Once the race got moving, we all enjoyed a 5k around Epcot together, and checked off the first 3.1 miles of our challenge. As we waited for the race to start we layered up with trash bags to keep warm, as it was a little cold that morning.
The icing on the cake was that Dennis surprised everyone by adding a hula skirt to his Timon costume. I had found a vintage Simba hat, and then made character hats for the rest of the group to wear. We headed to the buses together, all dressed up as characters from the lion king. I had put a lot of hours and early morning wakeups into training for the dopey challenge, and wanted to really give it my all.įor the 5k we were all planning to stick together – it was the start of the challenge, and we needed to be conservative with our paces. We had assembled costumes for the various races, but were all at different training levels, so as we prepared the night before the first race, we were uncertain how much we would all run together over the weekend. I went jacket crazy that year, in part because it was my first marathon – by the end of the weekend I had purchased three jackets: the preorder jacket, the dopey challenge jacket, and one of the marathon jackets.
After we swapped rooms on Wednesday, spent some time in the parks before eventually heading to the race expo. We arrived Tuesday night, spending our first night at the Caribbean beach resort, before moving into Saratoga springs for the rest of the trip. I feel like I packed every piece of running gear that I owned, and I had even headed to the thrift store and purchased throw away layers in case of chilly race mornings. Soon enough it was January, and it was time to head to Florida for Marathon weekend. I remember logging my last long run – my first 20 miler – with two guys from the tri team with weekend before Christmas, and just being so grateful for my amazing team. When it got too cold for dad to bike outside, members of the tri team often agreed to tag along on long runs, even though they weren’t marathon training at the time. I also started running with the Merrick Bicycles Tri team that fall, and made friends with runners like who were down for a long, cold weekend run with lots of miles. I honestly would not have made it through that training cycle without him. After the half school picked up for Dennis– who was still in college at the time – and I started logging more and more miles with Dad biking along. We completed races together – Dennis and I even got engaged at one! As the seasons changed and fall rolled around, Dennis and I ran the Run Rock and Roll half marathon in Philadelphia, so that he would have a proof of time to submit to RunDisney. My Dad biked along with me on many solo runs, where I made sure I was logging every mile that my training plan assigned. Throughout the summer Dennis and I logged miles together. I essentially started training right away, using Hal Higdon’s Dopey Challenge plan.
Running challenge 2017 registration#
So, when registration day rolled around I found myself not only registering for my first marathon, but clicking on that Dopey Challenge option. At first, I seriously resisted but over time started thinking “well, I have almost a year to train, and if I am going to go all the way to Florida for a race I may as well run all of they races they’re offering….” We started talking about signing up for the Dopey challenge. Once I crossed that finish line I couldn’t wait to do it again, and in the summer of 2016 we started talking about heading to Florida for marathon weekend in 2017, I toyed with the idea of running my first marathon. I eventually came around to the idea that this could be something fun – and signed up to complete the 2016 Disney Princess Half marathon with my cousin Ryan, as my family had a trip to Florida planned that coincided with the dates anyway. You see, once upon a time I was someone who would have laughed at the idea of running a race of any distance – in fact, when friends ran races before 2015 I had no interest in even considering lacing up a pair of running shoes – who needs $100 sneakers anyway, I thought the whole thing was insane.
I took on the Dopey challenge in 2017 with my then-boyfriend, now husband, Dennis. I know, it’s a little insane – or at the very least, DOPEY.
Running challenge 2017 full#
For those of you that are not familiar with the Dopey Challenge, it is a RunDisney event where runners complete 48.6 miles over the course of 4 days, by completing a 5k on Thursday, a 10k on Friday, a Half marathon on Saturday, and a full marathon on Sunday. As we approach the 2022 Dopey challenge, I decided that it was time at last to talk about an experience of mine that predates this running blog: The 2017 Dopey Challenge.
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