My Dopey Idea

The Seed

When I impulsively signed up for the 2022 Disney marathon, I thought it was a one-and-done. A one-time achievement that I could say that I accomplished. In fact, that very day I completed it, I said to myself “never again.” But there was a problem…the next day, I felt a lot better. The pain didn’t last! If I got through it once, I could do it again!

I happen to remember that through the whole expo and run experience were some Goofy and Dopey people around. These were people who did both the half and full marathon (the Goofy Challenge) and then there were people who did all the races that were offered (the Dopey Challenge).

I also was feeling existential – I completed my goal and I have all this fitness. I can’t let it go to waste! Naturally, when April came around in 2022, I logged on to try to register for the 2023 Dopey Challenge – without luck! The registration was full before it even started.

Two Years of Preparation

There were a lot of local races for me to get warmed up for the rest of 2022 – such as the Fredrick Nutjob Challenge (where you do a 5K Saturday Night and then and Half Marathon the next day). The King Crab Challenge (where you participate in multiple races through the year including the Baltimore Marathon). My favorite, however, was the Baltimore 10-miler.

I was also excited to do the NCR Marathon since it’s a beautiful flat trail, but unfortunately, I injured my foot – so I had yet another white whale to conquer.

When April 2023 came around, I was ready. From 9:59am I had already started refreshing the page. I waited half an hour in the queue to snag a Dopey Challenge registration and 2 half marathon registrations for my sister and brother-in-law.

Then it was time to practice. I did all the same races I did in 2022 and then some – including the inaugural Annapolis Half Marathon , the Delaware Marathon, and the Ocean City Marathon (that occurred two weeks after the Baltimore Marathon).

The Ocean City Marathon nearly wrecked me. I was miserable during and after. The trail was just road with cars whizzing by and it was unseasonably hot. This was my 5th and hardest marathon and I could see the end was near.

I, of course, had to do the NCR marathon through. I thought if I could run it “easy” then I could stick to marathon running. But even though it was a lovely experience (where I even made a friend!), it convinced me that there is no easy way to run a marathon.

D[opey]-Day[s]

If I’ve learned anything about running, it’s that it is 80% mindset. Our bodies can do lots of incredible things if you can get your head in the right place.

With that in mind, I wanted to make this whole experience fun and really get into the spirit of things.

5K - Thursday

I woke up just after 2 am to drive to the race. It was cold but I was warm in my Winnie the Pooh onesie. There was pre-show entertainment and I waited in a long line to take a picture with Dopey but unfortunately, the time ran out and I had to go line up for the race. A parent pointed my costume out to their young child and I gave them the Winnie the Pooh giggle. I had planned to do Zone 2 running the entire race but the onesie was not breathable at all so I overheated quickly and ended up walking most of it.

I focused on enjoying the time through the park and all the entertainment stops along the way and I was pleasantly surprised with the choir of kids singing Queen songs by the finish line.

10K - Friday

I dressed up as Piglet, which was a much more comfortable outfit. A fun addition was some leggings I got from Bucc-ees that went along with the Chip 'n Dale theme. Because my outfit was better suited for the event, I was in a great headspace and was able to maintain a more consistent Zone 2 pace. Because of this, I found this race to be the most enjoyable one to run overall.

The route was pretty similar to the 5K, so everything felt familiar - except that I forgot where I parked, and I spent over an hour looking for the car because I was too tired to think straight.

The Half Marathon

So at 7:30 pm the night before, we got a notice that the route was going to be changed because they were worried about lightning and they very subtly implied that it would be shorter. Upon further investigation, we found out that the route was only 7.1 miles! This was the race my brother-in-law and my sister's neighbor were going to join me for so all of us were very distraught when we heard the news. We were working towards this challenge for a long time and this change felt like it was taking away some legitimacy.

However, keeping the importance of mindset on the forefront of my mind, we decided we had to get creative. We went extra early and ran the 6 miles in the parking lot before the race. It turns out we were not the only ones with the idea! There were so many different circles of people running around to get their 6 miles, and I joined several groups. It was so funny and interesting to see that!

Speaking of interesting, I got to me meet the legendary Jogging Jack Sparrow, who apparently runs the Dopey Challenge every year. I used to love Johnny Depp and I was a total dork talking to this guy, but his costume was incredible. It's also funny that he's not a Disney Cast member because there WAS a Disney cast member as Jack Sparrow at the marathon and he didn't look nearly as legitimate.

Because we did 6 and then had to pause and do 7, the half marathon was tougher - also the route was not very scenic and that didn't help. But I was in a ninja turtle outfit and I got to yell "turtle power" a couple of times. I also liked the experience for the unique story. They said themselves that we are now part of the RunDisney lore. The weather was not bad until I crossed the finish line and then it started pouring rain.

6 miles in and still at the starting line!

The Full Marathon

I thought I wouldn't be nervous, but then I was! I had my strategy, but a marathon distance is more than the sum of the distance of the past 3 days combined. I was comforted by the extended time limit, and I made a couple of last-minute decisions like not wearing my water vest over my dopey-esque outfit (with a nod to local celebrity personal injury lawyer Moe Dewitt). Before I got to the starting line, I was able to take a bunch of pictures with characters.

I started out on track to do Zone 2 the entire race but then a 5-hour pace group caught up to me. I tried to stay with them but the marathon was so crowded I couldn't keep up. I also found that I kept needing to use the restroom which slowed me down even further. There was also heavy rain at one point, which was not ideal. I got tired a little too fast and there were so many non-scenic parts of the route so I had to keep trying different things as I went along. I started chatting with fellow runners that seemed to be having a hard time as well and that was a really nice part of the experience. When I saw the finish line, I decided to run through it. That was a mistake because I over-did it and started hyperventilating and couldn't get control of myself for a few minutes.

Then I recovered, got my remaining medals, and my sister brought me my recovery flip flops and took a funny video of me barely keeping it together.

A Few Hours Later

I took a shower, spent 30 minute in an intense recovery leg sleeve session ate a Bento Box and headed to the airport. I felt surprisingly fine! No soreness whatsoever. Maybe a little sleepy and emotionally exhausted but my body was fine. I felt like I could have woken up the following day and run another race.

Final Thoughts

I can't believe I spent 2 years working towards this challenge and now it is done. The magnitude has not hit me yet. What a lot of the athletes said was that this was proof that they could do hard things, and I think that is true for me too. It was an important lesson on staying positive and making hard things fun - because you can't compete with having fun.

I don't know if I would do it again, because I already know I can do it – and maybe I should listen to that video of myself. My new fitness focus is strength training because I think focusing on that will improve everything else (including my speed). I will continue to do Zone 2 heartrate runs because I finally have figured out that this is the right way to chase the runner's high.

Do you have a challenge I should consider? Clearly, I am very suggestible – just let me know.