloons so that people can see then. There was a switchback and a 3 sides of a 4 way intersection being used so there were several ways for RunDisney to cut the course short if needed. The year before my first Dopey the Marathon got black flagged. The year I did it, it got red flagged before a mile or so before I finished, mile 25 was savage, so many runners went out due to heat then. And of course it is Central Florida, lightning is always an option, and I nearly got struck by lighting at a Disney Race once, separate blog post #4. So yeah, the course has changed over the years and this point of the race was deliberately inserted for safety purposes.

      We got the the second part of the switchback, the runners I was with at that point, and we could not see the Balloons Ladies. We saw the last runners and some race course official bikers, but no Balloon Ladies. Panic ensued. As we approached the intersection for a turn I saw the Team in Training Coaches that I know sweep the race. The race ends with a Sea of Green and the coaches escort the last Team in Training runner over the line. These are nice people, but I know for sure that I did not want to see them at this point. Frantic texts to wife, talking to other runners, and most importantly continued running (just keep swimming!), and we eventually learned what was going on.

      They diverted the Balloon Ladies and what we saw as the end of the race were the runners who just made the cut. When we got back down from the street we turned up, a second switchback, texts had flown and people on the course pieced together information with the those tracking runners (and the Balloon Ladies) and we realized what had happened. We all relaxed and kept running. They people who got diverted got folded back in with the rest of us about a mile away from the finish.

      Did my re-apply sunscreen alarm go off during this period of uncertainty? Yup! Did I get mad and decide that if I was getting diverted then I did not need to re-apply sunscreen? Yup! I did not pay a full price for this mistake, I got lucky. It was the only real moment of a bad decision making I had.

      Beyond the confidence, and the rolling with the punches, there was a purpose, a why, to this one for me. I needed to see if doing one was a fluke or if it was something I could repeat. And it was something I could repeat. It was not a fluke. I made a choice and did not get in my own way. I did the work, I trained, and I executed. For me, with my history of depression, failure, and self-sabotage, it is a big deal. Things flowed, it wasn’t easy, but everything worked out the way I wanted it to.

      I started this blog during my training to write about things and I dropped the ball. But I’m not beating myself up about it. I am not talking about “restarts” or making excuses. I’m just taking the W and moving forward. I did write today instead of doing a run, but that’s completely different.

      What’s next running wise is the Disneyland Half. Why do one challenge when I can do a coast-to-coast challenge? With a Goofy Challenge (WDW Half and Full challenge) and the Dumbo Double Dare (Disneyland 10k and Half challenge) thrown in by default. So I will go from 4 races and 6 medals to 6 races and 10 medals. I actually care about he shirts more than medals, but that’s me, I’m weird.

      So yeah, mission accomplished and real BC/AD moment in my life has been established. Maybe I should call it a save point. Either way, things are different and I am happy about it, It has taken a long time, but it feels good and I am going to let it feel good.

As always,

Thank you for reading,

-Philip